Computer Case Review
Mar 28, 2008 14:40:14 GMT -5
Post by Lamron on Mar 28, 2008 14:40:14 GMT -5
I wanted LOTS of airflow, and two big 250mm fans on the side plus a 120mm exhaust fan on the back and a few other vents sounded like the way to go. Wrong!
My CPU and GPU temperatures were way too high, and the whole thing was too loud. I think the side intake fans were just causing turbulence inside the case and the air was just swirling around with no proper in/out path. I also found that I didn't like having the front door covering the drive slots.
TAGAN APLUSCASE MONOLITH
Pros:
-High quality construction
-Easy tool-free drive slots
-Very large case, lots of room to work in
-Looks cool!
Cons:
-Poor airflow path
-Noisy, even with fans on low speed
-Front door hinged wrong way (left). The side fan design means you will likely place the case to the far right of your desk/workspace. So the door opens towards you instead of away.
-Front door prevents installation of drive-bay-mounted accessories
-USB ports on right side of case, near front panel. Again, the wrong side.
-Case cannot be placed directly against left or right wall.
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I wasn't happy with it, and since the amount of money I spent on this computer means that I'm going to have to keep it a LONG TIME, I decided to start over again and build it in a new case.
www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15900#
Much better airflow. Two front 120mm intakes with a 200mm top fan and 120 rear fan for exhaust. So the air has a nice path from the bottom front to the rear back. The four fans have individual speed controllers for the best mix of noise vs. cooling. I have them set to "medium" because testing showed almost no difference in cooling, but a noticable decrease in noise.
Its shorter and a little tighter inside, but that also increases the increases the top clearence for the fan if you have a shelf or cabinet above your desk. It has a spot to mount a side fan, but I think that would just disrupt airflow, so I'm not using it.
Moving to this case dropped the temperature of my very hot 8800GTX OC graphics card by 10F (5c) at idle and roughly 20F (11c) at load.
ANTEC 900
Pros:
-Good airflow path
-Quality adjustable speed fans included
-Front fans blow past the hard drives to cool them also
-Top panel Power/USB/Firewire/Headphones
-Can be placed flat against left or right wall
-No front door, so you can have front fans and bay mounted accessories
Cons:
-Installing drives requires removing both case sides and securing drives with screws. Not really a big deal, but most current cases are toolless and more user friendly.
-Case panels and empty drive bay covers don't fit together as nicely as many other brands.
-Bottom mounted power supply MAY cause wiring conflicts with some PS and Motherboard combinations.
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I also decided to upgrade the CPU cooling.
www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=164
That's a 110mm fan in there! This thing is a MONSTER. Core Temp (reading only the hotter of the two processors), gives me 115F (46C) at idle and 133F (56C) with both processors at max load. Bios (reading the overall CPU temperature) shows 11F less on both idle and load. And these temperatures are with the fan set to its lowest speed (running on 5V).
Here it is installed:
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I'm happy with the CPU and motherboard cooling now. I still want to upgrade the graphics card cooling. The high temperatures of this card are normal from what I've read, but I'd still like to lower it. The fan on it is easily the loudest thing in my computer. I'm considering setting up liquid cooling for the graphics card only. That should be able to drop the temp quite a bit and make it quieter.
