Looking for a decent case

Can anyone help me (either by pointing me at any obvious sites that
I've missed, or with personal opinion)?

I'm not a regular builder; I tweak what I have, and build fresh once
every few years when my current machine runs out of legs to play
whatever games are out there at a reasonable speed (at which point my
wife usually takes over my old machine for casual use). I'm looking
for a better ATX case for the machine I've recently built, and I'm
struggling to find much in the way of reviews or guidance. I'm after
something quiet and spacious, with a good quaIity screw-free
installation system for drives.

I started with a Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi, bought from Novatech
(I'm in the UK). Tthat has a number of problems though, and whilst
it's quiet and the airflow is good, I couldn't recommend it for a
games machine. Firstly, it's too narrow to take a decent cooler. It's
not really deep enough either; it has plenty of drive bays in theory,
but access to almost all of them is restricted in one way or another,
and only two are readily accessible. As for the others... My graphics
card (ASUS GTX460, longer than many) blocks a couple, and my RAM, even
without cooler fins, blocks a couple more - and frankly I'd prefer a
case that doesn't force me to take out unrelated components every time
I want to make a minor change. Not using the slots blocked by the
graphics card is a bonus, though, because mounting anything in them
also blocks access to the mobo (ASUS P8P67) SATA connectors. And to
add insult to injury the twist-to-lock components of the "screw-free"
mount system are way too delicate for repeated use (I've broken 4 or 5
so far, even taking care - although fortunately they're plentiful).

I'd prefer not to shell out a fortune (although I'm willing to spend a
little more for the right buy if the result justifies it). Suggestions
and comments welcomed.

Cheers - Ian

On 05/04/2011 02:24 AM, Ian P Noble wrote:
Can anyone help me (either by pointing me at any obvious sites that
I've missed, or with personal opinion)?

I'm not a regular builder; I tweak what I have, and build fresh once
every few years when my current machine runs out of legs to play
whatever games are out there at a reasonable speed (at which point my
wife usually takes over my old machine for casual use). I'm looking
for a better ATX case for the machine I've recently built, and I'm
struggling to find much in the way of reviews or guidance. I'm after
something quiet and spacious, with a good quaIity screw-free
installation system for drives.

I started with a Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi, bought from Novatech
(I'm in the UK). Tthat has a number of problems though, and whilst
it's quiet and the airflow is good, I couldn't recommend it for a
games machine. Firstly, it's too narrow to take a decent cooler. It's
not really deep enough either; it has plenty of drive bays in theory,
but access to almost all of them is restricted in one way or another,
and only two are readily accessible. As for the others... My graphics
card (ASUS GTX460, longer than many) blocks a couple, and my RAM, even
without cooler fins, blocks a couple more - and frankly I'd prefer a
case that doesn't force me to take out unrelated components every time
I want to make a minor change. Not using the slots blocked by the
graphics card is a bonus, though, because mounting anything in them
also blocks access to the mobo (ASUS P8P67) SATA connectors. And to
add insult to injury the twist-to-lock components of the "screw-free"
mount system are way too delicate for repeated use (I've broken 4 or 5
so far, even taking care - although fortunately they're plentiful).

I'd prefer not to shell out a fortune (although I'm willing to spend a
little more for the right buy if the result justifies it). Suggestions
and comments welcomed.

Cheers - Ian



A number of years ago I picked up a nice , large Antec server case
to build a machine for my wife.

It was large and made building the machine extremely easy...

Great case! (Cheap door hinges though)

On 5/4/2011 at 2:24:49 AM Ian P Noble wrote:

Can anyone help me (either by pointing me at any obvious sites that
I've missed, or with personal opinion)?

I'm not a regular builder; I tweak what I have, and build fresh once
every few years when my current machine runs out of legs to play
whatever games are out there at a reasonable speed (at which point my
wife usually takes over my old machine for casual use). I'm looking
for a better ATX case for the machine I've recently built, and I'm
struggling to find much in the way of reviews or guidance. I'm after
something quiet and spacious, with a good quaIity screw-free
installation system for drives.

I started with a Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi, bought from Novatech
(I'm in the UK). Tthat has a number of problems though, and whilst
it's quiet and the airflow is good, I couldn't recommend it for a
games machine. Firstly, it's too narrow to take a decent cooler. It's
not really deep enough either; it has plenty of drive bays in theory,
but access to almost all of them is restricted in one way or another,
and only two are readily accessible. As for the others... My graphics
card (ASUS GTX460, longer than many) blocks a couple, and my RAM, even
without cooler fins, blocks a couple more - and frankly I'd prefer a
case that doesn't force me to take out unrelated components every time
I want to make a minor change. Not using the slots blocked by the
graphics card is a bonus, though, because mounting anything in them
also blocks access to the mobo (ASUS P8P67) SATA connectors. And to
add insult to injury the twist-to-lock components of the "screw-free"
mount system are way too delicate for repeated use (I've broken 4 or 5
so far, even taking care - although fortunately they're plentiful).

I'd prefer not to shell out a fortune (although I'm willing to spend a
little more for the right buy if the result justifies it). Suggestions
and comments welcomed.

Cheers - Ian

Since you're in the UK, how about taking a look at this article?
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buy...e-march-2011/1

--
tb

On Wed, 4 May 2011 14:41:45 +0000 (UTC), "tb"
wrote:

On 5/4/2011 at 2:24:49 AM Ian P Noble wrote:

Can anyone help me (either by pointing me at any obvious sites that
I've missed, or with personal opinion)?

I'm not a regular builder; I tweak what I have, and build fresh once
every few years when my current machine runs out of legs to play
whatever games are out there at a reasonable speed (at which point my
wife usually takes over my old machine for casual use). I'm looking
for a better ATX case for the machine I've recently built, and I'm
struggling to find much in the way of reviews or guidance. I'm after
something quiet and spacious, with a good quaIity screw-free
installation system for drives.

I started with a Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi, bought from Novatech
(I'm in the UK). Tthat has a number of problems though, and whilst
it's quiet and the airflow is good, I couldn't recommend it for a
games machine. Firstly, it's too narrow to take a decent cooler. It's
not really deep enough either; it has plenty of drive bays in theory,
but access to almost all of them is restricted in one way or another,
and only two are readily accessible. As for the others... My graphics
card (ASUS GTX460, longer than many) blocks a couple, and my RAM, even
without cooler fins, blocks a couple more - and frankly I'd prefer a
case that doesn't force me to take out unrelated components every time
I want to make a minor change. Not using the slots blocked by the
graphics card is a bonus, though, because mounting anything in them
also blocks access to the mobo (ASUS P8P67) SATA connectors. And to
add insult to injury the twist-to-lock components of the "screw-free"
mount system are way too delicate for repeated use (I've broken 4 or 5
so far, even taking care - although fortunately they're plentiful).

I'd prefer not to shell out a fortune (although I'm willing to spend a
little more for the right buy if the result justifies it). Suggestions
and comments welcomed.

Cheers - Ian

Since you're in the UK, how about taking a look at this article?
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buy...e-march-2011/1

A very useful starting point. Thanks.

Cheers - Ian