Cases and airflow for gaming

[hackdroot]

Like many of you, I plan on upgrading my PC to support UT 3. I have been fortunate enough to have been able to reuse my ATX case for the last two upgrades, but this will not be happening for my new rig.

Now I'm not a believer in 'more fans are better', and would prefer to rely on proper airflow to meet my cooling needs rather than over the top fan numbers. I don't plan on overclocking anything, nor water cooling. the key components are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
Antec Quattro 1000 True Power
Dual 8800 GTX OC 640Mb cards
4 SATA drives (Raid 10)

The case I have been on the fence about is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...811146029&Tpk=

The fans seem almost overkill, but I don't want to try to cram all that into a mid tower and have heat problems.

Any suggestions from those running SLI with multiple drives?

Thanks.

[VACkillers]

that case looks a bit small... in my opinoin.... but the side air conduct looks interesting... not seen those before myself or used one that had one. really dont know how else u want to cool everything without fans if u dont want to use water cooling and the fans wouldn't be overkill with the setup u want

[hackdroot]

that case looks a bit small... in my opinoin.... but the side air conduct looks interesting... not seen those before myself or used one that had one. really dont know how else u want to cool everything without fans if u dont want to use water cooling and the fans wouldn't be overkill with the setup u want

Recheck the link, I had posted the wrong one at first and you might not have seen the one I intended on using.

[VACkillers]

yep its the correct case now... i'll edit this post when i looked at it....


Edit: okay well after closer look at the right case... i think that case is pretty much good to go... the fans are nicely placed and perfect for airflow....as its a full tower... you really shouldn't have any over-heating problems. The only problem i see you having would be the noise... it might be noisey.... or it might not... you can get less noisy fans tho so that really shouldn't be a problem...

may even get it myself lol....

seriously tho its a good case for airflow, its built to be good for that... yes i think it might be overkill if you were using just a single 8800, but as your using sli, the setup would benefit from the extra fans. I personally would rather be safe then sorry... specially for 8800s

[karmatized]

if you want a really really good airflow case check out the antec 900 series case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=antec%2b900

people always forget that the harddrives generate huge ammounts of heat now adays. The antec has in my opinion a better airflow design, sucks air in from the front and vents through the hardrives passing the air to the back of the gpu's then gets sucked upwards to the top exsaust fan, as for the side panel that side 120m fan is just for the gpu's and the back fan takes care of that.

My rig = 680i mobo intel core 2 dou 6700, 2 geforce 8800gtx, sli'd, 5 harddrives, 1 cdburner and 2 dvd burners. 4 gigs of ram, and agis phyx physics card..

Never has the computer reboot due to overheating once.

[TensorWM]

i highly recommend that case.

tested it out myself and i loved it. however, i fell inlove with the NZXT Apollo instead. just because it looked better :P

either way, its a really effective case, and with BLUE LED fans replacing the stock ones, people's heads will be turning.

[intentsly]

I have a CM Stacker STC-T01-UW. I love it for its airflow and expandability!
Its big, but comes with lockable wheels as well to make it easy to move around. I haven't looked into the later editions, but, they might even be better.
This page lists the other Cooler Master Stackers. One of them has a deal to get a free 1KW (1000W) Power Supply!

Intentsly

[NitrousOxide]

1KW (1000W) Power Supply!

ZOMG, some one think of the global warming!

[Kronos]

if you want a really really good airflow case check out the antec 900 series case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=antec%2b900

Thats the exact case I have, although I added even extra fans.

[intentsly]

RE:Antec 900

Thats the exact case I have, although I added even extra fans.

I have thought about that case as well and I didn't realize it was so inexpensive?!? I thought it was $100 more, for some reason. Kewl!

The Antec 900's power supply location is good and I like the hinged doors. My power supply can be mounted either above, below or both locations. In the July 07 Maximum PC mag, they did an article on hotspots inside cases. They used a Fluke Thermal Imager and the pic's showed that most of the heat was from the Graphic's cards, CPU, Motherboard power regulators and hard drives. The power supply did not seem very hot at all! So, mounting it low (if you can) may be a good idea!

Oh man, I almost forgot about the Cooler Master Cosmos! Check out this sick chunk of metal!
http://www.coolermaster.com/products...detail&id=2684

Intentsly

[steak]

i highly recommend that case.

tested it out myself and i loved it. however, i fell inlove with the NZXT Apollo instead. just because it looked better :P

either way, its a really effective case, and with BLUE LED fans replacing the stock ones, people's heads will be turning.

i too have an Apollo case, the black one, yea it looks better thats y i got it lol but i havent run into any problems with it.

[hackdroot]

Thanks for all the input guys. Think I'll go with the antec 900. It's cheaper than the one I was considering and seems to have better airflow setup.

[TWD]

I really like the Antec cases the best. I haven't had any experience with the 900. However I have tried their professional P180/182 series, and I think it would work well for what you are doing. It's very similar to the 900, but it was designed to be more of a server case (hence the locking front, and padded case for dampen noise). One main difference is it has a place in the bottom of the case where you can mount 4 hard drives with silicon grommets. The bottom part of the case is like a wind tunnel. It's sealed off from the rest of the case. There's a fan in the front to suck air in and the proper antec power supply will suck it out the back.

It also has all the nice fan features of the 900 case. There's a fan on the top and on the towards the top that keeps your processor cool, and I've seen a special fan designed to blow onto all of your pci cards.

I'm running my server in one of these. With no overclocking the server tells me it's 39 degrees C, but I'm not sure how correct the number lm_sensors gives me is.

[karmatized]

oh yeah i forgot the mention why the antec = ultimate gamer case theres a grove with a not slip rubber mat on top to put something now they may say its for a device or something but from what i can see it looks like a Coffee or soda cup or can holder.

Now while im sure that wasnt the intention, it really works well lemme tell you. Since the little rubber mat in there can be cleaned in water you never have to worry about cup rings on your desk. lol

[Kronos]

oh yeah i forgot the mention why the antec = ultimate gamer case theres a grove with a not slip rubber mat on top to put something now they may say its for a device or something but from what i can see it looks like a Coffee or soda cup or can holder.

Now while im sure that wasnt the intention, it really works well lemme tell you. Since the little rubber mat in there can be cleaned in water you never have to worry about cup rings on your desk. lol

Thats the last place I'd put a cup or a drink lol. That just spells doom, especially since theres a great big fan right on top right next to it...

I use it for my keys and wallet.