What are the best pc cases for cooling?

[tacos]

What are the best pc cases for keeping the pcu cool?:eh?:

[Crazy Jayhawk]

With the right tools, almost any case can provide good cooling. :cool:

[nil_esh]

Don't know about the *best*. But I've some good experiences with the following steel cases:

Antec SX635 (~$85-$100)
Antec SX830 (~$80-$100)

Nice airflow in both. The SX830 has 3 front 80mm fan mounts and 2 back. They don't advertise the 3rd front fan mount for some reason, but its in the hard drive cage. Swing out side panel and easy drive installs.. I love it. Really smooth looking too :)

[klosters64a]

Most decent off the shelf mid towers come with mount points for two 80mm case fans. One intake in the lower front of the case, and one exhaust in the upper rear of the case.

If you go to the trouble of cutting away the cutesy patterns of holes that usually partially block the airflow through these mount points, you'll have about a 50 cubic feet per minute volume of air flowing through the case. This assumes that you're using two 50 cfm 80mm fans.

This throughput is adequate for an un-overclocked P3E or Celeron II.

It's nowhere near adequate for an un-overclocked AMD Duron, Thunderbird or Athlon XP. Nor is it good enough for an un-overclocked P 4.

Most off the shelf mids need holes cut in them so that added fans can move some decent air through them.

One exception is the Yeong Yang Lunar 5402. It has two 120 mm fan mounts from the factory.

Custom "overclocking" cases(off the shelf, but modded for good cooling) are available. They're expensive.

OTOH, quite a few full towers come with fan mount points galore.

[deez]

the Antec sx830 is a great case...recently got one at compusa for $100 and it comes with 2 case fans and a 300W PSU and lotsa nifty little extras the cheapo cases dont have

my previous case was a generic case with a rectangular hole milled in the top for 2 80mm fans to blow air in across the CPU and mobo chipset and 2 80mm exit fans in front

system and CPU temps dropped a few degrees with the Antec

[Katana Man]

The answer is aluminum cases. They act as a big heat sink since aluminum dissipates heat 3x faster than steel.

Of the aluminum cases, Lian Li is the best. Great layout, excellent ventilation, smooth edges, lightweight, and good looking.

I now own 3 Lian Li cases, and not only have my temperatures dropped 5 - 9 degrees, but these cases make me happy to work with them :)

http://www.mpcparts.com/prodspecs/lian2.asp

[Al666]

Although I'm a big aluminum case fan too, I don't like LianLi cases.
They're cheaper than others all right, but not the best. CoolerMaster is the company who started all these aluminum case craze and I have their ATC-201 case... It's a beautiful case and the best looking one in all those AL cases, in my opinion.
www.coolermaster.com
I also recently bought Enermax 989AL-00 aluminum case which is also a great case with front firewire, USB and audio ports.
www.enermax.com.tw
If you're not into aluminum cases or simply don't want to spend that much cash on a case, I strongly recommend you the Addtronics cases. I bought my Addtronics 7896A about 2 years ago, doesn't look as good as the above mentioned AL cases but still love it.
www.addtronics.com
Also check out Enermax's server cases.
FS-710BB and FS-981XPSS are my personal favorites.
http://www.enermax.com.tw/products/server-main.htm
good luck,

AL

[adamtekh]

global win makes some nice cases ;)