Which of these cases do you recommend?

I am looking for a good (ATX) case, under $130, that will be quiet and uses 120mm fans, and is easily accessible and not childish looking. It should fit a DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI Ultra-D/DR and provide ample cooling for my system.

Optional:

- Removable motherboard tray
- Window w/ or w/o fan
- Temperature Monitor
- Black in color, silver is an option though, but finding face plates could be more difficult.

I have been looking at Lian-Li cases, but sadly they are pretty damn expensive. Here is the one that I have looked at: Lian-Li PC-60B. The only problem is the fact that it uses 80mm fans (which tend to be noisier than larger ones).

The other case I have been considering is Thermaltake Tsunami

Or Antec Performance I-P160

Or Antec Sonata

The inclusion of a power supply is of no need to me, I will be replacing with a much larger/more powerful one (Modstream 520 or 550W Fortron)

In order
Lian-Li
Antec p160
Themaltake
Sonata

Lian-Li by far.

Lian-Li makes good quiet case, even though they use 80mm, they run at medium speed that still provides adequate cooling inside the case and the all thick aluminum construction really helps dissipate the heat and dampening the noise.

I don't like thin construction cases.

If you have the $$ to go with the Lian Li, then I suggest you do so. You may also want to look at silverstone. Also, the antec p180 is a month away so you may want to consider waiting for it.

the sonata II sounds pretty promising as well, I am thinking the P180 will probably be out of my price range though.

I will probably end up getting the Lian-Li case that I mentioned with a modstream 520.

The Antec Performance I-P160 is my dream case, that thing looks killer!!

i vote for that one, only cause the money for lan lai could be better spent on hardware, and the antec is still a damn good case

Lian Li PC-7b Plus. Best case I've ever seen. 2x 120mm ADDA brand fans and a 80mm blowhole on top. The intake 120mm fan has an easily removable dust filter too. Newegg has the version with an 80mm fan in the back, but coolerguys.com has the 2x 120mm version for $110. You won't regret getting this case.
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556060673.html

jjv687 said:

Lian Li PC-7b Plus. Best case I've ever seen. 2x 120mm ADDA brand fans and a 80mm blowhole on top. The intake 120mm fan has an easily removable dust filter too. Newegg has the version with an 80mm fan in the back, but coolerguys.com has the 2x 120mm version for $110. You won't regret getting this case.
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556060673.html

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thanks for the info, that looks like a winner to me.

Oops, Coolerguys.com is out of stock. I got mine from here tho
http://www.shentech.com/lipcplalecmi1.html
They shipped promptly, but they had to call and verify my verfied and confirmed Paypal account. They needed the entire credit card number I used to confirm for some reason.. Kinda weird..

Anyways.. "thanks for the info, that looks like a winner to me."

I'm glad I could help, I spent a long time searching for a case (I literally looked at EVERY case under $150 on Newegg and found a reason not to buy it) So I know this case is probably the best one, for me at least.

jjv687 said:

Oops, Coolerguys.com is out of stock. I got mine from here tho
http://www.shentech.com/lipcplalecmi1.html
They shipped promptly, but they had to call and verify my verfied and confirmed Paypal account. They needed the entire credit card number I used to confirm for some reason.. Kinda weird..

Anyways.. "thanks for the info, that looks like a winner to me."

I'm glad I could help, I spent a long time searching for a case (I literally looked at EVERY case under $150 on Newegg and found a reason not to buy it) So I know this case is probably the best one, for me at least.

Click to expand...

nice to finally see someone from Michigan giving an Ohioan a helping hand

I'm choosing a case myslelf.
I don't have direct experience with the following cases, but I like (&don't like) the following so far:

Temjin TJ02 -- I love the case, especially the inside !! but I hate the pattern on the front panel. Gah. Picky, picky, no ? I don't want to get this case because of this though. EDIT: some reviews say there isn't much space for long PCI cards, and some other cons also exist.

PC-7 plus -- I prefer the double 120-fan version though, which is not on Lian-Li's page for some reason, but can be bought as per links in posts above. The case looks plain, which is alright for most, but eeh, it's a little too plain for me.

Antec P160 -- Ye ol' Antec. (I have an Antec case myself). I'm somewhat puzzled as to what to do with the front panel connectors. I usually don't use ones on my current case (not on case but on SoundBlaster breakout box), except rarely, when I plug my headphones in. Also, it has a front IEEE connection, which may become a reminder for me that I don't have an IEEE port on my motherboard, and thus can't use it !#& But then I'd connect IEEE to the back anyway, even if I could use the front one, because less wires up front, the better for me.
Also, I don't like the LEDs that lit up the front panel in blue, so I'll disable those.

Now ... I don't know which one to pick ! Maybe Antec, maybe Lian-Li. Does anyone know how noise-protective Lian-Li is compared to Antec ?

if either of you can wait for a month or so... hold out for the P180

it'll probably cost around 110 before shipping...

http://www.techonweb.com/products/productdetail.aspx?id=B73523&src=FG
Techonweb.com

I decided to go for a case without a door, so if Antec, then I'll probably go with P160. I don't want to wait for a month anyway.

EDIT: just looked through NewEgg's reviews on P160 case and ALL Lian-Li cases it sells (after a while I started reading only less then 5 point reviews, otherwise I'd be there for a few more hours).

From what it looks like, Antec's P160 is a great case .. but there are all these little things that sometimes stand in the way. Like some things need adjusting, some things are hard to remove, etc (read reviews for the info).

Lian-Li's cases are mostly positive reviews. It seems like all those who purchased a Lian-Li case are on happy drugs, as there are much less less-than-5-point reviews compared to Antec's case. Just to note though, for Lian Li PC-7 Case (the USB 80mm version) has less positive and more negative reviews than the other Lian-Li's cases. Also, some of the cases were said to run a bit hot. But it seems that this is the USB (whatever it is) version, and perhaps is cheaper and not built as well as the regular Lian Li case line.

I skimmed through Silverstonetek's Temjin cases, and it looks like they are average to good/great cases. I also saw a review, which says that drive rails are a nuisance.

Well, I'm confused now. I'm gonna go look at cases some more. Maybe Lian-Li, but I don't like the interiors as much. So, so far, no perfect case found.

Chixofnix said:

if either of you can wait for a month or so... hold out for the P180

it'll probably cost around 110 before shipping...

http://www.techonweb.com/products/productdetail.aspx?id=B73523&src=FG
Techonweb.com

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That case looks awesome, but I'd rather have some kind of grill on the front instead of aluminum covering any intake.

I found a link on dB ratings of some cases.

It looks like Antec P160 is one of the quieter ones, which made me start reconsidering my options again.

Thus, I pose the quiet question:
* is there a Lian-Li case, which is quieter or on the par with Antec P160 ? If there's a single source which had experience with both, that'd be excellent !

I also pose the air pressure question in two parts:
* somewhere I've read that positive pressure is better. I wonder why this is so, and I wonder what happens if you have negative pressure and what happens if you have 0 pressure.

* is there a Lian-Li case, which has positive or neutral air pressure ? If the case is silent, that'd be even better. PC-V1100 plus may satisfy this criteria, but I'm not sure. It also has a bit too many fans.

Remaining thoughts:
Antec P160 seems to create negative pressure, assuming you have 1 intake fan, 1 exhaust fan, and a PSU fan that's an exhaust. Is this good/bad ?

Most Lian-Li cases seem to break into compartments, where each compartment mostly has its own pressure. Exactly where this pressure is is sometimes confusing, as Lian-Li doesn't have very good pictures of its own cases. I have to look for case reviews to just see some decent pictures of their cases !!

Antec P180 is now looking better too, mostly due to protective sound dampening door, and more fans, with a possibility of adjusting air pressure to your liking (depends on which fans are on and where they are blowing).

dennyamd said:

I also pose the air pressure question in two parts:
* somewhere I've read that positive pressure is better. I wonder why this is so, and I wonder what happens if you have negative pressure and what happens if you have 0 pressure.

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The main impact that air pressure has, is on dust intake. The term refers to the internal pressure of the case, relative to the external conditions, since absolute negative pressure ain't possible. It should really be called the air pressure differential.

Positive pressure implies that more air is being drawn in, than that which is being exhausted and the air will attempt to escape through any means. Thus, if there are any 'unsealed' places in the case which will allow the air to escape, then no dust will be pulled in through those places. Of course, it's recommended that you have filters on the intake fans, since they will draw some dust in.

Similarly, if you have more air being exhausted than air being drawn in, then there will be lower pressure inside the case than outside and the air will flow into the case through those unsealed spaces, causing more dust to be drawn into the case.

Having air pressure close to 'neutral' will have a similar effect to the positive air pressure, in that less dust will be drawn in.

Wow the CM Centurion 5 is amazingly quiet. My Lian Li case with the 2x 120mm fans is the quietest a computer has ever been in my room. I've also got a VGA silencer on my card, a Zalman 7000 and an Enermax PSU with 1500 RPM fans. So my case is pretty much aimed at being quiet as a whole. I wish I had some way to measure the dB of it tho.

jjv687 said:

That case looks awesome, but I'd rather have some kind of grill on the front instead of aluminum covering any intake.

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sorry, I should've given you a link for a closer look

give it a closer look and see whatcha' think : http://www.silentpcreview.com/article249-page1.html

(btw this is coming from a current p160 owner, i'm not trying to lead you astray ^_~)

whoa... first double post ever... sorry ^^;