Anyone had any experience with these cases?

[DareDevil_747]

I've been posting threads everywhere getting expert advice from you guys, and thought I would get your recommendation on everything on my new system, right down to the case..
I am deciding on these 4....

-Thermaltake Shark (silver/aluminum) ATX full tower, has one 120mm intake fan, and one 120mm exhaust fan.

-Gigabyte Aurora ATX full tower, has two 120mm exhaust fans, and one 120mm intake fan.

-Antec Performance One P180 ATX mid-tower, has one 120mm intake fan and one 120mm exhaust fan.

-NZXT Lexa ATX mid-tower, has one 120mm exhaust fan, one 120mm intake fan, one 120mm exhaust fan on the side window, one 80mm fan on the ceiling, and a spot to put another 80mm on the case's floor.

I would like to steer clear of the 2 mid-towers, unless they are just hands down better than the 2 full-towers, because I have been hearing horror stories about people who are building new systems with the 7800GTX graphics card with mid-towers, and the card not fitting because its like a foot long. I am concerned mainly with cooling. Thats it. Noise is not an issue, I can only afford to use air cooling, and in the summer, it gets darn hot here, and since I play games and listen to music using hi-fi headphones, I cant really hear fans anyways, most case fans on any of these cases with be replaced with high performance Vantac Tornadoes or equivalent, my goal is to have all intake fans at least 60+ CFM, and all exhaust fans at least 80-100CFM. My new system with (as of now) consist of a DFI Lan Party NF4 mainboard (dunno which exact model), eVGA Geforce 7800GTX 256MB, 2GB DC DDR, will be using only one optical drive, and only one SATA HDD. I wont have any other PCI devices, unless its a modem. As far as looks go, the TT Shark is my favorite, but I dont like the fact that the shark can only use 2 fans (120mm). I like the Antec, but the idea of mounting the PSU on the case's floor scares me, heard horror stories about the ATX power connector not being able to reach some boards... I seen a Lian Li thats like this, but it has the ability to mount the mainboard upside down (finally, people can see those pretty cooling devices on ur gfx card!) but I dont like that case's external looks or its price tag. The Gigabyte Aurora seems to be the most practical choice, having 3 120mm fans, and being a full tower, but its downright ugly on the outside IMHO. The NZXT has awesome cooling capability (it seems) but looks like it would be a bit cramped.
What do you guys recommend?
Thanx!
-D

 

[steveeb]

First off the P180 comes with 2 exhaust fans and a place for 1 intake fan (not included)

I have the P180 and if I could do it over again, I wouldn't buy it. The P180 can be a total pain to work with if your power supply cables aren't long enough. There are also some cosmetic problems such as bowed front doors (on almost all of them right out the box) and side panels that warp. The frame itself is built very sturdy.

Of the ones you listed there, I'd go with the Shark, but I'd personally rather get a CM Stacker.

 

[Vaio]

I have seen the gigabyte in person, and it was a thing of beauty. If it came in a BTX style, I would sell my TJ-06 in a second to get one.

 

[itshondo]

If you like the P-180, you might check out the P-160. Awesome case.

I did a review here- http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=440738

 

[DareDevil_747]

Thanx for the replies, I ended up getting the TT Shark, and I good friend of mine ordered a Gigabyte-before I knew about it, and i seen it yesterday... the pictures of it on newegg.com dont do it justice, it looks a heck of a lot better in person, and has cooling design and comes with the right balance (fans) between noise and speed... I hope I'm not dissapointed with my Shark when it gets here tomorrow. Thanx again, you guys have been very helpful!
-D