Case ideas please - critera provided

[pwnmachine]

I looked at the silverstone raven RV-03 but I hated the way it looked.

I agree 100% I never really liked the look of the 03 but that Raven 02 is damn sexy(they are very similar in design but something about the 03 rubbed me the wrong way), not to mention the 90 degree motherboard placement which is a dream for cooling.

I had the pleasure of building a friend a rig using that case and it was fantastic.

 

[s_mack]

I'm kinda stuck on front USB3 for some reason... the 02 doesn't have that, does it?

Any recommendations on a fan controller? Isn't that done really well on modern mobo's these days? I thought it was only Gigabyte (which I've had for the past 6 years so I wouldn't know any better) that sucked at on-board fan control.

-Steven

 

[onefstsnake]

Just today ive been looking at the Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra and Aerocool Strike X ST. Both will take SR2 sized boards and have plenty of cooling options.
Both are pretty much the same case minus exterior panels.

Fairly cheap given their size at ~$200

 

[s_mack]

Thank you for your suggestions. The Aerocool isn't available at the stores I use, and the Blackhawk is a ridiculous $61 to ship (which tells me Newegg doesn't physically warehouse it in Canada). I'll pay $300 for a good case, but I won't spend $210 + $61 for a questionable brand that looks good on paper.

I do have a price alert in with Newegg in case they have a free shipping promo, because that unit caught my eye a few days ago and I'd take a chance on it if the price were right.

- Steven

 

[Seebs]

I'm kinda stuck on front USB3 for some reason... the 02 doesn't have that, does it?

Any recommendations on a fan controller? Isn't that done really well on modern mobo's these days? I thought it was only Gigabyte (which I've had for the past 6 years so I wouldn't know any better) that sucked at on-board fan control.

-Steven

Modern motherboards can and do control fans very well. The thing is that the bigger cases you're going with will inevitably come with more fans that you will have headers on the motherboard and you will run into wiring issues. Nothing you can't fix with some Y-Splitters and such. It's up to you really. A fan controller is not a necessity, but having one is nice...
Just FYI... I made my own controller, following the instructions here. Why? Because I'm a "beastly fan" nut and no controller on the market today would be able to hold up to the kind of fans I run.

Thank you for your suggestions. The Aerocool isn't available at the stores I use, and the Blackhawk is a ridiculous $61 to ship (which tells me Newegg doesn't physically warehouse it in Canada). I'll pay $300 for a good case, but I won't spend $210 + $61 for a questionable brand that looks good on paper.

I do have a price alert in with Newegg in case they have a free shipping promo, because that unit caught my eye a few days ago and I'd take a chance on it if the price were right.

- Steven

That Rosewill looks good... I just don't know about the brand name. Maybe see if one of the review sites out there has checked it out before taking the risk.

 

[s_mack]

I couldn't find any that review the new unit (the Blackhawk) but there are a few reviews on its older brother - the Thor V2. Funny thing is that it leads all the tests in both thermal and acoustic... but the reviews still don't like it for poor design elements and build quality. Then again, isn't it performance that matters? I don't know. I just cringe that it might be "cheap". Its price IS cheap for what it says you get, but I just can't get over the poor reviews saying the materials and quality of design and construction are low.

 

[onefstsnake]

I did find a video review of the rosewill case on YouTube. Pretty much the same internals as the aerocool and xigmatech

 

[s_mack]

Be sure to run your cart by us here in the forums

So I did a little Black Friday shopping.

For the case... I took a gamble. I ended up grabbing the Rosewill Thor V2. I was (and am) nervous because is a largely unknown brand (seems like its probably Newegg's house brand?) and apparently has some build quality issues. But in the end, I figured that the proof is in the pudding and it leads the charts both in noise and thermal management. Also, it has every feature I'm looking for save for two small caveats: 1) no sata dock and 2) USB isn't via internal header. Neither are that important.

Hopefully I didn't make a mistake, but if I did its only a $99 mistake. I was really close to getting the HAF X (really close) but when I saw the Thor on sale, I clicked.

I also picked up:

Intel 2600K CPU
Asrock Z68 Professional Gen3 mobo
2x Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD drives
16GB (4x4GB) PNY 1600 ram
Noctua D14 CPU cooler (for $29!!! )

I didn't see any graphics card deals that blew me away. I also read a couple of places rumouring that prices are going to fall early in the new year so I think I'll make due with the on-board graphics for now. I understand that its actually reasonably capable even for games so that'll be interesting anyway.

No HDD for me until the flooding/shortage/price hiking is resolved. 240GB is more than enough for my needs anyway.

I'm still hunting for a monitor, but I think I'm going to hold out for one that's Nvidia Vision 2 capable (ie. has 'Lightboost').

Let me know what you think! I've never had an Asrock before, but it was an OK price and I didn't find any sales that blew me away.

- Steven

 

[Chuggowitz]

The onboard graphics are about as awful as awful can be, and rosewill isn't an unknown name. They make a huge variety of products that you can find in stores (at least here in Canada), but I digress. If you want to play anything more strenuous than Minesweeper at a decent resolution/detail level you will need a dedicated GPU.

Personally, I feel the Thor V2 looks better, but I'm happy with my HAF 932.

Otherwise, everything else looks good. Also, I hate you for getting a 29$ NH-D14

 

[s_mack]

I bought three It was a helluva deal. I'm going to wait for the sales to all subside and then try to sell the other two for $60.

re: onboard video... its not how it used to be. Its not like the day when onboard meant some crap chip the mobo manufacturer includes. Think about it... a very high-end mobo like the one I got wouldn't bother with onboard video if there wasn't a point to it. I read a LOT of posts where people are confused with this. Its all about the onboard HD video that's on the Sandybridge CPU, not the mobo. In terms of encoding/decoding, it trashes a 580... so it can't be that bad. However, I've seen very little that benchmarks it for games. Anyway, its just to get me by.

- Steven

edit: according to Passmark's list, the i7 2600k's built in graphics is equiv to the 9600GS - not as bad as I thought

 

[Chuggowitz]

Well you should be able to run most games (Stuff on the source engine, starcraft 2, etc.) on low, but I wouldn't hope for more than that. the HD 3000 is leaps and bounds ahead of old onboard graphics processors, but it's still not great. However, for the prices you managed to snag, I'm sure you can manage for a little while.

If you want to see what it's capable of search intel HD 3000.

 

[Knufire]

Onboard GPUs have gone WAY UP in performnace recently. Now leading the pack is the AMD APUs and Sandy Bridge, where the GPU is built onto the CPU, not the motherboard. And they're pretty powerful, plenty of horsepower for general use. Intel also optimized their's for transcoding, and it can also transcode while you game on a discrete card. The AMD APUs can hybrid crossfire with low end Radeon cards and actually play some older games quite well.

Rosewill is the housebrand for Newegg. They're not unknown, but they don't make the highest quality stuff. It's tolerable though.

BTW, @Seba, I have two Panaflo UltraHS on my VenX, and a AFC1212DE as a top exhaust. xD