Looking for a case

[bob4933]

Hey guys, I've done all the reviews and searches my little brain can handle. Everything screamed "go with the R5!" So I did... Its just not quite what Im after.

I love the styling, and absolutely have no interest in those "gamer-centric" type cases. I would like something a bit larger without going comical like the 900D. Looking more on length than sheer size. Any one have a good recommendation?

 

[Dlaw]

Everyone's probably sick of seeing this, but I absolutely love my 750D. Phanteks seems to make some pretty awesome cases too, I hear the Primo is nice.

 

[bob4933]

Everyone's probably sick of seeing this, but I absolutely love my 750D. Phanteks seems to make some pretty awesome cases too, I hear the Primo is nice.

I definitely looked at that case a few times. Was close race between that and the R5. Unfortunately, the hard drive storage I have (I have 8 hard drives lol) slims down my choices. Maybe I should just set up a NAS or something lol. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Joe88]

Couldnt you just put the extra 3.5" drives in the drive bays?

 

[Dlaw]

Couldnt you just put the extra 3.5" drives in the drive bays?

They sell extra cages, too, and they're stackable.

 

[BoundByBlood]

Let me be the first to show some love for the Rosewill Rise.

It's a well ventilated case and cable management is a thing of art due to the grommets. I love this case personally mainly because all panels are designed to be pulled off so there aren't any "inaccessible" areas as with some lower end chassis. The motherboard tray also has a large square cutout area in it so if you need to remove the stock heatsink mounting brackets around the cpu socket as with the case for some aftermarket coolers, but you have already mounted your board then it isn't an issue to do so.

As for drive storage there is a removable tray which has two tool-less sleds for 3.5 [or you can screw in 2.5 into the sleds] drives in the front and you can mount an additional two [x2] 2.5 SSDs on the back side of the motherboard tray.

 

[EarthDog]

Hey bob!!!!!


Corsair air 540.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Won't get close to the needed 8 drives in the Air 540.

I'd suggest the Enthoo Primo

 

[EarthDog]

Lol, missed that!

 

[Blaylock]

The Primo would be my #1 case in your senario. Some other options for you though:

Fractal Designs ARC XL

Nanoxia Deep Silence 5

Lian Li PC-V2130 Warning - Sticker shock!

 

[bob4933]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I definitely did my homework, but apparently the R5 is more for watercooling than massive fans and huge CPU and GPU heat sinks Everything feels 'stuffed in'.

The Enthoo Primo was definitely on list, but 4 times the cost of the R5 (Got mine off amazon for 79.99 lol) seemed like a no brainer. I don't regret the R5, its just more crammed than I was expecting. The PCS+ gpu is bigger than I figured it would be, and the psu is crammed right underneath it.

The Rise definitely has the "look", but is smaller than the R5, same with the Air 540 (love cube cases!).


Sub 200 is definitely where I'd like to be price wise, so those whacky 400+$ cases are just not what Im willing to spend. Im debating if setting up a NAS would be more beneficial at this point.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I would definitely suggest the NAS route, then you can access the drives from any device without your main rig having to stay powered on.

 

[bob4933]

The Primo would be my #1 case in your senario. Some other options for you though:

Fractal Designs ARC XL

Nanoxia Deep Silence 5

Lian Li PC-V2130 Warning - Sticker shock!

I have no idea how i missed the arc xl... I'll see about returning the R5 for that, that looks about where Im needing it to be, size wise.

The nonoxia... how the hell are they not getting the pants sued off them by Fractal haha, thats almost a direct copy of my R5...

And... big fat nope on that lian li! haha

Thanks!

- - - Updated - - -

I would definitely suggest the NAS route, then you can access the drives from any device without your main rig having to stay powered on.

I've honestly never really considered it before now, are they user friendly and easy (enough) to set up? If I keep the R5 (its a good case honestly...) and swap my mechanical drives to the NAS, it would free up a lot of space inside the case.

I'd even be ok with a smaller, hot swappable NAS. Should i make a new thread to explore that option?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Two routes here, both pretty straight forward:
- Dedicated server system with networked storage (this is what I do, leaves your options open for other software/functionality, lets you keep the R5)
- Plug-N-Play NAS box (this can be simpler, limited in capability, would return the R5)

 

[bob4933]

My thing is, right now I have 4 hard drives hooked up. The 3 storage bay, with a hdd sitting on top (not the most eloquent solution), and i have 4 other hard drives that I cant even install.

So, an NAS with 5 slots would be ideal, 8 would be best, but i imagine they get more expensive the more you add. Or at least some easy to use hot swap bays.

A separate box is absolutely fine, I wouldn't mind keeping the R5 tbh. Im not looking for a server rack with a closet full of hardware to support it though. Same price, sub 200$ (if thats even possible, I've never even considered an NAS system, so Im fairly ignorant).

 

[ATMINSIDE]

You can use literally any halfway modern system as a server to supply storage across your network.
Need to nail down the budget for everything you want to do so we can make some sharper recommendations.

 

[bob4933]

You can use literally any halfway modern system as a server to supply storage across your network.
Need to nail down the budget for everything you want to do so we can make some sharper recommendations.

I was always under the impression the NAS was a self contained type unit, didn't know it was an actual computer doing the file distribution. How much of a budget would we require here (for a decent setup)? My router is 600Mb/s, is that even fast enough?


edit: I clearly have a lot of research to do here, I'll weigh in cost and options and chime back in later this week. Thanks for the advice.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I was always under the impression the NAS was a self contained type unit, didn't know it was an actual computer doing the file distribution. How much of a budget would we require here (for a decent setup)? My router is 600Mb/s, is that even fast enough?

Depends how much extra hardware you have around. Even stuff back to the C2D era is perfectly fine for this.
The speed you need is determined by what you're trying to do with the stored media.

There's dedicated hardware to make a NAS Plug-N-Play, but you can perform the same function with any system.

 

[bob4933]

Depends how much extra hardware you have around. Even stuff back to the C2D era is perfectly fine for this.
The speed you need is determined by what you're trying to do with the stored media.

There's dedicated hardware to make a NAS Plug-N-Play, but you can perform the same function with any system.

I have my old 775 crap laying around somewhere... I'll look around.

The storage is for various things. 1 hard drive (2tb) is media storage (music, videos, pictures, cell phone backups, etc), 1 hard drive (2tb) is for video projects I work on, probably overkill honestly; I have 2 (2tb) set up in raid 1 for backup media and secure storage for important things, 2 of them are full of games, and the other one is for work projects (non sensitive ofc). My main ssd is for OS/games/etc ofc.

 

[bob4933]

You guys should see what I mean by how cramped it is, and the 5 bay does not fit with the GPU. It like BARELY isn't enough ,really annoying. Yes yes, I know it "looks" like it'll fit, but it wont. The fan shroud on the GPU is just ridiculously large lol. Ignore the zip ties for the fan mounts, I replaced the fans, but the mounting stuff for this cooler only fits (or appears to only fit) their stock fans. Im going to make a bracket system like on the noctuas when I get some time.