I had my old (Core i7 10700) HTPC in a Fractal Node 605 case that my daughter and I won at Quake Con years ago. Now it seems that any update seems to cause a lot of CPU heat cause my Noctua case fans to rev up and sound like the PC is attempting to take flight. I could build a new media server at over $1000k, but I decided to repot it into a new case and add an AIO. So I bought a Cool Master Qube 500 Flatpack case and a H100i AIO. It was a bit difficult finding and AIO listed to fit LGA1200.
I found out that the that grates over the fans that were exhausting were choked with dust. I couldn't see this until I removed the fans. In addition to the old Intel CPU cooler not being adequate my ventilation wasn't good.
The Cube 500 is flexible, but not a great case. Access to the PSU is wanting. It has room for 3.5 HD x3, but they have to be dispersed. The case comes with a glass side panel, but not a mesh panel. It has a mount for fans that puts them against the glass panel. So I mounted a drive cage to the fan mount and put my 4 drives in one place. My AIO fit no problem. I have 4 fans pushing air into the case and 1 fan exhausting air. Two of the fans drawing air in are pulling it through the AIO. The PC is nice and quite even when transcoding video.
This should buy me a couple more years with this setup. If it doesn't, I spent less than $200 to try. I wouldn't use this case in a new build.
My next case should accommodate at least a 240mm AIO, 3.5 drives x4-6 and a MATX MB or larger. I run a Quad Hauppauge tuner card. We have over 100 OTA channels available in the DFW area. I'm not using a graphic card at present. I need to find out if between transcoding video and Jack Box party games, if I would benefit from a graphics card. I believe that Plex and MCE Buddy use Handbrake and I think that Handbrake supports GPU transcoding.
I found out that the that grates over the fans that were exhausting were choked with dust. I couldn't see this until I removed the fans. In addition to the old Intel CPU cooler not being adequate my ventilation wasn't good.
The Cube 500 is flexible, but not a great case. Access to the PSU is wanting. It has room for 3.5 HD x3, but they have to be dispersed. The case comes with a glass side panel, but not a mesh panel. It has a mount for fans that puts them against the glass panel. So I mounted a drive cage to the fan mount and put my 4 drives in one place. My AIO fit no problem. I have 4 fans pushing air into the case and 1 fan exhausting air. Two of the fans drawing air in are pulling it through the AIO. The PC is nice and quite even when transcoding video.
This should buy me a couple more years with this setup. If it doesn't, I spent less than $200 to try. I wouldn't use this case in a new build.
My next case should accommodate at least a 240mm AIO, 3.5 drives x4-6 and a MATX MB or larger. I run a Quad Hauppauge tuner card. We have over 100 OTA channels available in the DFW area. I'm not using a graphic card at present. I need to find out if between transcoding video and Jack Box party games, if I would benefit from a graphics card. I believe that Plex and MCE Buddy use Handbrake and I think that Handbrake supports GPU transcoding.
