PCFormat Forum Archive

Now that does look good, but why is there no windowed side panel?

I don't know, but the lack of a window is a plus to me. I don't need to have my hardware [and rat's nest] of cables on display....

I like being able to see the inside of the PC.....and if you do it right then you wont have a rats nest, besides even the cheap gaming cases have a place where you can hide all your cables

The inside of my case is not a rats nest even though my PSU cables are not sleeved......The cable management system does a nice job of hiding most of the cables

THE_STIG wrote:I like being able to see the inside of the PC.....and if you do it right then you wont have a rats nest, besides even the cheap gaming cases have a place where you can hide all your cables

The inside of my case is not a rats nest even though my PSU cables are not sleeved......The cable management system does a nice job of hiding most of the cables

Oooh.....pretty. What case do you have?

I can't say that I understand the attraction of being able to see inside my PC at all times. As for doing it properly, well, I fail at handwork. Sometimes epically.

Has it been shown that less than perfect cable layout retards airflow inside one's PC case?

Sleeved?

I have the aerocool Vs-4....only cost R396 and has everything that much more expensive cases have

This is the front of the case


Sleeved cables are the ones covered in that nice looking mesh

The VS9 doesn't seem to have a windows either.....

Hang on....if it has everything that the more expensive cases have, why is it so cheap?

Star they will make sacrifices somewhere might be a cheaper metal or cramped living quarters. Lack of a top extractor fan helps reduce price also asking you to install a front fan and side fans will reduce price. Its not a bad case for its price but it seems lacking for me...

The one you linked to looks awesome and if I was not so taken with the NZXT case I would definitely consider it.

I am still leaning on the NZXT for me.

http://www.evetech.co.za/PC-Hardware/nz ... e-178.aspx

Has a heck of a lot of features and looks nice. The thing that sells it for me, built in fan controllers...

The NZXT is an amazing case! Such good quality and it has great features:)

Thanks Anakha

Considering that I will not be doing anything to void the warranty on my CPU [either a Core i5 2400 or AMD Zambezi at this point], do I really need more than the three fans that something like the Coolermaster Elite 311 or Silencio will accomodate?

What spoils the Aerocool VS4 for me is the kitsch [my opinion] front panel.

I wouldn't mind an NZXT Phantom, Anakha, but it is just a teensy bit too large [and heavy] to carry around if I should want to take my machine over to my friend's place for some friendly LANning. Pretty expensive too. It would take a hefty bite out of the budget I have for RAM, motherboard, PSU and CPU.

Mind you, the beautiful Silencio to which I think you were referring is also pricy at around R770.



I like the fact that it has a front-mounted USB 3 port. I'm bound to have a USB3 flash drive at some point.

The following chassis [Coolermaster Elite 311] also has a USB port in front and is more realistically priced, but it has a window.



A certain somebody suggested the Coolermaster Gladiator 600 to me. Not bad, but it doesn't have USB in front.....though, I suppose I could always pop it in the back.

StarPhoenix wrote:The VS9 doesn't seem to have a windows either.....

Hang on....if it has everything that the more expensive cases have, why is it so cheap?

Well unfortunately it only comes with one fan(a black one) and no PSU or any other extras(like tool kits and strange brackets). I got rid of the stock fan immediately and put two 120mm Akasa blue led fans in the front and back

But it still has one of those removable HDD cages(with little rubber things to stop vibration), bottom mounted PSU with a dust filter, tool-less locking for the optical drives and lots of space for extra fans....looks nice too

BTW there are two versions of the VS-4. One with no window and one with a window.......but the one with no window has two 140mm fan grills on the side which act like a window anyway(this its the one I have)

The Vs-9 is not such a nice case......I built a pc for a friend who had a VS-9 and OMW was it frustrating, the tool-less locking mechanism was useless and it had these fiddly cheap brackets for the HDD's

//You might like this case though

Hmmm.....the Aerocool Sixth Element you linked to doesn't look to bad.

Perhaps I am doing this the wrong way round though. I should probably buy a case using whatever is left of my budget aster PSU, CPU, memory and motherboard have been bought.

Maybe. These days there are so many cases to choose form, not that long ago all cases were the same old boring white boxes........thankfully that time has gone.

Any of those cases you posted up there will be good enough

Oh and the Sixth Element does look nice, at first glance it looks like the NZXT phantom....but is cheaper. And there is a white version of that as well, but you would have to order that one as I have never seen it in their stores

Ah, but things were simpler in the days of the "boring white boxes".

Possible build:

MSI Z68MA-ED55 B3 DDR3 M-ATX LGA1155 Intel Desktop Motherboard
G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR 2x4GB DDR3-1600 Sniper - Desktop Memory
CoolerMaster RS550-ACAAE3 GX 550W (12V: 528W), ATX 12V V2.31
Intel Core i5-2400 3.1GHz LGA1155 32nm Quad-Core - Retail

This would set me back in the region of about R4300, leaving me up to R300 for a case.
Of course, I could knock the RAM back to 4Gb of Kingston DDR3-1333 ValuRAM and opt for a sub R1000 H67 motherboard...

That would bring me to around R3500 and allow the purchase of something in the price range of the Silencio or Sixth Elephant...

I am going to wait until AMD launches its Zambezi range of desktop processors in OCtober before I make a final decision.

I would not bother waiting for AMD, because they will most likely delay it by another month. I see you have not added a graphics card to that, is that because you already have one or are you going to use the onbroad graphics(which are still rubbish despite what Intel say)

Otherwise that rest is ok, just be sure to get a gigabyte, Asus or MSI based H67.......I would not waste time going for the even cheaper ECS, Asrock or Intel mobos. All they will do is cause trouble

THE_STIG wrote:I would not bother waiting for AMD, because they will most likely delay it by another month. I see you have not added a graphics card to that, is that because you already have one or are you going to use the onbroad graphics(which are still rubbish despite what Intel say)

Otherwise that rest is ok, just be sure to get a gigabyte, Asus or MSI based H67.......I would not waste time going for the even cheaper ECS, Asrock or Intel mobos. All they will do is cause trouble

Yes, I hear that they have postponed the release date to Ocotber.

I already have a Radeon HD 6870. That ought to do for now.

I heard that Intel board are reliable, if unspectacular. I would prefer a Z68-based board. I like the idea of being able to switch to the intel HD2000 graphics chip when I am not playing a game.

Yes. Intel boards are reliably painful if you ask me . They are actually rather expensive considering the complete lack of features. I dont know if I am right here but does the H67 not also have that feature.

Back to AMD, even if it does get released in October you will have to wait a while before the magazines do a proper review on it........besides I dont know if it going to be any better than the Intel chips so just get a core i5

There are H67 boards with Lucid Virtu? Great. Is QuickSync any good?

I dont know, but form what I have read it is slightly gimmicky.

THE_STIG wrote:I would not bother waiting for AMD, because they will most likely delay it by another month. I see you have not added a graphics card to that, is that because you already have one or are you going to use the onbroad graphics(which are still rubbish despite what Intel say)

Otherwise that rest is ok, just be sure to get a gigabyte, Asus or MSI based H67.......I would not waste time going for the even cheaper ECS, Asrock or Intel mobos. All they will do is cause trouble

You forgot to mention Biostar. A R1000 Z68 board has just got to be cheap and nasty.

You are right.....I forgot about them, darn but to their mobs suck. Also DFI mobos(LANparty series did look cool) are rather nasty but I dont know if they even exist any more. There are lots of rubbish mobo manufacturers around so if you want something decent then Gigabyte, Asus and MSI are the only ones you should look at.

StarPhoenix wrote:
A certain somebody suggested the Coolermaster Gladiator 600 to me. Not bad, but it doesn't have USB in front.....though, I suppose I could always pop it in the back.

I am confused. That case clearly does have USB in the front.

My vote goes to the silencio then the gladiator.

Sorry.....typo. What I should have said was "USB 3"

THE_STIG wrote:You are right.....I forgot about them, darn but to their mobs suck. Also DFI mobos(LANparty series did look cool) are rather nasty but I dont know if they even exist any more. There are lots of rubbish mobo manufacturers around so if you want something decent then Gigabyte, Asus and MSI are the only ones you should look at.

I wonder why Landmark PC stocks and has been recommending the Biostar TZ68A+ plus then?

I am likely to select either an MSI or ASUS board-possibly a Micro-ATX one to help to keep costs down. It seems that one pays more for Gigabyte hardware.

Yea the gigabyte stuff is often a little more expensive but that might be because of the extra stuff they like to in include. I am not a fan of biostar but they do make the occasional decent board.

I should probably steer clear of Biostar then. It would be an expensive mistake to try to save cash by pick up the TZ68A+