need advice on buying case

My cable dressing isn't going to be as neat as "telco's". The 24 pin and 8 pin cables are not long enough to route through the back side and then back in to the motherboard. I'm using an XFX 750 modular power supply.

^ That's too bad. The whole purpose of the modular power supply is to get rid of the wire clutter.

OK, here is the initial build. I don't have the SSD or second optical drive (due in tomorrow) and after that I can finish dressing the cables.

The two hard drives shown, the 1TB will be used for non critical programs, data, etc. The 1.5TB is used for Acronis backups.

Try mounting your PSU with the fan down. Your case should be almost identical to my 400R. Should be a filter on the bottom.This also allows cool air to flow through the PSU. This will allow the main MB power leads to be nearer the backplane. Then use the closest cutout and angle the cable across the back to the appropriate side cutout. Also right above the center of the PSU there should be a small cutout that you can run the 8 pin CPU power lead, then straight up to the small top cutout. Take a look at my rig and see what you think.

Jim

I didn't think about installing the power supply up side down. I wonder what that will do for the cooling? I'm sort of afraid to do that. There isn't much room on the bottom (just the height of the feet) and that may or may not be enough air flow. Having dealt with computers both mainframe and PC (and 3270 terminals) for many years, we had a lot of problems that were traced to heat caused.

I think I'll wait until I have all the components installed and then ty-wrap and anchor all the cables and see how it comes out.

Modular power supplies eliminate some cabling, but not all. They would be truly modular if all cables were plug in type, then only what was needed could be plugged in.

Yes, mounting the PSU upside down will be the way to go.

That way you can route all your cables to the back of the MOBO tray and hide a large portion of the clutter. There should be a grommet right be the PSU where the wires come out.

You should have a vent under the PSU mounting area. If so, cooling shouldn't be a issue. Just make sure theres some clearance from the bottom of the case to the floor.

For example, you dont want the case sitting on shaggy carpet so that its blocking that vent. Sitting on a hard surface, it will be able to pull air in just fine.

fireberd said:

My cable dressing isn't going to be as neat as "telco's". The 24 pin and 8 pin cables are not long enough to route through the back side and then back in to the motherboard. I'm using an XFX 750 modular power supply.

You can extend the 8 pin power connector.
Newegg.com - Athena Power Model Cable-AD10 12" EPS-12V (8Pin) connector Extension Cable - Internal Power Cables

OK, I'm conviced. I'll change the power supply and see what happens.

And what happened is I will need the 8 pin power plug extension.

I'm going to Orlando tomorrow, I'll check CompUSA and see if they have one.


Jack

Another setback this morning. I had "robbed" the power supply from an operational system to use with the new PC. I had a spare (non modular) power supply that I stuck in the operational system. That power supply died this morning (smoked) so I had to use the XFX modular that I was going to use in the new system.

I've ordered an OCZ 750 watt modular (completely modular, not just partially like the XFX Modular). Since I have to wait for the power supply I decided to order a Corsair liquid cooler for the CPU. I was planning on doing that later anyway. I also ordered the cable extensions as CompUSA doesn't stock that in their retail stores. Newegg should like me with everything for the new PC purchased from them.

They do make 8 and 24 pin extension cables.
I just installed a cooler master Psu in a machine a couple of weeks ago and it actually had labels on both sides so if you mounted it upside down, you would have a right side up label on the open side of the case.