New
#1
Time to upgrade my case
I've been running my Antec 900 two for a couple of years now and it has some annoying attributes that have finally got the better of me.
The disk enclosures have 8 screws that have to be removed every time you want to do any work with a drive, then you have to remove the 4 screws per drive, and typically I have to unplug the case fans because the cables are relatively short. Irritating.
The USB 3 connector is a cable that runs from the front of the case through a hole in the back of the case to a USB3 connector on the back of the motherboard. Nuts when my motherboard has a USB3 header on it.
The fan speed switches are on the back of the case. I do a lot of gaming and media encoding. When encoding video the temp jumps from 35 to 63c. With the fans on full speed it drops to 62c. I have found that I have two fans working against each other, which I will fix, but I don't expect it to make alot of difference.
The fan power connectors are PATA connectors, so I can't plug them onto the motherboard and manage the speeds from my ASRock tuning utility, meaning I have to keep pulling my PC out of the desk to adjust fan speeds. With both case fans going full speed it is quite noisy.
I can't put a side fan on because I have a NOCTUA NH-U9B-SE cooler, which must be oriented top to bottom because the memory slots are too close to orient it front to back. The Noctua leaves no room for a side fan. This may be unavoidable.
I've had a look at the "Show us your rig" and system specs of some of the PCs from members here. There seems to be a lot of variation in cases.
I am not brand loyal. I have a budget of around $250.
I have no spot coolers or memory cooler. I strongly prefer quiet.
I'm not into fancy colored lights and flashing thingies..
The graphics card is a EVGA 670 SC w/4GB.
I run my rig overclocked to 4.6 - 4.8 when I'm not encoding, as x264.exe is extremely sensitive to overclocking and becomes unstable above 4.0ghz.
So, with all of the in mind, any recommendations?
thanks
Tanya