Treasures or Trash, 5 PC Cases for Gamers 369
An anonymous reader writes "Tom's Hardware has a look at 5 different customized PC cases and a few peripheral devices that may be of some interest to gamers. From the article: 'Those who believe it is impossible to make any missteps when buying a gaming case are sadly mistaken. In most cases, you get too much plastic for your hard-earned money. Case components, covers and door panels break off far too easily, and are hard to use besides. That's why we advise savvy buyers to spend a few more dollars on their cases, and make sure they're getting quality components - especially where plastic covers or door panels are present.'"
But... but... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But... but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But... but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Has it occured to you guys that a lot of these people just don't know any better? That they don't know that a metal case with spaces for more fans is better than a case with space for one fan and a plexiglass window? Go ask people and you'll fidn out that a lot of them don't know. And why not? Because when they shop for them it says nothing about how one fan isn't such a good idea for a high-powered computer or that plexiglass windows can scratch up. Hell, even the metal cases with space for four fans don't
Re:But... but... (Score:2)
Re:But... but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But... but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's call them "Rice Nerds."
Re:But... but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I built my cousin a computer once and he wanted to mod it out. He spent 10 hours custom carving a biohazard logo in the side of it. I think he enjoyed making little tweaks to the appearance over the next few months as much as he liked playing WoW on it once he turned it back on.
So what is wrong with that?
Re:But... but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:But... but... (Score:2)
When I was rebuilding my cases cooling system with a panel for fan speed control, I decided to expand on the visual mods a bit (they had some stuff REALLY c
So what is wrong with that? (Score:3, Funny)
We simply disapprove. By our standards, your cousin is worthless.
Re:But... but... (Score:2, Funny)
Too many pages... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too many pages... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too many pages... (Score:5, Funny)
Have to <next>
agree with <next>
you on <next>
that point. <next>
<ADVERTISEMENT> <next>
So I <next>
gave up. <next>
Re:Too many pages... (Score:2, Informative)
Sheesh has everyone forgotten newsgroups? Thats what they are there for.
Re:Too many pages... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Too many pages... (Score:2)
My thoughts exactly. Nowadays whenever I click a link on slashdot, first thing I do is check if there's a "next page" link somewhere, and how much content is on the page... If there's a "printer friendly" link, I'll continue. If it's only 2 or 3 pages, I'll continue. Otherwise, the new tab closes a lot faster than it opened...
And to think that I actually remember the time when tomshardware was actually a great site with tons of solid info... Man, I'm getting old...
Re:Too many pages... (Score:2)
This is why Dan's Data [dansdata.com] is pretty much the only hardware site I read. Obviously he doesn't review as much stuff as Tom, but his reviews are very detailed and his writing style is quite enjoyable. Only rarely is there more than one page (but it's one real page... with enough content to stimulate your brain, or something like that), and elsewhere on his site he encourages you to block his ads
All in all, if his RS
Does a case matter (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Does a case matter (Score:5, Informative)
It's all about the cooling - get the right fan placement and air flow in the right place and that's what matters. When you're running an AMD processor faster than a 4200 with an Nvidia 7800 SLI rig, it will matter that you have the right case to get it cool.
Re:Does a case matter (Score:5, Informative)
The fans these cases use are absurdly small (so they can be really cheap to make) and using many fans creates added noise due to the beat frequency between them.
The correct way to go about this is to get a cheap steel case, like this for $20.75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16811156011 [newegg.com]
Then get a fan like this for $9.95
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=20060529 19261386&item=16-1331&catname=electric [surpluscenter.com]
Now to slow the fan down, to make it quiet, wire a motor run capacitor in series with the fan. Use a cap like this ($1.99) :
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=20060529 19273017&item=22-1186&catname=electric [surpluscenter.com]
If you use a smaller value cap, the fan will run slower. If you use a larger value cap, the fan will run faster. The fan speed changes a lot for small changes in the cap value.
Now cut a blowhole in the top of the case, bolt the fan on top blowing into the case, and get rid of all other case fans. Leave the faceplates off on both sides of the video card so lots of air rushes out that way.
Stick a fork in it. It's done.
Re:Does a case matter (Score:4, Informative)
Your suggestion about leaving the doors off is only good for people without pets or young children. Furthermore, if the power supply is blocking the fan-propelled air from directly reaching the CPU heatsink, its possible the CPU will actually operate at a higher temperature than if the doors were on and quiet fans placed in the pre-punched case mounts.
Re:Does a case matter (Score:2)
Re:Does a case matter (Score:2)
Why's that correct?
What if you have the extra money to spend on alumninum? Then you might be able to drop a fan or two. It also would be lighter, which is important if you're going somewhere.
And have fun working inside that case without any of the touches (mounting rails for optical drives, removable bays for the hard drives, etc.) that make some cases a pleasure.
Oh yeah, and like the other posters said, next time RTFA so you
Re:Does a case matter (Score:4, Insightful)
Cases with side fans are inevitably put in "computer desks" that have closely fitted walls that block the side fans. Front to back is the way to go for cooling, baby, with big blower fans in unused drive bays. Noise is fairly irrelevant if you're wearing good headsets with earpieces that actually cover your ears, instead of these foolish wienie headsets that try to stuff things inside your ear canal. Blocking out even hideously large case fans, and cubicle naighbors, and screaming kids nearby, with good "over-the-entire-ear" $100 headsets gives you a vastly better sound experience than even $1000 stereo systemas and sound cards.
A case that is well designed against spills on top of it is priceless. One that is well designed to allow you to reach components, and not grab a network cable inextricably into the case is also worth quite a bit. I've had the devil of a time extracting CAT5 cables from some otherwise cheap cases, and seen too many people actually set things down on top of or pour them into fans or ventholes on top of cases. And Cases with funky feet that tilt, or prevent you from setting things down safely on top of the case are merely foolish, because people will inevitabl pile them up, drop them, and wonder why their CD that's been sitting on the dirty, dusty, scratchy floor for a week with the dong walking on them don't work right.
And those stupid cases with "Exciting! Graphical! Clocks!" that have incredibly cheap built-in chips that drift a minute a day are worse than useless, they're actually worse than the "blinking 12:000" clocks that can't be set by anyone over the age of 6.
Re:Does a case matter (Score:3, Informative)
Also, the PSUs RaidMax useds seem to be pretty good -- haven't had any fail. And the included fans are quiet.
Plus the sides go on/off easily.
My only gripe has been that the 3.5" drive bays have this little extra piece in the mount that interferes with the fan doodad that I like to att
Re:Does a case matter (Score:2)
I've been using RaidMax cases for years, just as they come from the box. I want STEEL, NO damned windows or LEDs, cleanly made innards (no sharp edges), lots of drive bays, sanely-placed extra fan mounts, and easy workspace -- and they fit the bill ad
Re:Does a case matter (Score:3, Informative)
A 12 volt squirrl cage blower can draw 20 amps. Thats a lot to pull from a PC supply.
P.S. Your mom called and said to tell you to wash your mouth out with soap.
Re:Does a case matter (Score:2)
Hell, I can pin my MB on wall, aim a giant desk fan at it, and revel in my awesome airflow. A few of those cases don't seem much more sophisticated then that.... unless you count spider eyes and lights.
Ohh good engineering and industrial design, where are't thou?
Re:Does a case matter (Score:2, Funny)
I had a roommate in college who made a PC case out of a milk crate. Best... cooling... ever! hehe
Re:Does a case matter (Score:2, Funny)
Same reason people rice out cars (Score:2)
Re:Same reason people rice out cars (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Same reason people rice out cars (Score:4, Funny)
OMG - Windows? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Same reason people rice out cars (Score:2)
Re:Same reason people rice out cars (Score:2)
For a good example of how "English" (as opposed to grammar) is also this way, see "Back to School" when the english prof rants about Rodney's "Kurt Vonnegut" paper.
Re:Yes, but for other non-garbage reasons. (Score:2)
-As mentioned earlier, cooling. The number and placement of fan mounting brackets is important to gamers.
-Flexibility. The reason why most gamers don't use those old beige cases is because we can't cram a terabyte of HDD, one or two video cards or a sophisticated cooling rig (water cooled, giganto Zalman, etc)
-Durability. Your case is going to be dragged around to va
Re:Yes, but for other non-garbage reasons. (Score:2)
Re:Does a case matter (Score:5, Funny)
Honestly.
Scenario A: Girl enters room. Standard beige box and chunky CRT are the dominant features.
Girl: In your bedroom? You've gotta be kidding. *goes home*
Gamer:
Scenario B: Girl enters room. Glowing... thingy and shiny LCD are clearly noticeable.
Girl: What are those?
Gamer: That's my flatscreen television and my mood lighting device, baby. It can cycle through very mellow sensual colours. Wanna cuddle for a bit and dream of beautiful memories... together?
Girl: Awwww.... *melts into gamers arms*
So you see, nothing at all to do with games. Beware of cases that don't do warm soft-glow red or pink though..... arctic chill blue does not incite to undress.
Re:Does a case matter (Score:2)
Re:Does a case matter (Score:4, Interesting)
2. Funniest thing, I have the Logisys Dracula Special Edition (black with chrome trim, black handle with custom red LED button). All the fan slots are taken by red 120s and 80s. The chrome PSU (X-Connect 500 watter) had its warranty voided by some red LED fans before it was even used. I also have a pink neon (Not CCFL, Neon) in the bottom of my case. Talk about some serious mood lighting.
[Disclaimer: Yes I like my case. I did it for me and no one else. I didn't go skimpy on hardware (think Honda) either. Just because you own a Ferrari doesn't mean it wouldn't be cooler with new wheels.]
Re:Does a case matter (Score:2)
Ease of access to internals
Size
Durability
Upgradability
Appearance
Weight
Portability
Ability to cool high power internals
All these are heavily influenced by your case. Also, a good case takes about twice as long to become obsolete as your internal hardware.
The above list is my particular order of priority. I care alot about choice of case, yet appearance is well down my list.
pages (Score:5, Insightful)
I've had a friend who had a case with really bright blue lights on his computer; all that that meant was we had to stick post-it notes over them when we wanted to watch something to avoid blinding us. I wouldn't want lights on my case...
Re:pages (Score:2)
Now IBM Could Make a Case (Score:5, Insightful)
Those little touches are incredibly easy to do, but no one ever adds them. I'd much rather be able to swing out my power supply so I don't have to disassemble my computer to add RAM or whatnot, rather than have my case look like it's got eyes on.
Flathead screws! (Score:2)
IBM's (err... Lenovo's) current "business" desktop cases are an intesting stud
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Flathead screws! (Score:2)
Re:Now IBM Could Make a Case (Score:2)
Well if I were to recommend a case (Score:5, Informative)
Of course it also looks stellar. It's extremely sleek and clean the whole way around. It's the kinds of subdued good looks that make you want to leave it alone, rather than put stickers on it and rice it out.
These cases I'd liken to a riced out Civic. You are going for flash to try and distract and wow people. The P180 is more like an Audi sedan, it looks so good it needs no modification.
Either way if you are willing to spend the cash on cases like this (the $100+ market) give these overly flashy jobs a miss and have a look at a P180. It will look good in just about any room and they really put some thought in the engineering of it. It's the first case I've seen that really seemed to think someone might want to have a system that's quiet AND high performance, but not want to screw with water cooling.
Why get a Civic with a spoiler and fart pipe if you could get an S4 without for the same price?
Re:Well if I were to recommend a case (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Well if I were to recommend a case (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Well if I were to recommend a case (Score:4, Funny)
* I.e. something that actually *needs* a >300W power supply, unlike 95%** of the computers fitted with >500W PSUs.
** 43.8% of statistics are just made up.
Re:Well if I were to recommend a case (Score:2)
I don't have a P180 or P150, but when I went from screws-with-rubber-grommets to home-brewed-elastic-suspension mounting, the difference was substantial. (But only if you've already aggresively silenced the rest of your system.) Possibly the P180 has better rubber grommets than I had.
21 bay case rules all! (Score:5, Funny)
Drum roll please. On May 29, 2003, I entered a new phase of PC ownership. That was the day that my Chenbro SR101 21 bay server case arrived. Perhaps you didn't hear me. I said it was a 21 bay case! It's 14.5" wide and 25" tall! (The 25" includes the caster wheels.) It's a monster and unless you're one of the lucky few who own a case like this, it would most likely eat your case for an after dinner snack!
It's a masterpiece of case design! There are holders for wires in it to reduce clutter. It's like running a network inside the PC.
It has spaces for up to 15 fans.
It has caster wheels.
The motherboard is on a removable platter so I was able to just take the platter out and put the motherboard on it instead of having to put it into the case directly.
It has 12 external 5.25" bays and 8 internal 3.5" bays and 1 external 3.5" bay for the floppy drive.
The floppy drive bay has a removable platter so you can attach the drive to it and then attach the platter to the case.
The case comes with rails for the 5.25" bays. You attach the rails to each 5.25" device (CDROM, removable hard drive, etc.) and you can just slide the device into the bay and it snaps in place. You just squeeze the sides to pull them back out. There's no need to have to screw each one in and out when you want to move them around!
There's room in the back for 3 power supplies (I have 2 installed right now) and it's possible attach power supplies into the 5.25" bays if desired which theoretically means you could have 7 power supplies in it, but you wouldn't have much room left over for anything else.
The back, sides, top, and front panels are all removable, so if I want to I can remove them and have them painted or even paint them myself! (I was thinking of maybe having the entire thing painted shiny dark black with 1 big yellow pacman on each side.) I wonder if they sell spoilers for PC cases... Actually, I think I may have no choice but to add neon lights to it.
Re:21 bay case rules all! (Score:3, Funny)
Computer Wrestling? (Score:3, Interesting)
As for the doors, I can't stand them to begin with. I guess if you're going for looks and can't trouble yourself to paint the faceplates of your components it's one thing, but wouldn't you aim to buy the proper color to begin with?
As for everything else when it comes to cases, the main difference I've found is that the high quality ones bend the inner edges an extra time to prevent cuts, have heavier metal drive racks, and better air flow. That's it.
People who spend insane amounts of money on cases are the same as people that modify their cars to gain 5 extra HP... it just doesn't make much sense. The one exception is server cases, but this article is about gaming cases, so that's not applicable.
Re:Computer Wrestling? (Score:2)
Having been in and out of some computer stores and seeing some of the cheap ass cases they have there, it's not so much the PC enthusiast breaking the plastic it's more the plastic being thin and brittle and utter useless crap that is the problem.
I see a lot of those "alienware" rip-off cases at some chain computer part stores and cannot imagine how they stand up to any use.
A bit of personal experience (Score:5, Insightful)
According to (a 30 page bonanza of mostly pictures) TFA, I own a something that could qualify as a 'gaming' case. And my vote for the "Treasures or Trash?" conundrum is: trash. Why?
LEDs on the front of the case
Yeah, they look cool. For about 5 minutes. They are dim enough not to illuminate, but bright enough to catch your eye. Hardware equivalent of a flash ad. Also, if you keep your PC in your bedroom, you'd better find something to put in front of the LEDs.
"Cheap plastic USB port covers"
Yup, cheap is right. I snapped mine off literally about half an hour before reading the article. How's that for irony? To be fair, the cover was fine until now, just a bit superfluous. I won't miss it.
Side panels
I have seen about 3 PCs in my lifetime that get sidepanels right: easy to take off, but fit snugly and stay on well in spite of semifrequent access. For my last few boxes, I hav mostly kept my sidepanel off, but laying up against the case. Well, it helps cooling...
Sliding front / moving bits
I said the cheap plastic USB port covers were superfluous? My mistake. Any moving parts such as the case front are entirely superfluous and downright annoying. My last case had a sliding front. Up, it blocked the optical drives. Down, it blocked the USB ports. Argh...
Power supplies
Gaming cases tend to get these right, assuming they include a PSU with the case. No real complaints here in my experience.
----
I'd say that unless you are shallow and/or a showoff at LAN parties you'd be better off with a standard case. The money you save on the case can go on a bit of better quality RAM, or at the very worst, a round of beers. So if you have a big budget to blow on a computer you are going to be showing to a lot a people, then sure, get a cool-looking case. But make sure it's cool looking 'features' don't compromise its rather more important 'functions'.
Re:A bit of personal experience (Score:2)
My laptop has three nice, bright blue status LEDs just below the display, where they're shining in your eyes all the time you're using the laptop -- which is why my laptop has a small rectangle of painter's tape over the LED
Re:A bit of personal experience (Score:2)
Hmmm...not in my experience. I've found that taking the side off the machine wrecks the airflow on some cases, and often times this means higher temperatures, because the warm air isn't being properly expelled.
Re:A bit of personal experience (Score:2)
Tom's Hardware agrees with you (Score:2)
In this comparison test, Tom's Hardware Guide finds itself unable to recommend any of the products it tested. That is because they're either too fragile or we simply couldn't overcome our reservations about certain features or components.
The article is good in the sense that not everyone has your experience, and can believe that those features are good.
The bad thing, this text was in page 25.
Re:A bit of personal experience (Score:3, Interesting)
So, I have one of those Shuttle small form factor cases. Very good experience overall, except one very bad run-in with their support. Quiet and austere enough that even my girlfriend was into it. But, here's the kicker...
...my Shuttle has a setting for LED brightness in the BIOS, from 100% of max to off. Whoever was kind enough to put that in there, I salute them. I want a computer that I can ignore when I want to use my desk for something so pedestrian as reading or wr
Re:A bit of personal experience (Score:2)
ugly!!!! (Score:4, Informative)
I hate to be the token apple fanboy, but these cases are amazingly ugly. all of them are significantly uglier than anything apple's produced, dating all the way back to the blue and white G3s.
that's not to say that OEM PC cases have to be ugly. IBM's produced some slick-looking cases, and so has Dell (for their small-form factor business stuff at least).
Lian-li's cases are also reasonably attractive [lian-li.com], even if they somewhat appear to be knockoffs of the G5.
Industrial design seems to be an art lost to many theese days, which is a real shame... the G5's case was beautiful, functional, and able to cool several ridiculously hot G5 processors silently.
Re:ugly!!!! (Score:2)
Silently? In my experience, the dual G5 towers will crank up their fans fairly often, and they are anything but silent. Even in a lab filled with plenty of other computers, the fans from an individual G5 tower were distinguishable. Though they appear to be variable speed, they often crank up to full speed for several seconds only to slow down again. This change in noise is more noticeable than the
Re:ugly!!!! (Score:2)
Re:ugly!!!! (Score:4, Informative)
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immagine:PowermacG5_
http://www.starcoder.com/blog/static_links/g5_ope
And even the iMac Rainbow of the late 90's, which were colorful to a fault were admirably well thought out in terms of being functional. Sure, upgrading the internals was a royal pain, especially on the earliest models - but those cases were never designed to be opened by their owners; but they were quite functional. The only fault I'd give to modern mac cases is the lack of highly accessible usb ports -- for using with flash drives, cameras, and other similar devices.
The older generation at least had usb ports on the keyboard, but that's gone away with bluetooth/wireless. (And even then those ports weren't generally as well powered.)
Of course this is easily fixed with a usb hub and ipod dock combo device...
-cheers,
Re:ugly!!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:ugly!!!! (Score:2)
Apple has 5 Classes of Case designs. 2 of them could be considered as Candy Design, with the Shiny Plastic, Which are the iMacs and the Mac Books. The other 3, Mac Minis, Power Macs, and Mac Book Pros are aluminum designs, which are the ones (especially the Mac Book Pros, or the older Power books which look similar) are often shown on TV Usually with Duct tape over the app
why I love Tom's Hardware (Score:5, Funny)
Want to know why I love Tom's Hardware?
Click here to read more.
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Re:why I love Tom's Hardware (Score:5, Informative)
Re:why I love Tom's Hardware (Score:2)
My eyes! The goggles do nothing! (Score:3, Funny)
I've found that (Score:2)
No point in posting the full text (Score:5, Informative)
Re:No point in posting the full text (Score:3, Insightful)
-rant on
That's an understatement, I remember when they were practically an authority on pc technology. The hardware reviews were relevant, and well done, and the content was well organized.
Now its just a giant sprawling ad-generation scam. Content quality has taken a nose-dive. Their benchmarks which used to be highly informative are usually utterly pointless...(Hint: 15 different games all within 1% of eachother on all the products in
Re:No point in posting the full text (Score:2)
Oh come now, everyone on slashdot needs a Hello Kitty keyboard [tomshardware.com].
[OT] Why Toms Hardware isn't so good anymore... (Score:3, Informative)
Editor In Chief and CEO of Tom's Hardware Both Step Down [dailytech.com]
IMO, tomshardware.com "jumped the shark" several years prior to this (2001?). Seemed like Tom stopped writing articles to focus on starting a corporate empire. Once all of the so called "editors" started putting their hands in the pie, the quality suffered quite a bit. Now it seems like everything on the site is targeted at the clueless newbie and paginated to maximize adverti
Who needs a case (Score:2)
portability is more important (Score:4, Insightful)
This Calls For... (Score:5, Informative)
An article like this calls for Anti-Pagination [mozilla.org]!
Re:This Calls For... (Score:2, Informative)
It does take quite a while to download all 29 pages though. Definitely far longer than it should. I'm still waiting for it to finish loading, but I can see it's been downloading stuff, unlike the first one.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Sadly, I am not eligible (Score:3, Funny)
Lots of fans (Score:2, Funny)
My ideal case (Score:2, Interesting)
Cons: Fan air flow paths not well thought out(requires mods to get good airflow) Cheapo ass front door(I hate doors, especially plastic) No front panel anything connections
2. Antec - Lanboy Pros: Affordable
Cons: Cheap ass front door(god I hate this) Not very sturdy(100% aluminum) No inlet fan filter
I dislike ----> Spaz cases, HUGE cases, tiny cases! Make
Cases are a bad idea to start with. (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously. Who ever had the idea of lumping together several components that dissipate heat poorly inside a big box made of metal or worse, heat-insulating plastic? Computers aren't appliances. You don't have to buy them in a single cute little box. Why hasn't anyone thoght, yet, of lumping the motherboard and assorted off-board peripherals in one small case tucked away somewhere with a large fan and placing the parts you actually need access to - power button, USB ports, peripheral devices and optical disk
IBM cases (Score:2, Interesting)
The things are built like sherman tanks and everything is easy to replace or move or modify.
What I look for in a case (Score:3, Informative)
Here are the things I always look for when I buy a case:
Is the case a Full Tower?
I have fairly small hands, and even I find that it's really painful trying to get into a mid-tower, let alone a mini tower. Especially with Video Cards getting bigger, people more likely having multiple hard drives/optical drives, etc. I think a full tower is the only way to go. It helps with airflow, it helps getting everything into the case in the first place, and it makes it easier to get inside and work on the machine later.
Good Side Pannels
Some people don't like them, but good cases with good sidepannels make working on machines much easier. My case, for example, has a latch that locks into place when you snap the sidepannel on. It's sturdy enough that even when transporting the computer to lan parties or similar, I've never had a problem with it comming loose. When I want to get into the case, just pulling on the door latch and sliding it out and I'm into the case. The only problem I've ever had is that it's a slight pain trying to get the side pannel to line back up to snap back into place. I'd much rather mess with that than screws though.
Removable Drive Holder..thingy
I'm not sure what you'd call these, but my case - and a few others that I've worked on, has a little thing that slides in and out of the case from the front where the optical drives and hard drives go. The nice thing about this is that it makes it easier to actually get these things stablilzed well. I don't know how many computers I've worked in where the hard drive was held in by a single screw, because it was too hard to get any of the other screws in because of the case design.
Those are the big things I look at when getting a case. I'm particularly fond of the Antec cases, which aren't necessarily the most stylish looking cases, but in my experience are well built and have the right features.
Which full size ATX case best for me (disabled)? (Score:3, Informative)
I have problems moving computers (even minitowers), and opening and closing cases, using screwdrivers (even electronic ones), removing case covers (sliding types still fail for me). Are there any out there work for me so I don't have to get someone to do it for me?
Second, heat!! I have problems keeping my computers stable for every upgrades. My room can go aboev 85 degrees(F) in the heat wave. A/C won't do well since my room is upstair so all heat rises. I don't even overlock.
Here's a sampler of my Web surfing temperatures:
-Athlon 64 754 CPU (3200+) Windows XP Pro. SP2 box: 113F
-ASUS K8V SE Deluxe (1007 firmware): 132F
Note: Have seen CPU go up to 150F during stress like gaming in 85+F room (don't remember the peak temperatures for motherboard).
Idled system in my Linux/Debian box:
-MSI KT4AV-L (Socket A/Socket 462; VIA KT400A) motherboard: 151F
-Athlon XP 2200+: 122F
You can see my system specifications here: http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/comput
No, I am not getting water cooling. Too much work, and my disabilities will not work with that setup.
I am planning to do redo my hardwarwe setups when I get my Athlon 64 x2 in autumn (much hotter than now).
I don't care about the look of the case as long as it is not pink color.
Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.
Lame (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Buy cheap crap (Score:2)
Although I agree with you 100%, I would also advise a bit of caution here...
The most recent "sort by lowest price" and "I feel lucky" case I bought, I consider one of the single best cases I've ever worked in (probably #3, out of over ten I've personally owned
Re:Buy cheap crap (Score:2)
Re:What do people expect? (Score:2)
I like the plainer cases and all the ones in the endless Tom's article were ugly IMHO.
Re:Lian-Li (Score:2)
Re:my case (Score:2)
Re:My computer's case is as plain as they come... (Score:2)