Case upgrade question
 

I need to upgrade my PC case because of the poor quality of my current one.
It's not that it's a cheap design, it's just too small for my current setup and I have to cram all the wires in there to make it fit.
It's even missing a few fittings, leaving it wide open to collect dust.

Here's what my case looks like:
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2...e0029ze.th.jpg
Side view

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/725...e0032yj.th.jpg
Inside view (you can kind of see the wires being crammed and stuffed under the disk drive)


Cutting to the chase, I'm thinking of getting this case from Newegg since it's larger and in my budget.
Before I buy it though, I'm just curious if you guys think that an extra inch in depth and an extra .5" in height will help ease my "cramming" problems.

If you think that's 'wire cramming', you should see a water-cooled mid-tower with 4 HDDs 2 cd-roms and a full water-cooling rig crammed in...

Your situation really isn't all that sad.

It's not as important to have space in a water-cooled tower, though, because you don't need the air circulation.

That's not too bad since you have those round cords. If you had the flat ones, it would look like a mess. I prefer to have more space to work around, though and it looks like there's no room for any expansion.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068

I just set up a computer with this case and, out of the 7 or 8 computers I've set up, it is, by far, the best case I've ever used. The screwless feature to it is just as advertised. I only cut myself once, but it wasn't the case's fault (the USB wire got stuck behind the 3.5" drive bays in shipping). I don't think I'd make another computer not using this case. It's just rock solid.

Plus, after having one in my bedroom, I absolutely hate the side-window cases. My fan has an LED, so I can't run it while I sleep. Even if I had a different fan, though...I dunno, it's just not attractive.

That's the thing too.
I have two more slots for RAM but I can't even upgrade that because if I put the sticks in I won't have room for the optical drives.

That Cooler Master you linked looks pretty good. I might lean towards that, it's even bigger and looks nice and sleek.
Tell me though, do those front ports (Firewire, USB, Audio/Mic) work good? I'd love to stop sifting through wires in the back to plug in my peripherals and headphones.

Oh, yes, the front ports all work perfectly (well, I haven't tested the Firewire one, but the others are fine). You'll find front ports on many of the cases these days.

BlueMikey, explain to me how you don't need air circulation to cool down your motherboard Chipset, hard-drives, cd-rom drives, PSU... etc etc.

Air circulation is just as important in a water-cooled rig.

Bah all these fans and water systems - just dip it in liquid nitrogen :)

...

That would be.... stupid.

I've been shocked fucking senseless by that. Something that can make a bouncy rubber ball so cold that it shatters when you throw it against a wall would... no. Just no.

SARCASM MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?

Actually, Cooking Oil would be better.

But Depending on how big you're willing to go (and also depending on what this pc is for...I have a couple case ideas that would be good on top of the CM.

http://www.xoxide.com/chieftec11.html

http://www.xoxide.com/aspire-x-cruiser-case-black.html

http://www.xoxide.com/demonx-ii-case.html

I feel you, I have a similar situation, I just end up putting stuff in front of it to block the lights. Ever tried cutting the lines to the LEDs on the fans? I've never done it myself, but I notice the LEDs have line that might be separate from the fan itself, but I'm not sure what will happen if you do actually cut it, so don't try! :P

Small, Mediocre Case Fans usually run based on two lines, but then the other two are used to power the LED's.

If anything spend 5 bucks on a new fan.

I'll second BlueMikey's recommendation. I built a friend's computer in a Centurion 5, and it's a really nice case. It's well made, has good ventilation, easy to work in, and looks good to boot. The tool-free assembly actually works right; I think I used a grand total of one screw to install all of the drives and cards in the thing, and that was only because I didn't really want to hold this monster in place with a little plastic clip. ^^

The only downside is that the front panel leaks out lots of noise, so you have to choose your parts carefully if you want a quiet PC. Noisy hard drives are particularly annoying in it. The Hitachi T7K250 that I installed in it was barely audible, but the seek noise of the Seagate 7200.9 that he added to it is quite noisy. His case was quite a bit noisier than my stock Antec P180 even without the Seagate drive, but then, the Antec costs almost 3 times as much as the Cooler Master.

Thats always something that has turned me off about Tooless assemblies is for big graphics cards, sound cards and those kinds of things...its just not trustworthy.

Yeah, Relic, I was wondering why you were comparing a case specifically designed for maximum cooling and quiet operation against the Centurion (which isn't bad at all, but it's outclassed in this case). I'm not a big fan of tooless setups myself, since with a minimum of effort you can be pretty sure that nothing is going to fall off or threaten to break other components.

If he sticks with the Centurion case, he should keep in mind what was said above. A good place to look for quiet parts and reviews is SilentPCReview.com. While he doesn't need to get everything quiet, swapping out the noisest bits will make a difference.

How do you find out if a case's USB ports will work with a particular motherboard? I've got four USB ports on the front of my Lian-Li case, but they've been useless for me since they don't have the right connectors for my ASUS motherboard. I, too, would love to be able to plug some of my peripherals into the front of my computer.

Well what do the connectors look like? Worse case scenario is that connector that goes to the motherboard are all split up into single pins. Happened to me once while building my dad's computer (its a good thing to have a well written instruction manual.)
But anyway, two things need to be present, a available connection on the motherboard. It'll look like this (it could have 7 or 8 pins on it, but it almost always has the acronym USB written next to it.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6..._connector.jpg

And then you need a connector header cable from the USB ports you mentioned. The end of the cable could be split up into individual wires or a single header connector. It will look something like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/Kairyu/usb6.jpg or this http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../usbheader.jpg

How do they go in depends on the USB header standard the motherboard uses. Your best bet is to look up your motherboard model number (using cpuz is a quick way to figuring that out.)Then just go to the respective site that manufacters your motherboard and hopefully a online manual exists. If you still can't figure it out just drop me a PM.

Actually, I've got the manual right here. It's the ASUS A7N8X-X which has a USB 2.0 header (assuming I got the correct model). The motherboard actually came with extra USB ports, but they're meant to go in one of my PCI expansion slots. I've gotta look at my case's connectors, because I seem to recall that they didn't match the ones on my motherboard.

Basically, if the case says it has front ports and it fits an ATX board, it will work with any motherboard that has extra USB/etc. ports. I have an A7N8X board (though not that exact model) and I can use both USB ports on the front of my case. I dunno about the sound and/or Firewire ports. If you look on the ASUS website, the manual for that board should say what it has availability for.

The problem was that the chassis connectors had different labels from the mobo's diagram, but thanks to Google I finally figured it out. Unfortunately my case has four ports and my motherboard only has room for two more, but at least I finally have working ports on the front of my case.

Heh, you think your case is packed? Then you'll understand my problem too. The trouble is, the case I have (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1386) is one I like a lot from an aesthetic point of view. I really need better ventilation especially of the drives (I am planning on adding a couple) and the HSFs don't perform as well as they should so i'm going to replace them too.

I'd say your best bet would be a tried-and-tested make like the Chieftec (who supply Antec). The ThermalTake cases just look ugly and over the top to me, although their "Armor" series is well-featured and stylish.

http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/2...amma3xp.th.jpg
(My cramped case :( )

That isn't really that cramped. If you cleaned up those wires I bet you'd have some good airflow going through there.

Yeah...that isn't cramped at all...my case is pretty damn cramped though lol...because I got it all cleaned up then my Hard Drive crashed so I wound up having to take apart the whole thing...it sucked

Also, I like the ThermalTake Shark. It was pretty nice when I saw it in person.

Pfft, that's not cramped. At least you have the round IDE cables. Also, my computer could definitely use some compressed air. It's practically a desert in there.