Simple questions about case cooling.

[MagicBox]

Hi guys,

I'm considering to upgrade my case, and work on the cooling of my system. So two questions came to mind.

- Does a bigger case provide better cooling / airflow / lower noise than a smaller one?

- Should the case have more intake than exhaust, equal or less (Talking about air flow generated, not necessarily the amount of intake/exhaust fans ?

That's it for now, thanks for any suggestions :)

-Magic

[elrado1]

The experts do say that a larger case will have better air circulation. For one thing a larger case will give you more places to add fans.

As far as intake/exhaust ratio, they should be equal or close to it.

[FLaCo]

A bigger case will give you better circulations giving more spots for fans and better placement.
There should be sightly more CFM of air intake than exhaust.
Usually Intake fans are found on the front and bottom of the case as well as one or two on the side panel blow air right on the video card and pci slots as well as the mobo chipset. Since hot air rises you will want to add exhaust fans on the back and top of the case. Usually you'll see two exhaust near the Proc. heatsink expelling air from that tremendous heat source. Also to eliminate any hot spot you will want on on the very top of the case; right in front of the PSU. Drawing and air that has escaped and trapped on that area.

The main idea to good case cooling is to elimanate hot spots. Hot spots are area of the case where aire does not circulate and hot air just accumaltes which can make components hot. A good way to prevent that is letting air have a better circulation with IDE rounded cables and run cables neatly. IDE ribbons are just big walls that prevent air from circualting.

And remember find yourself a nice Heatsink and Fan for the Proc. if you don't already. Hope that helps.

[Chezman29]

Personallyl I would go read some reviews, especially the cases you have in question and see what the reviews say in the case of airflow. I have seen smaller cases blow away the larger cases as far as airflow, since they don't require as many fans to get into the corners/top ect. hot spots. Whereas the smaller cases, this is done easily.
I would do your homework and see what the pro's say via their case reviews.
They have the support to test all kinds of cases for you, so you don't have to find out on your own, or from people on a forum whom has a bias towards the case they have. I KNOW I love my case and think it the best, personally ~ if you get my drift!

Good luck and have fun shopping, that is part of the fun.

Chez

[FLaCo]

Chez is right...go look at some reviews...

Chez i do know that recnet case of yours does a pretty good job at cooling. I am talking about the one you got from newegg...its balck with to intakes on the side...

[MagicBox]

Yeah, I've already been looking around and noted a case that seems rather good. It's a case of TTGI and looks like a pretty good bang for the bucks. It provides all the good locations for the fans, as some of you described.

It's just that I needed some general guidelines, which would make selecting one a bit easier. Thanks for the advice :thumb:

P.S. Chezman, that Zalman VGA cooler.. can you tell something about its performance compared to the stock GF4 cooler? I came across that cooler and was kinda facsinated by it. I was wondering if the performance would meet the expectations for what it costs.

:cheers:

-Magic

[Chezman29]

To be honest I am RIGHT in the middle of building my beast right now.
( I must say out of ALLLLLLl the computer I have built this is by far the best looking and best design asestically I have EVER built. By the part I picked it should be up there in speed to. Ia m not worred about 10 fps, though either.
My degree is in computer engineering. From an enginerrering standpoint it is well worth the money. I use it in most of my ststems. My wife hates the look, as she does everything so who knows.
She figures if it plays solitaire who cares whats inside.
I am in the middle of building the comp. in my sig FINALLY. GI got my black and GOLD accented case finalllllllllllllllllllllly!!!!

I always use the tube type coolers on most of my vid cards if that answers your questions. When I was in the business, I also suggested it to customers. It is easily transferable and from a scientific standpoint the design disappates heat via a LARGE surface area, which in my knowledge is always better.

Cheers,Chez

[MagicBox]

Sounds like an awesome system :drool: Yeah, I might keep an eye out for that cooler. By linking through from your sig I ended up at Zalman's page, found interesting stuff there. Unfortunately no thermal specs. Is it correct that the heat pipe actually helps cooling? I think there's a gas like substance in there. I'm not sure how it works. Or is that pipe nothing but a heat conductor to the heat sink on the back ?Sorry for my questions, 's just that I'm interested in this kind of cooling solution for the videocard. Added with a PCI exhause fan placed right under it would provide a "godly" coolind I would suspect.

-Magic

[MagicBox]

Well.. I've been looking around for cases in all flavours.. but oh my, I'm drowning in what's available. And the cases that seem to fit my wishes are either not available locally, or I'm faced with another problem like...

Why the @#*&^@# doesn't Newegg do international orders!. I guess I'm severely limited in my selection because of the fact I live in Europe, the Netherlands. Woopie. Newegg seemed the only place to offer what I was looking for. Kingwin cases.

Kingwin cases seem to be based on those TTGI cases, which hold my interest because of the amount of fans supported, and slick, solid design. I don't know of other brands that resell TTGI cases.

Lian Li cases.. yeah... nice name, lots of bucks, and support a limited amount of fans. I have the impression that in this case you'll be paying more for the brandname than quality / cooling efficiency.

Thermaltake cases seems to provide good cooling. But those XaserII(I) cases are soo... incredibly screaming. I prefer an elegant, functional case. Not really something like what thermaltake offers.

Give me some ideas? Any good resellers which would ship internationally? Any help is greatly appreciated!

-Magic

[Chezman29]

MAgicbox,

I have used quite a few cases in my day, not to mention ALL of the research I have done into them.

For me, I like to show off the thousands of dollars I have INSIDE my computer. SOOOOO, I looked for cases that would do several things. Like providing adequete airflow, show off the inerds. be sturdy, among other things.
The BEST case I found, that is also rated a 5 out of 5 by NUMEROUS reviews was the Superflower/Kingwin 201ab. The 201 stays the same, although some places add the a, or b, or both, or sometimes TT 201, ect. You get the point.
Anyway, I don't want to go into describing ALL the benefits of such a case. Rhe sliding motherboard tray is also nice.
They have to intake fans up front that blow over a REMOVABLE 51/2 cage that can hold your harddrives. I personally have the 2 intake plus two dual harddrive fans blowing on top of the harddrives. The removable harddrive tray will hold 3 harddrives.
It has 3 51/2 ports, and 3 a: drive slots.
I don't want to post EVEVERYTHING it has here.
But if you click on Sflower/Kingwin in my Sig, it will direct you to Directron that has all of the specs and stuff. Directron has custom panted ones on sale right now from Casearts.

Kingwin 3 window

Be sure to scroll down a little bit, it has ;inks to see just about EVERY Bpeice of that case.
And just to add some more value to the case, it comes with 4 case fans, ALL with Gold grills, and a CLEAR top fan as well. IT also comes with a FULL box of nuts and bolts. Including black ones for your drives so you don't look through the window and see silver bolts holding in your drives. There are even more things to mention that they give. I can't remember or write them all.
ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THIS IS DEFINETELY THE BEST CASE, WELL THOUGHT OUT.
On TOP OF ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL THAT IT IS ON SALE NOW SINCE IT IS NOW DISCONTINUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TO ME, I would not blink an eye at paying $200 for this case. It is now on sale for $102!!
Now don't go buying them up. AS you guys know, I buy stuff that nobody else has cause I like to BE DIFFERENT!!

To me, for what I want in a case, it is the ULTIMATE CASE.

I personally bought mine from Milwaukeepc.com since they were the only one that had the black case with gold accnets on the from, including gold thumbless screws, usb. firewire cpver. ect. They discontinued the gold accents and went to the silver about 6 months ago and have since discontinued both cases.
It took me about 10-20 hours to find a place that had the black with gold accents. So I doubt there are too many left out there with the gold. Now they do have a lot left with the silver accents and silver thrumb screws.
Due to me being picky and having my heart set on this case, with the gold, I did just about everything to find one with the gold. It fits all of my components inside as well. I have a lot of gold accented components that REALLY sets it off. Like the Gold Zalman cooler for my MSI 4800 vid card, gold fan grills, a little bit of gold sleeving.
I also set it off with UV blue sleeving on every wire in my case. There isn't a wire that isn't sleeved and heatshrinked just to add to that professional look.

In my personal opinion this case is definetely in the top 10 of cases. Obviously I am not the only one, cause it has won NUMEROUS AWARDS as well.
It has a sliding motherboard try for easy access.
Since it is black, of course all of my drives are black as well. the case comes with a blue diode for power. I also picked up some more blue diodes to add in places I feel fit.
Right now I am using Geil memory with the standard blue HS, with the raised Geil emblem. I am thinking about changing the silver northbridge hs to the TT gold one.

Overall I must say this is the best system i have out of the 5 others I have.

The Antec 480b professionally modded power supply was WELL worth it!!! IT has a see through blue acrylic cover. They also cut and put connectors right outside the PSU so you can connect the OBLY ones you need. So you don't have to zip tie up the P4/server specific wires, or any unused wires that you don't neeed. They also sleeve them in any color combination you want, from the sleeving to the heatshrink. I sleeved the master Mobo power supply in Gold, and the others in UVblue. . It was a lot less than I expected and boy, let me tell you it was worth EVERY penny. It looks so nice in a 3 window case. a
This was from www.performance-pcs.com. They also sleeve and heatshrink ANYTHING you purchase from them. So of course I picked up my lighting and other stuff there too as well. Except the stuff I had already bought and didn't know they did this for you.
As you can imagine I HIGHLY recommend this place. The professionalism and the service they offer are just untouchable for those people like me that don't mind paying a little premium to have the best looking, and functioning computer out there.

The greatest thing about it is...................they don't cost that much more!!!

I just thought I would share with everybody else there, the best kept secret as far as computer parts stores go.....................

Chez

If you have any other questions for me, feel freee to ask.

Being in the business's I have been in, and the knowledge I have gained (borrroed) I have been lucky enough to figure out when a company is bsing there way to the top.

PSS--- I ended up getting to know the guys at Milwaukee PC quite well. I always find the best way to get what you want is to "kill em' with kindness". In fact they sent me a Milwaukee PC polo shirt, and they said if there is anything else they can do for me, just to let them know.

Just to give you an idea of what they had to do to get the case I wanted. They had to go to the warehouse - an hours drive away - and open every box to see if it was the gold or silver accents on the front. Since when Kingwin changed from the Gold to Silver accents they didn't change the shipping boxes to indicate it.
I FEEL PRETTY LUCKY THAT THESE GUYS DID THAT FOR ME. tHERE ARENT' TOO MANY BUSINESSES THAT WOULD DO THAT IN THIS DAY AND AGE!!!


/END OF BOOK

[Chezman29]

Flaco,

I have 2 cases from NEWEGG. I bought a case for my sister too.
I coulnd't beat the price. A black case with a window, two fans under the window, blowing right on the pci slots and everything.

Plus I think it came with a 300w power supply. Which is well enough for what we are using it for. She uses it to surf. I use it for a 6th computer. I eves gave her some other stuff to go along with it. Including a digital camera to take pictures or her little tykes. I also tought her how to upload them.

YOU GOTTA TAKE CARE OF YOUR FAMILY, ITS THE ONLY ONE YOU HAVE.
My Mom died right before Christmas. So next time you see your Mom tell her how much you love her, miss her, and how much she has meant to you in your life.
She was 40, she had the whole life ahead of her. I never got to tell her all those things. She died in a fire, it was an accident in the kitchen.
My Uncle couldn't handle it, he was an alcoholic which I am sure played a part. He took this life. He put on a bunch of clothes and lit himslef on fire. They both were very short (4"1') and had a harda time with it. He started drinking alot after my mothers passing and one night I guess he had too much to drink, wrote notes for everything and made a makeshift will. Then put a lot of clotheeeees on and lit himself on fire.
This was the 3rd death for my Grandparents. Their first son was murdered a ]t thier house in the 70's. So life has been tough for all of us lately.
Make sure you tell all of you loved ones how much you love them.

I know this is off topic, although I felt it was appropriate

Chez

MOM - I love you so much. I know you are waatching over me..............

[MagicBox]

Chez,

Many thanks for the premium info and advice you gave. You were talking about the Superflower/Kingwin TT201 case. Well, if you look in a previous post of mine, where I linked to a review on Tom's Hardware, you will see that that case was a TTGI - TT-301. That is the kind of case I would like most of all. Unfortunately the only link that's provided is to TTGI directly, and they don't provide any reseller info :(

When you look at the sample and review, you'll see why I'm highly interested in that case.

So for now, I can conclue that Kingwin resells most of the TTGI cases. It's right, the TT-201 is the one with 3 windows. I would be highly pleased if I could get the displayed TT-301 with 3 windows instead of closed panels.

As for showing off / interior decoration goes.. I think in my case it's a bit early to begin with. I can always do that later after I've gathered needed components, like a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro mobo with an 2800+ Barton, which I've ordered now. If I was so lucky to win the equivalent of PowerBall here in Holland, then yeah, I would order everything at once, with the coolest gimmicks. For now.. that's still dreaming for me :cool: Have to take one step at a time ;)

If only I could get my hands on such a TT201 / 301 case. I've looked at the website you provided (Performance PC) and noted they currently sell only two Kingwin cases, neither of them based on this 201/301 case.

I need something like a (international) online advanced computerparts store yellow pages. Newegg did offer a Kingwin case, but like I said, I can't order there

The only other option I considered, after thinking for a while is this case from ThermalTake. It will cost a buck, but it offers space, as well as 7 fans, and some interesting gimmicks. The only con is its kinda rude design of the front panel. But that's something personal.

My main consideration is a TT-301 (with windows). But if I can't get my hands on it... then I guess I'll have to ignore my opinion on the aestatic design of the Thermaltake case, and go with it simply because of the functional pros, which are, aluminium, 7 case fans, good amount of room, window.

Again, thanks for writing your book ;)

-Magic

EDIT: Oh my wOOtness. I went to the site where you got your case from and they sell all the different TT models, including the 201, and their newer cases. If only they ship internationally, I'll be set! I'm much like you. I pick the parts that I like best, and usually don't go with the flow. Looks like my dreamcase is only a few mouseclicks away! :cheers:

[Chezman29]

Well Buddy,

I don't do homework for others when it comes to finding a place that sells overseas.

Although I will give you a place that has numerous TT 301's, 201's and 201's professionally painted by casearts. AND they area ALL on sale, those fu$$$. Case arts even has 480w power supplies to match.

www.directron.com has them all. I am not sure about international shipping though. If you know someone in the states that can help you out, that would be a good deal.

Here is a little backround on Kingwin, since I called them to get the scoop when I was trying to get hooked up with the gold accented case.
They discontinued the gold, and started making the black with silver accents. Since then they discontinued the 201 all together. They replaced it with the 301. It has one window with some other improvements which I didn't read about cause I didn't care.
Directron has all 3 cases still. Including the ones from cases arts professional paint jobs. Case arts even painted some poewr supples to go with the mthat looked pretty sweet if you are into the colors. They are also selling [B]FOR A VERY BIG DISCOUNT SINCE THEY ARE NOW DISCONTINUED.

Sorry to hear that you can't find a place that will ship internation ally.

My ONLY suggestion would be to email Milwaukee OC and address it to Joe and see if they would ship it internationally. Also using the idea that they are discontinued and that might help them want to get rid of the cases and go through whatever extra steps it would take to ship international.
I have the # to the warehouse manager and his name. He knows me all too well. I could give you his email address and phone @. You could also use my name. I don't know if it would help, although I did treat them with the tmost respect to get the best survice possible. In fact they even paid shipping back and forth. He even gave me thier UPS corporate charging #!Its worth a shot if you want one of those cases.
\They also have the newest Kingwin cases from what I am told they are a lot nicer inside, yet only have one window that is of blue tint.

:cheers:
Chez

[MagicBox]

Well Chez,

Today I'm a happy camper :thumb: The search term "case 301" eventually got me where I needed to be. I ended up with a Dutch online store, which was the only one to offer a whole slew of Superflower cases, including your black 201 with golden fan grills ;) And, they had what I wanted. The silver blue 301, but WITH 3 side windows! Yay! I couldn't be happier. Comparted to U.S. prices, the thing was rather expensive, about 30% more. But, if I were to order with a U.S. company I also found it at, the shipping costs were utterly ridiculous, about 1.4 times the cost of the case itself! ($109 for case, $138 for shipping) So in the end, I got me a nice local bargain here ;) Ordered it today, will get it tomorrow : party ha So next would be a nice blueish CC tube to beef up the interior. Yeah, I'm looking forwar to building this 'new' computer.

Thanks for all the advice and help. It made my quest for a good case much easier!

-Magic

[FLaCo]

Well, Chez sorry to hear that man...:(