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Originally Posted by jcmaz  Don't forget the Azza 910 |
Considering he has a K series CPU and a P67 board, I'll go ahead and assume he is planning to overclock, and the side panel fan on the helios make it next to impossible to fit any of the decent CPU heatsinks.
As a matter of fact the inwin has the same issue, just worse. this case is also overpriced at 50$ as I know it used to go for 40$ with free shipping (it is an older case).
The HAF912 is the best case out of the ones you've mentioned but not cause of its stock configurations, but rather its potential. It has great cable management, modular HDD cages to allow for longer cards, etc..but all that is just average nowadays for 50$ cases, it only truly comes to life when u add fans. I'd suggest 2 of CM's own Megaflow 200mm fans at 10$ each but that will total to 70$!
At that price point I rather the Lancool PC-K60 even tho it will have inferior cooling to the HAF (not by far), it is a lian-li designed case with one of the only "non total trash toolless designs" and it fixes the HAF's biggest fault of being a massive dust magnet with fan filters. It even has 8 expansion slots at the same price as the HAF (70$ although thats slightly above what u wanted to pay imho its worth it).
IMHO the best bang for buck case for that kind of money is the Zalman Z9 "PLUS", I actually have just bought one last week at 55$ and its in the mail. Although it has the same issues as the HAF (due to lack of dust filters with lots of fans, it will most likely be a dust magnet too)! The expansion bay covers are actually wielded on and have to be broken off to accommodate cards (this isn't such a big deal for a cheap case with so many good features but can be a problem if u change motherboards for a new build in the same case...basically it isnt an investment that will last several builds unlike most cases)! not to mention I HATE the styling and will be returning mine as soon as it arrives as I've fallen in love with another case with a similar price tag I will be replacing it with asap!
The case I wan't to replace it with wont be released for another 2 months actually...its the Azza Toledo 301 for 60$! It isn't released yet so I'm mostly speculating but i think it might be lacking dust filters too... however on the plus side, it seems to me that on paper it should have same cooling as a fully loaded HAF912 with its stock fans not to mention black interior and u could add 2 more fans on top and one on the floor (il be populating these with 3 CM 120mm R4 blue led fans @5$ each but that isnt rly necessary imo). My main concern with this case was that side fan, but according to an azza sales rep it can fit up to 180mm tall cpu heatsinks with the fan in place!
The Antec 300 is quite old although it is still a great case for 30$ after MIR. With the extra money you should load it up with fans and get awesome airflow. It does have terrible cable management (worse than the helios) and lacks filters too but hey 30$! You might have trouble with longer video cards but thats a non-issue with the 460 cyclones...
Speaking of cheap cases after MIRs u might be able to find an NZXT gamma at 10-20$ (after their 30$ MIR) and its a great case! pretty much same as the 300 but different design and the cable management isnt as bad with a black interior. And just like the 300 part of the money u save should be invested on extra fans!
Speaking of NZXT, the M59 should cost about what you want to pay and has good cooling, similar design to the gamma but more bold and even a side window if thats ur type of thing! atleast an extra front fan should be added to this case tho.
That was just my 2 cents on cheap cases....
P.S. damn the Azza Toledo 301 looks like a beast! :)
P.P.S. the Tt v4 isnt too bad at that price but adding fans is almost a MUST!
March 13, 2011, 02:36 PM
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