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Case selection = SAD!

They cost more these days, Lian Li O11 Dynamic is entirely metal and glass, I've had one for 3-4 years now and it's excellent. Just clean the dust filters and blow it out with a compressor every once in a while. Even has space for two spinning disk drives. I'm not crazy about the management in the back but it's acceptable. I think there's some really good suggestions in here, I particularly love that one guy's Corsair 5000D setup, little jealous honestly.
 
I have too many cases... most have 2-4 3.5in bays, and room for several 2.5in drives, plus you can fit 2x comfortably in a 3.5in slot.

Right now I have a corsair 680x, 4000, 5000, and three cooler master cases lol. And an o11 that I've been wanting to build but probably won't anytime soon.

The corsair are all great, just wish the 680x was easier to clean the front fans, like removable glass/panel but I haven't tried modding it to see how feasible it would be, might just be a few screws. The 4000 is great balance between size and capabilities, and the 5000 is humongous, but nowhere near the HAF700 I have obviously.

I do miss the 5.25 bays, even 1 or 2 would be nice. I liked physical fan controls, hot swap drive bays, bluray, extra usb/card readers, etc that you could customize your system with. Now it's all external USB adapters, buggy software for everything unless you do some harder modding.
 
I've not yet found a compelling reason to upgrade from my tried and true old Corsair 800D case, even though it's approaching ~15 years old now. It's starting to show it's age in that some of the rubber grommets where the cables go through the inner-chassis are becoming brittle and breaking apart, and the plastic latch on the front-door of the 3.5" hot-swap bays got brittle and snapped, so the door swings open freely now. It would also be nice to have a case that had airflow through the front. But none of those things are show-stoppers. The 800D still supports my 360mm radiator up top and gives me plenty of airflow for the hardware that I run. I'd want to replace it with something equally large, but don't have a ton of incentive to pay $300-500 to "fix something that isn't broken".
 
Really liking the NZXT H9 Flow case that I got recently. I've owned the PC011 Dynamic case a while back, and I am liking this case more. Just has better airflow IMO.
4-23-23.jpg
 
Even though this looks better in real life, here's a pic of the Cooler Master Elite 500 with an Antec white LED fan.
CoolerMasterElite500.jpg
 
I couldn't find anything I loved but I needed a new case, so I found a new NZXT H7 Flow at Microcenter for $60 on closeout. It's not perfect, and it's really plain, but it's practical and has good airflow and was inexpensive.
 
Fenris_Ulf said:
I couldn't find anything I loved but I needed a new case, so I found a new NZXT H7 Flow at Microcenter for $60 on closeout. It's not perfect, and it's really plain, but it's practical and has good airflow and was inexpensive.
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I used an H7 Flow here for a while and loved it. I'm one of those people that swap in and out of cases all the time so I'll probably go back to it eventually. As you mentioned it has great air flow and it's just a great functional case overall.
 
How do you like the Thermalright AIO?

I have considered one a few times, but just couldn't pull the trigger.
 
Shame to see that there haven't been too many clean case designs in recent years... some of the old Lian Li's must have taken their inspiration from the Power Mac G5 and were quite nice looking.
1687806437105.png


Even those didn't quite measure up to the G5 case though... always hoped someone would manage that.
 
cheesetogo said:
Shame to see that there haven't been too many clean case designs in recent years... some of the old Lian Li's must have taken their inspiration from the Power Mac G5 and were quite nice looking. snip

Even those didn't quite measure up to the G5 case though... always hoped someone would manage that.
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I loved my v1000b and really wish they still had something like it
sidefan2.jpg


Happy with my Lancool II though. Want to get a O11 mini but price is to high atm with needing a new PSU for it as well
 
I always liked that case!

Love the wheels.. I have a Stacker that has wheels, but it is too old school for me right now. I need to restore it.
 
freeagentt said:
I always liked that case!

Love the wheels.. I have a Stacker that has wheels, but it is too old school for me right now. I need to restore it.
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I held on to it for years. Offered it up here in genmay for cost of shipping before deciding I was going to stick with gaming laptops.... Year or so later I traded laptop for a desktop and miss that case
 
freeagentt said:
I always liked that case!

Love the wheels.. I have a Stacker that has wheels, but it is too old school for me right now. I need to restore it.
Click to expand...

The old school manufacturers that are still in business need to offer up some front panel upgrade kits. I'd love to be able to have front panel USB-C on my TJ09 or V2120. I've got a Lian Li/Rocketfish on a shelf somewhere as well that could use a new system build as well.
 
My 24 year old desk enclosing my 15 year old open air case..

No cable management, Definitely not sexy.. but cool and quiet, ultimately out of sight / out of mind.. The case is extremely stable. For USB 3+, I have a hub on my desk for that.

My 100% oak large (and very heavy) Corner desk from 1999 is definitely dated, but has been absolutely perfect for my needs over the past 20 years of telecommuting with dual monitors, slide out KB, mouse, and accessory trays all from the middle. I am going to refinish it this fall, maybe a darker stain. I think I paid about $1k for it back in the day, and another $500 for a matching credenza. It has definitely weathered alot of daily use, and housed so many rigs / part swaps going back to a Pentium 3.

It isn't always cool, but I will take function / daily use resilience / sturdiness over form any day of the week. Sure I can update everything, money is no concern... but why?


desk_a.jpg


The only reason the 3.5" floppy is still in there is I have not felt like rummaging to find the case cover (even though I know I still have it), plus it adds to the retro vibe, a ton of memories, and a hint of inconspicuousness. DVD drive is hardly used anymore, but there just in case. I still run some older software, so I have multiple VMs (XP, Windows 7, etc.) in addition to Windows 10, 11, Windows Server, and Linux for some enterprise apps. I am not much of a gamer anymore, but occasionally do.. so I have a 6600 XT.

Towel underneath the front half of the case is for sound dampening, and eliminates any rotational vibration / resonance (also gives a little more clearance for the rear of the case for better PSU fan air pull).. the front door to the desk stays closed.. so out of sight, and out of mind. There is a side cutout in the desk where the side fan pulls in air., and I removed the back off the desk / CPU enclosure for ventilation.


Prior to dust removal shot:


comp_2a.jpg



Open air for me has been great and it is out of sight.. Also, I don't get triggered over picture perfect. If that is your thing, great.. I've got other things to obsess over. This rig stays on 24x7 (on a 1,500 watt hour battery backup) and only goes down for windows updates, maintenance, and parts swapping.

The Low RPM side fan is for cooling my SSDs that build up a pocket of heat combined with the video card (that often stays at 0 RPM).. That Zalman fan holder is from like 2003 LOL. I'm no pack rat, but I still have drawers of stuff with "someday I might find a use for that"... The side fan knocks my SSD (all have heat sinks) temps down about 10-15 degrees C, and has a noticeable impact on Video card temps. I am down to 2 conventional hard drives for basically archived data.


1689450186009.png


My CPU cooler, 5+ years old ( Evo 212) does reasonably ok with my 9900k with this setup. When I upgrade my CPU (14 or 15th gen Intel), I'll probably go with a Peerless Assassin or similar.. I rarely ever hit 100% CPU as it is.

1689450349278.png


My desk includes 2 computers (this one, and a work laptop 11th gen intel with docking station).. this is used in combination with 2 1200p 16x10 24" monitors (perfect dot pitch for my old eyes), and 3 KVMs --one for KB and mouse, one for each monitor so I can have any combination of monitors and KB / mouse between the 2 computers at any time.


As I said, it is not sexy.. but I am old and do not care... it works. Being practical pays.. and I adapt to needs accordingly.
 
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Well after starring at my wife's Corsair 4000D case for 1 year I couldn't stand it, I had to upgrade my 18 year old LIAN-LI PC-A70B, I went with the 5000D. I had to make a few 1/4" black PVC board block offs for so many holes in the front and top but I like the way it came out.

new-case-1.jpg

new-case-3.jpg

new-case-4.jpg

new-case-5.jpg
 
I hear ya, I will still keep it stored but this new 5000D is pretty clean setup.
 
ND40oz said:
The old school manufacturers that are still in business need to offer up some front panel upgrade kits. I'd love to be able to have front panel USB-C on my TJ09 or V2120. I've got a Lian Li/Rocketfish on a shelf somewhere as well that could use a new system build as well.
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The power button my corsair 800d died and i wanted to buy a new front panel and they wouldn't help me.
 
Wade88 said:
The power button my corsair 800d died and i wanted to buy a new front panel and they wouldn't help me.
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I have an 800D sitting in the box with an X58 system in it. Stinks that Corsair won't help you with what was their first case ever. I remember doing the SATA II to SATA III hotswap backplane upgrade on mine.
 
I honestly never liked Corsair. I have nothing good to say about anything that I have owned with their name on it.
 
freeagentt said:
I honestly never liked Corsair. I have nothing good to say about anything that I have owned with their name on it.
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Still make great power supplies. I had to replace a nearly 20 year old HX620 in my mom's desktop last year. I have an 860 watt powersupply that's 11 years old. Everything else is pretty much trash though, wouldn't shock me if they ruin the quality of their PSUs as well.
 
Decko87 said:
Still make great power supplies. I had to replace a nearly 20 year old HX620 in my mom's desktop last year. I have an 860 watt powersupply that's 11 years old. Everything else is pretty much trash though, wouldn't shock me if they ruin the quality of their PSUs as well.
Click to expand...
Same. I did have one gaming mouse fail on me a few years ago, but other than that I've had good luck with them.
 
I’ve been rocking my TJ07 and V2000 builds for almost 20 years, but finally saw something that caught my eye, the Havn 420. It’s a beautiful and functional case. Starting a new fun build.
 
Pretty cool case but I am seeing major issues with no filtering or filters not fine enough screens. Case will be full of dust in no time.

I see a lot of cases like this.
 
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Honestly I don’t like all the fine mesh and steel cases with little holes all over it. My pcs haven’t collected dust too bad. It’s never been a problem I’ve been trying to solve.
 
Isn´t it in the end just a question of which kind of color the settled dust on the fans have?

rough estimate without taking other values into account:

mesh size 20 / 841 microns and above = brown
below/ finer = green

That´s a very rough average taken from living in Europe and Hong Kong
 
I use these, SilverStone Ultra Fine Fan Filters. I can go almost a year and have little to no dust. A slight hit of compressed air blows it all out.
The magnetic panel I made doesn't allow any air into the case without passing through the filters.
I have also blocked every single hole in this case, so the only way the air gets out is through the exhaust fans where I want the air to exit.
filters-1.jpg
filters-2.jpg
 
I've had one for many years. Right after I bought it the damn on off button broke. The plastic ring that holds the switch in place broke into 2 pieces. Had to jury rig it. It's been working fine ever since. But I still prefer an air compressor when it's convenient.
 
Deadjasper said:
But I still prefer an air compressor when it's convenient.
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I'm curious about why canned air would be more convenient. Just no need to deal with cables, or is it a more concentrated / precise blast, etc?

(I'm considering getting an electric duster, but not sure that I want yet another very-rarely-used lithium battery device sitting around in a place where I'll probably forget about it.)
 
shleepy said:
I'm curious about why canned air would be more convenient. Just no need to deal with cables, or is it a more concentrated / precise blast, etc?

(I'm considering getting an electric duster, but not sure that I want yet another very-rarely-used lithium battery device sitting around in a place where I'll probably forget about it.)
Click to expand...

Mine runs off 120v and is the next best thing to an air compressor. much more powerful than canned air.
 
Not sure of when I'll do my next build but definitely will wait till I get a new desk. (One I have is okay, but old)
Looking into the edge PSU's, back-connect cases and Motherboards, and wireless fan setups, but they will most likely have a few generations into those before i pull the trigger. :)
Considered the PC desk, but only if i could get a good price.
Had the Lian Li V1000 and V2000, but now my family members have them since i sell them my current builds whenever i do a new one. They DO collect a lot of dust though.
 
I noticed the scarcity of external drive bays in the new cases which was the cost factor to cases as that was the expensive part to make.
I got in a Thermaltake Tower 500. Huge case, but not even a cdrom drive.

Also I just don't see why this is not a $100 case. Because its not built as well as the $200 cases in the 90s and 2000s.
 
cyberblogger said:
I noticed the scarcity of external drive bays in the new cases which was the cost factor to cases as that was the expensive part to make.
I got in a Thermaltake Tower 500. Huge case, but not even a cdrom drive.

Also I just don't see why this is not a $100 case. Because its not built as well as the $200 cases in the 90s and 2000s.
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you bought a display case, not a functionality case. there are still plenty of cases on the market with 5.25 bays...
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007583 600030551 600030545 600030546&PageSize=96
and thats just like your opinion, man. ;)
 
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