My case is a pain in the ass... its an XCLIO Windtunnel. I would really love a new one and I have a few things i need the new one to have and am having trouble pinpointing a new one. heres my list of **** that needs to exist on the new one... under 150 USD full sized tool less nothing on the side panel(current case has fans on it and when i take off the door i gotta do **** with wires f that man) easily removable side panel ideally some kind of hinge or latch of some kind easy management of hard drives and lots of space for drives. drive cooling too. support for either Corsair H90 or H110 plenty of cooling efficiency and quite operation would be very nice.(i had to replace the 250mm fans on my current case with louder faster rpm fans and this thing is pretty loud now. not unbearable but it could be more silent for sure) ive looked at a few options and just off the top of my head i was looking at an antec 1200, corsair something d or something, thermaltake overseer or something like that. and thats all i remember right now. any help would be great dudes im quite frankly stuck.
I had an Antec 1200 and it was like a wind tunnel, very cool but overly loud for sure. I can only really give you advise on what I have right now which is a Corsair 550D. It's considered a mid tower but it has a lot of space inside. Both side panels are released with a single push of a button which is really great. There is space for two fans on the side but not necessary. How many drives do you use? The 550D supports up to six with two front 120mm fans to cool them. Tool less installation too which is what you want. I have a h100i installed in mine and it fits comfortably. The case itself is actually very quiet and I have it setup for maximum airflow so that was quite a surprise. There's a lot of soundproofing material in the case which definitely helps. I don't know many US sites but it's currently $129.99 on newegg.
I suggest theCorsair 500R also.Very good cooling and it supports up to a 280 radiator on the top. I have the Corsair H1100 in mine and it fits just fine.
Maybe i shouldn't turn down some mid tower options. i know some mid towers out now are in fact practically full towers. hmmm. as far as drives i use currently i have 2 SSDs and 4 mechanical hard drives. I may or may not be moving all but one of the mechanical drives to a seperate case in the future at some point though but hard drive cooling is still important for the long term as whatever case i upgrade to i will probably end up getting another one if i like it and that will be the case i throw most of my current drives in.
Corsair 750D pretty much checks off everything on your list, or if you look around you may be able to find a deal on the 650D. Both are very nice but between the two I still prefer the 650. Corsair Obsidian 750D Corsair Obsidian 650D
hmm the 750 is cheaper but i do like the 650 much more even though it is more expensive. pretty odd man the 750 seems like a step down.
I've just switched to a Fractal Design Define R4 (Pearl Black) after using Coolermaster cases for many years & must say I'm really impressed with it solid construction it is also very very quiet & very cheap ! .
I have some great options in here but one thing im kinda worried about right now is cooling with some of these options. my current case has 2 250mm fans and i have my gpu set to only really go between 18-22% fan speed because it never gets hot. I wonder if some of these new options can keep up with that. I have to say the 650d looks really nice it has lots of hard drive cooling and a great exhaust but if i stuck a h110 on there that would probably mean i would have to remove the big top exhaust fan. and my 290 im looking to get will probably suffer. also the 650d while nice is 50$ over my price range. and larger fans are annoying to replace if they **** up. hmmm The 750d looks really good but im wondering if the 140mm fans will keep up. i mean they should be fine and they look like really good 140mm fans. and the case looks very well sealed up so that will help with noise if i have to turn up gpu fan rpms and will help with cooling too. my current case is all brute force. no intake just massive exhaust so a properly setup case should work a little better. and moving to 140mm fans makes replacements easier and compared to the ones i have now should be less noise too. That fractal looks pretty sturdy too i think i may have used one of those for someone at some point. he was satisfied with it. Great suggestions guys i wanna see if maybe i can get a few more though. one thing i dont really keep up with anymore is cases.
oh wow nice. looks like nzxt stepped up their game since the pos case i had from them in 2006. the switch looks amazing for my needs but the phantom appears to have gotten a price hike or something on newegg its about 240$ there. i think so far im really liking the NZXT Switch 810 the most right now.
Chilly not sure but check out my Phantom. Its the Original maybe it would work for you? I have a h110 mounted in it as well. http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=383917&goto=newpost
ha wow i wish i had that instead of what i have right now thats for sure looks very nice but for my next case i really wanna have nothing on the side panel. i have to go into my case a lot and the whole unscrewing things and unplugging fans so i can remove the door sucks.
If you want something a bit odd, look up the CM Haf XB. Plenty of cooling power & room for a radiator. The only real downside, is the lack of storage space. Only room for 2 HDDs in the hot swap bay (I pulled the hot swap panel off mine & just manually wired the drives like normal) and 3 or 4 SSDs. The hot swap bay can't be cooled, but the SDD mounting cage is right next to two 80mm fan ports. The stock fans are what you'd expect, so I went with two Cougar Vortex 140mm, a Zalman Reserator 3 AiO CPU cooler and all I can hear from it is a little low-resonance hum. Just my two cents worth. EDIT: My setup Pics are rather large & I don't know how to thumbnail so direct link Top angled view: http://kc7vwc0.home.bresnan.net/angle.JPG Top-down view: http://kc7vwc0.home.bresnan.net/top.JPG
Well here is my Switch just to give you an idea of what you can do with one without any modification. http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4594773&postcount=60
very nice. i think unless i get a better option im most likely going with the Switch. it looks like everything im looking for in a new case. the better hard drive bays alone should be worth it my current case is supposed to take like 5 drives but the slider dealies are so ****ty only 3 hard drives fit in the cage so i have to have my SSDs floating in the air and 3 drives barely fitting in the cage and then i have 1 more drive just sitting on the bottom of the case. uke2:
This case..http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_carbide_air_540_review,1.html Take a good look at this case. Best I've had for cooling,easy access,tooless, etc. etc.
I was looking at the Urban S71. I have an Antec 1200 right now and it pisses me off because it's so loud even at low settings.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147053 doesn't exactly meet your specs but the cooling is great. have in white too