Help with case upgrade.

[Rbeales1911]

Good evening/morning/afternoon ladies and gents. As the title suggests I'm looking to upgrade my current case, a BitFenix Shinobi, to something more future friendly. I'm looking for the following characteristics:

- Must have a window panel, I like to see the inside of my system (and show off of course 😛)
- Would prefer something that is quiet as my other half hates the sound of my system atm.
- Must have good airflow
- Good cable management options would be ideal
- Water cooling compatibility would be nice for the future. Only planning to use a H100i GTX at the moment but will be switching to an open loop in a few months when I upgrade my gpu.
- A psu shroud would be preferred, however not essential.

Two cases I'm thinking about are the:

NZXT Noctis H450 (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-ca-n450w-m1-noctis-450-black-red-mid-tower-case-w-window-4x-fans-included-8x-internal-35-25-dri)

Phanteks Enthoo Luxe (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/phanteks-enthoo-luxe-black-full-tower-case-with-side-window-w-o-psu)

Or any other recommendations

Budget is ~£150 including shipping. Thank you for reading.

 

[nucolos]

Personally i would buy the phanteks enthoo pro: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/phanteks-enthoo-pro-black-full-tower-case-with-side-window-w-o-psu.

Its 25 pound cheaper and actually has better airflow if you remove the hdd cage, or the same with it: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2014/08/12/phanteks-enthoo-luxe-review/3

 

[nucolos]

You can also get the define r5 for £92, but its a case focus on silent operation, not airflow. or the define s for £70, wich is the same but without hdd cages and more focused on water cooling.

 

[juanrdp]

I'm using a Corsair 450 High Airflow, that i think meet all the requeriments you ask.
- Side (Top in my case) window pannel
- Silent
- Diferent chambers for PSU and MB
- Good lookign and cable management
- Good Airflow
- Currently im using it with a 360mm rad, have place for a 240mm and another 120mm one
- Cost of 130€

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/carbide-series-air-540-high-airflow-atx-cube-case

Have some drawbacks as only 2 5.25 external drive bays, a large footprint and that you only have two HD hot swap bays that you must remove if want another 240mm rad (for a total of 1x360mm, 2x240mm and 1x120mm rads).

 

[geofelt]

What size motherboard will you be using?
A good place to research quiet computing is www.silentpcreview.com.

One thing, windows make a case louder.

 

[Rbeales1911]

You can also get the define r5 for £92, but its a case focus on silent operation, not airflow. or the define s for £70, wich is the same but without hdd cages and more focused on water cooling.

I like the look of the define r5, however with the limited front intake the internal temps seem to suffer based on benchmarks. Thanks for the suggestions though.

 

[Rbeales1911]

What size motherboard will you be using?
A good place to research quiet computing is www.silentpcreview.com.

One thing, windows make a case louder.

I will be using an ATX motherboard (Gigabyte fx990 - UD5 to be precise) (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-990fxa-ud5-amd-990fx-sam3plus-ddr3-pcie-20-(x16)-3-way-sli-3-way-crossfirex-atx)