Nexus Breeze 500 Case. Seems like a bad idea.

[fipeso]

I am getting ready to order a new PC.

But I am not sure about the Case / PSU.

This is what I been thinking of.
http://www.nexustek.nl/breeze500.htm

It seems tempting. Not to expencive, and quiet.

But the fact that ALL the heat goes out the PSU.... I dont know.

They have a patent pending and all, but still.

Im not going to OC and the video card will blow out heat out the back.

What do you think. Is it a bad idea to put all the heat out that PSU?

 

[smedlin]

That's intersting. However, I would still want another exhaust fan. I don't think I would trust just that one. I don't think there would be enough air flow.

 

[jaguarskx]

The Nexus Breeze 500 is a good case as long as you put in the right components. My next build will be a very powerful, but quiet PC. Because there is only the PSU fan to exhaust hot air it is necessary to choose components that do not produce too much heat. The Nexus fan at the bottom (that's a good silent fan) creates a vortex that in theory draws cool air from the room floor and exhaust hot air through the PSU, thus cooling everything in the center of the case.

This case is not for the hardcore gamer who is looking for a Crossfire or SLI GPU solution. It's really meant for a single card solution and I wouldn't suggest an ATI X1800 or X1900 series, they draw too much watts, which means they also give off a lot of heat. Sticking in a GeForce 7900GT 256MB is probably doable since they only use about 52w at stock speed (core clock 400MHz), any overclocking will mean more power and heat. The typically overclock of 450MHz should be fine. A less powerful GPU should be considered if it is going to be passively cooled.

The CPU is the next consideration. If you're thinking about a Pentium 4 then I would look at another case. P4s simply consumes much more power than an Athlon 64. A Northwood P4 should be fine, I think, and Conroe will be a good choice too for Intel CPUs. Athlon 64 runs much cooler than their competition.

A CPU need the correct HSF, I would choose the Scythe Ninja since it comes with a pretty quiet fan. Hell, I would try to run an Athlon 64 3500+, or Athlon X2 3800+ passively with the Scythe Ninja. The vortex should blow cooler air directly through the Ninja's fins. For faster Athlons I would place the Ninja's fan facing the intake fan so that it blow hot up directly to the PSU's fan.

As for hard drives, anything faster than 7200RPMs is too noisy and creates too much heat, so forget raptors. Also larger capacities means more platters and more heads which translates to more heat and noise. I would say 250GB hard drives offers a decent amount of capacity, with low enough heat and noise. Samsung and Seagate makes HDs that are usually more quiet than thier competition.

As for a motherboard, any will do, and if it is passively cooled, then it'll be even better. A Zalman heatsink should do the trick.

 

[smedlin]

That was very well composed and thought out jaguarskx.

 

[fipeso]

Thank You for post.

I will go with the Nexus Breeze then.
I still think its strange, but, hey I am not an engeneer, they are !

This is the setup I was thinking to set in the box:
- NEXUS BREEZE CASE 350W or 400w or 500W SILENT
- Asus A8N5X nForce4
- AMD ATHLON 64 3000+ S939 1.8G BOX VENICE
- STOCK COOLER
- Kingston 2 GB 400MHZ DDR NON-ECC CL3 (3-3-3) DIMM KIT Value ram
- SAPPHIRE X850 XT PCI-E 256MB VGA+DVI+TVO
- (I can't decide on video card. Also considering 7600GT-7900GTX)
- CAVIAR 250GB SATA3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB
- LG DVD+-RW DL LIGHTSCRIBE 16X RETAIL

I dont know if the 350W is enough for any of the video cards.

I apriciate any suggestons / oppinions on this.
I plan to place the order soon.

 

[jaguarskx]

The choice between ATI and nVidia really depends on the types of games you play. Some perform better with ATI, others with nVida.

ATI Friendly games:
Oblivion
Age of Empires III
Battlefield 2
Day of Defeat
Splinter Cell

nVidia Friendly games:
Doom 3
Quake 4
Call of Duty 2
Black & White 2
Any game based on Quake Engine

Difficult to say:
F.E.A.R.
Far Cry

GPU Power Consumption

As I mentioned before, the fastest nVdia GPU I would put in is the 7900GT. The 7900GTX would dump too much heat into the case for my taste. The fastest ATI GPU I would put in would be the X1800XL since it consumes about as much power as a 7900GT. The 7900GT consumes about 5w - 8w less than the older 7800GT because of the die shrink from 110nm to 90nm.

If you are going with a powerful GPU like the X1800XL or the 7900GT, then I would recommend at least the Athlon 64 3200+. I think the A64 3000+ will be a bottleneck for fast GPUs. If you were going for a 7600GT or X1600XT, then the A64 3000+ would be fine.

You should be fine with a 400w PSU. A 350w PSU may be a bit slim. The 500w PSU is definitely excessive.