Please help me decide on a case and PSU!!!!!!!

[yeason]

I don't have much personal experiance with a P180, but a friend of mine does. He built a server out of it for a client and absolutely loved the thing. All of the fans have adjustable speeds, there's a small selector, you have 2 or 3 options. With all fans on high it could be somewhat noisy but it had insane airflow, if you turned the fans on low it was pretty quiet and still had good airflow. Normally this guy wouldn't have anything to do with ATX cases, he prefers SFF, but he said if he ever got another ATX case that would be the one.

ChaseD13: As far as PSU goes I'd say Antec, they make some of the best that I know of. Unless of course you have $500 to spend on a PSU, in which case you could get the PC Power and Cooling 1KW =P http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703003. This of course would be total overkill unless you had plans to build something that would cause power fluctuations in your neighborhood .

 

[pengwin]

yah, he doesnt need a kilowatt.

 

[yeason]

Of course he doesn't need, that was purely for amusement. I could probably power all three of my computers off of that one supply if it came with the right connectors.

 

[pengwin]

im sure u could find a 3 way 24 pin splitter

 

[jazzman2]

Buy Thermaltake Armor Jr.!!! It's very nice! I have Sr. and the air flow comes in the front, exits the from the top and from the back!

Did you have any problems hooking the 2 USB ports to your mobo? I can't hook it up to mine. The pins don't line up and I have no clue what NC stands for.

Maybe the Jr. is better. The airflow on the Sr. is great! This baby however is very heavy so no Lan parties for me Well unless I use the old cherry picker. The tooless design is also very poor on the pci slots.

 

[halcyon]

Whatever you do, don't buy an Antec Lanboy. I guess it is light, and I imagine that's its only purpose. ...but the front panel is this cheap...cough...painted plastic. Why paint it to look like Aluminum...just make it aluminum. I was actually embarrassed when I set a rig up in one. ....so I saved face and took it back...they charge too much for that cheapness too. :roll:

That's why I like the CM C5, it doesn't purport to be anything special. It's just good airflow, inexpensive, and, aaaaahhh, metal.

 

[pengwin]

Whatever you do, don't buy an Antec Lanboy. I guess it is light, and I imagine that's its only purpose. ...but the front panel is this cheap...cough...painted plastic. Why paint it to look like Aluminum...just make it aluminum. I was actually embarrassed when I set a rig up in one. ....so I saved face and took it back...they charge too much for that cheapness too. :roll:

That's why I like the CM C5, it doesn't purport to be anything special. It's just good airflow, inexpensive, and, aaaaahhh, metal.

i believe the bezel is aluminum

 

[halcyon]

Trust me, its plastic. When I'd got mine some of the paint had rubbed off and I thought, "Well, I can paint that...." Then I thought, "What the f*ck?! I can't live with that, its gotta go, cheap s0b". ...bad memories. ...bad memories of its cheap plasticness. I'm not saying plastic is bad, when it's done right. ...but in the LanBoy's case, IMO, it wasn't done right. Antec is into plastic, but as long as there's CoolerMaster and ThermalTake then Antec can be into flying saucers, and can build them like it built the LanBoy. When you pay them enough they make nice gear. The LB was just a dissapointment to me, as you can see. ...and I'd hate to see someone make that same mistake if they're buying off the internet and can't see the case first.

 

[chased13]

went with centurion 532 with the hiper 580w psu (mainly bc it is modular) - read some good things about it (one review musta had a messed up one that was like 13v on the 12v-hope that wont be mine

 

[pengwin]

huh, it is plastic i lie.

 

[yeason]

It is plastic, I'm using one right now. I can see why Halcyon would complain about it, it's not super high quality but it's lasted through a couple of lan partys and rebuilds for me. The cheapness is annoying but my entire system, internals included weighs about as much as some of the steel cases I've used. I wasn't too concerned about how it looked, I got it more for weight. If one is worried about looks there are definately better cases out there, if you want something light and easy to move around then the Lanboy isn't too bad. One nice feature for me (other cases prolly have it) was the fact that it came with a carrying strap, that certainly made transporting the box itself somewhat easier.

 

[pengwin]

NZXT Lexa, light 10lbs unloaded, looks good, good cooling, comes with carrying bag.

 

[reader850]

I ordered an Antec P180 from NewEgg yesterday ($105 after $20 rebate with free shipping), been wanting one for a whole year, finally got tired of the noise from my wife's computer and decided to silence it with the P180. For less $, good quality and decent quietness, the Antec case/PSU combo in my sig is fine. (But it has a plastic door, which some of y'all wouldn't like.) I wanted the P180 based on an early 2005 review when I built my rig last year, but it wasn't out yet. I'll hand my current rig down to my wife and reclaim the P180 when I build my next rig in 2007. I expect I'll "need" a dual or quad core next generation CPU by then. Truthfully, my old 2.4GHz overclocked mobile XP 2600 (now my wife's computer) is still sufficient for ~everything today.

 

[halcyon]

It is plastic, I'm using one right now. I can see why Halcyon would complain about it, it's not super high quality but it's lasted through a couple of lan partys and rebuilds for me. The cheapness is annoying but my entire system, internals included weighs about as much as some of the steel cases I've used. I wasn't too concerned about how it looked, I got it more for weight. If one is worried about looks there are definately better cases out there, if you want something light and easy to move around then the Lanboy isn't too bad. One nice feature for me (other cases prolly have it) was the fact that it came with a carrying strap, that certainly made transporting the box itself somewhat easier.

I didn't mean to sound arrogant or knock anyone's LanBoy. It's purpose is to be light and portable, and that it does in spades! I think I was dissapointed because they could have easily made that front panel aluminum...it'd have been even lighter...and I doubt it would have cost them more than $.25-$.50 to do so...what...2-3 Pepsi cans? It would have been a slick case, IMO, if they'd done that.

There's so many beautiful cases, some by Antec themselves, so there's lots of choices. I'm a visual person, so why it seems like I've ranted, such things are really important to me. I really do recommend a good modular power supply. ...makes doing a good-looking tight cabling job a lot easier.

 

[yeason]

You didn't sound that arrogant about it to me, you have valid points, I was just offering another point of view. I would have to agree that it would have been better if it had been all alminum. 2-3 pepsi cans or a used geo sounds about right! :lol: I would like to say I have had one complaint about it aside from the plastic front case and that is the whole thing at times seems flimsy. Part of that is the flexibility of the aluminum but they could have easily fixed that. Overall the Lanboy is a decent case that could have been amazing.

Sadly in this case we're victims of our own capitalistic economy, or those of us in the US at least. Companies try to make money so they cut corners or do things as cheaply as possible. Being an engineering student I've learned a little about manufacturing processes and to mold plastic is going to be cheaper than bending or casting aluminum.

 

[pengwin]

if antec added a side panel 120mm fan to the lanboy it would be a grea tproduct.

 

[yeason]

Got a Dremel...? :lol:

What I personally would like more than a side fan would be a "blowhole" fan. If I put my PSU in with the fan side down it blows hot air across my cpu, if I flip it over it get's poor ventilation. If there was at least an opening, fan or no fan, it would be awesome. If I wasn't worried about damaging the case I'd just make one myself...

 

[pengwin]

Got a Dremel...? :lol:

What I personally would like more than a side fan would be a "blowhole" fan. If I put my PSU in with the fan side down it blows hot air across my cpu, if I flip it over it get's poor ventilation. If there was at least an opening, fan or no fan, it would be awesome. If I wasn't worried about damaging the case I'd just make one myself...

No. All PSU's exaust.

 

[yeason]

I may be mistaken but I thought I'd checked it and found that it was pushing hot air into the computer. Either way it still runs hotter than I'd like it to.