what are your thoughts on the "Aerocool Dead Silence Cube"?

[leeb2013]

hi all,

when I built my PC a year ago, I didn't give much thought to the case, other than being reasonably cheap and everything fitting.

But now I'm considering something better and I like the idea of the Aerocool Dead Silence Cube here;

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=25702&cPath=547

particularly the sleek looks and the mobo being mounted the correct way.....ie. horizontally LOL!

I've always thought it strange that our expensive GPUs with their fancy shrouds face down, leaving only the rear of the PCB on show. Not only that, there's all that weight plus a heavy CPU cooler hanging off the mobo!

The cube is compact of course so I'll have to be frugal with what goes inside from my current PC, but I don't thing there will be any problem with the parts I currently have, including a 3TB HDD and 2 SSD's. The "floppy" tray may need to come out for the long tri-x GPU. The Xeon produces very little heat, so it will compensate for the R9-290 somewhat.

The only real down side is it being m-ATX. I still have my Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 mATX mobo, which I bought at first and then thought I'd made a mistake when I went crossfire 7950 as there was no gap between the GPUs, hence then buying the ATX version. Since then I've now moved to a single R9-290, but still thinking about crossfire again. However even with 3 monitors, the R9-290 doesn't really seem to struggle with any game, apart from the crappy Watchdogs. So I may well stick with a single GPU for the foreseeable future (until GTX980 ;-) !!)

So besides being mATX, is there any real issue with this case? Any other horizontal mobo alternatives?

btw, I'm thinking of orange because my tri-x and gskill memory are orange.

I guess if I did go dual GPU, I could consider the reference GTX970's (with axial fan). As well as being low power, the axial fans could allow them to sit closely together without getting too hot.

cheers.

 

[Rammy]

It's a pretty well reviewed case. Not the best in terms of airflow, but much better than the Prodigy M (which I guess is the direct competition). Solid sides/front are always going to screw up good ventilation.

Unlike some mATX cases which have 5 expansion slots, this one has 4 which does mean you need to stack cards against each other if you want to Xfire/SLI.
Generally speaking, this is where axial fan coolers score poorly, the opposite to what you are suggesting. It's possible you are confusing fan types. Potentially the new 900s could use a lot less power though, and this will have a significant effect on heat dissipation.

There's not a huge selection of horizontal motherboard cases. There's the Coolermaster HAF XB, Corsair Air 540 and Air 240, and a decent amount of HTPC style cases which might be suitable.

I can't see any obvious reason why what you are suggesting won't work in a DS. Ideally you'd probably want something with better graphics card cooling/ventilation (ie. any) and reference style (centrifugal) coolers, but it should work.

 

[leeb2013]

thanks for your reply, sorry yes I meant the centrifugal fans doh!

It looks like a really nice case and something a bit different. I was even considering the R9-295X2 as an ideal dual GPU card for that case, venting most of the heat outside, but can't really justify even the "lower" $1000 asking price as the moment (and Amazon ship it to Oz for $1200AUD, whilst it's still $1700 here!), particularly with potentially very efficient GTX970, 980 less than 2 weeks away.

Coolermaster HAF XB - that is interesting, if a little bland (ie black) and no side window to see the GPU. I hadn't spotted it before and it supports ATX mobo too and has exceptional flexibility. Toms did a review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooler-master-haf-xb-review,3559-5.html

Corsair Air 540 - I saw this one, but unfortunately it's vertical mobo

 

[Rammy]

Actually the Air240/540 are both. They can sit on the side so the motherboard can be horizontal or vertical.