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clintfan · Location: USA Posts: 455

I'm planning my new PC, and have finally selected just about everything I want, except a case to put it all in, and the cooling.

Just how does one choose a case? I know I need an ATX mid-tower or tower to fit the drives, and it won't be inside a studio, but beyond that how do you choose from amongst the hundreds of cases that are probably available? Seems such a daunting task, I haven't figured out how to start (but I also tend to overanalyze). Who's got a good website, maybe with detailed photos of the insides?

And what's the deal with water cooling for a CPU? Naturally a forum search turned up last December's joke thread --water, methanol, gas, etc.-- ROFL but no real help. Is it all about fan noise? Because if so, don't you still have (1)one or two fans in the power supply, (2)a fan on the chipset, (3)a fan on the water cooler radiator, and (4)potentially aother fan for the hard disks or etc.?

Tonight I spent hours dredging the web for CPU blowers to use instead of fans, expecting that blowers would be quieter. But with only a couple non-1U exceptions, there don't seem to be many blowers out there designed to cool the latest P4 processors. I'll be cooking a 2.8GHz P4 in there, so I do need serious cooling.

So to sum it up, I recognize that unless I cool the CPU right, I'll fry it right off the bat. Constant fan sounds annoy me, quiet would be nicer. Blowers don't seem to be very available. Yet I have trouble justifying water plumbing vs. a CPU fan: when there would already be so many other fans in there, what's one more?

Comments welcome, Cool

thanks--

-clintfan

ozpeter · Location: Australia Posts: 3200

Do you have any easy way of having the PC on the other side of the wall of your studio, so that it can be kept noisily cool there but insulated from your room?

- Ozpeter

zemlin · Location: USA Posts: 1156

I have a new Antec Sonata case sitting in my studio. I'll be moving my DAW into it this weekend.

It includes a quiet 380 watt power supply, rubber-mounted 120mm fan (with low-speed power from the PS), I have a Zalman heat sink on the MBD, and another slow 120mm smart fan for the hard disks. The 4 HD bays are all grommetted and slide out for easy access.

It looks like a great case and gets GREAT reviews for noise levels. I'll let you know how it works out.

http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=15138
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/reviews/other/sonata_1.html?

Havoc · Posts: 735

Just some personal observations:
- use a case as large as possible. You always put more in than intended. Also a large case makes it easier to get the cables away.
- blowers are noisier. They are typicaly used in the 1hu cases, where not noise, but space is the issue.
- water cooling may be niece, but as you already tought of, the cpu fan is only one of the many.
- those zalmans are very high spoken of. If I had the space to put them I would use them.

clintfan · Location: USA Posts: 455

zemlin, that's a nice case. I really like the side-insertion of the hard drives. Based on that case I decided I need something a bit larger, and with less front trim. It got me started hunting, though. Thanks.

Havoc, I wonder how one can tell if a Zalman will fit or not. Looking at most recent MOBOs, it looks like it would hit the DIMMs. And there are so many Zalman modles to choose from, I wonder which is best.

-clintfan

jester700 · Posts: 546

Some good advice already.

I use a cheap case from newegg.com that comes with no power supply. For $25 or so, it is a fine case, equal to any <$100 case I've seen. I load it with an Antec TruePower power supply - I REALLY like those for a <$100 non redundant supply.

Water cooling is about cooling better than just a heatsink & fan can, but if you're not overclocking, don't go there - you still need to sink & fan the waterblock.

post78 · Location: USA Posts: 2887

I got myself the Antec VARII SX1000II and packed it with an Enermax EG465P-VE(FMA) and a Zalman CNPS6000-CU (which is made for Athlon procs). Both the PSU and the CPU fans can be manually controlled while monitored to control the heat/noise ratio. I also took out the original case fans (blowing out of the case) and replaced them with a pair of Papst 8412NGL fans, which are completely inaudible. I'm also running two drives with liquid bearings, that (along with the PSU) are separated from the metal case by some really cool foam stuff from E-A-R, which helps, although only slightly, reduce structure noise (after all, it's a metal case!). This computer fluctuates between about 40� and 43� C, which is well within acceptable limits.

As a test, I recorded a couple of acoustic guitar tracks sitting (literally) only about 3 feet from the computer and at about 90� off-axis from it. I was quite pleased with how silent the results were. I'd be more than happy to upload this file for you to hear, if interested.

Havoc · Posts: 735

Just take care than when putting foam between parts, that you still have enough electrical ground contact between various parts of your pc. Otherwise it may be acousticaly quiet, but electrical noisy.

post78 · Location: USA Posts: 2887

It's no problem. Cool

clintfan · Location: USA Posts: 455

I looked at hundreds of cases on the web. That Newegg site was really helpful, and other sites. I also looked at a few in real stores, a disappointing selection.

In the end I liked the well-positioned vertical hard drive mounting in the Lian-Li cases, I felt it made a lot of sense. My impression is that these cases are sort of the cadillacs of the case world, though that's not why I would choose one. Anyway I went through all their models and made a little spreadsheet of the major features (you'd think the Lian-Li site would have a chart, but no!... told you I overanlyzed things!) and narrowed my choices down to 10 models with similar size, features and ventilation. For now I've picked the PC-61, a simple black case.

Besides fanning the drives, I know I need to pay special attention to cooling the CPU. For this, Zalman devices seem recognized as very effective. I still need to figure out how big they are and, as noted, whether one will fit my particular MOBO-case combination. And I might try to find a quiet power supply. These are next.

Thanks everyone for all your feedback. Although I still have a couple decisions to make, I'm graduating to the next typical "here's my new PC" post, 'Your opinion on new audio PC' Thanks again.

-clintfan