I had one of these for one beautiful year until fucking UPS kicked a gigantic goddamn dent into the chassis and knocked a hard drive bay clean off in the process. Bastards wouldn’t even pay out my insurance.
Bastards!
Ah the memories! You used to have to pry out the metal face plates with needle nose pliers before you mounted your floppy and cd drives, and I always drew blood on the sharp edges. Every single time. It became a sort of rite of passage when building a gaming PC in the 90’s.
Gracing my computer screen (and NEVER my household) is one of the more unique case models I’ve stumbled across;
I-Win Z-Tower
It has the look of a cross between modern art and funky architecture.
I’d post a link to where you could buy it, but it was a limited release in 2018 and ONLY cost a relatively modest … $6000. Only two drive bays, but supposedly quite good cooling (open air case, after all). Really love the look to it, but for that cost I could probably commission an engineer and an artist locally to make something a little more functional.
Should you wish to learn more, here’s the link to the official website for this ridiculous project:
https://www.in-win.com/en/gaming-chassis/z-tower/
LTT used this InWin tòu 2.0 case as part of their $32,000 PC Mac Pro killer build. Only 300 units made, price tag an even $2,000.
I’m building a workstation system soon (main goal is capacity to have as much as 128GB of memory, though I will start with 64) so all my research is into boring cases that just work really well. Which as far as I can tell is high airflow mesh cases. Especially giant cases - I am done with ever having to do Douglas Adams couch-on-a-staircase math trying to find just the right angle to get a giant GPU into the case, and then cursing when I have to do it all over again later to add a PCI card. I’m also planning on using that giant Noctua air cooler, which requires a an amount of height above the motherboard that not every case case.
My 3 choices are:
Phanteks P500A
Cooler Master MasterBox TD500
Fractal Meshify S2
Of these I prefer the look of the Fractal, but the current plan on going with the P500A because it seems to be both better and cheaper. The Fractal Meshify C seems like a great deal but it’s just a bit on the small side.
Those are nice. I was also looking at the:
Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL
It has a WONDERFUL feature of four hot-swappable* 3.5" drive bays and it gets good marks for airflow despite having the front sealed off (space for top, bottom and side radiators/fans).
Also has space for up to six 2.5" SSDs (three if you have both the side and bottom fan/radiator slots filled). Four 3.0 USB slots on the front panel (two high, two down low) and a USB-C to go along with the two audio sockets.
Only issues are the cost ($199), lack of included fans (+$), I’d like like a brace to prevent graphic card sag (a vertical riser is available, instead), and you have to check your spacing for the CPU cooler if using air cooling because there’s limited width from the dual-compartment design (which is otherwise great):
A Noctua D15, for instance, is 135mm tall which would only leave 37mm for the actual CPU mount and die before hitting the glass.
Anyway, it’s in contention for me:
* editor’s note: your motherboard and drivers must support hot-swapping of drives to allow it. However, the easy access is still wonderful.
I have the non-xl version (see post #8) of the Lian Li. They are well built and I have zero issues with heat. I would definitely buy the Liam Li again but would probably go for the XL version for a little more room.
Good to hear! Oh, and asking as a water-cooling noob, are AIO setups advisable?
I’m using a 3 fan Cooler Master AIO and its been problem free but I have had it less than a year.
Peril of the Antec 280: Power button on top can be pressed by cat paw. I have to leave something sitting on top of the PC to avoid that. (I’ve been using that for my productivity rig for the past 9 years.)
I have this Corsair Carbide Air 540 cube monstrosity ($150) for my gaming PC:
Blingy just for the fun of it, and tons of room for drives. I have two m.2 drives, 2 old 3.5" HDs, and a pair of SSDs in it. Still room for 4 more 2.5" drives.
On water cooling, I replaced my Corsair AIO water cooler on the productivity PC with a Noctua NH-U12A, a big conventional cooler with a pair of 120mm fans, and it’s just as good at cooling and equally quiet. (Was troubleshooting an issue that I thought was a failed cooler but instead turned out to be a Windows-reinstall-needed problem.)
I’m using an InWin 901 that I picked up six years ago. Pretty, small and functional. It’s discontinued, although InWin still makes its larger siblings.
What does “certificated” mean?
I would place precisely as much meaning in it as something that’s ROG certified, which is … not much, lol. Although perhaps they mean Lian Li actually got a certificate instead of certification. I mean, that’s different … right?
My prefurred solution to this is to disable the lid power button in Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\System Settings. Though holding it down for 5+ seconds will instant-off your PC as it’s usually baked in to the BIOS behaviour. Thankfully my cat isn’t that dedicated to such ruinous behaviour.
Or drill the switch out with a dremel and put in a car starter lock. Use a key to start your PC, way cool!
That’s awesome.
LMFAO - I like the cut of your jib.
Guys, you should never use a drill on a computer, they should only be used on monitors.