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Case Move: Selecting the Right Enclosure for Your Rig

     - Wednesday, October 18, 2006

This is the first part in a series of articles I'll be writing on the topic of moving your computer into a new case. For this installment, I thought it best if I begin by setting up my goals for a new case.

Start by thinking about what the purpose of the machine will be, and where it will live. In my case, my computer lives in the living room (hidden behind a couch). This is my general purpose machine that I use to surf and check email, mainly. But I do bang on it pretty hard. The machine itself is now 5 years old, but still runs great, and I don't plan to ever again buy a built system. Over time, I'm planning to simply update parts of this machine.

So my goals were to find a quiet case with medium performance characteristics that could grow with me over time. I'm planning on having this case for a very long time -- I wouldn't be surprised if I still used it 10 years from now. Case prices can vary widely from $25 for a beige box to $300+ for all aluminum 4-fan 7-bay monster. I decided to spend about $125, and that had to include the power supply.

On the top of my requirements list was a case that required only a single 120mm fan. Larger fans rotate slower and move more air. Quieter and more effient? How can you go wrong! I also wanted an all aluminum case. I ended up letting go a little on this one, they're just too expensive. Rounded edges on the internal steel was also important. Didn't want to cut myself trying to replace a hard drive.

Initially I was looking at Antec's Performance One Series, and the P150 in particular. It's durable, quiet, and is certainly pretty, but expensive. In the end I decided on the Sonata II from Antec's Lifestyle Series. While nearly identical, there are some slight differences. The Sonata II's power supply is just slightly beefier. The PSU has two fans, one on the inside that runs continuously, and a second on the exterior that only runs when the system gets hot. The hard drive bays are also turned perpendicular so they're easier to insert the drives since they're facing you.

The case also comes with a "washable air filter" in the front air intake grill, which honestly makes no sense to me. If the case was truely buttoned up, and all the intake air came through this filter it would be great, but this case has a huge air intake grill in the back that has no filter at all. So I just can't see how the filter is filtering anything!

That grill on the back is connected to what Antec has named the "Advanced Chassis Air Guide" or ACAG. This is essentially a tube that runs from the back of the case directly to the CPU. Think of it as a grill hood, but here the air is drawn into the machine and directed right to the CPU. I honestly have no idea if it's doing a damn thing, but sure do like the idea. It has room for up to 2 additional fans within the air guide itself, one for the CPU, and a second over the graphics card. Right now, I have an 80mm fan attached to the top of the heatsink, and I've gotta believe all that vibration can't be good for the CPU. It's also noisy as hell, so very soon I'll probably replace it with a 92mm fan that will be mounted inside the ACAG. While we're on the topic, I'll mention that the large case exhust fan on the back has a 3-speed switch, so you can decide how fast you want it to go. I'm probably going to put it on a motherboard controlled fan speed regulator soon though.

In the next article, I'll write about how I prepared for the move to the new case. Or rather how I didn't, but should have.

posted by Kevin Watts |  Permalink |