Which PC case?

[Dick Fisher]

I'm stuck. I ordered a new computer and influenced by looks, ended up with a case that's about twice the size of the motherboard inside!

Not a problem at present as it sits under my desk - just. However, I'm organising a revamp of my office with a fitted furniture supplier, who have told me that the beast won't fit into a standard cupboard. So, what I'd like to do is simply swap the case for a size that's more suitable.

This is where you experts come in. The mother board is an ASUS P5QL and apart from a biggish graphics card, there's nothing outrageous about the other components. I need (I think) an ATX box to put the innards into, but which one?

Your suggestions would be most welcome - and also your advice on whether swapping everything across is a job I could manage myself. I have fitted sound & graphics cards in the past.

[Keef]

It depends! Just how big is this case? They do come in several sizes. A typical ATX tower case is around 19 inches deep by 17 inches high by 8 inches wide. You can get larger and smaller ones.

Twice the size of the motherboard - yes, that's not wrong. You need space for the CDROM and hard drives, floppy drive (if you still use one), power supply, etc. Those really shouldn't overlap the motherboard, or it makes it hard to get to stuff.

Removing the innards and fitting them into a new case isn't difficult, but it's more complicated than fitting a graphics card. There are lots of connectors that go to places all over the motherboard, and you have to get them to the right places (and in some cases the right way round, and onto the right pins where there are more than your plug has). The new case will have new leads, which may be in different colours.

They do normally have nice, easy labels on them - so if you note carefully what was on each label as you remove it, and which way round it was (flat/printed side, or not flat/not printed) you should be able to have fun.

Don't forget to remove the power lead, and to use an earthing strap from your to the case before you start. Static built up from a carpet will soon destroy the chips in a PC.

[Saab Dastard]

What make is the computer?

There are several manfrs - e.g. Compaq / HP, Dell and possibly others - that use proprietary components (e.g. power supplies) that are effectively "unique fit".

If that's the case, you could be stuck - you couldn't simply swap them into a new case.

Also, stating the obvious, ensure that any replacement case has capacity for the number of HDDs, optical drives, etc. that you need to accommodate!

SD

[Sprogget]

I have your mobo inside one of these. I also have a full height gpu, three other expansion cards, two hdd's & a blu ray drive. It has two 6" fans that spin at somehting like 200rpm, so it's whisper quiet & the case is divided into chambers so the heat dissipation is very good. It's a media case for sure, but very well thought out.

http://i49.tinypic.com/24glziu.jpg

[sea oxen]

All my friends think I'm l337 (I am not), but I am using a case bought in 2000 with similar dimensions to Keef's. It has been customised a bit to accommodate seven hard drives, a couple of optical drives and what have you. All this from a box which came originally with a CD-ROM and 30GB!

Sprogget's little baby looks lovely - I wonder what the model is. If this would suit your needs, I'd get it purely for the aesthetics.

SO

[Keef]

That is a VERY pretty case, Sprogget - what's it called/how do I get one?

(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's ATX case...)

[Sprogget]

It's an Antec Fusion, roughly £150-£180.

Edit to say just googled it & it'a around for £100 now. You get a 450 watt antec psu included.

[al446]

Where from Sprogget?

[mad_jock]

Saab surley you have to moderate that picture?

Thats the most blazen posting of IT porn I have seen on the web.

[Keef]

I could put that in the HiFi stack and have a PC in the lounge. This bears further investigation.

Sprogget, I think you've done it now!

[mad_jock]

A wireless keyboard and mouse keef and a feed into a HDMI telly

A fibre optic into the back of your HIFI.

Wow!!!!!

[Sprogget]

Exactly Mad Jock! Keef, I used this case to do away with the hi fi stack! I use it with media centre on Windows 7. It's connected to a Virgin box & has a freeview tuner added, so it gets however many channels of rubbish to watch, I've got soemthing like 1000 albums on the hard drive, god knows how many pictures & videos.

My IT pal opened my eyes to the power of media centre & quite honestly, five years on, I couldn't imagine any other set up. I chuckle at the ads for sky+ Rewind and pause live tv? Been doing that for five years.

I'm trying (badly) not to boast, but, set up well, media centre is really a very powerful part of windows.

My own case came from Kustom pc's - just google it, but I think you can pick them up in the usual places, e-buyer, overclockers etc.


Edit to say Mr. Fisher, that assembling a pc is pretty easy I think, provided you follow a few ground rules:

Never force anything, take your time & for god's sake be sure to have the mobo manual to hand, and that you understand the instructions, lest you plug something in where you oughtn't and end up with a bang and a puff of smoke.

In my experience, the toughest job of all is fitting all the little activity light & sensor wires into the right place, but if you make sure you follow the diagrams that are always in motherboard manuals, you'll be fine.

Although I still stand well back the first time I switch on a new build...

[Loose rivets]

It's an Antec Fusion

Oooo...nookie? - build one of those? Nookie? build one of those? ................... Build one of those.:p

apologies to Mel Brooks.

Really nice. Found a use for the home-build with a cr@ppy case that supposed to be coming my way.

PSU fitting scam! I didn't know that. Shades of the old days when a few self-important manufactures put a mini board under their 386 co-processors, simply to change the pin-outs. Then they charged hundreds for the chip.

Mind you, IBM full price on that was 1,760 quid. Made it easy to charge 365.

Back to cases. I always used to use Pro-Case. For years they were my standard issue, and were very accurate. Brought 100s of them. Are they still around?

Motherboard installation. One of the things that made my kit reliable was added stanchions. Blind pillars can be added where there are no holes in the mb. but they must not touch fine print lines even if they're plastic. They can wear into them.

Every single screw must be accounted for. Build with the screw supply well away from the kit. Heads of some screws used to be too big, and reach over to some print. Fibre washer could resolve that problem, though some fixing points are required to be tight on the m-board for grounding it - specifially at that point. These are obvious, with a circle of copper around the hole.

Sometimes, I'd find the back-plate of cards would be badly engineered, so doing them up would cause the card to bear down on the m-board via the slot. Mostly commonsense things, but traps for folk that trust manufacturers to be accurate.

Good luck.



Antec Fusion seem to be about the same price here. $159.