petercintn
10-13-2008, 06:04 PM
As I live in the dusty capitial of the US, I went with this case instead of the CM 932 HAF, which I liked as well. I ran out of room with the old Aerocool case. There are no pics of the box or case just sitting there, you can see those pics anywhere...
Please excuse the fuzziness of the photos, the camera is five years old and does not take closeups well. It should be put out to pasture.
Be sure that you check the package out before you sign, the UPS guy set the case to the side of the door where I couldn't see and stuck the sign thingy in my face so I signed and then looked. The case was open, the little window that holds the fan was off and rattling inside. Brings me to my first gripe, the cheap way the windows are put on this case.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/2294/009vy0.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=009vy0.jpg)
So I put some weatherstripping and new hardware as the plastic hardware sucked and I think would allow the windows to rattle.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/5313/008zz2.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=008zz2.jpg)
And as you can see, I put the stripping on the wrong side of the big window, think first and then you won't have to scrape off super glued stuff and redo all your work.:shakes:
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/1616/010ot5.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=010ot5.jpg)
I then proceeded and thighten the wing nuts to tight and had to back them out to keep the stress fractures from getting worse. But the windows don't make a sound. Be prepared to work on the windows on this case.
OK, off the windows and on to the hard drive caddies. One thing I did like about this case is the tool use. I'd rather screw in a hard drive or a video card than use the tool less crap. And these hard drive caddies make for a good home for your hard drives.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/4750/012hi3.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=012hi3.jpg)
You can see the space between the drives.:)
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/9503/014ms7.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=014ms7.jpg)
Here's what the caddie looks like in place.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/7283/020xv7.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=020xv7.jpg)
Here's a pic of the fan holder to put on the back of one of the caddies. If you use this fan, you lose the ability to put hard drives in that caddie.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/833/016tg9.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=016tg9.jpg)
Here's the space between the caddie with a fan on the back and the power supply.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/1394/017od4.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=017od4.jpg)
The bottom of the case. My power supply is upside down and needs a paint job.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/945/023qx9.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=023qx9.jpg)
Here's a pic of the drives in place.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/3207/019nj9.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=019nj9.jpg)
The top back of the case. I pulled one of the switches out while running the wires. It just snaps in place.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1462/025mx6.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=025mx6.jpg)
After over a year with this EK block and I still think she's as beautiful as the day I married... I mean bought her.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6462/028gf7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=028gf7.jpg)
Here's a DFI LT P35 T2R. It's almost as good as the Ultra-D I gave away, but not all the dividers work.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1139/029gc0.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=029gc0.jpg)
Another pic.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1378/031hz5.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=031hz5.jpg)
Snake pit of wires.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4070/032pn4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=032pn4.jpg)
Snake pit put to rights. There's plenty of room back here to place your wires and stamped out loops to secure your wires with tie wraps. There was no hinderence to putting the door on. This is so nice after tring to tie up wires wherever I could in the last few years of those little cases. Why did the mid and mini towers even come out? I guess someone uses them, my ex has a Dell that is tiny, even the DVD drive is in sideways as it won't fit right side up and pretty much will only do Office and surf. Oh... so they were made for ex wives. (Notice the plural.):D
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4684/038so8.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=038so8.jpg)
OK, some nitpicks. My 8 pin connector was not long enough to be tucked behind the motherboard. I had to snake it up the MB. The 24 pin power connector also had to be run on the front side of the case, but there is the same stamped out loops so you tie wrap the big bundle in the corner out of the air flow and make it look neat. All in all, this is the best case I've had for controlling the wiring. Back in the old days of big cases there wasn't much need.
Here's some pics of the wire job.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/3971/033bj7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=033bj7.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5792/034oo3.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=034oo3.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/8325/042xe4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=042xe4.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5026/046mf4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=046mf4.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/3016/047gb8.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=047gb8.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1395/048ni0.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=048ni0.jpg)
I don't put my water cooling stuff in the case, I have a cheap TV stand that serves just fine to hold that stuff. It may be time to get some new rads. These have been repainted and siliconed where I punched holes in the fins. But they still work.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1710/056nf4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=056nf4.jpg)
The fan controller I took from the Aerocool case.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/8186/058ey5.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=058ey5.jpg)
Why not a separate power supply so when the rig goes to sleep there's some white noise to keep me asleep. (I need fans running to sleep after the days of the 80mm screamers.)
And as an aside to the fan noise, I find this case quiet, I could use it with all the fans turned up high, but I can put them on low and turn down the rad fans, and this noise is quiet to me.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7657/059oe6.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=059oe6.jpg)
The only new thing in my loop, my pond pump quit so I picked up a real PC watercooling pump and put the 5 gallon aquarium on the back porch for now.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4057/057jv7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=057jv7.jpg)
A couple of pics with the water bleeding.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/793/060kz8.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=060kz8.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1876/062xu7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=062xu7.jpg)
Here's some pics of the lights. I do not find the LEDs to bright, but I can sleep with the sun blaring in my face, an old army trick.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4809/065sb7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=065sb7.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/545/078yf2.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=078yf2.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7851/082vo4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=082vo4.jpg)
Here's a Razer ad!
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1053/080ml1.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=080ml1.jpg)
The desk and rig. Prutty! I think I only clean up after builds. Na... I try to be neat.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5016/084aq0.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=084aq0.jpg)
Time to get back to monkeying around.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7516/090ny6.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=090ny6.jpg)
I could not get the top of the case off. I wanted to put some panty hose on the fan cage to keep dust from falling in through the top when the rig was sleeping. I pulled all the screws out and it looks as if the top sides back, but I didn't want to break the case as a lot of force seemed to be needed.
If anyone knows the secret to this, let me know.
The fan controller knobs on the hard drive caddies are hit and miss. One seems to have tiny little cliks and feels tight, but the other two seem flimsy. The back fan controllers are hard to switch, without fingernails it may be very hard indeed, need some little tool or something. The top tray is big enough to hold my headphones so thats good.
There is maybe a little more than an inch between the 8800GTX and the hard drives. 90 degree Sata cables is what you need here. The case could have been another couple of inches wide and maybe another inch deep, but this works.
There is no power on light, but the LEDs lit you know if the unit's on.
There is plenty of air flow, I have a stop watch and a thumb drive hanging on the wall behind the rig and both of them move to beat of the exhust flow. On high they start bang on the wall (Small, little bitty bangs.)
Anyone has any questions about the case, I'll try to tell you what I know. Might not help much, though.
Hope you enjoyed the bad pics and worse commentary.
Peace out, as my daughter would say, who was a big help in this work log, she had the make sure the couch didn't get in the way.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/5929/007hy9.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=007hy9.jpg)
Please excuse the fuzziness of the photos, the camera is five years old and does not take closeups well. It should be put out to pasture.
Be sure that you check the package out before you sign, the UPS guy set the case to the side of the door where I couldn't see and stuck the sign thingy in my face so I signed and then looked. The case was open, the little window that holds the fan was off and rattling inside. Brings me to my first gripe, the cheap way the windows are put on this case.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/2294/009vy0.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=009vy0.jpg)
So I put some weatherstripping and new hardware as the plastic hardware sucked and I think would allow the windows to rattle.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/5313/008zz2.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=008zz2.jpg)
And as you can see, I put the stripping on the wrong side of the big window, think first and then you won't have to scrape off super glued stuff and redo all your work.:shakes:
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/1616/010ot5.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=010ot5.jpg)
I then proceeded and thighten the wing nuts to tight and had to back them out to keep the stress fractures from getting worse. But the windows don't make a sound. Be prepared to work on the windows on this case.
OK, off the windows and on to the hard drive caddies. One thing I did like about this case is the tool use. I'd rather screw in a hard drive or a video card than use the tool less crap. And these hard drive caddies make for a good home for your hard drives.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/4750/012hi3.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=012hi3.jpg)
You can see the space between the drives.:)
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/9503/014ms7.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=014ms7.jpg)
Here's what the caddie looks like in place.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/7283/020xv7.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=020xv7.jpg)
Here's a pic of the fan holder to put on the back of one of the caddies. If you use this fan, you lose the ability to put hard drives in that caddie.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/833/016tg9.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=016tg9.jpg)
Here's the space between the caddie with a fan on the back and the power supply.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/1394/017od4.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=017od4.jpg)
The bottom of the case. My power supply is upside down and needs a paint job.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/945/023qx9.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=023qx9.jpg)
Here's a pic of the drives in place.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/3207/019nj9.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=019nj9.jpg)
The top back of the case. I pulled one of the switches out while running the wires. It just snaps in place.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1462/025mx6.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=025mx6.jpg)
After over a year with this EK block and I still think she's as beautiful as the day I married... I mean bought her.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6462/028gf7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=028gf7.jpg)
Here's a DFI LT P35 T2R. It's almost as good as the Ultra-D I gave away, but not all the dividers work.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1139/029gc0.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=029gc0.jpg)
Another pic.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1378/031hz5.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=031hz5.jpg)
Snake pit of wires.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4070/032pn4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=032pn4.jpg)
Snake pit put to rights. There's plenty of room back here to place your wires and stamped out loops to secure your wires with tie wraps. There was no hinderence to putting the door on. This is so nice after tring to tie up wires wherever I could in the last few years of those little cases. Why did the mid and mini towers even come out? I guess someone uses them, my ex has a Dell that is tiny, even the DVD drive is in sideways as it won't fit right side up and pretty much will only do Office and surf. Oh... so they were made for ex wives. (Notice the plural.):D
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4684/038so8.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=038so8.jpg)
OK, some nitpicks. My 8 pin connector was not long enough to be tucked behind the motherboard. I had to snake it up the MB. The 24 pin power connector also had to be run on the front side of the case, but there is the same stamped out loops so you tie wrap the big bundle in the corner out of the air flow and make it look neat. All in all, this is the best case I've had for controlling the wiring. Back in the old days of big cases there wasn't much need.
Here's some pics of the wire job.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/3971/033bj7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=033bj7.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5792/034oo3.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=034oo3.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/8325/042xe4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=042xe4.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5026/046mf4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=046mf4.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/3016/047gb8.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=047gb8.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1395/048ni0.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=048ni0.jpg)
I don't put my water cooling stuff in the case, I have a cheap TV stand that serves just fine to hold that stuff. It may be time to get some new rads. These have been repainted and siliconed where I punched holes in the fins. But they still work.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1710/056nf4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=056nf4.jpg)
The fan controller I took from the Aerocool case.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/8186/058ey5.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=058ey5.jpg)
Why not a separate power supply so when the rig goes to sleep there's some white noise to keep me asleep. (I need fans running to sleep after the days of the 80mm screamers.)
And as an aside to the fan noise, I find this case quiet, I could use it with all the fans turned up high, but I can put them on low and turn down the rad fans, and this noise is quiet to me.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7657/059oe6.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=059oe6.jpg)
The only new thing in my loop, my pond pump quit so I picked up a real PC watercooling pump and put the 5 gallon aquarium on the back porch for now.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4057/057jv7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=057jv7.jpg)
A couple of pics with the water bleeding.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/793/060kz8.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=060kz8.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1876/062xu7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=062xu7.jpg)
Here's some pics of the lights. I do not find the LEDs to bright, but I can sleep with the sun blaring in my face, an old army trick.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4809/065sb7.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=065sb7.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/545/078yf2.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=078yf2.jpg)
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7851/082vo4.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=082vo4.jpg)
Here's a Razer ad!
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1053/080ml1.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=080ml1.jpg)
The desk and rig. Prutty! I think I only clean up after builds. Na... I try to be neat.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5016/084aq0.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=084aq0.jpg)
Time to get back to monkeying around.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7516/090ny6.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=090ny6.jpg)
I could not get the top of the case off. I wanted to put some panty hose on the fan cage to keep dust from falling in through the top when the rig was sleeping. I pulled all the screws out and it looks as if the top sides back, but I didn't want to break the case as a lot of force seemed to be needed.
If anyone knows the secret to this, let me know.
The fan controller knobs on the hard drive caddies are hit and miss. One seems to have tiny little cliks and feels tight, but the other two seem flimsy. The back fan controllers are hard to switch, without fingernails it may be very hard indeed, need some little tool or something. The top tray is big enough to hold my headphones so thats good.
There is maybe a little more than an inch between the 8800GTX and the hard drives. 90 degree Sata cables is what you need here. The case could have been another couple of inches wide and maybe another inch deep, but this works.
There is no power on light, but the LEDs lit you know if the unit's on.
There is plenty of air flow, I have a stop watch and a thumb drive hanging on the wall behind the rig and both of them move to beat of the exhust flow. On high they start bang on the wall (Small, little bitty bangs.)
Anyone has any questions about the case, I'll try to tell you what I know. Might not help much, though.
Hope you enjoyed the bad pics and worse commentary.
Peace out, as my daughter would say, who was a big help in this work log, she had the make sure the couch didn't get in the way.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/5929/007hy9.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=007hy9.jpg)