New case problem...

[trkevig]

ok, i currently have an Antec P180 case which is a bit on the tight side of things for my GTX280 card i have in it. Also the cabling is a mess. I quite fancy a P182 as i love the internal design but im afraid to purchase incase its the same size inside. I like the P190 but dual psus? Nah... and as for the Ugly P183 P193s... no thanks. So i looked at a Silverstone TJ07B with watercooling in mind but then it doesnt have a 3.5" bay for a floppy which i still use for raid instalations. ive looked at the Antec 300, 900, and 1200 but dont like the look of them so im really stuck to which case i want to get... its got to look sexy, have loads of room inside it for expansion, development and basically fannying around with. My Lian-Li PC60(?) full tower was perfect for size but i eventually fancied a change. The other thing about the P180 i currently have is its made of steel and weighs a ton!!! Is the P182 the same construction???

So, Basically... someone please help me with a case.... also, is there any photos of you guys cases at the lans? they always give me great inspiration when building a piece of art.....

cheers

 

[ZeroG]

I have the P182 and with everything in it yes it is heavy. My previous graphics card was an 8800GTX and it practically reaches the front drive bay chassis so I had to move my hard drives down to the bottom to have enough room.

As you probably know the case is a bottom mounted psu design with it's own compartment which is supposed to keep the heat from the psu separate but in practice I'm not sure how much it actually helps. Another thing is that if your mobo has a square 4-pin power connector that needs to be attached it could be a little problematic if the cable isn't long. I had to thread mine through the section division, under the graphics card and tight against the HS+fan and it just plugs in and no more, not even mm to spare.

The fan grills at the front are great as they have filters in them and is good at stopping a lot of dust getting in. The case locks but tbh the lock isn't that great and you can easily open it without the keys. There's a good amount of fans that come with the case.

Overall it's a decent case but I would probably decide against it if I had to choose again mainly due to the weight/internal design.

 

[trkevig]

thanks ZeroG, i have the P180 as mentioned so that means after your comment its not enough to stay with the P1 range. I had an 8800gtx too, and the gtx280 is longer, ive had to take out the top hard drive caddy just to get the bloody card in. Again, i do love the design but yes i have just mms to spare with the 4-pin power adapter - my board is an abit ip35 pro.

 

[Deep Blue]

Buy a USB floppy drive or check out nlite, it'll let you stick your raid drivers onto your windows installation media (XP, no vista support, yet) Just a suggestion

 

[trkevig]

cheers, its vista ult 64bit i use