Please help me pick the right case!

[tshayter]

Hey guys, I'm not sure if this is the right section for this thread but I didn't see anything that sounded more like home for my query.

Basically I'm finally updating the ol' computer after 6 years and I need help making sure I get the right case so I wont have any heating problems. The issue is that I'm not quite sure which case will be the best for what I'm wanting to build so I'm hoping there might be some more tech savvy people here who can point me in the right direction! The purpose of this computer is for pretty extreme gaming and the specs I've selected right now include:

Processor: Intel Core i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache

Motherboard: Asus Maximus VII Gene: RoG, PCI-e 3.0 SATA 3.0, USB3.0

Memory: 32GB Kingston Hyper-X Beast Dual-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P

GPU: x2 4GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 - 1DVI, 1 mHDMI 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready

Hard drives ~ blah blah not really important for this

PSU: Corsair 650w CS Series Modular 80 Plus Gold, Ultra Quiet

Cooling: Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

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Now originally I was looking at the NZXT Phantom 240 (because I thought it looked pretty coo and a window would be great for where my PC currently sits) but that was before I took the i7-4790k plus the 2nd GTX 970 and I'm not sure exactly how much that'll impact on cooling requirements.

Now the Corsair H80i radiator seemed fairly large and looking at the back pic of the Phantom 240 it didn't make it look like it would fit there (at least not without it being behind that fan mesh on the case which seemed odd to me). However the system summery gives it the all-clear (that it's compatible) but unless I'm wrong, wouldn't the radiator then have to sit behind the metal mesh instead of having a proper hole (as it doesn't look like it has a detachable pannel there) which wouldn't be ideal?

I did look at the NZXT Phantom 410 but I'm undecided (obviously lol) It doesn't look as nice as the 240 in my opinion and the window is a lot smaller. There was something else I think but looking at it now I can't remember.

The case that is default for the pc that I've been customising on this website was the Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 but that is simply too wide for my needs.

I did look at the Corsair Graphite Series 600T White Mid-Tower which does look ok and I've read a lot of comments on google from people saying that the Phantom (they annoyingly didn't specify which model) is best for fan cooling and the 600T is better for liquid cooling which should then be better for my setup using the H80i but ultimately I'm just trying to figure out what case will best work for the PC I'm looking to get as the last thing I want is to pick a super sexy case only to find out I have overheating issues with it. I live in Finland right now too so sending things back to make changes isn't really something I want to be doing with those postage costs.

Price isn't really too much of a concern as I am trying to future proof this pc so that It'll last me as long as my old one has (although I'm happy with everything else unless there is something glaringly wrong that I could improve it with) but I'm just not so sure about cases. It's also worth mentioning though that I also don't mean to pick between only the ones I've talked about in case there is another that is much better for my needs (as long as it's one of the ones I can order on this site as I'm not really looking for too much hassle with physically putting everything together!) the ones I've talked about are simply the ones I like the look of most.

I hope someone here can help me out as cases are not really my strong point hehe

Thanks for reading!

 

[keynes]

If it is just for gaming the ram is overkill and unnecessary even if you want to futureproof. A non-k i7-4790 + triple copper heatpipe will do the job and a gtx 980 will provide a noticeable difference for gaming compare to more ram or overclocking the cpu. If you wish to add a 2nd gpu you need to upgrade the psu. Regarding cases, any full tower case like the storm trooper will provide excellent cooling for a sli set up

 

[tshayter]

It seems I did post this in slightly the wrong place after all now that I've taken a second look at the forums. Whoops. Well maybe a mod can move the thread for me.

If it is just for gaming the ram is overkill and unnecessary even if you want to futureproof. A non-k i7-4790 + triple copper heatpipe will do the job and a gtx 980 will provide a noticeable difference for gaming compare to more ram or overclocking the cpu. If you wish to add a 2nd gpu you need to upgrade the psu. Regarding cases, any full tower case like the storm trooper will provide excellent cooling for a sli set up

Thanks for replying but I am still not any closer to knowing what to pick hehe.

The current specification check system doesn't throw up any errors when checking the specs that I've outlined in OP and increasing the power supply results in a message informing me that the higher PSU is not needed (We have calculated your specification to require around 618W of power including a 20% allowance).

I'm not an expert just yet but I also believe that the i7-4790k 4.0GHz CPU is better than a i7-4790 3.6GHz so I don't see any major reason for me to downgrade there?

The GTX 980 is better than the 970 no doubt however given the price of the 980 I think it's just as good to just get two 970s as the performance of the 970 is still rather close to the 980 on benchmarks that I've seen so having two of them should do the job.

The Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU cooler is 25 euro and I know I'm about to assume and type one of the worst things ever but the H80i (that was default for the system I was customising) is 88 euro so I would hope to think that for the price, the H80i is a better choice? Of course it probably depends on what case you have but I'm obviously talking in terms of my specific setup :turned: However you could just be meaning that for a non-K i7, a triple copper heatpipe is enough.

The only storm trooper case that seems to be listed during customisation is a Coolermaster CM Storm Trooper which does look fairly cool I suppose. My current case is all black with green LED's to light up the insides and I was rather liking some of those white cases but ultimately I'll settle on whatever works better rather than looks hehe.

And yeah the memory is rather overkill however I use/will use (for even more) my current pc for a fair amount of photoshopping and video editing along with my games and will also most likely end up being the one now hosting non-dedi servers for multiplayer games that me and my friends play which Is why I'm sorta going all out on it

 

[keynes]

The PSU comment was related to whether or not you are adding a 2nd gpu.
Regarding the i7-4790k vs i7-4790 (non-k) is not better for gaming, you won't notice the difference when gamkng. by downgrading the ram and the i7 to non-k and the cpu cooler to the triple copper you should be able to afford a gtx 980 which will give you a noticeable improvement. I would stick to one stronger GPU and leave room to add a 2nd one later on.

 

[tshayter]

Hello again

The 650w PSU passes the check with the two GPUs so unless the checker isn't very good I would think that the current 650w is enough? I can just up it to a 750w but I probably wont be changing much on the system after I get it (at least I don't plan on changing anything) so if the 650 is more than enough (which the website tells me it is) it should be fine. Again, unless of course the website isn't too hot on things like this? The price difference between a 650 and 750 isn't a huge amount so I can always just up it to make sure though.

The price of the system isn't super duper important as I have a decent budget to work with (so I don't need to worry too much about cutting things down in order to save a bit for other parts) and although the i7K might not be too noticeable of an improvement it should last me longer than the non-k i7 in terms of being able to play pretty much any game released on very high settings at a nice fps for a good long time? At least I would like to think it would hehe. When I bought the PC I'm currently using I was able to play all the games on max graphics with a really nice fps but as the years have passed I've noticed more and more that I'm not able to do that so that is partly (partly) the reason for getting this brand new pc

I did look at a single GTX 980 when I was originally going to have only a single 970 but the internet seems to really like the 970 (due to the price/performance ratio) and it's quite a common suggestion to run two 970s for the price of a 980. It's also unlikely that I will eventually add on another 980 if I were to go for just the one right now because they are rather costly and I wont be able to write off that much money for a PC part later on after I've splashed this much - This is sorta a girlfriend's permission to spend lots of money lol. If I were to get a second 980 later on, It would hopefully be quite a few years later in which case it might be a better idea to get another SLI setup of newer, stronger (and maybe cheaper) cards than the 980.

A lot of people seem to say that sli 970s have the usual sli problems such as micro stutter and games not supporting sli when they release however once they are patched up these problems seem to go away and sli 970s supposedly perform a fair amount better than a single 980. Even a single 970 should still perform pretty well (compared to my PoS GTX275) so I could easily disable sli until it's patched in if I get a game that doesn't support it on release.

Right now I play at 1080p so I do know that I will be overkilling it slightly but a monitor is something I may improve on later on if my current one decides to have some problems again. On this site (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2308460/dual-gtx-970-sli-single-gtx-980.html) you can see someone has answered with some benchmarks comparing a lot of GPU setups and you can see the fps difference between the 970, 980 and sli 970s. Without any plans of tampering with the system later on, at least for a loooooong time, it does appear that sli 970s are a better choice than a single 980.

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If everything I've said actually makes sense then I still need to work out what is the best case for it but I will look into the 'COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE' although It'll probably be a good month or so before I order anything so there is plenty of time to consider other options. The CM Storm Trooper does get better looking the more I look at it, shame it doesn't have a window though

 

[tshayter]

If anyone is out there I'm still interested in getting a second opinion on whether or not the things I said in my last post actually do make sense. I think they do but then It's not every day you dump that much money on a new computer so I suppose it can't hurt to see what other people think.

I'm also still not 100% sure on the case but do we think the CM Storm Trooper (http://gaming.coolermaster.com/en/products/cases/trooper/) is the best choice for my setup?

Thanks

 

[steaky360]

The storm trooper is a great case

To maybe address some of your earlier queries;

The PSU will be fine for the PC as it is (the configurator is pretty good at calculating power requirements) if it says you're good, then you're good. Keynes' point was simply if you wanted to extend the life of the desktop in the future the easiest way is typically to add a second GPU which might need a more powerful PSU - you can check in the configurator by adding a second graphics card to see if it tells you you need more power.

The 'k' processors basically just allow you to overclock, you won't get a noticible performance boost in gaming with a k processor so it will not make your pc last longer. The GPU is the most important gaming component imo.

As you say, SLi does still have its quirks but mostly in my experience this manifests itself as not increasing performance as much as it should. If you were to Sli now I wouldn't have said it was going to be a problem. The usual consensus is that getting the single most powerful card you can is best, but the price difference in the GTX970/TX980 vs the performance increase across the cards would lean me to perhaps suggesting that the 970sli is a better choice.

 

[tshayter]

The storm trooper is a great case

To maybe address some of your earlier queries;

The PSU will be fine for the PC as it is (the configurator is pretty good at calculating power requirements) if it says you're good, then you're good. Keynes' point was simply if you wanted to extend the life of the desktop in the future the easiest way is typically to add a second GPU which might need a more powerful PSU - you can check in the configurator by adding a second graphics card to see if it tells you you need more power.

The 'k' processors basically just allow you to overclock, you won't get a noticible performance boost in gaming with a k processor so it will not make your pc last longer. The GPU is the most important gaming component imo.

As you say, SLi does still have its quirks but mostly in my experience this manifests itself as not increasing performance as much as it should. If you were to Sli now I wouldn't have said it was going to be a problem. The usual consensus is that getting the single most powerful card you can is best, but the price difference in the GTX970/TX980 vs the performance increase across the cards would lean me to perhaps suggesting that the 970sli is a better choice.

That's great to hear thanks. Storm Trooper it probably will be then!

The non-k i7 is listed at a speed of 3.6GHz compared to the i7k's 4.00GHz, is the 4.00 stated as if it is overclocked? Otherwise I would surely think that a CPU with a baseline of 4.00GHz would last a longer time than a 3.6? I may be wrong but I just remember as a kid buying 2 games thinking they would work only to sadly find out that things like the processor speed written on the back of the game actually mattered. I understand that perhaps the 3.6 is more than enough for games these days but I just wonder for the future that If I have the chance to get a i7k, I might as well go for it (?).

My thinking is then that the 650w PSU is okay as it was told to be all fine in the system check? I just got a little confused when Keynes mentioned upgrading it if I wanted two GPU's when I already had two and they had passed the check so I wasn't 100% sure if he thought I had one but was thinking to add another. I can upgrade it to a 750 but if there's no point then I'll reduce how long I'll have bread 'n pull it for dinner by a couple weeks.

I was originally only going to get one GPU but then I thought to try and improve the PC's life and get a better one but as we've said, the price difference between the 970 and 980 is so high that if i'm going to get only one, I might as well get a 970... and then another 970 hehe and who doesn't like saying 'with two blah blah blah graphics card, lovely dovely!'. I do think a lot about having only one, stronger GPU but almost every website I've found have chosen 970 SLI over a single 980 so they must be onto something with these cards.

Thanks for your input anyway, it helps a lot!

 

[tshayter]

The new plan...

Heya. Looking for opinions again so after some revisions, the setup that I'm looking at is as follows:

Case
Coolermaster CM Storm Trooper

Processor
Intel Core i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790k (4.00GHz) 8mb Cache

Motherboard
ASUS Maximus VII GENE: RoG, PCI-e 3.0, SATA 3.0, USB3.0

Memory
32GB Kingston Hyper-X Beast Dual DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (4x8GM KIT)

Graphics card #1
4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 - 1 DVI, mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready

Graphics card #2
4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 - 1 DVI, mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready

1st Hard Disk
480GB Kingston HyperX 3k SSD, SATA 6 gb/s (upto 540MB/sR l 450MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
4TB WD Caviar Black WD4003FZEX, STATA 6 Gb/s, 65MB Cache (7200rpm)

3rd Hard Disk
4TB WD Caviar Black WD4003FZEX, STATA 6 Gb/s, 65MB Cache (7200rpm)

Disc Drive
16x Blu-Ray Writer Drive, 16x DVD +R/+RW

Power Supply
Corsair 850w RM Series Modular 80 Plus Gold, Ultra Quiet.

Cooling
Corsair H100i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit w/SP1

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Personal thoughts: The hard discs should be nice and fast for gaming and provide me with enough storage to last me a while. The PSU is apparently more than required however for the small amount of extra dosh going from a 750-850w it's something I can easily do (I've had to increase the PSU anyway from the old 650w due to the new hard disks).

The blu-ray player should be nice if I want to watch anything fancy (as I frequently watch shows on my pc anyway).

The memory is overkill I know but I will likely find uses for it so I'm not too worried (and who doesn't like to say '32 gig ram lol)

I think from what I've been able to research online that dual 970's will be better than a single 980. I may come across a few irritating things with SLI setups that I'll need to wait to be patched away but I should always be able to disable SLI and run a single 970 as lets be honest, even a single 970 will still blow my current GTX 275 out the water.

I decided to upgrade the cooling system from a H80i to H100i pretty much for why nots really as cooling will always stay important. I've tried to search to see if the H100i will fit in the CM stormtrooper and haven't seen any definitive answer. I have seen a few setups where they attach it to the ceiling of the case but I have read a few thoughts that the radiator fans just blow air down onto the CPU if they're up there which is a little counter intuitive given that hot air rises. The website's system check gives it the all clear though but obviously something fitting is not the same as something being ideal.

Of course I'm not too sure about the CM Stormtrooper and the H100i but again I haven't found a solid answer to this so here I am again looking for thoughts on this and on the whole setup.

What do you guys think?

Edit: I just noticed there is a forum section for talking about different builds but perhaps it makes more sense for this post to be in this thread rather than making a new thread :d