Virgil's new work mule

[Grauniad]

Also nice is what appears to be the tubular feet to lift it off the ground. Saves having to have a little shelf to keep your expensive PC from acting as a vacuum cleaner for bottom-mounted fans and PSUs. :)

[Grauniad]

I love high Towers by Fractal Design,

Virgil, you asked how closed-loop water cooling works. If you look closely, you can see MadMag's leading from the CPU to an upward-pointing fan just behind the drive cage with the radiator between the case top and the fan. Not the two feeding tubes carrying the liquid (usually polypropolene glycol). No filling of reservoirs, or home-made joints. No algae growing in exposed tubes or anything messy.

[MadMag]

It works very good :)

[Grauniad]

Final thoughts on a case:

Firstly, I hate to recommend things that I have not personally used. To that extent, I can really only talk about Fractal Design's silent cases, since those were the ones I've used for a majority of builds.  They are heavy, roomy and insulted with foam panels.

I've been looking at the Nanoxia Deep Silence series (generally good reviews on a number of sites).

I've used 2 cases from Apevia, but their build quality is not nearly as high as others that I've used. Nothing wrong with them, just cheap cases and I've not built in them for maybe 4-5 years. I build in a Bitfenix  Prodigy with a mini-ITX motherboard and there were a number of things I'd do differently if I had to do it again. In the line of silent desktops, the Fractal Design rules my recent builds.

I have  a Define  and they improved the design with the Define R4 that looks better and is slightly larger.

My most recent build is the Arc Midi and it is room y enough for the components I have in it. I don't like that it has a window, but I got it cheap. Without the window it would have had more insulating material. I do believe there are non-windowed models, but I can't find any when I do a cursory search.

I would definitely investigate the Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 case if I had to build again. I would have to see if it has removable drive cages.

The Fractal Design Define and Define XL are big, heavy and very roomy inside. I briefly considered a Define XL until I made a cardboard model and put it next to my desk. :)

[Grauniad]

Maybe not quite the mule you envisaged, but a nice little gopher....



To reduce the price, the following economies can be applied.

1. Power supply has 300W overage according to sizing estimates. A 650W power supply will still be adequate.
2. Reduce SSD capacity to 500GB
3. Reduce SSD capacity to 256GB and add a 1TB hard drive.
4. Reduce SSD capacity to 60GB and use the SSD with Intel Smart Response as a cache.
5. Reduce the GPU - even a $200 GPU is quite respectable in today's price war climate.
6. Replace Blu-ray with DVD-only option.

[knucracker]

That cheaper gopher system looks pretty sweet....
Check out this news for today:
http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-Drops-GTX-780-GTX-770-Prices-Announces-GTX-780-Ti-Price

That puts the 770 back in the picture.

--edit--
Plus I'd get three games I'd not have time to play and $100 of that shield toy (that makes it something I might actually get to play with).  NVidia is playing hardball with this bundle...

[Grauniad]

You see, I've learnt my lesson when I bought the AMD Radeon HD 7950. I just don't really need such a massive (and it wasn't all that powerful) video card. I'll do quite well with a lower-range card such as the HD 7770. It drives the same number of monitors, has the same screen resolution support, and all those nice things. I don't play high-requirement video games and stuff like that.

I'd much rather boost my storage capacity and get a bigger SSD than a bigger graphics card.

Which reminds me, you have that Samsung 480 Pro which is a *very* nice card.

Have you considered not buying a new SSD, and moving that to your new build? YOU can add a <$100 hard drive to round out your storage requirements...

Also, and I might try this when I next build (which unfortunately won't be soon, unless I can build for someone again). is to get a small SSD in the  120GB - 60GB range and use Intel's Smart Response Technology to make that a cache for a 2TB hard drive.

If it's not working well, all of these are steps that are easy to revert from and go back to a larger SSD.

[Grauniad]

If you like it and are ready to pull the trigger on a slow acquisition method, then you can consider my #2 case, the Fractal Design Arc Midi.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352031

It's priced at $110 with a 25% discount code till 11/10 and free shipping. That should be $82.50

It's only $7.50 less than the Nanoxia that I'm quite interested in, but the $10 or so shipping on this heavy item will made a difference as well.

[knucracker]

I just watched the youtube video on that fractal design case... pretty cool.

Those sleds for the drive bays, do they have mounting holes for 2.5" drives?  (As in will they secure a SSD).

[Grauniad]

Those sleds for the drive bays, do they have mounting holes for 2.5" drives?  (As in will they secure a SSD).

Yes, they do. I have my SSD mounted in one. Since it's vibration-free, the SSD mounts directly on the bottom of the sled.

I don't recall if that particular model has the option to mount one or two SSDs on the back of the backplate. THat way the wiring is completely out of sight.

[Grauniad]

Last night I started pondering the issue of heat build-up in your case.

We talked and I mentioned that the IVB-E series processor at full load will generate the equivalent of a 60W incandescent bulb of additional heat in your case. Add to this that you are planning a rather beefy card and I'm wondering of the appeal of a mid-size tower is maybe not making us  overlook the improved airflow possibilities in a larger case?

Maybe you should read up on the Nanoxia DS1 or an equivalent larger case from Fractal Design or anyone else that makes good silent cases with insulation, filters,  and airflow?

[knucracker]

That fractal design arc midi case looks like it comes with three 120mm fans.  One on the bottom front, one on the top back and one on the back top.  The one on the back top would be removed and relocated since I'd be putting a radiator there for the liquid cooling.  I was thinking it could relocate the the bottom of the case.  That could basically mean that CPU heat gets shoved out the back of the case and air flows up the bottom of the case and out the top.  Two fans pulling in from the front and bottom and two fans (one the radiator fan) blowing out the top and back.  And of course the PSU evacuating heat on its own.  That seemed like adequate air flow to me, especially since I might only have a single SSD and a BD-R drive mounted up front (and can remove one of the drive bays and rotate the other).

[Grauniad]

Seems sound enough. I was thinking that ultimately the cooling was a function of air flow. But if the fans had to spin too fast then the noise level increases. One of the reasons I like 140mm fans over 120mm fans.

As I said before, I might recommend you consider swapping out the fans for 140mm fans just from that perspective.

As for a fan on the bottom, venting into the case - make sure that fan has a good filter in front of it, otherwise you're emulating a small, stationary vacuum cleaner. :)

Which case is your current preference? The Fractal Design or the Deep Silence?

[knucracker]

I'd probably pick the fractal design over the DS2 on the spot... but that's mostly because the DS2 earns some negative marks when compared to the DS1.  So it's not a fair comparison... but the reviews compare the DS2 to the DS1 and mostly recommend the DS1 (which costs more).  Also, having watched the newegg video for the fractal design case make me more comfortable with that case because I've seen it explained over a 20 minute video.  I guess I'm a small case (pun intended) study in marketing dynamics :)

[Grauniad]

Are you OK now with the Fractal Design being a window case? One of the big reasons I was putting forward the DS case was that it was not windowed.