[RAF_Magpie]

Greetings Gentlemen,

Again, the request of knowledge from the knowledgeable. I'm upgrading my case, as personally, my PC-7 Plus just ain't cutting the mustard anymore. Now, for a while I've been eyeing up the Lian-Li PC-10B case, with seperate compartments for the PSU/hardrives, and Motherboard/optical/GPU, the ability to have dual PSU's - a big feature considering its a easy way to up the wattage, not put too much strain on the PSU's (one for hard & optical drives for example, the other for the MB/CPU/GPU etc). This is a nice, classy looking case that I've been wanting for a while.

I ordered it last week (after checking to make sure they had it instock) and was today told (after asking my computer stork where my new baby was) that they weren't going to be in stock until the end of July.

So, here are my options.

wait the month or so for the case I initially wanted, or change to the Thermaltake Armour VE2000BWS with integrated Water Cooling system...

Now, personally, the reasoning behind the Lian-Li was the fact that it was one of the cooler cases for air cooling, plus keeps my Lian-Li fetish satisfied. I've had reserves about water cooling, and still do... (We've all wet the bed before - and the thought of a leak in my case is enough to have me wetting the bed more often than I do at this current point in time...)

Here's the link for the Lian-Li PC-10-B;

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product...25&ss_index=62

And here's the Link for the Thermaltake Armour VE2000BWS;

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Produc...5&ID=1410#Tab0

Naturally, I'm impatient and want my case ASAP - plus considering the move (relocating to the other side of town, closer to the airport & thus aeroclub bar ) and my plans for the network, I need to free up my current case for the centralized server. I've called many retailers, all cannot get the Lian-Li until the 31'st of July. Meanwhile, they have my hard scrapped together money in their sweaty little hands, whilst I have nothing to show for it.... There is always the upcoming Lian-Li PC-X500 but thats not getting released until the end of July, and then would probably be a further 6 months till we get it in this moldy little backwater of a country...

Tell me fellows - to liquidate, or not to liquidate. That is the question...

Have you heard any horror stories (or been the lead actor in your own little B-Grade horror?) about leaky cooling systems? If so were they Thermaltake?

[BigSilverHotdog]

One vote for not liquidate unless you can easily afford to shrug off losing many or all of the major components of your PC. Case choice isn't easy to advise -- everyone has different ideas of what makes a good case. If you desire the most functionality, Thermaltake is a very good choice, though they're so mainstream in the enthusiast world (and in the novice world because like Alienware the name means more to many of their customers than the actual product) that you'll show up at a lan party and see tons of people with the exact same case as you. Personally I try to stay unique. My last two personal PC/gaming rig cases:

Bought in 2002: http://www.starmarkelectronics.com/images/20064.jpg

Switched to this in 2007: http://oo5vidiu.xhost.ro/vento3600m.gif

Sick case, but not so roomy inside. You have to do your own cm and the airflow is so-so until you mod it up. I use a custom rack with a front intake and I designed my own airflow system to keep my Q6600 OC powerhouse nice and cold. I've got a Vantec Tornado in there as well but it's not needed in the current environment.

[RAF_Magpie]

That red Asus case is pretty nifty

It is a difficult situation when you have to choose a case; usually, as you said, it comes down to personal taste nine times out of ten.

And then when you narrow it down to two cases, it makes it even harder lol. I dunno, I'm actually pretty bloody keen on the PC-X500 from Lian-Li, but from a few phone calls, it seems that it wont be available in NZ for several months

So, I'm thinking perhaps experimenting with the Liquid cooling and seeing where that takes me maybe... and then upgrading everything when the X500 comes available maybe? Dunno gotta really think about it I suppose.

I must also admit that I've been wanting to experiment with LC for a while, and perhaps this is the best time to do it maybe... (never had the ability to up until now)

As you say with the LAN party thing, the one or two I went to with the PC-7 was interesting enough, out of a massive LAN party I was one of two with the same case, and seeing the other one that was actually modded (done up) it turned me off the idea of modding the Lian-Li... It just seemed to have lost her class. Which makes another attraction to the Thermaltake - that the case styling seems to promote the modding theme (something I would quite like to do TBH).

Oh well. Back to the 'pros and cons' spreadsheet lol