Tower/Case choice? at DVinfo.net

Jason Pechman · January 16th, 2003, 11:33 PM

Ok...

I have picked out....

asus p4b533-e motherboard...

either matrox g-550 or nvidia geforce 4-ti4200... (pci or agp?)

p4 2.0 to 2.4 chip....

512 mb ram (to start)... corsair or crucial....

Already have...

Pioneer A05 DVD burner...

WD 80 gb 8mb HD...

Windows 2K....

VV III....

Now! Which case?

I have been researching cases, and power, 450 is the clear choice...

I have also seen "pannels" that you can buy that you can plug in to get these choices...

I want a solid choice here!

I also do not want to spend $300 on a case and power supply.

I would like front inputs, such as Mic, firewire, audio, and usb 2(actually I don't care about the USB 2, it just seems to be the format now?) I want simplicicity! This will be the first system that I may "assemble" by myself, and I would like it to be as flawless as possible. (no "conflicts") After searching around, I can't seem to find a "case" that has everthing that video editor's like in one package. ( that's reasonable, and descriptive) Please help me here !

I don't mind doing a little "handy man" work to put together somthing great, but a "plug and play" type option would not be that bad either..

I don't care how it "looks" either, I am not planning any "tower beauty pagents anytime soon..

Also cooling... How many fans? What kind of fans? Please be specific and help me to the next level. I am tired of searching pricewatch to figure out what I need here.., also....

I am on a cable modem.., the computer that I use now (for editing), will soon be used just for internet stuff..., should I put in a card to link them together? (for software updates.?)

Sorry for the long post, but any info would be helpful.

Adrian Douglas · January 17th, 2003, 04:20 AM

Tower wise any ATX to full tower will do the job. The bigger the better when it comes to airflow. A couple of front fans are nice but not necessary for a single chip machine. You really don't need a 450 w supply, 350 w is ample. One nice thing around at the moment is round IDE cables. These are great as they don't block the airflow like a case full of ribbon cables can.

The only thing I would add, according to your list, is a second HDD. I'd use the WD as your video drive and get a smaller one 10-20 GB for the OS. Video systems always work better with the OS and video media on seperate disks.

K. Forman · January 17th, 2003, 06:33 AM

When I built this last machine, I went all out. I had long decided AGAINST Asus, because of their history with me. The previous machine has an Asus MB, that has had USB problems since the first time I plugged into it. The retailer was worthless, and Asus would never return any e-mails. I even tried calling overseas with no answer.

This time, I did more research, and went with an Abit KG7 Raid. I love it. I hooked up two 100 Gig drives for A/V storage, and use a 40 Gig for the system drives. For power, I wanted to be sure to have enough without guessing- Is a 650 P.S. enough? No doubt :)

Then I got to the case... and this time I put form before function, but still have both. I got a Black IMT 4000 mid tower case. A black beauty with 6 bays, Mic, Earplug, and two USB jacks in front. The side panels have huge 'grates', that can be adjusted for airflow, and plenty of spaces for fans inside.

Overall, I have a really nice edit machine, that looks good too.
Keith

John Threat · January 17th, 2003, 07:55 AM

I actually veered away from the huge towers. I went with the small form factor Shuttle XPC:

http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=85

two usb, one firewire, one digital in, mic, headphones in the front,

two firewire, 2 usb, serial, network, digital out ,5.1 audio outputs in the back.

with a Pent 4 2.4 ghz/ 512 mb ram cosair xms, WD 80 gb 8mb HD, and a matrox paraphelia (dual 18.1" HP LCD monitors)

It can hold two drives. (waiting for 8mb cache 200GB+ then i go with two of those.)

ran XP on it with Avid Xpress DV. It's fine for me and i absolutely loathe towers. I only have a 52x CD burner on it at the moment, because I'm waiting for the right DVD drive, but you can put one in. It's a sexy box, that saves on desk space which was important to me. It also had all the ports I needed. There is room for only one pc slot and one AGP slot, but again, I dont add a lot of stuff, and any breakbox I use can fill the pci slot or use USB 2.0 (or firewire for the tape VTR's)

I dont know if it's right for everyone, but check the reviews for it, it's a awesome machine, I put it together (minus the video card and monitors) for about $650 to the door. THe dual 18.1 HP's i got for 1240$ to the door. and the matrox card cost a lot $310. that one hurt for real, no price break on that card.

Andrew Petrie · January 17th, 2003, 04:33 PM

Lian-Li cases get my vote. I'm currently using the 68U model, and ther eis another model with a USB / FIREWIRE combo front bezel. This isn't a drivebay insert, but integrated with the front cover.

I couldn't be happier with my case. Quiet and amazing airflow compared to cheap cases. The ahrd drive rack is down at the bottom behind two front fans, keeping all 3 drives cold.

I'll safely say a good case is the best investment I've made, it will far outlast any other component.

Marc Betz · January 17th, 2003, 08:58 PM

For Lian LI

All Aluminum

Beautiful execution, cold and somewhat quiet.

Very good enclosure.

I have a pc61

www.lian-li.com

It really is a nice piece of work, when the junk inside is obsolete, I don't think the case will be.

Marc Betz · January 17th, 2003, 09:02 PM

Fans

2 in at the front base of the case (variable speed) I out at the top back of the case. Add 1 power supply fan, 1 cpu fan, one videocard fan

6 friggen and she just humms along.

Nice and peacefully even during evil renders.

Dan Holly · January 17th, 2003, 11:00 PM

Here is what I have for my editing box (black in color)
http://www.directron.com/sx1030b.html

My dual CPU server is in this case(black):
http://www.directron.com/yy0221bk.html
Cubes rule, and any new boxes I build will go in one of these unless I invest in a rack system

Motherboard in my editing box with a RAID 0:
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...d/techspec.php

Michael Wisniewski · January 18th, 2003, 10:48 AM

If you're going for form over function :-) you can check out these cases, good for getting the babes?

http://www.colorcases.com/cases/cases.html

Michael Wisniewski · January 18th, 2003, 11:59 AM

Here's the case with all the connections in the front and a huge internal space for all kinds of drives, plus it's got wheels so you can move it around.

http://www.colorcases.com/cases/0204.html

K. Forman · January 18th, 2003, 04:32 PM

The Minion case is almost identicle to mine. I think that one has a slightly different feature under the floppy drive than mine does. Under that flap at the bottom, is your USB, Mic, and Headphone jacks.

Since I have the DV Storm and breakout box, I have my IEE1394 jacks there. I also have the Audigy Platinum with breakout box, so all of my necessary audio hooks up there. The USB in the front is much nicer than having to reach around back.
Keith

Keith Luken · January 20th, 2003, 01:18 PM

I love Antec cases, they have many bays, often the internal drive bay for th eHD has a fan in front of it to keep the drives cool. Also they offer their "True Power" power supplies in many of their cases. Many power supplies will never reach their rated power output and often have the 3.3v and 5v lines shared so total draw on both of them is combined. Antec True Power supplies have seperate feeds internally for 3.3v and 5v and can carry a large load.

This is an excellent case and has True Power:

http://www.antec-inc.com/en_plus1060.html

or this one which does not:

http://www.antec-inc.com/en_sohoser.html

This is a great case for expansion that I use:
http://www.antec-inc.com/en_fulltower.html

I upgraded to the True Power 550W supply and every bay in this puppy is filled, 2 A04 burners, DLT tape drive, DVD-ROM, CDRW as well as 6 Maxtor hard drives!

There are plenty of fans to keep it all cool.

January 16th, 2003, 11:33 PM	#1
Jason Pechman Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Glendale, AZ Posts: 38	Tower/Case choice? Ok... I have picked out.... asus p4b533-e motherboard... either matrox g-550 or nvidia geforce 4-ti4200... (pci or agp?) p4 2.0 to 2.4 chip.... 512 mb ram (to start)... corsair or crucial.... Already have... Pioneer A05 DVD burner... WD 80 gb 8mb HD... Windows 2K.... VV III.... Now! Which case? I have been researching cases, and power, 450 is the clear choice... I have also seen "pannels" that you can buy that you can plug in to get these choices... I want a solid choice here! I also do not want to spend $300 on a case and power supply. I would like front inputs, such as Mic, firewire, audio, and usb 2(actually I don't care about the USB 2, it just seems to be the format now?) I want simplicicity! This will be the first system that I may "assemble" by myself, and I would like it to be as flawless as possible. (no "conflicts") After searching around, I can't seem to find a "case" that has everthing that video editor's like in one package. ( that's reasonable, and descriptive) Please help me here ! I don't mind doing a little "handy man" work to put together somthing great, but a "plug and play" type option would not be that bad either.. I don't care how it "looks" either, I am not planning any "tower beauty pagents anytime soon.. Also cooling... How many fans? What kind of fans? Please be specific and help me to the next level. I am tired of searching pricewatch to figure out what I need here.., also.... I am on a cable modem.., the computer that I use now (for editing), will soon be used just for internet stuff..., should I put in a card to link them together? (for software updates.?) Sorry for the long post, but any info would be helpful.

January 17th, 2003, 04:20 AM	#2
Adrian Douglas Trustee Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Chigasaki, Japan. Posts: 1,660	Tower wise any ATX to full tower will do the job. The bigger the better when it comes to airflow. A couple of front fans are nice but not necessary for a single chip machine. You really don't need a 450 w supply, 350 w is ample. One nice thing around at the moment is round IDE cables. These are great as they don't block the airflow like a case full of ribbon cables can. The only thing I would add, according to your list, is a second HDD. I'd use the WD as your video drive and get a smaller one 10-20 GB for the OS. Video systems always work better with the OS and video media on seperate disks. __________________ Adrian DVInfo.net Search for quick answers Where to buy? From the best in the business...DVInfo.net sponsors

January 17th, 2003, 04:33 PM	#5
Andrew Petrie Major Player Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: London, Ontario, Canada Posts: 484	Lian Li Lian-Li cases get my vote. I'm currently using the 68U model, and ther eis another model with a USB / FIREWIRE combo front bezel. This isn't a drivebay insert, but integrated with the front cover. I couldn't be happier with my case. Quiet and amazing airflow compared to cheap cases. The ahrd drive rack is down at the bottom behind two front fans, keeping all 3 drives cold. I'll safely say a good case is the best investment I've made, it will far outlast any other component. __________________ Andrew \| Canon XL1s, ME66, Vinten Vision 3, GlideCam V16 (for sale!)

January 17th, 2003, 08:58 PM	#6
Marc Betz Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: NH Posts: 95	I second the motion For Lian LI All Aluminum Beautiful execution, cold and somewhat quiet. Very good enclosure. I have a pc61 www.lian-li.com It really is a nice piece of work, when the junk inside is obsolete, I don't think the case will be. __________________ Marc Betz

January 17th, 2003, 09:02 PM	#7
Marc Betz Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: NH Posts: 95	Oh i Forgot Fans 2 in at the front base of the case (variable speed) I out at the top back of the case. Add 1 power supply fan, 1 cpu fan, one videocard fan 6 friggen and she just humms along. Nice and peacefully even during evil renders. __________________ Marc Betz

January 17th, 2003, 06:33 AM	#3
K. Forman Capt. Quirk Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Middle of the woods in Georgia Posts: 3,596	When I built this last machine, I went all out. I had long decided AGAINST Asus, because of their history with me. The previous machine has an Asus MB, that has had USB problems since the first time I plugged into it. The retailer was worthless, and Asus would never return any e-mails. I even tried calling overseas with no answer. This time, I did more research, and went with an Abit KG7 Raid. I love it. I hooked up two 100 Gig drives for A/V storage, and use a 40 Gig for the system drives. For power, I wanted to be sure to have enough without guessing- Is a 650 P.S. enough? No doubt :) Then I got to the case... and this time I put form before function, but still have both. I got a Black IMT 4000 mid tower case. A black beauty with 6 bays, Mic, Earplug, and two USB jacks in front. The side panels have huge 'grates', that can be adjusted for airflow, and plenty of spaces for fans inside. Overall, I have a really nice edit machine, that looks good too. Keith

January 17th, 2003, 07:55 AM	#4
John Threat Major Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York Posts: 322	I actually veered away from the huge towers. I went with the small form factor Shuttle XPC: http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=85 two usb, one firewire, one digital in, mic, headphones in the front, two firewire, 2 usb, serial, network, digital out ,5.1 audio outputs in the back. with a Pent 4 2.4 ghz/ 512 mb ram cosair xms, WD 80 gb 8mb HD, and a matrox paraphelia (dual 18.1" HP LCD monitors) It can hold two drives. (waiting for 8mb cache 200GB+ then i go with two of those.) ran XP on it with Avid Xpress DV. It's fine for me and i absolutely loathe towers. I only have a 52x CD burner on it at the moment, because I'm waiting for the right DVD drive, but you can put one in. It's a sexy box, that saves on desk space which was important to me. It also had all the ports I needed. There is room for only one pc slot and one AGP slot, but again, I dont add a lot of stuff, and any breakbox I use can fill the pci slot or use USB 2.0 (or firewire for the tape VTR's) I dont know if it's right for everyone, but check the reviews for it, it's a awesome machine, I put it together (minus the video card and monitors) for about $650 to the door. THe dual 18.1 HP's i got for 1240$ to the door. and the matrox card cost a lot $310. that one hurt for real, no price break on that card.

January 17th, 2003, 11:00 PM	#8
Dan Holly Major Player Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Anchorage, Alaska Posts: 336	Here is my suggestion Here is what I have for my editing box (black in color) http://www.directron.com/sx1030b.html My dual CPU server is in this case(black): http://www.directron.com/yy0221bk.html Cubes rule, and any new boxes I build will go in one of these unless I invest in a rack system Motherboard in my editing box with a RAID 0: http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...d/techspec.php __________________ Dan Holly Anchorage, Alaska

January 18th, 2003, 10:48 AM	#9
Michael Wisniewski Wrangler Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Makati, Metro Manila Posts: 2,706 Images: 32	If you're going for form over function :-) you can check out these cases, good for getting the babes? http://www.colorcases.com/cases/cases.html

January 18th, 2003, 11:59 AM	#10
Michael Wisniewski Wrangler Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Makati, Metro Manila Posts: 2,706 Images: 32	Here's the case with all the connections in the front and a huge internal space for all kinds of drives, plus it's got wheels so you can move it around. http://www.colorcases.com/cases/0204.html

January 18th, 2003, 04:32 PM	#11
K. Forman Capt. Quirk Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Middle of the woods in Georgia Posts: 3,596	The Minion case is almost identicle to mine. I think that one has a slightly different feature under the floppy drive than mine does. Under that flap at the bottom, is your USB, Mic, and Headphone jacks. Since I have the DV Storm and breakout box, I have my IEE1394 jacks there. I also have the Audigy Platinum with breakout box, so all of my necessary audio hooks up there. The USB in the front is much nicer than having to reach around back. Keith

January 20th, 2003, 01:18 PM	#12
Keith Luken Major Player Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 200	I love Antec cases, they have many bays, often the internal drive bay for th eHD has a fan in front of it to keep the drives cool. Also they offer their "True Power" power supplies in many of their cases. Many power supplies will never reach their rated power output and often have the 3.3v and 5v lines shared so total draw on both of them is combined. Antec True Power supplies have seperate feeds internally for 3.3v and 5v and can carry a large load. This is an excellent case and has True Power: http://www.antec-inc.com/en_plus1060.html or this one which does not: http://www.antec-inc.com/en_sohoser.html This is a great case for expansion that I use: http://www.antec-inc.com/en_fulltower.html I upgraded to the True Power 550W supply and every bay in this puppy is filled, 2 A04 burners, DLT tape drive, DVD-ROM, CDRW as well as 6 Maxtor hard drives! There are plenty of fans to keep it all cool.