What kind of PC case do you have?

[Gingerbread Demon]

Simple enough question. What kind of PC case do you have, and how often do you find you have to clean the insides?

I have one of these.

It's a nice case and something a little different but it's a big fat dust magnet. I find I have to pull everything out once every 12 months and go through the whole thing cleaning it.

The motherboard is held in place on a removable tray, which is a good thing, but geez this thing likes dust. Today just happens to be that time of year too, and looking inside I am seeing a shit ton of dust that doesn't please me.

Anyway what kind of case do you guys have?

 

[Random_Spock]

Mine's a laptop, but I keep it in a Targus case. Keeps it pretty dust free.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

This was the case I first wanted but by the time I had looked them up it was obsolete and pricey as hell as a collectible item.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I had a standard upright tower for the last desktop. The more holes you have for cooling, the more dust is getting in there, no matter how much or little dust is in your house.

Now a water cooled system, that you could probably seal up, assuming you could water cool everything; CPU, GPU, RAM.

 

[Taylirious]

I have a laptop but love that Cooler Master HAF XB. I was thinking about building something around the CM Elite 130.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I just have a very vanilla ATX mid (all black) from Antec. I think it cost me $25 at the time. I looked for it on NE, but couldn't find it. They probably don't even make it anymore.

I've had it over 10 years and have put three whole builds (plus lots of upgrades) in it.

Though the next build I do, I'll probably finally buy something new.

 

[{ Emilia }]

I have a pretty old customized CM Stacker case. It's big and heavy but was very convenient for the custom water-cooling I built at the time.
I have since switched back to air cooling (not bothering with overclocking anymore either) but the case is still doing well. Good airflow, very convenient usage. Cable management options could be a bit better. I just keep building new systems inside it. It has seen and endured lots of hardware changes. None of the original PC parts are still inside.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

No matter what, I recommend installing the SpeedFan app. It is, as far as I know, the only software for temp. monitoring and fan speed control.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I have a laptop but love that Cooler Master HAF XB. I was thinking about building something around the CM Elite 130.

Behind that front grill are two 120mm intake fans. They are very good at doing their job. Spent 4 hours today with the PC in parts cleaning the interior and as I suspected most of that dust came via the intake fans. Cleaned the both of them and now everything is running nicely.

Just getting ready to install my brand new graphics card.

If the front air filter were a bit beefier and could catch more stuff it would be nice. But that side of it I do every 3 months anyway.

 

[Random_Spock]

No matter what, I recommend installing the SpeedFan app. It is, as far as I know, the only software for temp. monitoring and fan speed control.

Oh heck yes. It's a god send. Got it on my laptop, since Gateways tend to run a bit warm. Helped me see that I can't use Spybot S & D unless it's the only program running. It runs around 55 degrees Celsius. A bit too warm to be running alongside other programs.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

OK I have installed my radeo R9 380 4gig card.

Seems to work fine and I'm getting really good speeds in my games and it's very smooth in things like Just Cause 3.

The only bother for me is the automatic fans. They don't spin unless the card hits a certain temperature, and then they shut down again and that makes me uneasy.

The fans run the moment Afterburner is turned on but when you exit the program they go back to their automatic mode.

Speccy says only 33 degrees celsius for the card temperature..

Oh and I broke the little clip off the pci connector that holds the card in the connector, should I be worried about that too?

 

[Marc]

Bit Fennix Prodigy.

Nice looking case, got a good review on Anandtech a couple of years back.

It's the ITX model so can be bit tight to work on and I can have 3 extra drive bays or a video card though as I'm now using the onboard graphics and don't need that many drives it's a moot point.

If I had the cash to spare I'd probably get the M-ATX version for my server (currently in rack mount but due to a small apartment I'm now over rack mounting).

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

No matter what, I recommend installing the SpeedFan app. It is, as far as I know, the only software for temp. monitoring and fan speed control.

Oh heck yes. It's a god send. Got it on my laptop, since Gateways tend to run a bit warm. Helped me see that I can't use Spybot S & D unless it's the only program running. It runs around 55 degrees Celsius. A bit too warm to be running alongside other programs.

55C is in the upper range of what's considered good for a CPU. My last build would run in the 30C range for slight load and the mid 50C range for heavy load.

Re-seating the CPU with a better coat of thermal paste can really help bring the temp down. I got a 10C decrease from doing this.

Getting a lower average temp allowed me to put some nylon filter material in front of my intake fans.

For the front intake fan, I stuffed the material inside the front door/cover, where the intake hole was. This is the same material that is in higher quality air filters.

For the side CPU fan intake, I used some of what I think was commercial Swiffer type material. It's a thinner green & white nylon material that comes in a roll which is treated with something sticky. It collects a lot more dust than the white material.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I have... um... whatever it is the parts were in when I bought it from the store.

This is a friendly reminder that there IS life between:
"Behold my custom built handmade PC with a 16 core customized oveclocked AMD processor, 8.7ghz quantum computing GPU with 32 gigabytes of integrated ram, quantum tunneling wifi and a flux capacitor!"

and

"I just bought a mac... where's the Start Menu?"

 

[Taylirious]

I could probably afford my budget gamer build now. I wish I'd saved my list.

 

[Random_Spock]

No matter what, I recommend installing the SpeedFan app. It is, as far as I know, the only software for temp. monitoring and fan speed control.

Oh heck yes. It's a god send. Got it on my laptop, since Gateways tend to run a bit warm. Helped me see that I can't use Spybot S & D unless it's the only program running. It runs around 55 degrees Celsius. A bit too warm to be running alongside other programs.

55C is in the upper range of what's considered good for a CPU. My last build would run in the 30C range for slight load and the mid 50C range for heavy load.

Re-seating the CPU with a better coat of thermal paste can really help bring the temp down. I got a 10C decrease from doing this.

Getting a lower average temp allowed me to put some nylon filter material in front of my intake fans.

For the front intake fan, I stuffed the material inside the front door/cover, where the intake hole was. This is the same material that is in higher quality air filters.

For the side CPU fan intake, I used some of what I think was commercial Swiffer type material. It's a thinner green & white nylon material that comes in a roll which is treated with something sticky. It collects a lot more dust than the white material.

Yea, it wasn't good. Everything else runs ok. Around the 30's to around 45 degrees Celsius.

 

[Santaman]

My main machine has an Antec P-183 casing which is very quiet, I use four Bitfenix and one Gelid 120x120x25mm fans to keep it cool which works well with the Sabertooth mainboard, they're all connected to the mainboard which controls them with PWM

I've got one 120 intake for the lower compartiment where it cools the hardrives and the PSU which suck the hot air out of that, the top compartiment has two intake and two exhaust fans, the Bitfenix fans top out at 1800 RPM, the Gelid 1500, the latter is used as the top fan, intake is a little stronger than exhaust which creates an overpressure so it doesn't suck dust in like crazy.

CPU cooler is a Scythe Mugen 3 with the same Bitfenix fan as the casing, it cools my mighty FX 8350 even at full load and in summer the fans, including the one on my CPU cooler never go over 1600 RPM and the CPU has stays under 45c socket temp, as for core temp, the probe only starts to work as of 45 C which it kinda never reaches.

As for the 64 other machines I have (mostly vintage).. not going to bore you with that.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I suspect it's my 3 fans that are the culprit. Someone suggested the two intake fans and single exhaust fan at the back are creating static. I find I have to clean the intake filter every 3 months.

 

[Santaman]

LOL I have to clean the filters every two weeks especially in summer, depends on how much air and dust they move.

 

[FPAlpha]

Uhm.. it's black.. and has some red lights in the front and back

I bought it a few months ago as a complete package from an online vendor that came recommended by friends and reputable gaming websites as a good gaming PC (tweaked the contents only a little to suit some special needs).

The case looks a little spacey and i don't mind much.. could have gone with a more neutral look but all cases had the same style that is perhaps in demand in the teenager core demographic nowadays ( i couldn't care less about design if it does what it needs to do).