suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

[stj]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

is that 3 seats a single bench, or a drivers seat and a double-passenger job?

we get that 3 seat crap in europe - but we have a fix.
in europe all the cheap fuckers - ford, renault etc fit a standard drivers seat - fully ajustable, and a double fixed passenger seat.

what a lot of us do is rip the passenger one out and replace it with another drivers seat from a breakers yard - gives a nice space in the center to get into the back of the van that way.

[Krankshaft]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

I got the Antec 300 for my quad core build from Newegg it's got fans everywhere and is very sturdy.

Nice black finish and not flashy it was so hard for me to find a nice contemporary case without all that superfluous crap.

If you can push on the top of the case and you hear one of the sides pop keep looking. Stay away from soda can gauge steel .

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

it functions like a bench although it is two separte seats. the middle can either be a hollow armrest (open it for cd/tape/crap storage) or flips up to be the back of the millde seat. like this pic only stock blue:



it is standard cap so the only space in the back is for emergency kit, bungee cords, a tarp, jack, etc.

my parents have considered selling it form time to time... i would like it for a first car but i have no licence or permit (almost 18, i will try to get the permit before my b-day, but my life was too hectic for me to have time to learn to drive)... and we only own two cars (that and a 1997 nissan quest XE). the reason we haven't sold it is when we need it to do its thing, it does. that and it is made by GM, my family hates fudd (ford), toyota (big time), KIA, and hyndai. they have a bit of respect for dodge, subaru, and nissan (since the quest has done well despite it manufacture by fudd). we LOVE GM,

we only had one GM suck ever; my dad owned it before and a few years after he married my mom; it was a straight six 73' chevy Scottsdale. after he married my mom, they lived in the mountains around maryland... it was underpowered (it would go "clikclikclik..." up the mountain they tell me)... the fact it had the catalytic converter swapped for exhaust pipe didn't help much, thats what my dad got for buying a used chevy off a fudd dealer... a few years later they blew the engine and traded for a new '87 custom deluxe 10, which they owned until 2 years back when scrap dude gave us $300 for it, it was rusted out. at least the tranny was still smooth as silk, stock too. until then it was a very nice truck but the gas mileage sucked, hence why we bought the s10.

ironically, my dad had a green ford truck when he was in the air force, he said it would break 100mph no sweat... but when he was put on active duty he had to sell it, he wishes he still had it... yet he hates all other fords.

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

I got the Antec 300 for my quad core build from Newegg it's got fans everywhere and is very sturdy.

Nice black finish and not flashy it was so hard for me to find a nice contemporary case without all that superfluous crap.

If you can push on the top of the case and you hear one of the sides pop keep looking. Stay away from soda can gauge steel .

i know, the sides are actually plastic on THICK sheet metal (0.8-1mm i think), like a late model mac G3 or g4, it was meant to be a mac clone. no popcan metal ANYWHERE on it... if i wanted pop can, i'd have to pay $5 more...

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

well... the guts are in it.

the lower cd door needed some fiddling to make it work right, i broke one of the two white bump things off by accident. i might just strip the doors...

and the cpu overheated while gaming... the rear vent issue might be part of it, could my use of a stock cooler be part of my issue?

and the firewire connector didn't match up right... im not needing firewire at this moment, if i do i will fix the header or use my old header bracket in the back.

otherwise, it went well! pics coming later!

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

sorry- double post

anyway- could the fact that my psu is an Ultra V be an issue? I mostly recapped it, re did the douple/triple lugged wiring, and beefed up the 12v+ p4 strand's wiring/plug. my research says this series is known for bad ripple; my model puts out 120mv ripple at high load, stock caps. I have no scope to tell... the psu puts out a decent amount of heat (not very efficient).

[370forlife]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

Ripple isn't as much of an issue until it starts hitting the real high numbers (like 200 and up) it's the voltage regulation that can cause problems like that.

Besides, you probably aren't pulling much more than 250W from it.

[seanc]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

What brand are the caps that you didn't replace?

Do you have a temperature probe?

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

two GL 16v 1000uf caps- i only had two but needed four. so i was short two.

all votages are in spec

i thnk the heat in it is coming from the cpu, it overheats ithin 5 min of running TORCS... my fps will suddenly drop form 60ish to 30ish and soon after, the cpu hits the magic temp and the board pulls he pug (its how i set the bios). upon immdate reboot, bios says the cpu is running 84-85 C, chipset is about 55-60C. when i am not gaming, the cpu is underclocking itself to 1ghz (instead of 2), the cpu runs 43C, chipset 54C. i think the cpu cooler explains both, see a pic of my board:

[stj]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

right, looking at the fet-sinks & heatpipe i think it's safe to say you want a fan blowing cold air over the board.
can you up a foto of the cpu cooler pls.

nice vrm poly's btw, was that you - or factory?

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

not my ACTUAL board- it is one off the web of my model. that is stock though.

here is a pic off the web of my MODEL cooler:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2723/...2e95bdce_b.jpg

essentially stock. mine has a swapped fan (the stock fan had a temp sensor that was making ASUS q-fan act funny- i have since disabled q-fan)- the replacement was a delta off an old 478 cooler (same size, also runs at a slightly higher RPM)

from the manual for my mobo, the heatsinks are supposed to be cooled using the output of the cpu cooler, if you re using water cooling or fanless, they included a fan to attach to the copper fins- but if you are using an active heatsink, they do not recommend he fan because it would interfere with the cpu cooler.

[stj]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

that's a very small sink,
you really need to jigsaw the back out of your case for an extractor-fan and fit an intake fan to the front or side i think.

if you dont, the heat will trash the life of your harddrives just for a start.
if your psu has a temp controlled fan, try bypassing the control so it doubles as an extractor-fan.
it probably needs it anyway, if the air in the case is 50'+

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

no, i think dremeling the back vent and upgrading coolers should fix it. as long as the side panel is on the case, the hd should stay cools as the front vents are right by the harrd drive.

the air enters through vents in the front of the case (hidden in the back of the front "foot", past the hard drive bays, and into the case. the air is exasted out the back via the fan and psu. it is the same method used by dell optiplexes, such as a gx270.

the only reason the air is that hot is the cooler being a bit small and the back vent issue. my dremel is 3 hors down the road from here, i will be there to pick it up so i can fix the back vent. the cooler will have to wait as i am out of funds (no true job + expenses of moving kinda make for a tight budget). if i have any luck i might be able to visit fry's on the way there to get a better cooler but that is unlikey.

oh, and somewhere on the forum it was said that some study showed heat had no effect on HD lifespans. so that is not much of an issue.

and for the record, i did not buy the case just so i could tear it all apart and make it into an "uber-gamer-deluxe ricer POS that has looks like flimsy shit". i will dremel out a vent, but i am not going to butcher it. i do not want to kill it trying to do something unnecessary and stupid.

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

maybe this one?

http://www.frys.com/product/4950591?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

anything 4 pin will be an issue as a cap has been placed in a way that does not allow use of the cpu fan header with the 4th pin hanging out.

[kc8adu]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

make sure the heatsinks on the pipe are flat on the chips.
after some flexing from handeling the board the pipe gets tweaked and no longer sits flat against the die's.a friend lost his nb to this.ran so hot it darkened the board several inches around it and cooked rubycon mbz.

[Scenic]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

maybe this one?

http://www.frys.com/product/4950591?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

anything 4 pin will be an issue as a cap has been placed in a way that does not allow use of the cpu fan header with the 4th pin hanging out.

uhh.. that thing is hardly any better than the boxed scrap metal..

and BTW: the 4pin will *not* be an issue, as the extra pin is hanging over on the right side (where the screwhole is on your board)

i'd go for this one instead (same price)
http://www.frys.com/product/6262690#detailed
http://www.hartware.net/media/reviews/1056/montage2.jpg

i'd rather search for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro instead if you really want to see a difference..
quiet & powerful.

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

i saw a review that tells me its junk, the base is very bumpy and it looks poorly designed. the thermal conduction between the base and the heatpipes is poor.

and there is a CAPACITOR on the right side of the header. thats the problem.

may be this (i could always change fans on it)

http://www.frys.com/product/5404269

it would blow air where needed (over chipset heatpipe fins). there is so little airflow with my existing cooler that it it is virtually fanless.

[370forlife]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835200038

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185125

or even (if your really on a budget)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103075

[ratdude747]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

but newegg does not have a walk-in type store. i do not want to get screwed on shipping.

the last one is the same as the one @ frys with the bad thermals. not to metion that that would bypass the chipset heatpipe fins whch would bake my board to death.

review of the coolermaster:

http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/c...ter-hyper-101/

[Scenic]

Re: suggestions for a cheap but sturdy case

and there is a CAPACITOR on the right side of the header. thats the problem.

uhm.. looking at the pic you've posted, the latch of the CPU_FAN header above the leftmost RAM slot is facing down / is on the bottom of the connector.

(sort of) similar setup on a Gigabyte P35-DS4 (allthough not for the CPU Fan in this case)