Nice New Antec Case

[Clocker]

Looks really nice to me and, bonus, they got rid of the stupid 'lower chamber' separating the PSU from the rest of the machine. All it did was cause routing problems for me.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5090/antec-p280-when-enthusiasts-are-engineers/

 

[LunarMist]

Meh. It has only 3 external bays and a dreaded door. I prefer the open mesh front designs for airflow and more external bays for storage options.

 

[Mercutio]

Not enough drive bays. And the door. But it looks like a big step up from the P180 and the price is quite reasonable.

 

[Adcadet]

Agree, I like. If I didn't have a P180 sitting around, I'd seriously consider that case for my wife's new PC.

 

[ddrueding]

Interesting. It looks like it might be able to hold one of these.

 

[Mercutio]

Interesting. It looks like it might be able to hold one of these.

Not enough SATA ports.

 

[Chewy509]

OT. Gigabyte Motherboard

Interesting. It looks like it might be able to hold one of these.

It might, but I don't think that board is ideal for a number of reasons:
1. Only 4 DIMMs in EATX. Heck even Intel squeeze 8 DIMM slots in ATX on the Intel DX79TO.
2. I get a terrible rash when I have to deal with Creative based audio solutions.
3. Why not install an Intel Pro/1000 Server adapter on it, instead of the Bigfoor NIC. (it'll be cheaper). Intel NICs tend to have very well written drivers, and actually do things like TCP/IP offload, port bonding, etc. Not to mention really good cross-platform support.

The Supermicro X9SRE-6 or X9SRi-6 series, while details are sketchy, seems to be a nice group of boards (as long as you don't want to overclock). Hint:

X9SRE-6 (-F/-LN4/-T)
ATX board, uni proc Sandy Bridge EP (Socket R). 8 DIMM slots for up to 256 gb of REG ECC ram. 1 PCI-E 3.0 x16, 1 PCI-E 3.0 x8 in x16. 1 PCI-E 2.0 x4 in x16. 3 PCI-X slots. two USB type A connectors. 8 SAS2/SATA ports. (and from a poor translation of a chinese website is rumoured to have dual Intel Pro/1000 Server NICs in the standard configuration as well).

Note: Following normal SM naming convention, -F for IPMI, -LN4 for quad LAN ports. -T has dual 10gbE ports.

 

[Mercutio]

Everything should have Intel Pro NICs. Especially on motherboards that cost north of $200.

 

[Mercutio]

A new case that I am very impressed with is the NZXT Source 220. They're $60, made of decent quality steel, have a good number of drive bays, front USB 3 and nice cable management.

I've never used an NZXT case before but I have to say I was seriously impressed.

 

[CougTek]

The only difference between the Source 220 and the Source 210 Elite I've mentionned months ago in the USB 3.0 cases thread seems to be the front panel. The specifications give 10mm more height for the 220 versus the 210, but I believe it's an error because they both share the same chassis.

I also had something extraordinarily intelligent to write but I've completely forgotten what it was after I've spent time searching my post in the USB 3.0 cases thread. Aging, not fun.

 

[Adcadet]

I gotta say, cases have come a long ways. I remember when the choices were something expensive, beige or something that looked like a child's toy. I also like how 60 and 80 mm fans seem to have given way to 120 mm fans as the standard size.

 

[Adcadet]

Everything should have Intel Pro NICs. Especially on motherboards that cost north of $200.

What does an Intel Pro NIC give you over the cheaper options?

My Ausus P8P67 advertises it's Intel NIC and the "dual interconnect between the Integrated LAN controller and Physical Layer (PHY)" - what on earth is that?

 

[Handruin]

What does an Intel Pro NIC give you over the cheaper options?

My Ausus P8P67 advertises it's Intel NIC and the "dual interconnect between the Integrated LAN controller and Physical Layer (PHY)" - what on earth is that?

In applications where you demand the utmost from your network card, the Intel NICs are pretty dependable. For most of the rest of us with basic desktop needs (basic in the sense that our systems aren't serving/receiving lots of data over a network or require teaming/VLANs, etc) the built-in controllers in our motherboards are usually more than suitable.

I also agree with Mercutio in the case of that high end motherboard that I would rather a nice Intel NIC than that gimmicky Bigfoot Killer E2100 (~$85).

 

[Mercutio]

What does an Intel Pro NIC give you over the cheaper options?

Intel NICs support things like teaming for bandwidth aggregation and failover. I can't recall a weirdo compatibility issue with an Intel NIC. I've seen weird issues with non-Intel adapters, like Realtek 8111s that occasionally negotiate half-duplex connections to switched networks.

 

[Chewy509]

My Ausus P8P67 advertises it's Intel NIC and the "dual interconnect between the Integrated LAN controller and Physical Layer (PHY)" - what on earth is that?

Instead of using a PCIe lane for the LAN controller, there is a dedicated link in the P67 chipset exclusively for use with an Intel NIC. Which is theory reduces any latency between a NIC and the rest of the system. (It also has the side effect of reducing the cost of the whole setup).

 

[Chewy509]

Intel NICs support things like teaming for bandwidth aggregation and failover.

Not to mention things like TCP Header checksuming in hardware, Wake on LAN, most have PXE boot enabled by default, etc...

 

[Mercutio]

Link aggregation is awfully handy when you're copying 11TB of video files between two systems.

 

[time]

Not to mention things like TCP Header checksuming in hardware, Wake on LAN, most have PXE boot enabled by default, etc...

Current Realtek NICs support TCP checksum offload, and of course everything supports WOL these days.

 

[Clocker]

Not enough drive bays. And the door. But it looks like a big step up from the P180 and the price is quite reasonable.

I like the door. I can go a year or even longer w/o accessing the DVD drive, so a door makes sense for me.

 

[Handruin]

I don't mind the door either. On my P183 I feel like it adds another small amount of noise dampening since my case sits on my desktop about 12-18 inches from my head. I like the case even if there is a comparable case from Fractal. The number of external 5.25" bays is fine for most of my needs. The number of internal bays also suites what I need. The lower chamber in the previous models was a pain in some cases to work with. Having removed it is fine with me. I don't think it made that big of a difference.

 

[Stereodude]

The Fractal R3 only has 2 5.25" bays. Frankly I'd like 4 (or more), but 3 is a must have.

 

[time]

What do you use them for - hotswap?

 

[LunarMist]

I do. I like to have at least 5 bays in a case so that it is possible to higher drive density by using the 5 in 3 bays, etc.

 

[Stereodude]

What do you use them for - hotswap?

Optical drives. I've got an old PATA 52x CD-RW drive, a HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo drive, and a DVD burner in my main system now. Frankly, I'd like to stick another drive or two in there like a Blu-Ray burner + 2nd DVD burner.

 

[Mercutio]

I like the door. I can go a year or even longer w/o accessing the DVD drive, so a door makes sense for me.

I rip too many DVDs. Granted it's a lot better now than it used to be, but a door is still an annoyance.

 

[LunarMist]

I don't trust the ventilation in the closed door models. If there are 10 drives and O/C hexacore CPU, will everything get enough airflow?

 

[Handruin]

I don't trust the ventilation in the closed door models. If there are 10 drives and O/C hexacore CPU, will everything get enough airflow?

Yup. Even tough the door closes, there are vents on the edges to allow air to still flow in.