Unique Intake Cooling Case Recommendation

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Alai

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Anyone know of any cases they could tell me about that have intake cooling that's NOT running through the hard drives?

I am talking about intake that is as innovative as the Raven 2, Lian Li PC-888, and Corsair Obsidian 800D.

Are there any other cases I can look at that does not have retarded HDDs in the way of the intake?

The Cooler Master RC-690 has the side intake fans that blow directly onto the mobo but the top side fan gets in the way of large CPU HSFs AND the side fans are noisy as hell because of the shrieking as the fan blades pass close to the grill. The front intake fan is completely blocked by the HDD so there's almost

The Raven 2 has great placement of case fans that blow directly onto the motherboard. Same with the Lian Li PC-888. Not sure about the Corsair 800D, but apparently, the airflow works to be funneled at the motherboard without impediment. These are the types of case cooling solutions I am looking for.

Unique Intake Solution List (that is effective and not stupidly loud/annoying):
Silverstone Raven 2
Lian LiPC-888
Corsair Obsidian 800D
Cooler Master Stacker 830
Cooler Master HAF 932
 
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antec 1200 has 3 drive bays, so depending on how many and where u want to put the hard drives you could theorectically have 3 open intake bays. but even 2 it just fine. having intakes with hard drives allows for hard drive cooling. to each their own. there is no perfect case.
 
lian li a05b.

inverse atx w/ back to front airflow so CPU gets coolest air first.
 
Rogue71 said:
antec 1200 has 3 drive bays, so depending on how many and where u want to put the hard drives you could theorectically have 3 open intake bays. but even 2 it just fine. having intakes with hard drives allows for hard drive cooling. to each their own. there is no perfect case.
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HDD cooling is great and all... but are you really concerned about your HDD temps? Generally, you want top notch cooling for your motherboard and the components stuck on it.
 
Rogue71 said:
antec 1200 has 3 drive bays, so depending on how many and where u want to put the hard drives you could theorectically have 3 open intake bays. but even 2 it just fine. having intakes with hard drives allows for hard drive cooling. to each their own. there is no perfect case.
Click to expand...

Mount your HD's in 5 1/4 inch adapters so the front intakes are open and use whatever case you want.
 
You may be able to configure your case to maximize intake fans.

I put back to back intake fans on my Antec 900 for air flow through Xfire video cards and below I put 2 hdd's with the center hdd empty to allow for intake to cool them and put more air in case.


This is my set up.

SmallGMSolidHD4770Xfire.JPG
 
You can also consider SilverStone TJ09 and TJ10. Both were designed to have GPU/motherboard intake fan bypass the hard drive cages completely.
 
Alai said:
Anyone know of any cases they could tell me about that have intake cooling that's NOT running through the hard drives?
Click to expand...
Don't underestimate the effectiveness of simple laminar airflow even with one HDD cage in airflow path.
Besides obstructing heatsinks side fans have good potential to just mess airflow so that's not good solution unless entire cooling is designed around it.


As you're not hoarding HDDs you could put those two to top cage out of airflow path in most full tower Lian Lis.
That way Lian Li PC-A77 would have three fully open intake fan positions (assuming at most three 5.25" devices) and still two of them open with six HDDs.
http://www.lian-li.com.tw/v2/en/pro...212&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=61&g=spec

Not sure about the Corsair 800D, but apparently, the airflow works to be funneled at the motherboard without impediment.
Click to expand...
In closer inspection air cooling at stock probably isn't as good as size would imply: Intake to motherboard chamber is restricted to one fan pushing air through mesh in front of blades and drawing air in through another mesh and after that there isn't much airflow control to speak of: http://www.tweaktown.com/popImg.php?img=2897_12_full.jpg
With water cooling radiator its fans will take care of directing airflow to where heat is but air cooling could no doubt use better control of airflow with some additional intake.


Alai said:
HDD cooling is great and all... but are you really concerned about your HDD temps?
Click to expand...
In case of single HDD there's nothing to worry if there's free space around it...
But multiple closely positioned HDDs become hot fast if there isn't airflow, especially without hard, heat conducting metal to metal, mounting they'll go fast to near too hot to touch temperatures if there isn't airflow.
(HDDs don't generate much heat but they're just lousy at getting rid of it without help... just like CPU would be without heatsink)
 
Hmm... Looks like the Cosmos S might also work great with three 4-in-3's. That would make it almost like a Stacker 830 except with a bunch of hard drive spaces and still one optical drive available.
 
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