Hi all, I am in a bit of a dilemma at the moment as to what to do with my PC. I'm off to Uni in september, the room I will be in, which i've seen a photo of (not visited, unfortunately.) is really, very small. The desk space is totally minimal and I think I will struggle to have my current case there, which is an Antec 1200. I really need a few suggestions of a MUCH smaller case that I could put my components in so it doesn't take up as much room. This is a big problem as I know that the 1200 is VERY good at the cooling so I want a much smaller case which is also absolutely brillant at cooling. Would also like it to be easy to work with with good cable management. The spec of the PC is as follows; Intel C2D E8400 AC Freezer 7 4gb Dominator RAM ASUS P5Q Pro ATI Radeon HD 4870 512mb Antec Quattro 850 2 1TB F1 HDD CDDVDRW NEC The downside to choosing the case, is the budget is only £50 - with a possible extra £10 if I need an extra fan (I have an extra 120mm scythe fan on the 1200 I can use) or two. I was also thinking of possibly just selling the whole PC (not with monitor) and getting a good laptop, but the laptop I want is £1100 (GT275 MSI), and I don't think my PC will be getting that sort of money! So, any suggestions on some very good much smaller cases anyone!? Any advice appreciated, Cheers! Pete.
Why not try the 1200's little brother? Antec 300 has pretty good cooling, 1 x Rear 120mm Tri-Cool and 1 x Roof 140mm Tri-Cool included with the case. Mounts for 2 x 120mm in the front, 1 x 120mm side. And all for £45! http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=811571
Frankly, I don't think your system needs the cooling that a case like the 1200 provides. Or at least I'm not really seeing any components that would go south given anything less than just a couple of 120mm fans blowing over them. If you were running a Core 2 Quad or a 140W Phenom, plus a video card that didn't dump its hot air outside the case, I might think differently. But you'd be covered by about anything, I think. Given that, I would recommend looking at the Lian-Li PC-A05NB, which cuts down on the height of a standard ATX case by removing a few 5.25" and 3.5" drive bays and moving the PSU to the bottom front of the case (a small extension cord leads the plug to the back). There's only a single 120mm fan in front and another in back, but the back is very well ventilated, and like I said, I don't think you'll need a more powerful cooling setup than that. EDIT: Whoops, didn't notice you had a budget. Disregard that recommendation. - Diosjenin -
Cheers for the advice guys, still deciding, but I think that the Antec 300 route is about the best route to take. While I would love to have a shuttle, i've had bad experiences in the past so cba messing around with them right now Might get myself another 1TB hdd while i'm at it. Think i'll sell my car for a laptop... hmm
