My CPU pretty much had a meltdown last night. I need a new case.

I forgot that my temp monitor ulility wasn't running and I was ripping/encoding a bunch of CDs last night. All of a sudden the comp shuts down...I think...wth? Turn it back on and realize that it's hot enough to boil water. I turned on the temp monitor and the CPU was almost 90*C!

Oops. I let it cool down, then started using my external DVD drive to rip stuff. Anyway, I HATE this tiny case that I have. Not only does the cooling ability of it suck, but its really loud too. What moron designed this thing where the PSU is directly above the CPU?

The heat of the optical drive combined with the mp3 encoding is really what sent the CPU over the top though.

I need some recommendations on a slightly larger case that will be VERY QUIET and cool. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!


I have this MOBO:

Asus P4P800-VM

This CPU:

Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz

This Case:

Antec ARIA. Small form-factor PC case

huh.

52 views and no opinions on what I should buy.


<goes and sits in the corner like a good boy>

Sorry! I viewed it and didn't reply because I figured someone would come along with a better suggestion than I could offer. But you're right, that's a lot of views without replies for this board

One thing that I think would help is if we knew what you wanted to do. I mean, you say that you melted your CPU, but then you just say you want a bigger case. I would have thought that temperatures like that would have done some damage.

If you were looking to go with a new case/mobo, I would have just suggested a Shuttle. I think they basically have two lines, one for maximum performance and one for noise levels.

Other than that, I haven't looked at SFF cases that weren't sold as barebones systems.

I'm assuming you want to keep your CPU and board since they sound OK.

I've always thought Antec were a good brand, but have now made a mental note to avoid their really small cases.

The Sonata has had good reviews and I built a machine using this case for a friend. It was well made and had great little features like rubber hard drive mountings and a quality power supply to keep the noise down. Airflow was not bad. I'd recommend it, even though it is Antec again.

At work we have a fileserver in a Antec AMG???? case. It is excellent quality and airflow is great. Not the quietest case around but I'm sure a little bit of fiddling would fix that. It is also huge, which I'm guessing by the case you have at the moment is not something you would go for.

When you get a bigger case, you may want to think about a bigger heatsink to help wick away some heat with low speed fans.

Quote:
The Sonata has had good reviews and I built a machine using this case for a friend. It was well made and had great little features like rubber hard drive mountings and a quality power supply to keep the noise down.

I've got two Antec Sonata II cases -- one for the Windows box, and one for the Ubuntu box. They're great. They're pretty cool (except that the ambient temperature in London's not been great these last few weeks), and the noise level's good -- except on the Windows box, where most of the noise is coming from the fan on my graphics card.

I'm considering moving to a water cooling system for the Windows box, on the other hand.