Fastest systems in IStyle case???
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Devonavar
Fastest systems in IStyle case???
What are the top rated (and heat producing) systems that people have in the Nexus IStyle case? It looks great, but they really could have tried a bit harder improving the airflow. A well placed intake would make such a difference.
I purchased an iStyle case for a 3.06 Ghz P4 system with 1 Gb DDR RAM, SOYO Dragon P875i mainboard, Zalman 7000Cu CPU Cooler, Nexus NX-400 PSU, (2) Seagate Barracuda V 80 GB Serial ATA drives and an ATI Radeon 8500 video card. I also Installed one 92mm fan in the rear of the case (Papst), and a 80mm fan on the side of the drive cage (also Papst).
I had no problem with the processor temperatures, but I could not keep the hard drive below 55 degrees C.
The case does not easily allow for modifications, and the rear fan doesn't mount on a single flat surface. Instead the inner case has a 90 bend/offset in it, right in the middle of output, and then a second set of holes for the air to pass through on the outer (plastic) case. Also the slide in fan mount for the drive cage, is not in line with air flow and is about 60 percent blocked (best guess).
If you are going to run cooler drives like Western Digital or Maxtor then the system might be ok. I ended up going to an Antec SLK3700, with two 120mm Papst fans. I cut the grill out like the review shows, and the drive are running at 42-44 degrees C all day long.
Sparky
I had no problem with the processor temperatures, but I could not keep the hard drive below 55 degrees C.
The case does not easily allow for modifications, and the rear fan doesn't mount on a single flat surface. Instead the inner case has a 90 bend/offset in it, right in the middle of output, and then a second set of holes for the air to pass through on the outer (plastic) case. Also the slide in fan mount for the drive cage, is not in line with air flow and is about 60 percent blocked (best guess).
If you are going to run cooler drives like Western Digital or Maxtor then the system might be ok. I ended up going to an Antec SLK3700, with two 120mm Papst fans. I cut the grill out like the review shows, and the drive are running at 42-44 degrees C all day long.
Sparky
Both fan mounts are of the plastic slide in type. I did not consider cutting the rear mount, as my main problem was hard drive temperature. If you did cut out the fan grill, I don't know how you would mount an aftermarket grill on. The sheet metal has a pretty good offset in it, and the back is actually made of plastic....
The 80mm fan which can be installed on the side of the hard drive cage is a whole different set of problems. First off it is parallel to the side of the case with about 1/2 to 3/4 inch clearance with the side. Second, it is on the inside of the case, and the case is riveted together, so even getting to the fan is a bit of trick. Third, to cut out the fan opening, one would literally be cutting the away the hard drive mounting/support tabs.
The 80mm fan which can be installed on the side of the hard drive cage is a whole different set of problems. First off it is parallel to the side of the case with about 1/2 to 3/4 inch clearance with the side. Second, it is on the inside of the case, and the case is riveted together, so even getting to the fan is a bit of trick. Third, to cut out the fan opening, one would literally be cutting the away the hard drive mounting/support tabs.