Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

SilverStone PS08: A Decent, Ultra Low-Cost Micro-ATX Case

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #21
    Originally posted by bnolsen View Post
    I do entirely agree with that, the intake trumps. There's still plenty of options out there that are inexpensive and have dual 120s anyways. One positive thing that has changed is that hard drive temps seem to have really dropped in the past 10 years. I'm not sure how much heat SSDs generate in comparison but their smaller size seems to make them easier to cool.

    Playing around with different cases in the past that do days worth of highly threaded complex geometry processing gave us a decent idea of do's and don'ts for certain configurations. Yeah some of the more important systems were server room, but not all.
    It really depends on where and how you do it. For example, if you have a wide open case with a couple exhaust fans, that will be less effective because the air flow is taking the path of least resistance, which is not through your heatsinks (therefore, not properly cooling anything). In a situation like that, intake fans are better because it forces the air in, and lets it seep out on its own.

    But if you have a sort of duct system (or in other words, a much more linear path of air flow) then there isn't much of a difference when doing just exhaust fans, except for noise. I have a FX-6300 at 4.4GHz and under 100% load my temperature doesn't exceed 55C. This is air cooled with only a heatsink fan and an exhaust fan, but you can REALLY feel the heat spewing out the back. If the CPU is idle and I crank up the fans, the temperature drops to as low as 16C. Not bad for a $60 computer case and a $25 heatsink.

    Comment


    • #22
      Originally posted by schmidtbag View Post
      Personally, I think full towers are going to be phased out somewhat soon, and mid towers will probably follow shortly after. Computer parts are shrinking and more features are being crammed into smaller places. Most modern computers don't need more than 1 storage device or GPU. Most modern computers don't need a separate NIC, SATA/RAID controller, or sound card. Hell, some systems these days don't even need integrated audio, due to HDMI audio. With things like Thunderbolt around, in a worst case scenario, you could use it as a PCIe substitute.
      The mainstream casual consumer has embraced laptops as their default form-factor. Can't get much more shrunk than that. Only power users have desktops at home these days. You know, the folks who appreciate things like having many expansion slots on a normal sized ATX motherboard. Folks who want dual-socket systems, or at least high TDP single sockets that need room to breathe. And especially Linux folks who have the option of fantastic software RAID, will want multiple storage devices. I've got 4 disks in my home PC. A mirrored pair for the OS, and a mirrored pair for the /home mount point. There will always be a market for real workstations, as opposed to disposable consumer peecee's.

      Don't forget the Windows peecee gamer crowd, who crams 2, 3, and even 4 double-width graphics cards into a single machine. Not to mention the water-cooling weirdos, who want room for pumps and radiators and tubing. There's a strong hobbyist market for this stuff.

      Full towers aren't going anywhere.

      Comment


      • #23
        Originally posted by Tgui View Post
        Family and friends think I'm insane when they see my full tower. I remember back in the day when bigger was better. Thats also when biege was the only color choice.
        The situation isn't much better today. Seems like you can have any color you want now, so long as it's black. Its like 1995 all over again, black is the new beige. Any online retailer now, if they sell 100 different cases, you can bet that 94 of them only come in black. 3 will be silver. 2 will be white. 1 is some other color. The selection sucks for those of us who dislike black cases.

        Originally posted by bnolsen View Post
        fan balance. 120mm intake, 120mm exhaust.
        Fan balance is fine for a server in a data center. Doesn't work so well for a home computer though. At home, you want more intake than exhaust, and with dust filters on the intakes. 120mm intake, 80mm exhaust, assuming they both spin at the same speed. You want the case lightly pressurized. If it isn't, it'll pull in dust from every tiny opening and crevice. Even more so if your PC is on the floor. It'll be a disaster inside in no time. Don't forget to take into account that many graphics cards use a squirrel cage fan that exhausts externally, so factor that into your fan sizing.
        Last edited by torsionbar28; 11 March 2014, 02:28 PM.

        Comment


        • #24
          Originally posted by torsionbar28 View Post
          The mainstream casual consumer has embraced laptops as their default form-factor. Can't get much more shrunk than that. Only power users have desktops at home these days. You know, the folks who appreciate things like having many expansion slots on a normal sized ATX motherboard. Folks who want dual-socket systems, or at least high TDP single sockets that need room to breathe. And especially Linux folks who have the option of fantastic software RAID, will want multiple storage devices. I've got 4 disks in my home PC. A mirrored pair for the OS, and a mirrored pair for the /home mount point. There will always be a market for real workstations, as opposed to disposable consumer peecee's.

          Don't forget the Windows peecee gamer crowd, who crams 2, 3, and even 4 double-width graphics cards into a single machine. Not to mention the water-cooling weirdos, who want room for pumps and radiators and tubing. There's a strong hobbyist market for this stuff.

          Full towers aren't going anywhere.
          I agree, I don't think desktop computers will ever go away, but I still don't think FULL towers will retain much interest after a few years. But as of right now and the near future, they're not going anywhere.

          I fall under the enthusiast category (500g CPU heatsink, 2 GPUs, 1 SSD, 2 HDDs in RAID 1, fan controller, and so on) but I fit all of that comfortably in a mid tower. You can still fit 4 double-width GPUs in a mid tower, and because of how little people take advantage of full towers (if they even have the money/knowledge to), I just don't see the price point remaining appealing. Water cooling is slowly becoming a thing of the past, and while it hardly is the only feature that appeals to full tower users, the diminishing market of it will directly impact full tower sales.
          Last edited by schmidtbag; 12 March 2014, 09:22 AM.

          Comment

          Working...
          X