---NEVERMIND!! I'm going with the Coolermaster Wavemaster-- that's his choice and the silly geek already found out it was me. so much for surprises.

I need your help to find the right case for my husband. It's a gift of course and I dont' have much of an idea what to buy. Right now, the current system has 6 hd's, 11 fans, 550 power supply, 1 gig memory and whatever else a computer needs to fit in a thermaltake higher tower. this thing is pretty loud.

What's the best case in the market right now? Not too flashy please, preferally alumninum looking. So far, I've read that Lian Li is top, but I did like the Antec P160 Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Case.

Please help me. cheers! :beer:

huh ? termaltake XASER perhabs ? this is one of the best cases .... If I got to much money I would by a XASER III but I don't know much about cases

Xaser is ugly as sin...go with the wave master, it's beautiful if you can afford it.

i prefer antec myself too
i dont think you can go wrong with antec

I agree, I swear by their power supplies...and all of my cases have been Antec (all 2 of them but still)...you definitely get the most for your money with them. I'm running a nice 1080 AMG ATM

beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

i have a xaser2 6000A and i like it.

Get an Antec or thermaltake xaser. If you think it is too loud, that would not be the casing problem. If you really want a quite system, get the water cooling for your CPU it sure make no noise cuz it is using "water".
If water cooling is not you want, get the cooljag CVJ252A. It can cool well and quiet.

I have a Thermalatake xaser III and it sucks ...
Its very heavy. Front panel RPM knob for Thermaltakes OWN power supply does not fit well.
Its TOO dam heavy ...
Front panel knob for my Coolermaster HSF does not fit well.

Full height cards like my 9800 pro do not fit well at ALL !!! Their "toolless" system dosent take in account full height cards !. THIS IS A MAJOR SNAFU !!
Did I mention its too damn heavy ? .. I find this irritating coz I have small room with two cases.. I have to constantly maneuver things around.

May be I'll get a Cooler Master Wave Master as well... anyone care to gift me?

Weight shouldn't matter once the case is in a place you usually leave it there

you got a non-alu version right?
of course its heavy. if thats an issur you should have bought a aluminium version of it - or you could hit the gym more often ;P

6 hard drives? How many other drives? What's the total drive count including DVD, CD, etc., along with anything else that might be stuffed into a full-sized 5.25" and/or 3.5" drive bay (like a tape backup, Digital Doc 5, Audigy Platinum bay, etc.)? Total hard drive and drive bay count is important. If he's got a lot of drives, he's going to need a lot of drive space.

I'm a firm believer in Lian Li cases and either the PC-70, PC-75 or PC-76 should work just fine. I have the PC-76. It's expensive but it's THE biggest conventionally shaped case on the market (virtical tower design). It's not terribly tall but it's VERY wide and VERY deep. My total hard drive + drive bay count is 12 and the PC-76 has room to spare.

Mine also has 10 fans (all very low speed and very quiet). 4 in the front (80mm), 2 in upper rear (92mm) and 4 x 120mm divided between 2 radiators (one in the top of the case and one in the lower rear. These are ALL either Stealth fans or adjustable speed Enermax fans that are set to low and even with 10 fans installed, it's a very quiet system. It's water cooled though so you'd expect to it be. The air flow through an enermax is truly amazing.

Anyway, get back to us on the above questions (in the first paragraph).

Later.