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Help please: Minimal Design Cases

JRJUK

Hi everyone,

 

In September I will be promoted at work so I will get a pay rise & to celebrate I will be building myself a new gaming rig & it's just not worth upgrading my current rig (i5-4690K)

I like my technology to be clean & minimalist & I will be doing a white & purple build, I've worked out most of the components I will be using but I'm unsure about the Case, Mobo & variant of GPU (I will ask in those forums)

 

In terms of case I straight away went to NZXT in particular the H500i as its literally the most clean minimal case I can think of, however I've also seen the Lian Li O11 Dynamic, I've seen extensive videos on both cases & I really can't make up my mind, in terms of size I don't want anything too big as my current case is HUGE, a Bitfenix Shinobi XL.

 

In terms of what I will be putting in this case I will be putting in:

ATX Motherboard

AIO CPU watercooler

RTX 2080TI (normal size card)

 

So I have two questions to ask:

1. Are there any other ATX cases that are white, with a clean minimal design?

2. What case should I pick, I know the Lian Li can have issues with the adhesive on the front glass panel & there are some airflow issues on the H500i

 

Also I live in the UK so availability may be an issue however I will import if I must.

 

Thanks again for your help on this

 

Jon

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I have the H500i white, is very nice.

No problems with airflow,I just recommend you use two 140mm fans.

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

Spoiler

Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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1. The Phanteks P400 is pretty minimalistic, but I think the NZXT H500i looks better.

 

2. I have the H200i (essentially same case just smaller) and I love it, so I would go with the H500i. The only issue I had was with mounting a radiator on the front of the case, i'm sure I was just being dumb that day, but it took me 5 tries to get it mounted in properly. 

 

Also, congrats on the promotion

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On 2/13/2019 at 12:25 PM, Enderman said:

I have the H500i white, is very nice.

No problems with airflow,I just recommend you use two 140mm fans.

Are those mounted on the front?

 

On 2/13/2019 at 12:27 PM, Sorenson said:

1. The Phanteks P400 is pretty minimalistic, but I think the NZXT H500i looks better.

 

2. I have the H200i (essentially same case just smaller) and I love it, so I would go with the H500i. The only issue I had was with mounting a radiator on the front of the case, i'm sure I was just being dumb that day, but it took me 5 tries to get it mounted in properly. 

 

Also, congrats on the promotion

1. Looks pretty nice, I'll take a further look.

2. How have you got the fans on intake or exhaust?

 

Thank you :) 

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4 minutes ago, JRJUK said:

2. How have you got the fans on intake or exhaust?

In the front I have two 120mm fans intaking air though a radiator, and in the back I have a single 120mm fan exhausting air also through a radiator (I have an AIO on my CPU and my GPU is a hybrid water cooled card). I've been using it like this for the past 5 months, and have had no issues with thermals. There is also the option to mount fans on the top as intake/exhaust. 

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2 minutes ago, Sorenson said:

In the front I have two 120mm fans intaking air though a radiator, and in the back I have a single 120mm fan exhausting air also through a radiator (I have an AIO on my CPU and my GPU is a hybrid water cooled card). I've been using it like this for the past 5 months, and have had no issues with thermals. There is also the option to mount fans on the top as intake/exhaust. 

That's what I've been thinking as well so thanks for confirming that's fine, although I won't be water cooling the GPU so I'm sure it'll still be fine. 

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17 minutes ago, JRJUK said:

Are those mounted on the front?

Yeah.

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

Spoiler

Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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Fractal Design is known for their minimal design cases, but I am afraid that they don't really have anything to offer in your case – their white cases have black elements and you either get a compact ATX like a Meshify C or a basically E-ATX like Define R6/S2. Although Define R5 might be worth looking at (thermals won't be great). 

Ex-EX build: Liquidfy C+... R.I.P.

Ex-build:

Meshify C – sold

Ryzen 5 1600x @4.0 GHz/1.4V – sold

Gigabyte X370 Aorus Gaming K7 – sold

Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8 GB @3200 Mhz – sold

Alpenfoehn Brocken 3 Black Edition – it's somewhere

Sapphire Vega 56 Pulse – ded

Intel SSD 660p 1TB – sold

be Quiet! Straight Power 11 750w – sold

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On 2/14/2019 at 1:15 AM, JRJUK said:

I like my technology to be clean & minimalist

How about Corsair Carbide 330R?

My system specs:

Spoiler

CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K, 5GHz Delidded LM || CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-C14S w/ NF-A15 & NF-A14 Chromax fans in push-pull cofiguration || Motherboard: MSI Z370i Gaming Pro Carbon AC || RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2x8Gb 2666 || GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 6Gb FTW2+ DT || Storage: Samsung 860 Evo M.2 SATA SSD 250Gb, 2x 2.5" HDDs 1Tb & 500Gb || ODD: 9mm Slim DVD RW || PSU: Corsair SF600 80+ Platinum || Case: Cougar QBX + 1x Noctua NF-R8 front intake + 2x Noctua NF-F12 iPPC top exhaust + Cougar stock 92mm DC fan rear exhaust || Monitor: ASUS VG248QE || Keyboard: Ducky One 2 Mini Cherry MX Red || Mouse: Logitech G703 || Audio: Corsair HS70 Wireless || Other: XBox One S Controler

My build logs:

 

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Noooooooo, do not get the P400/P400S! The front panel means almost 0 intake air. I had a P400S and just bought a Meshify S2 to replace it because temps were so bad. 

 

The original non-S2 Meshify is fairly cheap and is great, +1 for that. 

i9 9900K @ 5.1 | AsRock Z390 Taichi | MSI GTX 1080 Ti | 16GB G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-4133 | 1TB Muskin Pilot NVME | 1TB Samsung 860 Evo | 5TB Toshiba X300 | Fractal Design Meshify S2

 

i7 860 @ 2.8 | Advantech AIMB280 ITX | EVGA GTX 950 2GB  | 2GB Kingston DDR3-1333 | Hitachi 500GB | WD 320GB | Silverstone SFX-L | Silverstone RVZ01

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On 2/13/2019 at 6:15 PM, JRJUK said:

Also I live in the UK so availability may be an issue however I will import if I must.

Is that brexit related? I don’t think the UK has many issues getting cases. 

 

I think your minimal is actually quite fancy.

 

I love the minimal design of Fractal cases so I have an windowless Nano S. It’s superb looking while having great thermals and good sound dampening. The C series is also quite good but I have heard the R5 is not that good vs R6.

 

Proper minimalist is plain colour, no window IMO.

i5 8600 - RX580 - Fractal Nano S - 1080p 144Hz

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On 2/17/2019 at 10:54 AM, NineEyeRon said:

Is that brexit related? I don’t think the UK has many issues getting cases. 

 

I think your minimal is actually quite fancy.

 

I love the minimal design of Fractal cases so I have an windowless Nano S. It’s superb looking while having great thermals and good sound dampening. The C series is also quite good but I have heard the R5 is not that good vs R6.

 

Proper minimalist is plain colour, no window IMO.

No reason with Brexit in particular but some GPUs for example aren't available here only NA for some reason.

 

Yeah I should have specified a window because i'm a basic bitch but clean is probably the word that suits what I want best.

 

Thanks again for your suggestions.

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9 minutes ago, JRJUK said:

No reason with Brexit in particular but some GPUs for example aren't available here only NA for some reason.

 

Yeah I should have specified a window because i'm a basic bitch but clean is probably the word that suits what I want best.

 

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Don’t forget to show the finished product, personally I like your colour choice and would love to see how it looks in the end.

 

One day I may build a flashy PC with a window and lighting but probably not for a while.

i5 8600 - RX580 - Fractal Nano S - 1080p 144Hz

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On 2/19/2019 at 11:52 AM, NineEyeRon said:

Don’t forget to show the finished product, personally I like your colour choice and would love to see how it looks in the end.

 

One day I may build a flashy PC with a window and lighting but probably not for a while.

Oh I will don't worry.

 

Below is a link to my current PC that I build in 2014 on a very strict budget of £900 which i will be replacing.

I want to go 1 step further with aesthetics this time so I want it to be perfect.

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/b/2QvV3C

 

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