[dot_anthem]

Hi, I plan on building a new computer soon, and I was looking at some of the acrylic cases that you buy and assemble yourself. I was wondering if others here have had any experience with them? On TomsHardware some people say that the acrylic heats up far quicker than your basic steel/aluminum case. If I got say 5 basic 80mm fans and a decent heatsink for the CPU, as well has a hard drive cooler and PCI-slot fan, it would be enough cooling to run fine? I'm not rich, so at the most I will be spending $600. I don't want to ruin anything becuase this would be my only chance to get my own computer.

[fscrp]

Metal cases help to dissipate heat like heatsinks do for the cpu. I have not personally done a build with acrylic, but a friend did.

Here are some of the negatives:

Heat build-up
Easily scratched
Dust bunnies in the case are easily seen
Poor wire management makes the overall look crappy

If possible, get one with 120mm case fan mounts. They spin slower but still move a lot of air without as much noise. Get a motherboard with heat sensors and fan control. As it gets hotter the fans spin faster.

[skatalite]

i have an acrylic case. I personally wish I would have gotten a metal case though. For the exact reasons above. They do heat up quite a bit. Mine isn't bad though. Have about 6 fans. My only problem is when I want to add a hard drive or something.. I can to take the side that the motherboard is screwed on completely off, then I can tighten the screws to hold the hard drive in. It also gets dusty VERY quickly. With sleeved cables and lighting it does look nice though.

[johnfoe]

Don't buy an acrylic case period. They heat up and are extremely hard to keep clean.

[dot_anthem]

I have no problem with dusting it out every few days, for cooling systems, I was looking at these:

http://www.xoxide.com/fancard.html
http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-icage-module.html
http://www.xoxide.com/ocz-xtc-memory-cooler.html
and last but not least
http://www.xoxide.com/aerocool-silve...pu-cooler.html

Do you thinkthat would be enough cooling to counter-act the heating of an acrylic case?

[culexor]

i agree with all of the above, and i think they're kinda cheesy.

if you want a really good cpu cooler go with this:
http://www.xoxide.com/ultra-chilltec...hannelid=FROOG

[johnfoe]

Yeah, just imagine how great it will look with scratches. Dust is a huge problem, expect to do it at least once a week if you actually care how they look.

The only purpose I can think of an acrylic case is for educational purposes and showing off. If you are gonna be the one sitting there looking at it 95% of the time I don't think it is 'worth' it.

Watercooling would definitely fix the heat problem, but that will also add to cost. I'm a fan man myself leaning towards the extremely quite ones so I'm probably bias.