Xclio A380

[ilive4eva]

Hi, I'm thinking of getting a Xclio A380 for my new build. I have one major question though. With the huge great fan on the side have i got enough room for a decent sized CPU Heat Sink and Fan, Something like a Asus Triton 81, which i've read has height of 144.7mm or will the case not be able to shut cos the fan gets in the way?

Has anyone had any experience with this case and can let me know if it ok for that fan and whether it's a good case overall?

Thanks

[stopthekilling77]

No experience with this case, but I do system builds for a computer shop in my area. Rule of thumb, if you have to choose between a side air intake/fan or a good aftermarket cooler such as a tower cooler, go with the better cooler. Side air intakes/fans really don't do that much for CPU cooling if a case has good intake/exhaust already. Judging from the look at that case, are you planning on building this yourself or is it a choice on a boutique estore?

(I wouldn't go with that case, go with one that has standard 120mm fans as they are great at cooling, quiet, and cheap to replace if they die)

[ilive4eva]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm building it for myself. It'll be my first build, hence the needed advice. Do you reccomend any case? I'm getting a ASUS Rampage 2 Extreme motherboard (FF ATX) with a i7 920 running probably 2 Nvidia 9800GT in SLI (still debating this in my head); therefore i'm quite keen on getting a decent case with good airflow. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[stopthekilling77]

I'm quite partial to Antec cases myself, I use a P-180B which comes stock with 4x 120mm Tri-Cool fans for great airflow even when they're all set to low.
CoolerMaster makes some good cases too, and I'd recommend those two brands highly. Whatever you do, don't skimp out on a power supply either. PC Power & Cooling, Antec, Thermaltake Toughpowers, all of these are quality power supplies. Remember that the only part in your system that can kill the rest is the power supply!

Edit: DON'T GO SLI. On my first build I thought I'd do the same but in all honesty, you should just spend another $30-40 on a better, single GPU than 2 lesser ones. Reason being that not many games are optimized for SLI and the extra card will pull double wattage from the wall i.e. higher electricity bill.

[InspectahACE]

For that motherboard, I suggest either the Cooler Master HAF-932(biased I know)..OR the Thermaltake Armor Plus series case...HAF is way air flow friendly as well the Thermaltake one.. the main difference is if you ever wanted to do TRI-SLi with dual slot video cards on that motherboard, Physically, the HAF case cannot do it. It only has 7 expansion slot while the Thermaltake Armor Plus has 10... SLI isn't a bad route to go. Power wise it does use up a bit, but it is manageable. Truthfully, with my setup I've never gone over 700 watts if even 650 even under full load. For power supplies, i agree on the same brands previously mentioned as well as Corsair(<---has my pick)..I do think you should get better gpu's though...with what you're looking at getting, those 9800 gt's will just slow you down..just my opinion

Edit: The HAF case can do TRI-SLI with other motherboards..it's just the Rampage was built with only 6 slots....so the top pci-e 1x slot on the board would be on the 2nd expansion slot of the case instead of the very top one..If they didn't do that, the HAF could've easily handled three dual slot video cards with the Rampage..felt I should explain that a little better.