I've been very concerned about the heat buildup inside Messiah (my quad core rendering behemoth) for a while now; The bigger PSU and GeForce 9800GT Graphics card I put in there a while back added quite a lot of heat, and one small fan on the back of the case wasn't really cutting it. And it especially wasn't cutting it since I took the RAM from 2Gb up to 8Gb. And with the recent hot weather, even with the windows wide open the processor fan was going crazy. It seriously did get to the point when I was worried about the CPU overheating and permanent damage being done. So, I decided to give Messiah a new home. A shitload of research and a quick trip to PC World later (eBay would have been a bit cheaper, but not by much and I wouldn't have been able to get a good look at the case first), I came home with this: This, dear readers, is a CoolerMaster HAF-922 PC case. It comes with 3 fans, and it's f*cking HUGE. Seriously. Messiah's old case looks like an iPod Shuffle next to a f*cking boombox when it's compared with this monster. It's way taller, way deeper, and way wider then the original Acer case Messiah was shoehorned into when he was born. It also comes with 3 fans already built in - 2 200mm fans on the top and front, and 1 120mm fan at the back. Yum. A friend and I just spent the evening doing the transplant. All precautions were taken, of course; anti-static wrist straps were used at every stage, and as components were removed from the old case they were cleaned with a can of air to get rid of all that horrible dust that always builds up inside a computer (that shit does your heat buildup no favours either). It took us about 3 hours from start to finish; that's not including a trip up to Asda to procure Dolce Gusto coffee pods and smokes. Here is Messiah's old case, after being gutted: Cramped case was craaaaaaamped. The HDs were over the end of the motherboard, the gfx card just fitted, and the heat buildup was truly terrifying. Meanwhile, at the same time as the old case was just sitting there, Messiah was being moved into his new case: ... LOOK. AT. THE. SIZE. OF. THOSE. FANS. Not to mention the obscenely cool hard drive caddies. And the sheer amount of space in there. Everything went well; a few minor issues with matching the connectors in the new case to the pins on the motherboard (thanks to Acer for using non-standard colouring on the leads. Durf.) And now, presenting the new and (vastly) improved Messiah 2.0: Ohhhh yeah. Badas case is badass. Look at that lighting! BLOODY LOOKIT! Best of all, I am currently writing this as Messiah renders a very complicated scene from Transformers: Redemption Episode Two in Lightwave. I also have Photoshop CS4, 3 instances of Windows Explorer, Media Player, and Semagic running, and the noise level (and temperature, best of all) is a fraction of the volume that it was before the transplant. So everything is working perfectly, and Messiah seems very happy in his new home. Which, as I already mentioned, looks UTTERLY sick. Overheat NOW if you dare, yer bastich.
Very nice. That case looks wicked cool... (pun intended) I really need something like this for my computer. The processor fans are always going crazy.
those fans are HUGE! I don't think you'll have any crashing issues with those suckers in it... unless they manage to get the damn computer to achieve flight (which, by the size, might be possible...)
Yes it is. However I wouldn't have gotten any additional benefit from paying even more to have one. I'm not quite sure what your point is.
Phew, is that a stock CPU cooler? It looks awfully dinky for a quad core even if it's an aftermarket - you might still have overheating issues if you keep that in there, case fans nonwithstanding.
Man Draven, that looks hot..I'm pretty much a Mac guy now but I can appreciate the beauty of a new case. I have been building PC's audio/video rigs for years. That is a nice set up bro. reminds me of when the Apex stuff came out. They were like 4 foot high. I had to have one.. Do you record you music on PC?
I agree; CPU cooling is the next thing on the upgrade list. It's going to be the centrepiece of my studio once I move to Scotland in a couple of months; it'll be running Cubase, Reason & ProTools. I use a Tascam 2488 hard disc recorder (hooked into a Yamaha O3D mixing desk) to record the audio initially, then I transfer it via USB to the PC for mixing in ProTools.
We had the same Mixer for a while. We run Cubase and Protools too. I sold the mixer and bought 2 Avalon SP 737, Manley Variable MU Comperssor and a GreatRiver Mic Pre.. We can only record 1 stero pair at s time but it was worth it. We record into a Apogee Rosetta 200 on cubase on our MacPro running (get this) WINDOWS XP.. We have too many plugins to move over to OSX right now.
The O3D has been a Godsend, bro. I have a lot of stuff to run into it - an Akai S6000, an Emu ESI2000, a Quadrasynth, a BassStation, an Emax I, an Ensoniq Mirage, an MC-303, a Boss PC-2 analogue precussion pedal and a Theremin as well as mics, my minidisc & DAT machines, 8 outputs from the 1010LT soundcard in the PC, and so on (although not all at the same time). I'm after a decent patchbay to help with all that, and I'm actually considering getting hold of the 8 in/8 out expansion board for the O3D as well when I can afford it.
Yes it was a great unit for us to, but the damn Rosetta is only a 2 input Audio Recording Card. So we were wasting all those damn inputs with a huge digital Mixer. We have a Patchbay and 16 channel mixer now. We produce the music in cubase via midi then bus them over to record into audio. Wworks for us. But you never know..Theres a used audio gear spot by me. Sometimes he gets those cards pretty cheep. Ill let u know if I see one.
I saw the Haf 922. the size is the same like any regular desktop you see from dell or HP in school or office. the haf 932 is huge and heavy too. i actually have that case. when i first bought it waiting it to arrive, i thought it was normal in size but i was wrong, its freaking huge! great case btw and it has good airflow too.
HAF is a popular case in our shop also. You should think about liquid Draven. Heres one we did for some spoiled kid for xmas and another
That's quite the beast there, Draven. Crazy that it has more and bigger fans but is actually quieter than the old case.
That's the joy of the bigger fans. Bigger blades means more air movement at lower speeds, so the fans spin slower which makes less noise.
My only hate for cases with more fans is the dust. I have an Antec 900, currently down with a dead 3870X2, and the thing sucks in dust like a vacuum. CZ those cases look amazing. I'd give anything to have the ability to get that done but with purple coolant. Looks ace.
