Tower Case and 400w p/s

[Cruez]

Howdy...
Southern Belle, if you get the change can you forward it to me?

I'm from North Carolina, and I have to admit I probably sound pretty southern to Ya'll..

[davesdynamite]

shhhh southern belle! now everyone will know about these great cases and 400w power supplies!
My friend and I have bought these numerous times ($54 shipped w/pwr supply). They are great because they have front USB ports, a fan slot in the back and 5 bays. Only weird thing is the fan slot on the bottom. Also, I do have an Epox motherboard and have had constant problems with my machine for some time now (running Win98se). I have been wondering lately if the power supply had something to do with it, but haven't tried switching it out yet. If I do, I'll try to let y'all know .. hehe
dave

[MegalosSkylos]

Are these the ACE cases by Future Power?
How many fans does it provide for. Specs say "One-Optional". Huh?
3.3 v rail output~ 14A? is that so?
Thinking of getting one myself so that's why I'm asking. Noticed somewhere thickness is .6, not .8 or 1.0mm. Is case lite? Is it strong?

[davesdynamite]

it's pretty strong, yeah it has thin walls, but it's better than the compgeeks cheap cases in construction. It has side panels that remove, instead of a one piece u-shape to get inside the case. I don't know about the rail/output, what's that? Yes, these are the ACE cases by Future Power.

[AnakiMana]

Hi there... I'm Dave's friend. I've bought 2 of these Future Power ACE cases, and showed it to Dave, who bought one too. I've built lots of computers and must say that I was very pleased with this case. The first thing I noticed was how sturdy the case is. Indeed it is strong. The second thing was the power supply. I wrote down the power ratings from the 400w power supply sticker and compared it to all the AMD approved power supplies listed on AMD's website. This 400w power supply exceeded or met those on AMD's website. IIRC, it surpassed almost every one... in every category. There are fan-mounts (1) on the back, and (2) on the bottom near the front. That's right, it's facing down, and unless you set your computer on homebuilt stands, it will suck air off the carpet or desktop (along with dust if you don't add a filter). There is no fan mount in the normal front of the case. That's really not a big deal though, if you ask me. I'm running my Thunderbird 1.2 (266fsb) stable at 1.46ghz with only the back fan and my cpu-fan. I'll eventually cut the case or take advantage of the bottom fan mount. Oh, one other small annoyance. It doesn't include screws or any mounting equipment for the 2 fan mounts. You have to find your own screws or order them with your fans. Again, not a big enough deal to divert you.

I would highly recommend this case to anyone. And I'm planning on buying at least one more for my brother (that'll be 2 in his household).

Hope that helps!
God bless.
AnakiMana

[MegalosSkylos]

Dear daveDynamite:
The power output "rail" specs I referred to the number you see on the SPS sticker which read someting like 3.3v~14 A+/-5% etc.

The reason these are important is that AMD asks for 3.3v~14A and that the JOINT 3.3v and the 5v together maintain a certain level of out put and stability.

FYI if you take all the ("rails" I call them, perhaps incorrectly) can give you the wattage by simple multiplication and addition. Example: 3.3v~20A, hence 3.3 X 20 = 66; 5v~25A, hence 5 X25 =125 etc. Together these are 181. Add all these multiplicands up (including the minus numbers you treat as positive) and grand total equals Wattage.

The 3.3v and the 5v TOgether power the CPU and the PCI bus. Depending on who you listen to, the multiplication as per above (sum of these two v X A) should total low to mid 200's which is probably far more than AMD asks for and I would guess unnecessary for most. A lot depends what what power CPU, and on what you've installed on the PCI bus, especially some AGP cards.
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Dear Anika:

Thank you for your effort.
I appreciate it.

I keep case off floor on one of those expandable metal cage pantry "stands" they sell at stores like Hold Everything, Lector's, Bed and Beyond etc. I find this brings the tower closer to me as I have trouble bending , but also helps ventilate the case by keeping it about 6" off the ground. I worried at first about bumping into and shaking the case, but hasn't happened in 3 years. Maybe this would work nicely with this case.

[surrealchereals]

By keeping the case raised it also prevents a build up of hair, from my cat Sisi.

[Southern Belle]

heyal sorry I haven't updated in some time now.

the case is great i love it can feel the power supply fan approx 2 feet a way lol

i finally got everything installed and have a bad motherboard, lol just got off phone and it came in.

highly recommend the case!
cya,
sb