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Introduction
I'm putting some solid money down on the fact that pretty much every one of you folks out there has a case on that computer you're using presently. Hmmm? Am I right, or what? Lemme know if I'm not: tkitch@systemlogic.net (I'm just really curious to see if some of you don't have computers in a case.) Well, back to the topic at hand, let me throw a few guesses at you folks. (Mind you this only applies to those of you who built the systems yourself, OEM equipment doesn't count.)
- A lot of you chose your case based on the price, it was cheap and would fit.
- The case would hold enough stuff to make you happy.
- It was cheap.
- You just clicked on something on the site you got the rest from to hold it.
- It's just a case, so what's the big deal?
For a lot of people those questions would have more than one answered "yes". And at the moment I'm sure some of you are pondering number 5 up there wondering just that right about now. Well, my friends, while the case may come as a second thought to a lot of people, most enlightened power users know, that the case is the start of any good system. If you want a great system, you need a good case to get it there. Right now some of you are still thinking "Its just a case" and all I can say is "it is just a case and a monitor is just a monitor and a car is just a car, right?" Well, if you think what I said was right, you definitely need to keep reading and pay attention, because you've been sheltered for way too long.
But It's Just A Case!?!?
Your case is not just a metal box your stuff is in. If you believe that, then you're mistaken in a very bad way. Your case is your system's first line of defense against overheating, and your last resort as well. A 75$ copper heat sink and fan combo won't help you all that much unless you've got a well ventilated case to store it in.
The reason for this is simple, for all the heat sinks and cooling gadgets and everything else we put in our cases, there is one substance that does 90+% of the cooling in our cases, and that is air. Air. The more air the case moves in the right places, the better our hardware runs, and the longer it lasts. The air is the substance that pulls the heat out of the Heat Sinks and other components. A good case will aid this by having enough fan mounts, as well as having them in the right places to allow for better airflow. The other important part of the airflow is the 'where' the air moves in the case. If the air doesn't get near the processor or video card, its not going to do much good there, so making sure the air gets to the hot spots necessary is a big part of a case's design. This is where case modding comes into play, when people want to get fans added to the case to aid in cooling specific areas of the box. However, not everyone has the tools or the know-how to do this themselves. To help fix this some companies have stepped in with some pre-modded cases in order to help out the less than handy-men out there who aren't ready to hack n slash a case.
The one I'm going to be looking at here today is the FrozenCPU Blizzard 280 pre-modded case. This bad-boy comes stock with 3 92mm blowholes as well as a nice overall design to it. All of this is well and good, but looks don't mean much in this kinda case, now its time to tear into this guy and see what he's got inside and what it does. Not to mention see if it can hold its own against one of my modded designs.
>> Design/Construction
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