New Alternative/Replacement for the Cooler Master 590

[Adrian]

I did a search and didn't get any hits, so I wanted to let you all know about my recent upgrade. I recently hit the capacity of my Cooler Master 590, but didn't really want to start swapping out 1.5TB drives with 2 or 3s nor did I want to go with a Norco. Well while searching for a new case I ran into this monster.

 

Xigmatek Elysium

http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=122

 

It basically allows you the same type of setup as a Cooler Master 590 plus an additional 3x 5.25" bays, allowing for a 4th 4x3 cage to be added for a total of 16 drives in a very quiet configuration. It comes with 2 cages, so those of you going from a CM 590 can reuse 2 of your existing cages. If you suffer from OCD, Xigmatek also makes the same cages which are all black like the case available at Newegg. It has lots of slots for managing cables. It also has built in connectors for the cage fans five at the bottom and five at the top. In the top front, besides the usual header connections for USB, audio and fire wire, it also has an eSata port and get this, a built in HDD dock as well!

 

The only thing I had to do was remove some metal brackets it had inside behind the cages (like 3 of them) because they interfered with getting the CM cages in. But they were held with screws, so not an issue.

 

So basically it's a CM 590 on steroids.

 

As for where I got it. Newegg sells them, but I ended up getting them at my local Microcenter who price matches Newegg, so got it for $171+tax locally avoiding the shipping. Also since no one else had bought it, I wanted to be able to return it locally if it didn't work.

 

[prostuff1]

The Antec 1200v3 is cheaper.  Never used the case above so can't compare but the 1200v3 is a very nice case.

[ibixat]

I don't have experience with this specific case but I did pick up a Xigmatek Utgard for 50 bucks from newegg, it is similar to the elysium with only 9 5.25 bays and one of the internal 4x3 drive cages included. It's currently out of stock for that version but there are two more variations they sell for 10 bucks more each.  They sell the internal cages for about 25 bucks each so I grabbed 2 of them as well.  I think it worked out nicely in the end, the drives stay a decent temperature even when the room gets warm.

 

I Imagine that their higher end case will be at least as good or better than their mid tower and I was very pleased with the quality level of the Utgard given the low price, it feels nice and solid and all the edges were smooth etc, no gaping wounds from simply assembling it.  I'd definitely buy another Xigmatech case if the price range was right, I'm not sure why the 12 bay elysium costs so much though.

 

I'm running 12 drives in my Utgard now and most run between 25-30 C, the 7200 rpm cache drive usually 2-3 warmer than the rest.  Without the 4 in 3's the drives were hitting 34-37 on the top end, once I put the 4 in 3's in the drives dropped down to the high 20's low 30's at their hottest.

 

Have some pictures of how it looks inside and what the front of the 4 in 3's look like with the front of the case off, I'm wish I had better cable management skills but it seems ok so far.