Cases: what to look for?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kevin
  • Start date Start date
K

Kevin

Hello,

I am shopping around at local computer shops for a new system.

I noticed I can get $30 cases and it goes way up from there (few
hundred).

What do I need to know about cases? Any recommended brands? I am not a
modder though.

Thanks for the help.
 
Hello,

I am shopping around at local computer shops for a new system.

I noticed I can get $30 cases and it goes way up from there (few
hundred).

What do I need to know about cases? Any recommended brands? I am not a
modder though.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

It it's most basic function it need be sturdy enough to be
rigid, not flexing to cause component damage, and preferibly
keep more noise inside, vibrate less. Choose minimum of
0.8mm thick steel, 1.0mm Al, but any good case will be 1.0mm
steel and 1.2mm Al or even thicker... but thicker steel than
that makes for a really heavy case.

It also needs ample airflow planning, a front bezel with
large intake area and a rear exhaust fan, the larger the
better.

Beware of junky generic power supplies... one that comes in
a $30 case is almost certainly better used as a paper weight
than to power a modern system.

There are a lot of other little things, non-essential and
more a matter of finding the greatest number of positive
attributes and personal preferences in same case, or the
tradeoff that's acceptible for the price. It's far too
broad a topic to cover in a few newsgroup posts so the
generic answer is to choose an Antec case with 120mm rear
exhaust fan and at least 330W Antec power supply included
(or higher wattage for higher-end parts).

There are a LOT of nice case pictures over at
http://www.newegg.com
 
Kevin said:
Hello,

I am shopping around at local computer shops for a new system.

I noticed I can get $30 cases and it goes way up from there (few
hundred).

What do I need to know about cases? Any recommended brands? I am not a
modder though.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Kevin,

Also try tigerdirect.ca, they also have nice case pictures :) I just got my
new case yesterday and took some photos. It's from Cooler Master and I took
some shots.

http://home.netvigator.com/~bronney/cact05/
 
TigerDirect doesn't have any decent "average" cases... Much greater
selection elsewhere, such as NCIX.
 
Also try tigerdirect.ca, they also have nice case pictures :) I just got my
new case yesterday and took some photos. It's from Cooler Master and I took
some shots.

http://home.netvigator.com/~bronney/cact05/
Click to expand...


That's one of the better cases they have though, on average
TD is a clearing house for junk. Problem there is that some
poor cases don't look as bad in pictures as in person, a
fancy front bezel often mesmerizes a first-time buyer who
overlooks the poor PSU, lack of airflow, can't tell how
thick (thin) the metal is, etc.
 
Hello,

I am shopping around at local computer shops for a new system.

I noticed I can get $30 cases and it goes way up from there (few
hundred).

What do I need to know about cases? Any recommended brands? I am not a
modder though.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Some of the cheaper ones also dont come with many fans or NO fans.
And they might have sharp edges inside. I cut my finger on a recent
case I worked with. Super sharp edge,

And the cheaper ones usually are pretty plain inside. Bare - you just
have two fixed cages for 5.25 drives and 3.5 inch drives and you
usually attach things with screws to it.

The more expensive name brand ones can have a variety of different
things inside to attach and hold drives. For instance my old mid tower
antec uses a weird plastic latch which enables the 5.25 drives to just
slide in and out but both drive cages were fixed.

My full tower Antec has a different scheme but it allows the drives to
slide out too. And two lower 3.5 cages are removable with a space to
have a fan in front of the cage - it just snaps right into the cage.

On a really old Enlight I have - the drives just slide in but have two
rails that screw in on both sides of the 5" drives.

The amount of fan holes obviously differs from case to case. Some of
the really cheap ones dont have many fan holes though thats changing
as I see a proliferation of fancy looking on the outside ---- cases
selling for $20-30 nowadays.
 
I noticed I can get $30 cases and it goes way up from there (few
hundred).

What do I need to know about cases? Any recommended brands? I am not a
modder though.
Click to expand...

I found that any case measuring less than about 48cm from front to
back may be too small to let the mobo clear any CD or DVD drives in
front of it, and placing such drives above the mobo may require cables
that are longer than the usual 18". These drives are almost 21cm long
and need another 4cm for the cables, and mobos are usually from
19-24cm.

Some cases are so flimsey in the back that just moving them around can
make cards pop out, especially AGP cards. Most cases have the cards
sit about 0.5" from the rear, but the worst cases mount them flush and
instead have a piece of metal that runs along the tops of the brackets
and sticks out 0.5-1.0".

Sometimes it costs less to buy a cheap case with a junk PSU and buy a
separate high-quality PSU separately than to buy just a good case &
PSU. If you live near a Fry's Electronics, they frequently advertise
a case with PSU for $30, sometimes as little as $5-10 after rebate,
but the PSU is usually junk and should be replaced with something
decent. AFAIK the cheapest high-quality PSUs are normally ade by
Fortron-Source (Fortron, Sparkle, Powerman, Hi-Q, PowerQ) and sold by
Newegg.com, Directron.com, or dealers listed at www.pricewatch.com,
about $25-$35 for 300-350W (honest rating). But a few weeks ago Fry's
had an Antec SLK1600 case (only 43cm deep) with 300W SmartPower for
$25 after rebate (350W SmartPower alone was $15 after rebate), and
last year they had a black Enermax case & PSU for just $10 after
rebate.
 
I found that any case measuring less than about 48cm from front to
back may be too small to let the mobo clear any CD or DVD drives in
front of it, and placing such drives above the mobo may require cables
that are longer than the usual 18". These drives are almost 21cm long
and need another 4cm for the cables, and mobos are usually from
19-24cm.
Click to expand...

Thats why I dont like many smaller cases. They get really cramped
inside. Theres like variations in mid tower size - a smaller mid , avg
mid and slightly taller mid. I actually prefer full towers like I have
now.

The smaller mids and minis can get super cramped with the power supply
over hanging the CPU ! Or the drives bumping into things on the
motherboard and lots of other problems besides air flow.

I was looking at the RAIDMAXes for $27 at newegg and noticed they look
nice in the pics but they have no way of mounting the fans unless they
fit in front of the steel cage somehow. There are holes there but the
3.5 inch cage is in the way unlike standard mid tower cases were they
have a clear space for the fan there. And the back only has a 60 mm
fan hole. The only other fan mount is on the side panel besides the
PS.
 
I see no reason (unless money is a real issue) to spend less than $50 on a
case. Unlike most other computer parts, they case does not need to be
upgraded all the time. I buy a nice case for a moderate ammount of money and
I am happy. Better to be happy than to deal with a small case and cooling
problems ;). I do not take included fans and PS's into consideration when I
buy a case, seeing how I buy my own fans and PS's anyhow. I do recomend a
full tower to anyone that wants a diverse and expandable computer.
 
[email protected] said:
On 21 Oct 2004 04:10:23 -0700, (e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
The smaller mids and minis can get super cramped with the power supply
over hanging the CPU !
Click to expand...

PSUs like that can make the CPU fan a lot louder. My system quieted
down a lot after I replaced the stock heatsink with a much smaller
copper one, despite the fact that it had an identical fan.
I was looking at the RAIDMAXes for $27 at newegg and noticed they look
nice in the pics but they have no way of mounting the fans unless they
fit in front of the steel cage somehow. There are holes there but the
3.5 inch cage is in the way unlike standard mid tower cases were they
have a clear space for the fan there. And the back only has a 60 mm
fan hole. The only other fan mount is on the side panel besides the
PS.
Click to expand...

I use only one case fan, at the bottom front, and because I hang hard
drives vertically, they sit right in front of the fan. But even
without the fan, vertical mounting cools the hot chips of the HDs a
lot.

I hope you don't use the PSU of that Raidmax because
Leadman/Raidmax/Powmax/Robanton has really cheapened some of its
models. They used to be weak but otherwise OK, but now they can be as
bad as Deer.
 
I use only one case fan, at the bottom front, and because I hang hard
drives vertically, they sit right in front of the fan. But even
without the fan, vertical mounting cools the hot chips of the HDs a
lot.

I hope you don't use the PSU of that Raidmax because
Leadman/Raidmax/Powmax/Robanton has really cheapened some of its
models. They used to be weak but otherwise OK, but now they can be as
bad as Deer.
Click to expand...

Yep, I have a Raidmax "350W" here that I won't even put in
any system, it's worth about 20 cents because it has 4 fan
screws in it, every other part is substandard or "missing".

It came out of a Raidmax case that may not be too different
than what John was looking at, as it did have only a tiny
mostly-obstructed 60mm fan mount in the rear, but at least
it did have 2 x 80mm fan mounts on the bottom of the side
panel. It was a really flimsy case, with thin shiney paint
that shows fingerprints like crazy though that was partially
due to it being gloss black.

Seems like I got it as a Newegg refurb for about $15
delivered a year ago, though it was a bit of a mismatch, the
side panel and front bezel where from two different models
in the Raidmax case line! At least they matched, Raidmax
makes many cases with only side panel and front bezel being
different, though I think their redesigned, current version
does finally have an 80mm fan mount in the rear. Today I'd
never buy another one even for $15 but it had two rows of
LED bubble lights which amazed my young nephew.
 
I hope you don't use the PSU of that Raidmax because
Leadman/Raidmax/Powmax/Robanton has really cheapened some of its
models. They used to be weak but otherwise OK, but now they can be as
bad as Deer.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was just looking at the pics of the interior at Newegg cause I
thought WOW - only $25 !!! And they look pretty fancy - until I
started looking at the interior pics and reading some reviews.

I noticed something looking over the cheap cases recently. Not only do
they look nice in the pics - the exterior , in the past all the sub
$60 cases were plain beige and dowdy looking --- I thought , maybe
Powmax and RaidMax etc werent the best brands but they werent totally
unknown and Ive seen many reviews claiming they were using PowMaxes
with ATI 9800s etc. So I thought how can they sell these things for
$20 ???? I know PowMax has like 3 classes of PSes. One is really fancy
looking -- dont know how good it is actually but they come with
Aluminum cases and lots of fans and colors and sell for around $40-60.
HArdly ever see these cause most people prefer Antec etc if they are
going to spend that much.

The other one is the cheap end but apparently usable level. I actually
bought one for a case once and it was like 2.5 pounds vs the 5 pounds
of my Antec. Much lighter but people have said it works OK though not
of the highest qiuality --- sells for $16-29. Then they used to have
this one model I noticed which was sold at some places for $6
400watts ! I think it weighed around 1 pound and was obviously junk.

Anyway I thought maybe PowMax , Raidmax and others were going from the
second cheapo but usable level to the dregs - however I see they dont
sell that model anymore at their site. What I did notice though was
peculiar - many of these firms dont sell their own PSes or at least
use a different unknown brand of PS in their cases. I thought that was
really strange since they sell PSes. Then I thought - maybe to get it
down that low they were subsituting REALLY unknown brand PSes far
lower than their lowest PSes.
 
Kevin said:
Hello,

I am shopping around at local computer shops for a new system.

I noticed I can get $30 cases and it goes way up from there (few
hundred).

What do I need to know about cases? Any recommended brands? I am not a
modder though.
Click to expand...


Anyone know what temperature cardboard ignites at??
 
Kevin:
I noticed I can get $30 cases and it goes way up from there (few
hundred).

What do I need to know about cases? Any recommended brands? I am not a
modder though.
Click to expand...

The case seems like an easy place to save a few bucks but you will never
regret buying a quality case, you will regret buying a cheap case in cut
knuckles and aggravation.

Here's what I recommend, review the build guides at the link below and
look at the cases they recommend. You should have a good idea of what to
buy after that.

http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-09-21-2004.ars
 
[email protected] said:
I know PowMax has like 3 classes of PSes. One is really fancy
looking -- dont know how good it is actually but they come with
Aluminum cases and lots of fans and colors and sell for around $40-60.
Click to expand...
The other one is the cheap end but apparently usable level. I actually
bought one for a case once and it was like 2.5 pounds vs the 5 pounds
of my Antec. Much lighter but people have said it works OK though not
of the highest qiuality --- sells for $16-29.
Click to expand...

Here's a picture of a fancy-looking 400W Raidmax:

www.techimo.com/images/img2/raidmax400/raidmax400-internal1.jpg

and here's one of a newer 400W Powmax that's probably bottom of the
barrel:

www.techimo.com/images/img2/raidmax400/powmax400-internal3.JPG

Both have the same amp ratings, but the Powmax not only has lighter,
cheaper components but is a completely different design.
 
Back
Top