Best Of The Best, Part 2: Who Makes The Most Elite PC Case?

[junkeymonkey]

each time I do a new build for myself I go look at cases and in the end it goes in to this old antec sx 635

 

[Crashman]

I don't get why they even bother testing with air-cooled components. Cases that can be even considered for this article are pretty much guaranteed to be able to handle that well. It's the radiator compatibility that should be the competition here.

We did one of those a while ago, that's the one where Cooler Master's Cosmos II dropped out part-way through test configuration.

 

[allanitomwesh]

"And CaseLabs certainly has the “quality of materials” situation wrapped up with its 2.3 mm-thick aluminum chassis with 1.6 mm-thick exterior panels."
This alone (being the most premium) was enough for the In Win to win,yet the Caselabs does not? It even shares the in Win's Insane price and ridiculously poor cooling performance (unless you heavily liquid cool which it was obviously designed for) This review continues to disappoint. Stick to your guns and decide what ticks your winning boxes already. I'll definitely call bullshit if the In Win walks away with this one. Anyways,there's still Zalman,Lian Li and Phanteks possibly in the running,so lets wait and see.

 

[Crashman]

"And CaseLabs certainly has the “quality of materials” situation wrapped up with its 2.3 mm-thick aluminum chassis with 1.6 mm-thick exterior panels."
This alone (being the most premium) was enough for the In Win to win,yet the Caselabs does not?

Your mistake. The In Win Did Not Win.

 

[qw12345]

I think thermaltake is proably right below corisair

 

[CPU Fan]

I would love to see something like this for the mATX or even ITX form factors. I'm trying to find a good budget solution with USB 3.0 in mATX or smaller to build a compact gaming rig in. Rosewill has a decent mATX but it has a 3.5" front slot and its off-center, which bugs the piss outta me.

 

[allanitomwesh]

"And CaseLabs certainly has the “quality of materials” situation wrapped up with its 2.3 mm-thick aluminum chassis with 1.6 mm-thick exterior panels."
This alone (being the most premium) was enough for the In Win to win,yet the Caselabs does not?

Your mistake. The In Win Did Not Win.

It qualified for the finals did it not? Yet of the three here in part 2 none has,If I read correctly? Enlighten me.

 

[Crashman]

"And CaseLabs certainly has the “quality of materials” situation wrapped up with its 2.3 mm-thick aluminum chassis with 1.6 mm-thick exterior panels."
This alone (being the most premium) was enough for the In Win to win,yet the Caselabs does not?

Your mistake. The In Win Did Not Win.

It qualified for the finals did it not? Yet of the three here in part 2 none has,If I read correctly? Enlighten me.

Yes, so did the Caselabs case

You don't seem to understand that all three cases in Part 2 qualified for further consideration, but that only one of the four previous cases were even considered high-end. The In-Win case looked better in Part 1 because the other three were so cheaply made that they don't touch the "premium" market.

 

[The prime mediocre]

That Merlin is hella Kubrickian. New dream enclosure, here.

 

[sdmf74]

Neither one of these cases should be put in the same class as the caselabs, not by a long shot

 

[allanitomwesh]

"And CaseLabs certainly has the “quality of materials” situation wrapped up with its 2.3 mm-thick aluminum chassis with 1.6 mm-thick exterior panels."
This alone (being the most premium) was enough for the In Win to win,yet the Caselabs does not?

Your mistake. The In Win Did Not Win.

It qualified for the finals did it not? Yet of the three here in part 2 none has,If I read correctly? Enlighten me.

Yes, so did the Caselabs case

You don't seem to understand that all three cases in Part 2 qualified for further consideration, but that only one of the four previous cases were even considered high-end. The In-Win case looked better in Part 1 because the other three were so cheaply made that they don't touch the "premium" market.

So Corsair are through with plastic? Bashed them pretty hard ... I'm just gonna chill for the final showdown now,too confused.

 

[Crashman]

"And CaseLabs certainly has the “quality of materials” situation wrapped up with its 2.3 mm-thick aluminum chassis with 1.6 mm-thick exterior panels."
This alone (being the most premium) was enough for the In Win to win,yet the Caselabs does not?

Your mistake. The In Win Did Not Win.

It qualified for the finals did it not? Yet of the three here in part 2 none has,If I read correctly? Enlighten me.

Yes, so did the Caselabs case

You don't seem to understand that all three cases in Part 2 qualified for further consideration, but that only one of the four previous cases were even considered high-end. The In-Win case looked better in Part 1 because the other three were so cheaply made that they don't touch the "premium" market.

So Corsair are through with plastic? Bashed them pretty hard ... I'm just gonna chill for the final showdown now,too confused.

We're looking for the best of materials, features, finish, to "make the case" for buying an expensive case. Zalman had the finish, but you could argue that glass isn't a great material for cases because it's fragile and a poor conductor. Case Labs had the materials, but the finish is really rather ordinary (other than being thick and plastic-y), and one could even argue that the coating might hinder performance. Corsair and Thermaltake had the features, but they had cheap materials.

So we keep looking. Not finding anything that has the best of everything...could force us to compromise. And the point of this article was to find something that didn't force us to compromise.

Oh boy.

 

[allanitomwesh]

You sir,have opened a pandora's box. There are very few cases that even come close to what you are looking for. That said,I do hope Phanteks got a submission in with their Enthoo.

 

[Crashman]

You sir,have opened a pandora's box. There are very few cases that even come close to what you are looking for. That said,I do hope Phanteks got a submission in with their Enthoo.

I know, it's tough when you're looking specifically for something to win the Elite award. But hey, if we don't find it, at least we can make a few honorable mentions. Maybe even a <cough> recommended buy...

 

[allanitomwesh]

Good enough ain't good enough,but it is better than nothing. At least I can look forward to seeing what Zalman sent in. 😉 Yes I noticed,but I won't tell anyone promise.

 

[fwupow]

They all suck. Ain't none 'o them designed proper. Gotta be multi-chamber. Rads need 2B in chamber separate from MoBo. Don't wanna be sucking hot MoBo and GPU air into ur rads and don't wanna be blowing rad-heated air into the MoBo chamber but since they all designed with basically one chamber, no choice. Gotta design my own case for it 2B any good.

 

[DaWibbles]

NZXT

 

[Crashman]

They all suck. Ain't none 'o them designed proper. Gotta be multi-chamber. Rads need 2B in chamber separate from MoBo. Don't wanna be sucking hot MoBo and GPU air into ur rads and don't wanna be blowing rad-heated air into the MoBo chamber but since they all designed with basically one chamber, no choice. Gotta design my own case for it 2B any good.

Crowdfund that and send me one.