Question Could someone recommend a full tower case?

[Josiah_2854]

I’m completely at a loss for what case I should get. I looked around vaguely, purely through google searches. My problem is I don’t know anything about this stuff, like which manufacturers are good, which cases might be overpriced, etc.

The overall look I’m going for is simple and square. No fancy futuristic shapes, no blaring company logos, etc.

The things the case needs to have, are:

• Form factor - Full ATX Tower
• Fans - 3 fans at the front, no more no less. For the rest of the case I don’t really mind.
• PSU - bottom mounted
• Storage - Two, 3.5” hard drive slots/space
• A PSU shroud (not sure if cases come with them or you buy them separately).
• Body - Tempered glass left and front panels. Also space behind the motherboard for cable management, and plenty of spots to feed those through.
• Color - Black black black black black

I don’t really care for RGB on the case itself, but if one happens to have it, I won’t say no. I would prefer if any inbuilt RGB on the case or existing fans, was compatible with Razer Synapse.

Where the front case USB ports are (top, side, bottom) I don’t really care.

For the case itself I’m not really willing to spend ~£500, something like 100-300 would be preferred. But all recommendations are welcome.

 

[Lutfij]

What sort of hardware are you looking to populate your case, that you intend to purchase, with? That helps us narrow down possible candidates. Phanteks, Coolermaster, Be Quiet!, Fractal-Design, Thermaltake, Antec, Cougar and Corsair are but a few brand names.

 

[Lafong]

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007583 600546033 600006505 600006322 600053918

Above link is a Newegg link to cases with these qualifications:

Black....full ATX.....bottom mounted PSU......side panel window.

24 choices.

I'm not sure about your requirement for tempered glass front panel. That may be uncommon.

I don't understand your 5th bullet point that begins with "Sorry". You describe 2 variations and then don't say which of those 2 you want. I don't understand the variations either. I guess you are talking about the drive cage in some way.

Newegg has the best sort system of any well known vendor, but they don't carry all possible choices. You might stumble into something at Amazon or elsewhere.

Decent brands to keep in mind: Phanteks, Fractal Design, Lian Li.

You have a high case budget, so if it exists you should be able to afford it......although you might drive yourself crazy finding it. No seller carries all possibilities.

 

[Josiah_2854]

What sort of hardware are you looking to populate your case, that you intend to purchase, with? That helps us narrow down possible candidates. Phanteks, Coolermaster, Be Quiet!, Fractal-Design, Thermaltake, Antec, Cougar and Corsair are but a few brand names.

3000 series Nvidia GeForce GPU, a main and backup hard drive. Still deciding on the motherboard honestly.

I am leaning towards closed loop water cooleds for the GPU and CPU (as a complete water cooling beginner), so a couple radiators would need to fit.
Let me know if you need any more specifics.

Also i forgot one of the most important parts. It needs cable management space (i updated the main post).

 

[Josiah_2854]

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007583 600546033 600006505 600006322 600053918

Above link is a Newegg link to cases with these qualifications:

Black....full ATX.....bottom mounted PSU......side panel window.

24 choices.

I'm not sure about your requirement for tempered glass front panel. That may be uncommon.

I don't understand your 5th bullet point that begins with "Sorry". You describe 2 variations and then don't say which of those 2 you want. I don't understand the variations either. I guess you are talking about the drive cage in some way.

Newegg has the best sort system of any well known vendor, but they don't carry all possible choices. You might stumble into something at Amazon or elsewhere.

Decent brands to keep in mind: Phanteks, Fractal Design, Lian Li.

You have a high case budget, so if it exists you should be able to afford it......although you might drive yourself crazy finding it. No seller carries all possibilities.

I just happened to spot what it’s called, in one of the other threads. A PSU shroud.

 

[geofelt]

I want to ask for a bit more about your MUST have requirements.

Form factor - Full ATX Tower
I would assume that you have a ATX sized motherboard in mind.
But there are many sizes o ATX capable cases.
I might assume that you want a large case and have no problems with sixe.

Fans - 3 fans at the front, no more no less. For the rest of the case I don’t really mind.
Why 3 fans?
Do you care if they are 120mm?
two 140mm fans or even a single 200mm fan would provide equivalent airflow.

PSU - bottom mounted.
Why is this important to you?
Cases are stable enough, even with a top mount psu.

Storage - Two, 3.5” hard drive slots/space
This should not be any sort of an issue with any ATX case.
Most will have room for more.
But, today, ssd devices will be smaller and perform better.
A ssd should, at least be planned for the Windows C drive.
HDD is a good device if your plan is to store large sequential files such as videos.
A PSU shroud (not sure if cases come with them or you buy them separately).

Body - Tempered glass left and front panels. Also space behind the
If you have glass in front, your requirement for three front intakes will not be very effective. Such an arrangement is possible though.

Space behind motherboard for cable management, and plenty of spots to feed those through.
Reasonable, neatness counts.

Color - Black black black black black
ok.

My sense is that aesthetics is the most important aspect for you.

An important question is if you have a need for liquid cooling.
The case capability for radiator placement becomes more important.
A related question is what graphics card and what cpu is planned.
These are relevant to how much cooling capability will be needed.

I think this meshify C would satisfy your requirements:

Meshify C - Tempered Glass

www.fractal-design.com

 

[Josiah_2854]

I want to ask for a bit more about your MUST have requirements.

Form factor - Full ATX Tower
I would assume that you have a ATX sized motherboard in mind.
But there are many sizes o ATX capable cases.
I might assume that you want a large case and have no problems with sixe.

Fans - 3 fans at the front, no more no less. For the rest of the case I don’t really mind.
Why 3 fans?
Do you care if they are 120mm?
two 140mm fans or even a single 200mm fan would provide equivalent airflow.

PSU - bottom mounted.
Why is this important to you?
Cases are stable enough, even with a top mount psu.

Storage - Two, 3.5” hard drive slots/space
This should not be any sort of an issue with any ATX case.
Most will have room for more.
But, today, ssd devices will be smaller and perform better.
A ssd should, at least be planned for the Windows C drive.
HDD is a good device if your plan is to store large sequential files such as videos.
A PSU shroud (not sure if cases come with them or you buy them separately).

Body - Tempered glass left and front panels. Also space behind the
If you have glass in front, your requirement for three front intakes will not be very effective. Such an arrangement is possible though.

Space behind motherboard for cable management, and plenty of spots to feed those through.
Reasonable, neatness counts.

Color - Black black black black black
ok.

My sense is that aesthetics is the most important aspect for you.

An important question is if you have a need for liquid cooling.
The case capability for radiator placement becomes more important.
A related question is what graphics card and what cpu is planned.
These are relevant to how much cooling capability will be needed.

I think this meshify C would satisfy your requirements:

Meshify C - Tempered Glass

www.fractal-design.com

I would like the case as big as possible, so the inside doesn’t look crowded.
For the fans, I just like how it looks. I don’t care what size they are.

I want the PSU bottom mounted so it draws cool air straight from the outside, rather than the warmed up air from inside.

I am planning on having an NVMe SSD for the operating system, hence why i didn’t mention it. It will be directly on the motherboard.

I know it’d be better to have some kind of mesh/semi open front, but i really want to be able to see the front fans.

The GPU would most likely be a GeForce 3060 or older one, for the CPU, i7 Intel Core.

Yes asthetics are very important to me. I always wanted to be able to game and look over at a clean, minimalist PC with lots of lights. And the PC won’t be anything crazy like the newest intel processor or an amd threadripper, nor a 3090ti geforce gpu. It’s just something powerful enough to run VR, and also easily handle other stuff i do day to day (i tend to run lots of big programs at once when doing game dev). I don’t really game that intensily, and if i do, it’ll be on my xbox. I reserve my PC for game dev and general internet shenanigans.

That case does look promising, and I’m very happy it has a top and bottom filter. The front fans being visible is the least of the requirements.

 

[geofelt]

Lian li makes some of the highest quality cases out there.
You might like the o11 dynamic evo.
The psu is not on the bottom, but it is hidden with a side intake:

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

 

[Why_Me]

There's a very fine line these days between mid tower case and full tower case hence the reason the so called 'full tower cases' are going the way of the dinosaur. You can top mount a 240mm AIO in either of these cases giving it a clean look.

LANCOOL II Mesh RGB - Ultimate Airflow Chassis

With the mesh front, LANCOOL II MESH making great airflow in the chasis, Packing three ARGB PWM 120mm fans effectively cooling the component in user's PC build and able to control by the botton on the I/O port. 9 drive mounting space and supports 384mm maximum GPU length and 176mm maximum hight...

lian-li.com

https://www.ebuyer.com/1140277-lian...di-tower-case-black-lancool-ii-mesh-rgb-black
Lian-Li Lancool II Mesh RGB £92.00

Rear exhaust fan for that case up above.

https://www.box.co.uk/PH-F120SK_DRGB_PWM-Phanteks-SK120-DRGB-120mm-PWM-Fan-Blac_2995545.html
Phanteks SK120 DRGB PWM 120mm 4-Pin Case Fan £9.99

Lancool-II-Mesh-Performance

<h2>Born to push the limits</h2> LANCOOL II MESH Performance features a mesh front panel and mesh bottom left shroud panel, honeycomb vent design and built-in PWM fans, ensuring bountiful airflow delivered to your components while the system runs at peak performance. <span...

lian-li.com

https://www.box.co.uk/Lancool-II-me...Lancool-II-Mesh-Performance-Temp_2994935.html
Lian Li Lancool II Mesh Performance £88.99

https://www.pccatalyst.co.uk/product/arctic-liquid-freezer-ii-240-argb-black-all-in-one-liquid/
ARCTIC LIQUID FREEZER II 240 ARGB BLACK AIO £98.98

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09MDHZ2YQ
Intel Core i7-12700F £316.99

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...2700f-processor-25m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz.html

i7 12700 / 12700F gaming benchmarks.

 

[Karadjgne]

I would like the case as big as possible, so the inside doesn’t look crowded.

You might want to actually do some homework on that statement. You'll have only a gpu to take up any space. Crowded will Not be an issue, more like the exact opposite, you'll have So much space inside that air volume and airflow will now become an issue. Full towers are massive. Even some ATX mid towers like the Fractal Design Define R5/R6 are approaching Full tower status and have nothing but unused space inside.

You are looking at cases that can approach over 2ft deep, 2.5ft high to fit a 12"x12" motherboard and 11" gpu.

Take out the water cooling and you get issues with aio tube lengths, psu wire lengths airflow between intakes and exhaust etc. (yes, that's even an e-atx HEDT motherboard in there with 45/60mm thick rads, not 28mm thick aio rads. And a mITX mobo on the psu shroud with the vertical gpu (Corsair 1000D))

There's honestly no reason other than full custom loop or server requirements for a full tower, nothing that a mid tower cannot accomplish with a smaller footprint and better results. (not to mention usually cheaper, full towers can get prohibitivly expensive, glass isn't cheap)