Full or Mid tower niche market cases; No mainstream case suits needs

Tanyac

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I've been looking for a new case for quite a while now and can't seem to find one that has everything I need. At the bottom of this post I've listed the brands I've searched.

So I'm wondering if any one knows of a Niche-market brand that might suit my needs.

Don't want tempered glass or all flashy fronts and lights, They don't do anything for performance.

So.. This is what I'm looking for

White case (If not white, I will be spray painting it white, so rough finish matte black won't turn out well when painte).

The top must be flat; no dome top cases that restrict good airflow.

Must weigh less than 20kg/45lbs empty.

Support for...

  • at least 2 Optical disk drives
    360mm radiator without having to remove the ODD drive cage, plenty of space above motherboard for up to 57mm cooler with fans. Push config only.
    E-ATX motherboard
    200+ mm PSU, bottom mounted
    at least 8 expansion slots
    at least 3 x 3.5" HDD drives, side facing, not rear facing
    Rubber grommets and good cable management holes.
    Side, bottom, internal, rear and front fan mount locations (Preferably 2 front, and all 140mm or 200mm mounts)
    2x 2.5" SSD mounts, preferably on the rear of the motherboard tray
    wheels/castors or at least 1" stands
    2x USB 3.0/3.1 type A and audio/mic on front panel
    20+ mm of space behind motherboard tray for cable management, and the mounting of a Corsair Commander Pro.
    Front, top and bottom dust filters
    300+ mm graphics cards

Brands that do not have what I need

  • Corsair
    Caselabs
    Coolermaster
    DeepCool
    Thermaltake
    Phanteks
    Antec
    InWin
    Be Quiet!
    Aerocool
    NZXT
    Silverstone
    Fractal Design
    Cougar

I've also considered building two systems into one with the W200 and P200 from Thermaltake. Problem is it will be 60kg when finished and may not support enough Optical Drives.

Cost is a secondary consideration.

Not asking anyone to spend hours looking, I've already done that - Just wondering if any enthusiasts may have come across such a case.
 

zoltan.boese

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Jan 30, 2018
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Tanyac

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Hey, thanks for your reply.

I have seen all the cases for all of the listed manufacturers.

I also missed one brand, which I've added to the above list... Caselabs.. These are great custom cases, and even though cost is not an issue, $2000 AUD is a little too much :)

I've spent many hours working through the W200/W100/P200 options with Thermaltake and via the manuals. It's so close... However, I will struggle to move a 60kg case around, even if it is on wheels. I'm waiting on a reply from Thermaltake to see if extra accessories, like Optical drive cages, can be purchased separately.

I'll take a look at the Nanoxia. thanks

EDIT: The Naxnoxia DS 5 is a no go... Won't support 360mm rads. But the DS6 looks promising... oooh... so close... The "active air chimney" kills it.
 

zoltan.boese

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Jan 30, 2018
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There is a new linus tech tips video about crazy PC cases, It reminded me this topic.
Have you considered making a compromise and placing something outside your case? I mean using an external radiator, or place your drives into a NAS? Or go with air cooling?
May I ask what your use case is?
 
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe PH-ES614L_WT White Aluminum faceplates, Steel Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811854007

That is the only case the comes close to fitting everything you wanted.

The hardest part your going to find is a case with 5.25 drive bays and be able to fir a 360mm radiator with 2.5 drives behind the MB tray. They no longer sell it but XSPC made the H2 case that probably would have fit your needs.
 

Tanyac

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Thanks for the suggestion; Been through Phanteks site. None of them are suitable on multiple criteria. The Nanoxia DS 6 was probably the closest maintstream case. Unfortunately the "active chimney" really just restricts good airflow.

The only case I've found so far that will work is the Thermaltake Premium W100 + P100, which I can spray paint white. If I want to run a dual system, which would be an advantage because I have two systems side by side, I could go to the W200 + P200. The total cost the with paint and additional accessories is going to be close to $1200 AUD.



Indeed! Finding a case with 5.25" bays and 360mm radiator support wasn't as difficult as I thought (maybe half a dozen). The problem is finding cases with 5.25" drive support at all. 2.5" mounts behind the mobo tray is also starting to become more common, but that's a preference, not a necessity.

I'm now considering external Blu-ray multi-drive systems. These so far seem to be in the $1,000's, but some people still want physical media, and if they want it and pay for it, then I need to support it.
 

Tanyac

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  • Video production and media creation (DVD and Blu-ray)
    Starting also to get into 4K
    Photo editing and production
    High end gaming
    lots of office type stuff (Excel, word etc)
    Database programming / Maintenance
    website design and maintenance.
    Moving lots of large data sets and files around the network
I have a server which houses most of the storage - About 56TB - which is almost exhausted. It runs my website, MySQL, File/print/Storage, cold fusion server, and WSUS.

I also run three OSs - Windows 7, 10 and Linux, so there are separate boot drives for each OS, though, they are all on separate M.2 Drives (Mobo has 3 x M.2 sockets).

The storage on the PCs is mostly for development uses. Local storage is much quicker than remote storage (For example, encoding a 2hr video from the server takes 3 hours, and on the local PC 2.50 hours. And that is with smart managed switches with NIC teaming (So I have a 2GB link to the server which also supports NIC teaming).

There are also 7 people in my household all avid gamers and TV / Movie addicts. So it's a pretty full on situation.

 

Tanyac

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Yes I have. It does indeed tick most boxes. So I spoke directly with Thermaltake Australia. We found that it would not suite because of the drive cage placements and fan placement issues.

I really appreciate all the help people are offering. The reason I posted here was because there are so many cases that are "near misses" - That is - close but not perfect.

It seems that I am going to have to make sacrifices. There appears to be no case on the planet that is a 100% fit.

I've also just found that with the W200 case from Thermal take I'm also going to have to buy additional PSU cable kits because the PSU cables are too short. That adds another $300 to the project - so I'm now looking at $1500 for that case.

Either that or as previously stated, buy a case without optical drive support and buy a second case that has a lot of ODD slots: For this the radiator cooling is not needed. Very inconvenient because there is no space to locate anther system within arms reach.

I never thought buying a new case would be such an ordeal :(
 

diellur

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Apr 7, 2011
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I'm surprised at that, as I think you could do what you are thinking with it.

If you keep the front ODD mounts, you can get two in there. A 3x 3.5"HDD cage could fit in by the windowed side panel, with the PSU at the other end. There's space for 2x 2.5" SSDs beneath the motherboard.

That would leave enough room for 2x 240mm rads up top and a 480mm rad at the back of the case (and a 360mm would fit into that space, if that's what you have). If you could compromise on the ODDs (e.g. get USB versions), then you'd have room for 2x 480mm rads up top, also.
 

Tanyac

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With all due respect, it's difficult to visualize my exact set up in a text post.
I only have one radiator. a 280mm which I was going to upgrade to a 360mm.
The Blu-ray 4K Optical drives I have are not available in USB versions. I can purchase external enclosures for them - But the are $150 AUD each.
The X9 loses fan mount options that my OP said I wanted to maintain
There are other issues...

Anyway, it looks like I'm going to have to save my $$ for the W200. Even that is not perfect, but I've had lengthy conversations with Thermaltake and the case can be modded to meet my needs. The W200 is essentially a much bigger version of the Core X9, hence the now $1600 AUD price tag.

- Replace the side window with a non-window side so fan mounts are on both sides, giving me an additional 8 fan mounts.
- This negates the need for an internal fan - I'll have 37 fan mounts, or 31 with the 2 x 280mm coolers.
- I can purchase additional ODD brackets. I will end up with 4 ODDs in the case.
- Additional back plates can be purchased if I add the P200 to cover PSU holes.
- Additional PSU support grommets can be purchased to accommodate a second PSU
- Cable kits can be purchased to account for the greater distances
- The HDD's can be mounted on the rear of the right side of the motherboard plate so that I do not need the HDD rails, which will give me the room for the fans on the left side.
- etc etc.

I can also add the P200 later is I need to.

This will also allow me to integrate a second system which is sitting beside my current system. This will address space issues.

FOr now I will stay with my 280mm cooler from each system and when $$ permits I can upgrade to anything up to 600mm.

So I would like to thank you all for your valuable input and comments.
 

diellur

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Don't I know it. It can be hard to describe a custom layout! Good luck with the build, let us know how you get on.
 

Tanyac

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I shall. It's going to take about a month all up. The W200 has to be ordered, sent from the warehouse 30 minutes from me to the store which is 3000 km away, then back to me. Great logistics :)

Then I'm going to spray paint it white with clear lacquer, then build.

Once that's done I'll most certainly show it off :)