How do you choose a case? (Also: 35$ diff - why?)

[dor_13]

Choosing a case isn't so obvious.
Except of the technical details, like the number of available HDD/SSD slots etc., the user mostly cares about noise, which is missing from the comparison chart.

For example - in the article of "Best Cases" you can see the following two products:
Case #1 - Enermax Ostrog GT - Costs 75$.
Case #2 - Cooler Master MasterCase 5 - Costs 110$.

For my first build, I bought case #1 because that it was cheap and I didn't know how to decide.
Now, I need to make another build and it's difficult to understand why I should choose one over the other.
You can see that the specs of #1 are better than #2 in many criterions AND it's also cheaper!
Why?

Case #1 supports bigger fans and we know that bigger fans are less noisy than small ones.

Personally I do not care for looks.

 

[geofelt]

One absolute requirement is that the case will hold your parts.
You can't fit a atx motherboard in a ITX case.

I have a limited depth available for my case so that is a criteria for me, but not necessarily for you.
Considering where the case will be placed, is there any size restriction?

One thing I insist on is a positive pressure airflow.
That means that all intake air comes in from one source and is filtered.
That keeps your parts free of dust.
Cases with two front filtered intakes of 120mm or 140mm will do the job.

With today's smaller 14nm construction, I think liquid cooling is on the way out.
Top air coolers are equally efficient, cost less, and are more reliable.
But, if one wants liquid cooling, there needs to be a plan for radiator placement and orientation.
You can't win.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.

double the problem if you want liquid cooling for both the cpu and gpu.

I do not put much value in toolless features.

If you are constantly changing out parts, you want a case with easy access to the interior.

If you value quiet, there is something of a tradeoff between quiet and cooling.
For info on quiet parts, go to www.silentpcreview.com .

larger fans spin slower and will be quieter. I favor cases that use 140mm or larger fans.

Cases last a long time. Cheap is not a big issue for me.
Looks count. You are going to be looking at the case for a long time.
Buy a case that visually appeals to you.
Some like "bling", but I do not.

 

[dor_13]

...

Regarding sizes I'm well aware of that.
There are restrictions but I'll keep them myself.
My questions is how do you distinguish between two cases that meets the size/space requirements and differ greatly in cost ?

My build is for what is considered (nowadays) an average gaming PC: 1 graphic card, 1 normal CPU (w/o overclocking) and no additional unique stuff (like any sort of cooling except for fans).

Do you know why the difference in price - regrading the two cases that I wrote in my first post ?

I'm looking for a case that:

• 
  ■ Supports all three: ATX, MicroATX, Mini-ITX
  ■ Has space for CPU cooling and a single graphic card (like "Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB GDDR5")
  ■ Support only 14cm fans (to lower noise)
  ■ Supports 3 HDD and 1 SSD.
  ■ Supports a (slot for a) disk drive.

Any additional features that raise the price are not welcome. (like toolless features)

The Enermax Ostrog GT meets my requirements, though it has some toolless features and its rear fan is 12cm.
But apparently other cases are better? Why?

I don't care for looks cuz I won't be looking at my PC much... but I'll be looking at my screen
Cases that are 100$+ seems overpriced IMHO. Don't understand why it costs so high.