I Need a Case

[Dizzysquirrl]

I've been looking around for quite some time now for a case. My budget is $40 - $60 including shipping. I don't mind installing fans, however I wouldn't be able to get a $60 case and then fans because it's over budget. I have an standard ATX mobo and a pretty big gpu, so it would have to be roomy. I was looking at the Rosewill Challenger case, and I still am. However I've heard that it's not the sturdiest of cases and I wanted to know if there is anything better. I would like it to have places to install at least five fans because the components I'm using aren't the coldest. Any suggestions?

 

[christinebcw]

How many drives will you use?

I work on a lot of cases, and I don't always enjoy tight, small cases, especially where components block each other. The old CoolerMaster 330 types are 16-inches high and 19-inches deep. This 19-inch depth pushes the motherboard far away from the tail-end cables of hard-drives, making HDD installs and swaps much much easier. In addition, these CoolerMasters (also Model 350?) have the motherboard-tray that is cut & rolled at the front edge of the motherboard itself. This makes accessing the SATA pedestals (those 2-high stacks) so much easier to reach and see. Such a nice, spacious design. That said, these cases provide minimal room between hard-drives. While it's easy to add in drives, I would look elsewhere if I'm pondering a case for 4 or more HDDs.

The Antec 300 and 302 series offers the best 'between HDD' spacing. These are BIG cases, though. The 302s are wide enough, however, so drives can fit "tail in" or "tail out" which is quite a benefit. If you want to hide drive cables, stick the drive's cable-end to the back. If you want to easily add drives or swap cables, leave the drive's tail facing outward. You only have to remove one panel to work on everything, then.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

The Corsair 200R is $49.99 with free shipping at Amazon. It comes with two 120mm fans and places to mount up to eight fans.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009GXZ8MM/?tag=pcpapi-20

 

[Dizzysquirrl]

I went with the Rosewell Challenger case. Works good for my build, had 3 fans pre-installed and I bought an extra one.