In Pictures: Four Sub-$100 Cases For Your 2013 Gaming PC

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beoza

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Oct 23, 2009
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The Cougar case doesn't look too bad, the rest are meh. I'll stick to my CM 690 II Advanced case for now, despite it's 2 issues (not enough room on right side for wiring and bottom dust filter) it's a rather roomy case for a mid tower.
 

furianscott

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Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 for a cheap case with a company that offers decent support. I emailed Cougar TWICE with a question to their tech department - NO REPLY. Cougar has the worst service I've ever seen (and my question was a pre-sales question, imagine if I'd already bought it - could they ignore people more? I don't think so). Perhaps Toms Hardware could include a "we emailed their service department and this is the time and quality of their response. That would be a cool addition to the testing. Peace.
 

g-unit1111

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Interesting choices of cases that aren't from the usual contenders. I like the Silverstone PS06 out of the entire bunch. I like the design of that Cougar case but I do not like the black and orange color scheme.
 
I liked the features of that Cougar case. I don't mind the inside being a little garish, as long as the outside isn't. I might need to see it in person to tell. If the material quality is decent, I could see using one, although I'd prefer more 3.5" mounts.
 

grokem

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Every time I read an article on any site about gaming builds I can't help but think of the industry that sells spoilers to bolt onto the back of Honda Civics. The entire industry and media are selling the idea that if you game you need a large ATX case with 9 expansion slots and 4 5.25" external bays and room for 13 3.5" hard drives. The articles about full builds are even worse because they *all* spec a case that will handle two graphic cards, water cooling for GPU and CPU, 19 fans and 10 or more drive bays. However, they are *all* configured with a single ~$400 GPU and air cooled.
Where are the mATX and mITX gaming cases in these lists? mITX has a serious shortage of good cases for some reason but there are a ton of very good mATX cases that will easily handle a single GPU, a SSD, HDD and will easily air cool a Core i7 silently.
If you're into building $2000 or more gaming rigs, great you probably need the room of a full ATX. The other 90% should be looking at mATX and mITX. Nothing looks cooler than a small quite aluminum mITX box sitting on your desk.
 
This was only four of eleven cases. CM may yet get their chance (hopefully not; they're nothing special), and Rosewill, Antec, Fractal Design, etc. etc...

I agree with you on mATX, Grokem. Mini-ITX may run into thermal problems (did for me, in an actively cooled case), but mATX should be fine.
 

Crashman

Polypheme
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I can't respond to your comments, except to say that the response system is horibly screwed up, that the Phantom 410 was already reviewed, and that manufacturers pick the case they think is most likely to win.
 
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