Roundup: Four Gaming Cases Under $150

[broketechjunkie]

No CM HAF 922 or 932?

 

[Fozzy Bear]

[citation][nom]knottydog[/nom]Love the case except for one major problem. You cannot have the power supply sitting at the bottom and expect to fit a video card (released in the past 6 years)in the lower PCI slot. I have a P6X58D mobo. The power supply prevents the card from fitting in the bottom of three slots. So much for triple SLI![/citation]

Ha, yeah, not an issue for the CM Storm Sniper. It fits very well. I run one of my SLI'd 260s there.

 

[MARSOC_Operator]

Any article about good gaming cases that doesn't mention Lian-Li is total B.S.

 

[RADIO_ACTIVE]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]No OLD cases. The Cooler Master case ended up in here by mistake, it was supposed to be for stuff released from November onward.[/citation]
The 900 TWO is not that old, of course it was not just released, but it blows these cases out of the water.

 

[Onus]

Bottom-mounted PSUs are fine. No matter where the fan is, a PSU ALWAYS exhausts out of the rear of the case (unless it is fanless). A 140mm fan draws air INTO the PSU, whether the PSU is mounted normally, or upside-down; it is not an exhaust onto the graphics cards. An end-mounted fan is either exhausting straight out the back, or sucking air in at the front (which still blows out the back).

 

[knottydog]

Fozzy: I'm talking about the CM Storm Sniper. Turns out it's the P6X58D. The bottom PCI sits as the lowest slot in this mobo. Other boards have the PCI-E down there.

 

[haplo602]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]The NZXT is tiny...and both Cooler Master and Thermaltake let you shut off the lights from the fan controller. IMO the big cases are too big, the small cases are too small, and if you're right about the looks than I guess you're not in their target market.[/citation]

NZXT is tiny maybe for a full ATX case. anyway bottom mouted PSU = fail. why place a heater where it has the most effect ? you need a front bottom fan for cool air intake = check. then either force it front to back or bottom to top, combined does not work well (you are exhausting more than the intake can deliver). anyway ... drive bays : 4x5.25" at most ... 2-3 for a raid enclosure, 1 for optical, 1 spare for lcd panel/fan cotroller, whatever. 1-2 3.5" for card reader. don't need more. at most one internal 3.5". disk belong into the raid enclosure (best would be to have these 2-3 at the bottom, optical drive on top, intake fan in the middle with one intake fan at the bottom just below the raid enclosure). bottom intake feeds GPU+disk enclosure, middle intake feeds CPU/memory. I can tolerate a bottom mounted PSU in a mATX case at most.

 

[pojih]

I enjoyed the review, but gosh... those are some ugly cases

 

[JD13]

The Cooler Master HAF 932 can be had for less than $150.00 when it's on sale.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]I think they all look tacky and cheap. BTW I own a red and black Thermaltake Xaser VI to put this in context. I think the selection makes sense as these are the latest entries of the top case manufacturers. However, I just don't like many things about these cases.a) Bottom mounted PSUs. Poor Air Intake of PSU, and a heat element eminating from underneath the motherboard and GPU.b) Gray paint in some of the cases. It doesn't look as good as a more purpose chosen color.c) Cheap plastic look.[/citation]
There is no gray paint, it's zinc or aluminum plating. That means it's better than paint, even if you don't like the color.[citation][nom]davendork[/nom]What makes these "gaming" cases and not high end workstation cases? What would be a high end workstation case? When I call it a "gaming" PC instead of a "work" PC that can possibly game, my girlfriend bothers me.[/citation]
Marketing

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Fozzy Bear[/nom]I don't know about the other cases, but the CM Storm Sniper vents the PSU out the bottom and directs it out from underneath the unit rather than most which blow the PSU exhaust up into the case towards the video card fans. This is how my Antec 300 was laid out and I pretty much hated it.[/citation]I think you need to learn something about power supplies before making any comments like that. It's an intake fan. It pulls are from the bottom and blows out the back, not the other way around. If your had the fan on top, it was pulling air away from the video cards and blowing it out the back.[citation][nom]MARSOC_Operator[/nom]Any article about good gaming cases that doesn't mention Lian-Li is total B.S.[/citation]
Lian-Li didn't have anything new to offer, so who's owning the B.S.?

 

[Onus]

... anyway bottom mouted PSU = fail. why place a heater where it has the most effect ?

If your PSU is a heater, it is severely overloaded and/or so inefficient that it should be replaced anyway. A modern, quality PSU adds no significant amount of heat to your case. A bottom-mounted PSU adds stability, and eases cable management. Often, the PSU is able to draw its air from beneath the case, so it has no effect on case airflow. Where it does not, if your other fans are properly balanced, it will not prevent warm air from rising or being moved from front to back and exhausted.

 

[haplo602]

[citation][nom]jtt283[/nom]If your PSU is a heater, it is severely overloaded and/or so inefficient that it should be replaced anyway. A modern, quality PSU adds no significant amount of heat to your case. A bottom-mounted PSU adds stability, and eases cable management. Often, the PSU is able to draw its air from beneath the case, so it has no effect on case airflow. Where it does not, if your other fans are properly balanced, it will not prevent warm air from rising or being moved from front to back and exhausted.[/citation]

cable management is a matter of preference ... the boards are still layed out for top monted PSUs ... just look at the usual position of the 4 pin CPU cable. it's usualy at the top of the board just above the CPU socket.

if your PSU is venting cool air out of the case, you are wasting money running an inefficient load. it usualy comes out slightly warm for a normal system load (while gaming). so the PSU gets warm anyway.

the only plus point I did not consider is stability ... you are right about that one.

 

[elel]

I'm surprised that you like the tool-less expansion card fasteners on the storm sniper. Are they plastic like on the storm scout? On my scout I use one to hold an e-sata panel in and I have to open up the case and hold it from the back or I push the panel out. At least they give you extra thumb screws, and the case is great except for that, but I couldn't imagine securing a graphics card with them.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]elel[/nom]I'm surprised that you like the tool-less expansion card fasteners on the storm sniper. Are they plastic like on the storm scout? On my scout I use one to hold an e-sata panel in and I have to open up the case and hold it from the back or I push the panel out. At least they give you extra thumb screws, and the case is great except for that, but I couldn't imagine securing a graphics card with them.[/citation]

You can't "push the panel out" with a graphics card, all you have to do is clamp it down so it stays pushed into the slot. Unlike slot plates, expansion cards can't slide forward.

I'm a little surprised that your plate pops out though. These holders have a small hook to grab the corner, which was reduced in length when people like me complained that the longer hooks couldn't be maneuvered past the heat sinks or port connectors of some cards. But on top of that, they also have pins that pop into the screw holes.

Are you sure your plastic tab is COMPLETELY latched? After pushing it all the way in, you usually have to push the inside thumb tab to get the locking tab to pop the rest of the way out.

 

[liquidsnake718]

For me, the GIGABYTE I-SOLO 210 is a great case and is only $100. It is a classy looking case that is simple and yet heavy looking. It could fit almost anywhere from a CEOs desk to a home office or gaming rig. It may not have the largest chassis, but you can have crossfire and SLI at the very least AND has allowance for a water cooler as it has holes on the back.

Great price for looks and the only thing holding it back is the fact that there are only two fans for air cooling. The whole side is opened via mesh which makes the case look more sophisticated than other cases, thus there is no space for a side air cooling fan.

With such a small gripe like that its easy to forget that this case is made up of brushed aluminium and is in my opinion heavy duty but simple looking. 9 out of 10 for me.

 

[joeker]

Lancool K62 should have been included. It is a great case and under $100

 

[shubham1401]

Antec 300 , Coolermaster CM690 , CM HAF932 , Antec1200 FTW!!

 

[cpp214]

You guys that are hating on the storm sniper have no clue.
It's an awesome case and pwns most other cases in it's price range.
n00bs.

 

[Guest]

No Antec 902 what a faux pas!

 

[amstech]

None of those cases are anything special.
XClio makes much better cases for the money.

I have 2 XClio cases now and they are built very well, are HUGE (my ATX Windtunnell full case towers over my full Antec), have great fans and look killer too.

Coolermaster and Thermaltake are nothing special.

 

[vexun11]

Are the gaming cases with windows not so popular anymore? If I spend a lot on a case I want to be able to look at my radeon 5830 and drool

 

[branflakes71]

[citation][nom]blue shift[/nom]"We also have to question why anyone would want top-panel ports on a case that’s so small, since its only practical placement is on top of a desk where top-panel ports are hard to reach."I have a mid tower sitting on the floor next to my desk right now. What's wrong with that?[/citation]

Here, here with blue shift. I have a mid-tower case and I'd never clutter up my desk with it on top the desk. It's perfect on the floor and the top-mount panels are easy to reach. I don't think any of the cases should have had marks removed for that.

I think mid-towers are on the floor way more than on desks these days.

 

[curnel_D]

I'm sorry, but this article was poorly done. The entire lineup could have been replaced with cases from almost all of the same manufacturers, with much better cases.

For being a full tower case, the thermaltake should have led by a much higher margin, and considering the problems, there's no reason why it should have landed a recommended buy award. For $135 there are many better cases. For $80 there are better cases.. Eh.

On a side note, a friend of mine just put a dual rad LQ kit in his CM Sniper case without an issue.

 

[BigDog76_02]

I have to say this is the first review/article from Tom's I have not really appreciated. I was looking at the storm sniper and I am glad to find out it won't accept interior radiator (which I may need). Other than that all I can see is that these are all poor quality cases (except the cm which really had the one flaw that isn't really a flaw unless you're buying with intent to add liquid cooling and a couple degrees higher temps). In which case if any of these cases should've been recommended it maybe should've been the cm, although they all should receive a needs improvement award at best.

Chris