The Final Five: Gaming Cases Between $80 And $120, Rounded-Up

[Crashman]

Our 15-way shootout of cases priced between $80 and $120 ends as we compare the last five models to the previous ten, yielding an overall winner. Which chassis offers the best balance of quality, cooling, and noise reduction, and which is the best buy?

The Final Five: Gaming Cases Between $80 And $120, Rounded-Up : Read more

 

[idroid]

Hell yeah!!! NZXT Phantom 410 FTW!!

 

[idroid]

Toms should do a review on high-end cases featuring EXTREME watercooling.

 

[dudewitbow]

[citation][nom]idroid[/nom]Toms should do a review on high-end cases featuring EXTREME watercooling.[/citation]

the only tiny problem at the most part i see in that is that it would be slightly harder to test thermal efficiency, since its being cooled by water, rather than air + hsf so in a wc build, the thermal ratings will be extremely close.

 

[Guest]

now try to find the best micro-atx case...

 

[amuffin]

The Antec Solo II is not a case meant for gaming.

 

[back_by_demand]

It would be nice to see a left-sided window case listing, there are definate advantages to a left sided window / upside down mobo config

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]amuffin[/nom]The Antec Solo II is not a case meant for gaming.[/citation]Well...Antec sent it anyway. Along with the Eleven Hundred. So they evidently had a plan.[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]It would be nice to see a left-sided window case listing, there are definate advantages to a left sided window / upside down mobo config[/citation]Did you know that the reason many manufacturers abandoned the upside-down case was because some motherboard heat pipes supposedly didn't work right in that configuration?[citation][nom]iknowhowtofixit[/nom]But, but, but.... The Phantom 410 is sooooo ugly...[/citation]Eye of the beholder

 

[Guest]

The Solo II would probably have done a little better with your LGA2011 / GTX580 setup, if Antec included at least one front intake fan. Any chance of a [quick, informal] re-test with an added intake fan or two?

 

[antemon]

as

 

[antemon]

I'm a fan of smaller cases

I have a qx-2000 case from aerocool. it's a nightmare for cable management and upgrading partsm but I like it

can toms also do an in-depth article on smaller cases?

particularly, I want a similar case as the qx-2000 but the PSU is mounted at the bottom so that adding items inside woundnt be too much of a chore.

thermaltake armor a30 looks awesome, but still has a top mounted PSU

 

[ojas]

HAF 912 (preferably the Advanced model) is also a great case. Maybe include it in a round-up some day, if you can...

 

[grokem]

I really appreciate seeing each of these cases setup in the same way with pro/cons pointed out. Really well done quick review of the cases.

My only complaint is that instead of the title "Gaming Cases Between $80 And $120" I would have titled the article "Overclock-able ATX Gaming/File Server Cases". I'm not sure why a gaming rig needs to be a 20" tower with room for seven drives and seven expansion slots these days. There are two large camps of gamers; those that overclock and those that don't.

For either camp, mATX is the best board to choose these days. Also, no gamer needs 2-9 external 5.25" bays unless they are also building a file server with hat swappable drives. They make file server cases for that. I think everyone appreciates lots of 3.5" and 2.5" internal bays but they should be optional and cooling and noise should always be the primary concern.

For the overclockers, these cases are sized but for those that don't intend to overclock a review of mATX cases would be a lot more what the common gamer is looking at these days. In the recent builder challenge, most of the rigs came with Core-i5 CPUs because the extra CPU power of the i7 didn't really help with the benchmarks that much. The graphics card was where all the bang for the buck in gaming is. Using that same logic, a lot of gamers are not overclocking their CPU because of the cost and hassle as well a reduced component life. More than ever I think you have have a true top tier gaming rig and not overclock anything in it.

 

[Sakkura]

This makes me pretty happy about the Cooler Master Storm Enforcer I've invested in. It's not as butt-ugly as the NZXT Phantom 410 and scores very close to it in value and efficiency.

I think CM, Antec and SilverStone are going to be pretty sadface about getting those tiny "perform admirably as well and are excellent values" words at the end instead of a big, fat award badge.

Excellent series of articles anyway. Extremely useful to have such a wide selection of cases compared. Case selection IMO tends to be one of the tougher things when putting a build together, it's usually harder to compare cases than CPUs or graphics cards.

 

[jaquith]

Very nice Article! By now you've got to be numb of building.

Interesting you had the 400R and not the $115~$120 -$15 MIR Corsair 500R.

Cases must have good cable management, features, airflow, and quality -- beyond that it's a Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder.

Just a thought on your grid you might want to add e.g. 1. Front Ports, 2. Side Panel Cable Management, 3. USB 3.0 (20-pin/pass-through)

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]Very nice Article! By now you've got to be numb of building.Interesting you had the 400R and not the $115~$120 -$15 MIR Corsair 500R.Cases must have good cable management, features, airflow, and quality -- beyond that it's a Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder.Just a thought on your grid you might want to add e.g. 1. Front Ports, 2. Side Panel Cable Management, 3. USB 3.0 (20-pin/pass-through)[/citation]#3 doesn't make a difference, because the ground rules mentioned in part one and linked in parts 2 and 3 say that nobody could participate unless they included 20-pin.

Without adding that restriction, Tom's Hardware would have gotten at least twice as many cases at just one per manufacturer, and four times as many cases with this series' "twofer" plan.

As a motherboard editor, I can't recommend anything that doesn't have 20-pin. So as a case editor, I can't recommend anything that doesn't support recommended motherboards. Yeh, I'm a little...well anyway, you did know that without this editor we might still be waiting for a front-panel connector standard, right?

 

[jaquith]

RE: #2 ; one of the cases, searched them all first, showed a USB 3.0 pass-through and then I looked at the case's page (your Article) looking for the 20-pin. Admittedly I haven't read all of your article. Hmm...I think many MFG's haven't gotten your MEMO. In the last day or so I ran across some case, I think an Antec, that ships with 3 USB 3.0 ports with x2 20-pins -- so odd stuff is still out there being produced.

Many of the Corsair lines need a 'Version 1.1' with standardized USB 3.0 20 pins, Front Ports, and the 800D with SATA3.

Anyway thanks again

 

[halcyon]

The Antec and Corsair appear to be the most attractive in my opinion with this cleaner and more sophisticated approach. I'm considering moving my PC from its 800D to a 500R

 

[rohitbaran]

What about CM690?

 

[Guest]

As an owner of the 400R, I'm surprised Tom's didn't mention how easy it is to mount an H100 cooler in the case. (with tons of room I might add, no need for anything custom) The 400R is very subtle also. No crazy angles, good looks, and the ability to turn off the included LED lights.

The H100 alone is why I bought this case over others. Although it doesn't take the overall win, I'm very glad to see it gets the 2012 approval. Makes me feel like I did good on my purchase.

 

[Guest]

I was torn between the CM Storm Enforcer and the CM 690 II Advanced. Both had removable HDD cages (SSD price wars FTW!) and good airflow. Both were priced VERY close recently, about USD$75 at both Newegg and MicroCenter. In the end I chose the 690 because it had a bit better fan support for my SLI GTX580. I'm really surprised the 690 was left out of the review, probably one of the Top5 cases for 2012 in this price range.

 

[spookyman]

So guess my Haf X case was a bad idea? It does the job and looks cool in my book.

 

[gm0n3y]

I really like the Antec Solo II, but that is some crappy cooling. The top vent PSU is surely hurting the overall airflow; The extra 120mm on the PSU would really have helped move some air out of the case.

Maybe switch to a higher flow 120mm exhaust fan and throw the stock fan as an intake in the front of the case. I have an old Antec Sonata that I did just that and it helped the thermals a lot with only a small noise increase.

I'd still probably choose the Solo II over the other cases in at least this article and probably the whole series base on aesthetics and build quality alone.

 

[g-unit1111]

[citation][nom]idroid[/nom]Toms should do a review on high-end cases featuring EXTREME watercooling.[/citation]

You could check this article out: http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/577-fulmo-gt-thor-v2-vh6000bws.html

 

[spidey81]

The Antec Solo II is not a case meant for gaming.

Totally in agreement here. If they were wanting an Antec mid-range gaming case then the Eleven Hundred would have been a much better choice IMO. However, they probably requested a sample from Antec who sent them the Solo II. That's how it seems to work with these roundup reviews anyway.