Three Gaming Cases, With Power, Under $100

[jj463rd]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Your case is made of STEEL because aluminum is far too expensive to use on anything that cheap. If you don't believe me, stick a magnet to it.[/citation]
Ah you're right.Sorry my mistake.My next budget PC I am building in a few days from now I am going to use a used older case and just a new $25 Power Supply.I have some extra parts left over so all I had to get is that and a $80 motherboard.
I obtained Windows 7 Ultimate and Vista Ultimate for $30 each.
I don't want to use my spare 7 Ultimate so the budget system will have Vista Ultimate (64 bit) installed on it.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]jj463rd[/nom]Ah you're right.Sorry my mistake.My next budget PC I am building in a few days from now I am going to use a used older case and just a new $25 Power Supply.I have some extra parts left over so all I had to get is that and a $80 motherboard.I obtained Windows 7 Ultimate and Vista Ultimate for $30 each.I don't want to use my spare 7 Ultimate so the budget system will have Vista Ultimate (64 bit) installed on it.[/citation]No apology necessary, I only capped because adding tags for italic is a nuisance. You'll find that most things made of "cheap aluminum" are steel...beer cans even used to be made of steel before we figured out how to make an aluminum can that has very little of the more expensive material in it.

 

[nafhan]

As others have mentioned, very unfortunate that no Antec case/PSU combos were available. I've been going that route for years, and it hasn't failed me, yet.

 

[Ondoval]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Groupthink. Someone said it was cool and everyone else jumped aboard. It happened around three years ago, and now you're not one of the cool kids if you don't agree.[/citation]

The fresh air comes directly from the floors and the warmed air leaves the case directly outside without "contaminating" the GPU, CPU or HD airflows.

This is the reason due Cm Cosmos, SS Raven and almost all recent designs uses bottom PSU location.

 

[sprunth]

Interesting article, very nice choices for the cases.

 

[Proximon]

I would never recommend a power supply, whether part of a case or not, that had not undergone rigorous load testing to measure voltage regulation and ripple.

 

[vider]

[citation][nom]JonnyDough[/nom]I actually think its a horrid idea. I always picture water cooling coming loose and slopping liquid into your PSU, perhaps not shocking it because of the liquids non-conducive properties, but likely ruining it nonetheless. Moreover, a screw could come loose and drop into it. I prefer cases with the PSU at the top, especially in the event a house floods...but that's just me. I still love the Cooler Master case.[/citation]

I'll have to agree with Jonny, if you've opened PC cases in your life (as dealing with customer computers) the majority of the owners don't clean their pc cases (nor do they have a clue about how to do it). When you open a case and you see the amount of dust at it's bottom, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Having the PSU at the bottom of the case will clog it faster with dust, than having it at the top of the case.

And it gets even worse when you have a vent for air underneath the PSU (most of the cases that have their PSU's positioned at the bottom of the case, have an air vent as part of the case, right undereath the PSU.) So your power supply will get full of dust even faster.

 

[youssef 2010]

first of all , you follow that particular rule in most of your SBMs.second,where I come from, the defenition of cheap applies the cases in the $25 range and the PSUs included are absolutely worthless.they write 650watts but when tested it actually outputs only 200watts so,they're more likely to fry your hardware(as you can see here, this popular saying applies)
Also, who would risk frying his hardware by trying PSUs of unknown efficiency such as the cooler master or thermaltake models.

 

[Reynod]

Crashman they only moved from steel beer cans to aluminium so the geeks would be able to crush them with one hand and therefore impress the girls ... just like the jocks.

It was a great day for me ...

;p

 

[Ubrales]

Good review - I like the detailed illustrations along with the text!

 

[Guest]

Ugly Ugly and Fugly Red.

 

[Necromas]

I got an Antec 300 case with an Antec BP550 550W PSU for $95 - $30 in rebates = $65 shipped from newegg.

I am VERY happy with both.

 

[cpc71783]

The main problem I have with these case/PSU combo buys is that the PSU's are vastly underpowered for the kind of juice standard gaming parts are pulling today. You end up with caps popping on your motherboard and components overheating with underpowered systems.

 

[rfox911]

Im loving the thermaltakes sleek look so thats my vote

 

[cachekidd160]

I care about NOISE more than anything. What is the best case for a quiet requirement, on say a syste with Quad Core processor? The CPU fan alone is so noisy...

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]cachekidd160[/nom]I care about NOISE more than anything. What is the best case for a quiet requirement, on say a syste with Quad Core processor? The CPU fan alone is so noisy...[/citation]Keep an eye out for the new review coming soon!