The Gaming Case Showdown

Four mid-size cases arrive in time for the holiday season. Which one should you buy?

I recently purchased and returned and Antec Nine Hundred.

The unit looks great, very cool (in all sense's of the word) and industrial, however i was disappointed by the overall quality. The side panels are very thin, so much so that when removing the windowed panel for the first time the the metal tab on the back of the case bent!

The optical drives have to be hard mounted to the case, with no dampening at all. I dont like thhe fact that there is no rail system. The hard drive are also mounted metal on metal to the cages...again just a cheap impression compared to my older Sonata.

The psu mounts on the bottom of the chassis, but there are few places to hide wires and such. I was saddened to see the apparent lack of QC from Antec, but upon reading other boards this seems to be an issue not only with this case but PSU's too.

yeah, Antec's quality isin't as top top notch as it used to. I'll keep your advice in mind and double check some other review sites, but I'm still pretty much set on the case. Rails isin't a big thing for me because how often do you change optical and disk drives. Although not having any rubber grommets to reduce vibration and noise might be a negative... shrug

Guess we'll see.

I'm a big fan of the Silverstone TJ09, but that damned Fatal1ty case is nice looking... if it didn't have all the branding it would be better. I mean hell, I own a Fatal1ty mouse... just because I got used to it and oddly enough have the same "claw-grip" game style as the punk. But you don't need to splatter your name on all sides of the case.

Is it just me, or the quality of the reviews are deteriorating?
This article just tells you about the features if each case, without testing the performance with a live rig, or even depicting the installation process.
You can almost write it by just visiting the manufacturer's website.

Don't get me wrong, I'm huge fan of the site and a loyal reader for many years, but I think this review is not the in same standard as most articles.

I agree totally, gonna check for some more reviews too, might be the case for my build

Hi

I just wanted to know. Some power supplies have a fan on top. While all cases don't have a hole on top matching the fan. Seems strange.
I want to buy a new case and PSU. So I am wonder what the fan on top of the PSU is for.
Thanks!!

Just turn the front fan backwards so it blows in while the rear fans blow out. Am I missing something?
I also want the front fan to help cool the HDDs.
By the way, the sunbeam cases do look REALLY COOL. I want to get a clear LED case, turn my room to a disco. (I'm 38, I can afford to do these things now).

The transformer is a damn heavy case, but it's decent.. I looked quite a bit into it a while ago. Yeah, front fan should be intake to cool your hdd bays which is pretty standard fare for most cases these days. But if your like me with so many hdd's your front fan is only cooling hdd's and doing squat for your cpu.

Thanks for getting back.
Ya, I need a side fan as well to get fresh air on the CPU. As well as a front fan to get air on the HHDs.
I don't care if the case is heavy, I don't move it much.
I still don't know what the top PSU fan is for. Cases don't have a top hole where the PSU is located.

Fan on top of PSU is for cases (like Antec 900) that mount PSU in the bottom of the case instead of the top. The Antect 900 also has that 200mm fan at the top to pull the hot air from the PSU out after PSU blows the air upwards. Look at pics from this article. Make sense?

Yeah, the cooling of the 900 is what attracts me to it. Only thing I don't like about it is that it comes with LED fans, which I find a bit annoying... am I the only one? I just don't see the point of them. If I wanted my case to look like some sort of "death ray", I'd mod it myself.

Eh, cases are all about design, but the real good cases are the ones with a nice design that all fits functionality. I think the 900 has a decent design and great functionality (especially with the removal of external 3.5" bays, those should have been gone a long time ago.

Yeah, the cooling of the 900 is what attracts me to it. Only thing I don't like about it is that it comes with LED fans, which I find a bit annoying... am I the only one? I just don't see the point of them. If I wanted my case to look like some sort of "death ray", I'd mod it myself.

I agree with you on the stupid LED fans, but if you get a case with a window, its to be expected. You could replace them with better fans anyways. The 120mm fan that came stock on my antec isn't bad (and it has speed adjustments), but my AeroCool Turbine is way better. It pushes a lot more air and sounds about the same. On the downside it was close to $20 (CDN).

You know, thinking about it, depending on how the fans are made, you might be able to detatch the LEDs. I've never tried it, but it shouldn't be too hard.

I completely agree, but its hard not to laugh at a company trying to sell hand made drum looking computer cases for $700....

My vote still rests on the Silverstone TJ09

True. I was planning on buying the 900 and just replacing the 120mm fans with non-LED variety. But, maybe just disabling it would work (or maybe it would hose the fans, but who cares if I was planning on replacing them anyway???).

I thought it nice that if I had the money, that I have some choices now. Power supplies on the bottom,nice . but for now my noxt case will be , um that , case I saved from around the block or that street corner one

(first post, and its a rant )

I totally agree. This review was almost useless. I could have found all this out just by looking at the manufacturer's pages.

They failed to mention anything about the Antec 900's screw mounted 5.25" drives, or the fact that the Silverstone's was the only one with a removable motherboard tray. :?

I used to read THG for reviews on hardware. Reading articles like this is discouraging. (reason for account).

If they were going to do a skimpy review, they should have included more into the collection. I have my eye on the CoolerMaster Mystique.

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/Products.aspx?pid=1248

And is it just me or are psu's at the bottom stupid? Doesn't that make hiding that giant 20/24 pin cable harder?

Pat,

I gotta say I'm disappointed with this article. I mean, anyone can throw up pictures of 4 cases, talk about them, and then publish the specs on the web. Why weren't any benchmarks done in cooling? That's what we really care about. Looks are only half the equation.

Every other case review i've seen on other enthusiast sites always do temp. benchmarks. Always.

-Disappointed

Yeah, the cooling of the 900 is what attracts me to it. Only thing I don't like about it is that it comes with LED fans, which I find a bit annoying... am I the only one? I just don't see the point of them. If I wanted my case to look like some sort of "death ray", I'd mod it myself.

I actually kind of like the LED fans except that they make extra light in my bedroom at night. The fans have to use those 4 pin 12 volt power supply connectors though and each fan has a low, medium and high speed setting switch (That has to be set from inside the case).

Well, each to their own. Sometimes those fans look alright, but usually they bug me.

Anyway, you own an Antec Nine Hundred? How is it?

They've already reviewed the Aurora and, yes, its one amazing case indeed.

Supermicro ups: Solid, means business, great if you're going to swap drives a lot (front loading hot swappable).

Supermicro downs: front USB port but why no sound ports? And none offer a removable motherboard tray.

definitely nice cases. They will all do the trick. I'm just a coolermaster man myself. I'm very happy with my stacker.

Did anyone else find this article unhelpful in deciding what case to purchase?

4 cases were shown with no more information that what could have been gathered from their own websites. What are the author's thoughts on what this article would show to the public?

The article is titled, "Gaming Case Showdown," but in no way is 'gaming' brought into the equation of which case to buy. I at least expected to see each case tested on its cooling ability while gaming/under load and possibly a noise decibel test. Isn't that a main reason we search for a case - for a good cooling solution? There was no mention at all at how well or not so well, these cases cooled.