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Three Gaming Cases, With Power, Under $100

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  • Gaming
  • Cases
  • Power Supplies
  • Power
  • Product
Last response: in Reviews comments
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June 30, 2010 6:00:51 AM

Case and power supply combos always look like a bargain, but bargain-basement parts have always seemed to chase experienced builders away. Today, we consider three budget-enthusiast models to determine if any of them can meet our basic gaming needs.

Three Gaming Cases, With Power, Under $100 : Read more

More about : gaming cases power 100

June 30, 2010 6:25:04 AM

Good review
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5
June 30, 2010 6:28:32 AM

yeah good review
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4
Related resources
June 30, 2010 6:44:19 AM

In "Measured Test Results", first chart, temperature over ambient in degrees Celsius... even at freezing temperature of 0C, CPU would be at 67+ C.... and on a hot day of 30C your CPU would be approaching boiling... i think its a little too toasty so there gotta be a mistake in there somewhere; wrong unit or math
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2
a b ) Power supply
June 30, 2010 6:44:24 AM

Good article, i really enjoy these articles about squeezing the biggest bang for the buck out of builds. We'd all like to be able to drop big $$$$ on our systems, but sometimes reality (or the wife) puts a pretty low limit on how much we can spend.
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17
Anonymous
a b 4 Gaming
a b ) Power supply
June 30, 2010 7:19:12 AM

Just to confirm, are you guys using a dual channel RAM for a 920 build?
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-3
June 30, 2010 7:34:00 AM

Quote:
Unfortunately, Cooler Master does not include an exhaust fan.


I would not only prefer not to have one if not necessary due to noise, but I would also prefer to purchase one of my choosing so this is not necessarily a bad thing.
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0
June 30, 2010 7:35:24 AM

I think in cases more people are looking at aesthetics and ruggedness over temps and acoustics as nearly all cases have acceptable values. When it comes to this NZXT and Rosewill have really seperated themselves from other cases under $50.
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0
June 30, 2010 7:49:59 AM

I agree, but as an enthusiast I'm really loving that Cooler Master case. I tend to like front to back air flow just because it helps direct noise away from me and I can cool my hard drives first and my GPU last since that seems to be the order of coolest to hottest operating temps.

I suspect with a bit higher power draw Cooler Master's PSU may perform a bit more admirably on efficiency. The only way to really know is to test the PSUs against each other and measure power draw of the PSUs themselves (until they power off preferably!) under load/idle. If you're going to make a statement about energy efficiency at all then it is my belief that you should test them.
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0
June 30, 2010 7:51:33 AM

xc0mmiexIn "Measured Test Results", first chart, temperature over ambient in degrees Celsius... even at freezing temperature of 0C, CPU would be at 67+ C.... i think its a little too toasty so there gotta be a mistake in there somewhere; wrong unit or math
No, it's an overclocked Core i7 at eight threads of Prime95, if you find those numbers shocking you're thinking of the wrong CPU.
falchardI think in cases more people are looking at aesthetics and ruggedness over temps and acoustics as nearly all cases have acceptable values. When it comes to this NZXT and Rosewill have really seperated themselves from other cases under $50.
These are basically $40 cases in this article. Two of the cases in the review are already far better than this one:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-computer-cas...
That is to say, two of these $40 cases are vastly superior to that $100 case. So you can say what you like, but words alone will not convince me.
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0
June 30, 2010 7:54:43 AM

Why in blazes you did NOT include in this... comparison the amazingly incredible HAF 922??? Its way better than any of these and costs only $90 Plenty of space, cable management space and of course AIRFLOW! it even has slots in the door so you can fit one big or two small fans... Anyways what can i say, you should have included it

... ummm sorry didn't get the WITH POWER part hehe... well i can just add that this is a great case and it is worth saving up the extra bucks for the added money you'll have to pay for the PSU
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-10
June 30, 2010 8:00:51 AM

grossemesserWhy in blazes you did NOT include in this... comparison the amazingly incredible HAF 922??? Its way better than any of these and costs only $90 Plenty of space, cable management space and of course AIRFLOW! it even has slots in the door so you can fit one big or two small fans... Anyways what can i say, you should have included it

"Three Gaming Cases, With Power, Under $100"
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5
June 30, 2010 8:59:48 AM

While the cases are good, the review doesn't throw any light on how the included PSUs perform. Considering that these are budget PSUs, there might be a chance of having substandard PSUs being included which may not even deliver rated power. Cooler Master Extreme Power 600W is one low cost PSU that can't deliver it's rated power.
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3
June 30, 2010 9:05:22 AM

Oh, I found the review of the exact PSU being included in Cooler Master USP 100. It is RS-550-PCAR-E3 which is commercially known as Cooler Master extreme Power 550W. Here is a review at hardwaresecrets.com that clearly shows that it is a bad PSU.
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3
June 30, 2010 9:23:35 AM

Why would you put the PSU at the bottom of a case when hot air rises?
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-6
June 30, 2010 9:31:10 AM

MetallifuxWhy would you put the PSU at the bottom of a case when hot air rises?
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.
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0
June 30, 2010 9:32:54 AM

Because a PSU at the bottom provides better position for the motherboard. With PSU at the bottom, you can install 2 fans at the top which ain't possible if the PSU is at the top.
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-3
June 30, 2010 10:21:26 AM

MetallifuxWhy would you put the PSU at the bottom of a case when hot air rises?

Not to mention that hot air will rise right into the psu causing an increase in psu temps and a decrease in efficiency. I don't think using the psu to exhaust air from the case is a good idea when fans can do a much better job
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5
June 30, 2010 11:00:03 AM

are you going to put these 3 PSUs through their paces when you do the PSU testing article?
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3
June 30, 2010 11:31:41 AM

The PSU's don't even have enough AMP's / rail to power an higher end GPU..... A 5850 alone is recommended to have at minimum 25 AMP's available on its rail.
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-5
June 30, 2010 12:58:37 PM

I've always preferred the PSU on top. In a computer case that is.
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-3
June 30, 2010 1:03:06 PM

MetallifuxWhy would you put the PSU at the bottom of a case when hot air rises?


Because the PSu fan will be able to get cold air from the bottom of the case. In this way, it's heat won't interfere with the components' heat inside the case.
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0
a b 4 Gaming
a c 131 ) Power supply
June 30, 2010 1:25:08 PM

I would not trust my PC to any older Coolermaster or Thermaltake PSU. They tend to choke in competent technical reviews. The InWin is a dark horse, but with full range active PFC and 80+ certification (the chart says it doesn't have active PFC, but clearly it does) I would give it a shot long before either of the others.
And, no conspiracy. A lot has already been written about Antec's excellent offerings.
A PSU on the bottom of a case makes the case more stable, and in many cases draws its [unheated] air from beneath the case, and exhausts its warm air. An 80+ (or better) PSU does not radiate enough heat under reasonable loads to be a concern. And, it doesn't dangle excess cables into the airflow.
I know of no rule that says all gamers have to have massive heat sinks on their CPUs. CPUs have become more and more powerful, such that a point has been reached where it isn't even necessary to overclock a CPU for good performance in games. Yes, you'd need to push an Athlon II X2 260 to the limit; or take the money from the necessarily massive HSF, add it to the CPU budget, and get a X4 (possibly a Phenom II) or Core-i5 instead. If the stock cooler sucks that bad (and some certainly do), there are plenty of quiet, competent models available that would fit in the InWin case.
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5
June 30, 2010 1:26:21 PM

MetallifuxWhy would you put the PSU at the bottom of a case when hot air rises?


I just got an antec 900 and having the psu on the bottom is easier for installation and cables and looks more neat. I don't worry about the hot air because of the fans I have in it.
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1
June 30, 2010 1:32:29 PM

Hmm.. that Cooler Master Case looks like Cooler Master Elite meets HAF on a budget.

Good article.
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1
June 30, 2010 1:43:52 PM

A 400W power supply running a GTX 285 ... teaches u something about real power requirements. I guess the moral of the story is: don't believe everything nvidia and ati are advertising.
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0
June 30, 2010 1:56:24 PM

none of the PSU's have active PFC

thats where I stop reading
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0
June 30, 2010 2:08:57 PM

I'm not fond of these cases where the hard drives are mounted sideways. Sometimes they are not wide enough for beefier power supplies that group the wires in a tube orientation.
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0
June 30, 2010 2:15:29 PM

You get what you pay for, but a gamer intent on building their own rig should never buy a case with a PSU. This review outlines why, good review.
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-1
a b 4 Gaming
a c 131 ) Power supply
June 30, 2010 2:31:56 PM

warezme...never buy a case with a PSU. This review outlines why...

Unfortunately, I'm not sure it did. Though sprinkled with caveats, none of these PSUs immediately failed. If these boxes were run continuously (as in a typical weekend gaming marathon), I'd bet on the TR2 croaking first, but in this brief look, they all appeared to do ok. Or, over time, poor ripple, regulation, and/or turn-on spikes might kill something, or at the least cause instability. I can see this article being cited by someone wanting to go cheap on the PSU, thinking it must be okay because Tom's pulled it off.
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2
June 30, 2010 2:38:28 PM

After crowing about Tom's new P/S test facility, I was disappointed to find that the power supplies themselves were not reviewed- no test of OCP/OPP, no test of ripple at various power levels, no hot box testing, no overshoot transient testing. Almost nothing is known about these power supplies beyond efficiency, noise and what is printed on the side label. I wouldn't trust my system to any of these P/S without a reputable review, and this isn't it.
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2
June 30, 2010 2:49:13 PM

MetallifuxWhy would you put the PSU at the bottom of a case when hot air rises?


Because I don't enjoy cooking my power supplies with system heat.
Because I have a 120mm fan, or two, to take care of the convection heat.
Because a bottom mount P/S can more easily have its own bottom intake vent and its own stream of fresh cool air, leaving more airflow for other components from the front vents/fans.
Because I don't have to route the 24 pin connector snake around the big CPU cooler.
Because I have shorter runs to the Video Card(s).
Because a bottom mount P/S gives me a more stable, less top-heavy case.

That's why.

Convection assisted cooling with a single P/S fan made sense in the days of 250W P/S and passively cooled CPU's, and still make sense for low power systems like HTPC's. For a gaming system, they just trying to cool a hot component with hot air. Not a good idea for a marginal quality component not verified by hot box testing.
Score
4
June 30, 2010 3:26:07 PM

I'd have to pass on those power supplies.
I have an Antec 300 (5 case fans) Bought for about $45.
I also have a PC Power and Cooling 610 Watt power supply. That was a bit more though.
I'm not sure how well you'd be able to run a gaming computer using 400 watts and NO WAY on the SLI or Crossfire. Plus I love the fact that my PSU has 1 MASSIVE rail. Instead of 14A and 15A on different parts of the PSU mine has 49A shared. If you have a video card that needs 16Amps your screwed. With mine, my video card can gobble up all it needs and they rest of the amps can all be used as well. This way there is no waisted Amps and all the devices can get what they need. You may have to do some reading to understand why this is such a good thing. But, it is my personal belief that single rail power supplies are the best and PC Power and Cooling is TOPS.

CrashmanGroupthink. 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.


Wrong! It is done for better and more efficient cooling. Hot air rises. meaning that the hottest air inside a PC will go out through the power supply. This is not a good thing. In a typical PC design you power supply would ALWAYS be hot. With the power supply at the bottom it is not taking in hot air and the fans on the top are more efficiently getting rid of hot air. So in the end, it's a more effective design. Although I am temped, I won't say anything about your intelligence.
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0
June 30, 2010 3:33:27 PM

in general i think cool master makes much better "no bells and whistles" enthusist cases than otehr companies do. sure antec has awsome massive full tower cases taht are prestty to look at , but for a budget builder antec's offerings look behind to me , same witht eh toerh two companies , back in 08 i got a cool amster centurion 590 case , nice little budget build mid tower , case , holds up to 7 fans , 2 120x120's and 4 slots that take from a 80x80 up to a 140x140 , better yet i fit all my fans in it even with a massive hyper tx 2 cpu cooler in my case this case onlky costed me a nice and tidy 59 bucks and came with two of the fans i'm stil using in it (two 120's), so it's no suprise that coolmaster took this "competiton " , granted that model didn't come with many fans , but hell even us budget gamer/builders are gonna buy some fans to throw down in a new rig
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1
a b 4 Gaming
a b ) Power supply
June 30, 2010 3:49:10 PM

Good review. Getting a good budget case with a decent PSU is always hard. I pretty much expected the iwin to preform as it did, but I was rather disappointed with the Cooler Master's results though I assume it would do a little better with more and better fans. Of course it didn't come with those fans and it wouldn't be a good comparison to the other cases. I'll certainly be looking at the M9 next time I do a budget build for someone. Too bad the 300 wasn't in this review though.
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0
June 30, 2010 3:55:57 PM

you couldn't find 3 cases any uglier than this.
I rarely look at cases with included power supply simply because in my experience
this budget power supply units do not meet my minimum requirements.

with that said I recently use a Rosewill case with included 450watts power supply for
a built for a friend, giving that he is not going to play games or push the system too hard is ok.

but for anyone who play games, or use any kind of graphic intense software you just can't deal with anything under 600watts power supply to power a decent video card.
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0
June 30, 2010 4:38:57 PM

I'm really disappointed they didn't include the NZXT m59 in this review.
I got mine for 49.99 with a 20 dollar MIRB which makes it cheaper than all of these cases and it has all the features plus more than all of these cases.
Score
0
a b 4 Gaming
a c 131 ) Power supply
June 30, 2010 4:59:37 PM

drwho1...but for anyone who play games, or use any kind of graphic intense software you just can't deal with anything under 600watts power supply to power a decent video card.

Nonsense. You could build a quite competent gamer with a 73W core-i3/i5 and a HD5770 and run it on a QUALITY 300W PSU. No, you wouldn't have much overclocking headroom; make it a 400W PSU for that, and you're still well short of 600W. HD5770 not good enough? Well then, that 400W PSU will handle a HD5850, or get 450W if you want to overclock a build using a HD5870. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
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0
Anonymous
a b 4 Gaming
a b ) Power supply
June 30, 2010 7:01:32 PM

I really don't understand the why you would want to save money on a case. The case is one of the few components that does not become obsolete in future builds. Isn't it worth it to invest the extra $50 to $100 on a premium case that is quieter, cooler and has a better layout that you can use over and over. When I bought my Silverstone Raven II, it was replacing a Thermaltake Xaser that worked very well for 6 years and four builds, but I now needed something better and quieter and the unique and the much smarter airflow design of the Raven II with the 90 degree motherboard rotation caught my attention right away. I studied it, read all the reviews, found a few flaws, but ultimately realized that this was the right way to design a case and that saving money on all the other cases out there would just be a rehash of what I already had. I am sure other manufacturers could come up with something even better than the Raven II, but it seems as though the short sighted cost savings are still too attractive to the buying public. Sometimes the "deal" of saving money is really wasting money in the long run!
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0
Anonymous
a b 4 Gaming
a b ) Power supply
June 30, 2010 7:08:09 PM

uh for the inwin powerman psu isnt it 18 + 16 amps making it 34 not 25 or am i missing something
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-2
June 30, 2010 11:19:41 PM

stuffexuh for the inwin powerman psu isnt it 18 + 16 amps making it 34 not 25 or am i missing something
Yeh, the components for both rails go back to a single source that itself has 25A capacity. You could put out 18A on one side and 7A on the other, or 9A on one side and 16A on the other, etc.
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2
July 1, 2010 12:05:17 AM

Cheers Crashman ... a good read.
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-2
a b 4 Gaming
a c 139 ) Power supply
July 1, 2010 5:14:32 AM

Is a 'tepid recommendation' really a recommendation at all?
Some smart research could turn up other options like a current NewEgg combo deal of the Antec 300 & Antec Basiq 500W PSU. $95 before $15 rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Antec-Basiq-BP50...

I know the article focus was in a different direction. And it's been useful in pointing out it's always a good idea take a good look before jumping in at something that looks like a 'real' bargain.
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0
July 1, 2010 5:20:17 AM

Back in Feb. I managed to get an Antec Sonata III which includes an EarthWatts 500 PS for 99.99 from Newegg, just squeaking under the $100 mark. That has to be one of the best budget Case/PS combos going. It is currently $120 unfortunately but I imagine it will hit the $100 mark again.
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1
July 1, 2010 6:15:13 AM

WR2Is a 'tepid recommendation' really a recommendation at all?
It means that the author doesn't believe the three cases that participated represent the best three products of the sub-$100 field. A good example is In Win's inclusion of a case that's "gamer-themed" in appearance only...when its traditional products are better able to hold performance hardware.
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0
July 1, 2010 6:57:45 AM

CrashmanGroupthink. 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.


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.
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0
July 1, 2010 7:44:16 AM

Out of all the cases I think that thermaltake M9 caught my eye the most. Simple, clean, and has a nice plexi-glass side. I also like the Cooler Master but the RED is too flashy for me.
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0
July 1, 2010 10:21:31 AM

I went for a very inexpensive CPU+Motherboard+ 2GB RAM+Case and Power Supply combo on newegg a few months back.
Here was the case and power supply about $50 with free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
The Raidmax RX-450K 450W Power Supply that came with it was only 75% efficient,the case was pretty cheap (somewhat thinner flimsy aluminum).
The only problem with the case was the bay covers could come off easily so I glued them.Other than that it has good airflow and it works for me for a very low budget PC.Usually I never choose such a inexpensive Power Supply or case but I made an exception.I wouldn't mind buying another one.
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0
July 1, 2010 12:13:41 PM

jj463rdI went for a very inexpensive CPU+Motherboard+ 2GB RAM+Case and Power Supply combo on newegg a few months back.Here was the case and power supply about $50 with free shippinghttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811156239The Raidmax RX-450K 450W Power Supply that came with it was only 75% efficient,the case was pretty cheap (somewhat thinner flimsy aluminum).
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.
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0
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