Full ATX Case Suggestions? (with Cable Management Emphasis)

whatsntomake

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Jan 21, 2011
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Hello,
I just suffered a PSU failure and since installing/routing a PSU is quite a bit of effort I figured this would be a good occasion to grab a new case.


On my current case I'm having significant problems routing my cables neatly.

The problems I'm having are:
1) I'm terrible at this "staying neat" business.
2) Not enough spacing between my hard drives and motherboard. Due to the tight spacing it's very awkward to route SATA cables directly or through the back.
3) The HD bay is not orthogonal in relation to the motherboard which I think causes alot of problems for me. Even when all the cables are routed through the back the cables still take significant (horizontal) overhead before they reach the back.The open spaces that allow you to route cables to the back are very difficult to use with multiple hard drive sata cables, the 24 psu pin, the 2 psu 8 pins and etc.
4) Since the hard drives requires both a sata and psu cable - I have this giant mess/clump between all my individual hard drives and my motherboard's sata bay.


My current case is the Azza Solano 1000.
http://youtu.be/_jk6ZrVoNao?t=3m57s & http://i.imgur.com/tKpzmLn.png


I'm looking for a full size ATX case

I would like a case that is easy to work with. I'm particularly looking for these features:
1) Emphasis on easy and intuitive cable management. (I think having an orthogonal HD bay might be handy)
2) Hassle free installation of additional hard drive in the HD bay.
3) Easy to install/modify after market cooling backplate
4) Separate PSU chamber
5) USB 3.0 on the front panel
Preferable:
1) As Tool-less as possible. (I want to be able to get in the case quickly)
2) Sata Back Plane on HD bay.
3) If the case has a manual case fan control I would like it in the front (if the case has a control)


My Hardware:
1 SSD
2 RPM Hard Drives
1 DVD drive
1 Corsair H60 pump cooler
1 GTX 590
P67 Sabertooth Motherboard

Looking through some threads.
The Corsair Obsidian 800D really caught my eye but of course I thought I'd ask for some suggestions before pulling the trigger.

Thanks for your help!
 

whatsntomake

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The fractal looks quite nice. I like the backplate cutout.
I will add this case and the larger fractal xl r2 into my list.
Are there any other nice suggestions out there?
 

whatsntomake

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Jan 21, 2011
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Thank you for your recommendations.
As I mentioned above I'm having issues with cable routing because my hard drive bay is not orthogonal to my motherboard and the lateral distance between the two isn’t sufficient. My case essentially has a jumble of wires similar to what you see in this video: http://youtu.be/UqLSkGMYF5Q?t=38m31s

I see that on the corsair 800D the HD bay is not orthogonal in relation to the motherboard. However, on the 800D there is still significant width (2 lateral gromwell cutouts) between the mobo and hd bay. After you finish routing everything you can then slide a cover over the HD bay to obscure everything.
Corsair Videos illustrating what I mean:
Front View: http://youtu.be/OAM6tt8dwrA?t=2m9s
http://youtu.be/OAM6tt8dwrA?t=3m58s (With the HD and cover)
Back View: http://youtu.be/OAM6tt8dwrA?t=1m39s

Whereas in most of the other cases – I only see less lateral spacing (only 1 lateral gromwell cutout) between the motherboard and the HD.
Using the CM storm stryker as a comparision
Front view: http://youtu.be/1t2h9E2LTUs?t=2m2s
Backside: http://youtu.be/1t2h9E2LTUs?t=3m3s

So, I’m wondering for those who’ve used both types of cases before, does either layout present a significant advantage over the other in cable management/ease of use and are they both easy to work with when you need to install new hardware that requires additional cables?

I’ve never used an orthogonal HD bay but the corsair 800D's layout also looks very intuitive to me so I’m looking for a bit of perspective.