Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Best Of The Best, Part 3: Who Makes The Most Elite PC Case?
By ,
1. Three More High-End Cases Compete For Enthusiast Attention

We can’t remember the last time we’ve issued an “Elite” award to a case, and there are reasons for that. Elite means “best”. An Elite case should have the best features, the best performance, the best build quality, and the best materials. Yet every single case we had recently tested had been nothing more than a bundle of compromises. Looking to avoid those issues, we began our search by setting a relatively-high $180 price baseline, and expected everyone to deliver something that was both costlier and worth the extra cost. Some companies still managed to shove mid-market parts into our roundup, as if anyone wanted to pay more than $180 for a mid-market product.

We trudged on into Part 2, and found two examples of the upper limits of mainstream product. The mainstream’s “ragged edge” if you will. And while those two examples might have been worth more than $180, any level of mainstream isn’t going to live up to our “Elite” expectations. Today we take our third swing at this beyond-value curve ball: Do Elite cases even exist, or will we strike out of this game?

Mountain Mods produces custom cases, and the supplied configuration includes half-windows that are only available using its flash configurator. The price shown includes a $40 assembly fee, which advanced users won’t likely need. The case we received can be configured as a double-wide tower or a double-high desktop, as shown.

Zalman’s H1 is facing limited distribution in the United States, with the last in-stock vender charging $240. After it disappeared from that site, we re-confirmed price consistency at European venders.

2. Mountain Mods U2-UFO (Horizon) CYO

Built in the company's Horizon orientation, the only way to get this version of the U2-UFO is by using Mountain Mods' “CYO Flash Picker”. Starting with a $280 shell, the firm added its “Duality” front panel (a $25 upgrade), left and right half-windows ($10 each, x2), Triple Top panel (a $10 upgrade), and Horizon motherboard brace for horizontal mounting ($25). It's then topped with Black Wrinkle powder coat ($50) and a $20 window etching.

Getting us up to a $666 pre-assembly price are twelve 120 mm Logysis fans ($78 combined), twelve 12MGAK-NM mesh fan covers ($36 combined), Lamptron’s FC-6 fan controller ($45), wrinkle-finished triple-HDD cages ($36 each x2), single-bay covers ($13 each x2), and a triple-bay cover ($15.50).

The standard 18” chassis only has the ATX-standard seven slots, making it difficult or impossible to mount a thick graphics card in a motherboard’s bottom slot. Stranger, the flash picker did not have a rear-panel option for the larger 10-slot motherboard tray, though we were able to select both the XL-ATX tray and 10-slot back panel by selecting our configuration from the shopping cart and bringing up the configuration options.

Our U2-UFO includes power and reset buttons, but no front-panel USB or audio ports. We didn’t even find a USB/audio front bay adapter on Mountain Mods' website, so if you prefer plugging devices in to the front of your case without reaching around back, you’ll probably need to find those parts at a case modding specialty store.

Mountain Mods can etch just about any logo you’d like in onto a window, and speaks to our vanity with this example. The workmanship is impressive, and you can bet we'll be on the lookout for an enthusiast-oriented project able to utilize the chassis' copious radiator mounting space.

3. Inside The U2-UFO (Horizon) CYO

Because it's cube-shaped, most of the U2-UFO’s panels can be rotated or exchanged with another side. The standard (non-Horizon) configuration would have placed the motherboard tray vertically, for example, and we could still achieve that configuration if we really wanted to disassemble everything.

Rear-panel options also include the “Duality” with two motherboard trays and four power supply mounts, “10-PCI” similar to above, but with the extra slots consuming the top power supply mount's space, and “triple standard”, with the third fan consuming the space of the bottom power supply mount. Since our power supplies are more than capable for our hardware, we would have probably picked the “10-PCI” option in spite of its $40 surcharge.

Major features of the Horizon layout can easily be viewed from either side of the U2-UFO, such as the front-panel drive bays, added fan-mounted hard drive cages, and Horizon motherboard tray support.

While build options vary, this specific panel configuration supports a 1x 120 mm radiator behind the CPU cooler, a 2x 120 mm radiator below the motherboard tray, a 3x 120 mm radiator above the motherboard, and two 3x 120 mm radiators up front.

 Mountain Mods filled all 12 of this U2-UFO’s holes with value-priced Logisys red LED fans, and tied those to a four-channel fan controller.

4. Building With The U2-UFO (Horizon) CYO

Mountain Mods includes a basic set of screws that are specific to the way a case is ordered. Also included were a set of thermal probes for the added-cost fan controller.

We could, in theory, have moved one of the two provided hard drive cage kits to any of the U2-UFO’s fans. Because 3.5” drives screw on from both sides, we needed to remove at least one of the two cages simply to install any drives.

Mountain Mods' drive cages are 3.5”-only, so we also had to track down a 2.5”-to-3.5” adapter tray just to install a single SSD. Since that’s all we were using, we left the second bracket set out, which could have also saved $13 from this unit’s cost if it had been ordered that way.

Horizontal orientation limits access to motherboard screws. We could have removed the top panel to install the board, but removing the motherboard tray was an equally-viable option. Doing so allowed us to take this nice photograph.

It might be lacking a few basic features, such as quick drive access, front-panel I/O, and fan filters, but the U2-UFO certainly caters to the performance side of the features-versus-performance argument. And it even looks the part, with all of its radiator-supporting fans lit up.

5. Nanoxia Deep Silence 6

Did you remember that this story maps our quest for the ultimate example of features, performance, and apparent quality? Nanoxia certainly did, and shipped us a case that stands as tall as most desks, has perfectly flat panels (including the anodized-aluminum face panel inserts), and is packed with features that increase convenience and reduce noise.

Nanoxia doesn’t get there with fancy materials though, instead using a greater quantity of familiar hardware like steel side panels, thick plastic face and top panels, and asphalt noise dampening. That excess adds up to a case that weighs more than most complete machines, at 49 pounds!

Nanoxia doesn’t make us pay extra for access to ten slots; that’s part of the Deep Silence 6’s basic design. Those slots are set inside a deeply embossed panel to increase rigidity beyond what was already expected of its thick steel material.

Front-panel I/O includes four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, in addition to headphone and microphone jacks. Behind the pop-up port section, a large fan cover raises up to allow more ventilation (or lowers to reduce noise). Below the array of ports, a pair of fan controllers also helps users choose between added cooling or reduced noise. And those controllers are even placed behind a noise-dampening foam door insert, which additionally muffles the acoustic output of 5.25” drives.

Unlike the top panel, the Deep Silence 6’s side panel cover doesn’t pop out. It is removable, optionally supporting two 120 or 140 mm fans, and it’s also surrounded by cloth-faced asphalt noise dampening sheet.

In addition to the ten expansion slots and four pass-through grommets, the Deep Silence 6's rear panel includes a slide-out filter that covers both the power supply inlet and an internal fan mount.

6. Inside The Deep Silence 6

The Deep Silence 6 is large enough to hold 13 hard drives and four optical drives simultaneously, and tall enough to stack 10 of those 3.5” trays beneath the four 5.25” bays. The three-tray secondary hard drive cage is removable.

Like the drive bays, the intake fans are also covered by a noise-dampened door. Each fan is installed on a swing-out mount with a slide-in dust filter, drawing air through slits in the side of the face panel.

Supporting both 3.5” hard drives (on rubber dampeners) and 2.5” SSDs (without dampening), the 10 hard drive trays behind the intake fans slide into a non-removable rack. The triple-tray cage behind them can be removed to make room for a 2x 120 mm radiator and additional fans on the opposite side of that rack.

Secondary cage removal also makes room for gigantic HPTX motherboards, and provides access to a lower fan mount. Rails for the internal radiator mount can be seen on the back side of the larger drive rack.

Manufacturer-supplied with two 140 mm exhaust fans, the Deep Silence 6 top panel supports triple-fan radiators in both 120 and 140 mm widths. Though the top panel raising mechanism prevents fans from being installed there, 2.5” of space between the motherboard and top panel should be more than adequate for most cooling configurations. Nanoxia even provides another set of 120 mm fan mounts offset to the outside, so that super-thick cooling configurations can hang past the top of the motherboard.

Space behind the motherboard tray is similarly generous, providing ample room for cable routing.

7. Building With The Deep Silence 6

The Deep Silence 6 is super-tall, so Nanoxia added a couple of power cable extenders to its installation kit. Other additions include four plugs that can replace rear-panel pass-through grommets, cable ties, and a face panel for the factory-installed 5.25”-to-3.5” adapter tray.

Because the Deep Silence 6 has four USB 3.0 ports, it also has two of the associated front-panel cables. We suggest that anyone considering a motherboard with two front-panel headers also consider whether those headers are easily accessible, since most enthusiast-class motherboards locate the second USB 3.0 header directly beneath the third PCIe x16 slot where it's sometimes obstructed.

One of Nanoxia’s fan controllers features three leads. The other has four, totaling seven.

Nanoxia’s drive trays feature two sets of mounts for 3.5” and two more for 2.5” drives. This allows builders to choose which side of the case to place cables.

Our power supply didn’t need any extender cables, and we found the Deep Silence 6’s second CPU-plate access hole perfect for running the main motherboard lead.

Rather than go by noise or flashing fans, most Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 owners will know their system is on by a lighted ring around the power button. You can open the top vent as shown if you’d really prefer to let some noise out.

8. Zalman H1

First shown as the Z15 at CES 2014, Zalman’s re-named H1 finally reached production status the middle of this year. We didn’t know exactly what to expect since the displayed sample wasn’t finished, but the retail part looks remarkably similar.

A modest 21.5 pounds of material isn’t much for a steel case, and a look around does reveal quite a bit of weight-saving plastic (with a little brushed aluminum visual enhancement). A hard plastic half-window provides a little resistance to light scratches, while being more flexible than heavy glass.

The top-mounted collection of I/O features separate front, rear, and top fan controls, along with manual and automatic switching modes for motorized top vents. A digital display shows thermal probe temperatures, and the panel can be set to always closed, always open, open at 35° and above (Celsius), or open at 45° and above.

The H1’s rear panel features nine expansion slots, four coolant line pass-through grommets, and two more knock-outs for pass-through access. Zalman fits a 120 mm exhaust fan in the dual-pattern 140/120 mm mount.

A rear-access filter covers the power supply intake, while a bottom fan mount get a separate, front-access filter.

The H1’s top panel includes two 120 mm fans, supports 140 mm fan upgrades, and provides 1.3” of additional space above the motherboard for a radiator.

9. Inside The H1

Other than the extra two expansion slots, the H1’s interior reflects a full ATX mid-tower. It features two removable three-tray hard drive cages beneath a four-bay 5.25” rack, of which the lowest external bay is blocked by the front panel.

That blocked bay could be a great place to put the included 5.25”-to-3.5”/2.5” adapter tray. Note that there aren’t any front-mounted radiator options for its 200 mm intake fan.

Drive trays feature vibration-dampened pin mounts for noisy 3.5” hard drives, and screw holes for silent 2.5” SSDs. The front access filter covers both the drive cage vent and a single 120 mm fan mount.

There’s enough room on the motherboard tray for EATX, but we only measure 13.9” of Zalman’s specified 14.1” card clearance. Anyone who needs more space can open the unit up to 19.1” by removing a drive cage.

Crossing over the motherboard area, that bent-looking piece of plastic is a card/fan holder that’s supposed to be straight. Three included tabs can secure one fan and one graphics card, or three graphics cards, and the shown deformity does not affect functionality.

Space is somewhat limited behind the motherboard tray, but we still found room for our power supply’s main lead. Side panels use those annoying slide-tabs, but Zalman manufactured them with enough accuracy to ease installation and removal.

10. Building With The H1

The H1 adds an eight-pin CPU power extension cable and a nifty triple-drive SATA cable to an otherwise ordinary installation kit.

Our SSD screws in place nicely, though 3.5” drive pins might have been a little quicker.

Each card bracket includes a hole to allow its use as a fan mount, when rotated vertically, rather than horizontally.

We didn’t install a fan on the other two tabs, but the default location shown would have been appropriate for cooling a motherboard voltage regulator if the system had been liquid-cooled.

The front panel pops open too, albeit manually, using a push latch.

11. How We Tested The Elite ATX Cases
Test System Configuration
CPUIntel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E): 3.30 GHz, Six Cores
O/C to 4.25 GHz (34 x 125 MHz) at 1.35 V Core
CPU CoolerCoolink Corator DS 120 mm Tower
MotherboardAsus P9X79 Pro: LGA 2011, Intel X79 Express, Firmware 3501 (03/14/2013)
O/C at 125 MHz BCLK
RAMG.Skill F3-17600CL9Q-16GBXLD 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-2200
Benchmarked at DDR3-1666 CAS 9 defaults
GraphicsNvidia GeForce GTX 580: 772 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4008
Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests, SLI
Hard DrivesSamsung 840 Series MZ-7PD256, 256 GB SSD 
SoundIntegrated HD Audio
NetworkIntegrated Gigabit Networking
PowerSeasonic X760 SS-760KM
ATX12V v2.3, EPS12V, 80 PLUS Gold
Software
OSMicrosoft Windows 8 Pro x64
GraphicsNvidia GeForce 314.22
ChipsetIntel INF 9.2.3.1020

We’ve retained the same hardware through several generations of case testing, allowing you to compare the thermal results from several round-ups. Case technology doesn’t change much, and neither does the heating capabilities of an overclocked Sandy Bridge-E processor.

We’re counting on that overclocked hexa-core CPU to flood each case with heat, and Coolink’s Corator DS is being used to similarly saturate the enclosures with noise as it transfers thermal energy away from the processor.

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580 is a great noise maker in its own right, its blower-style cooler spinning at a few thousand RPM at full speed. This reference card idles down to 40%, and we use full and idle speed settings for our load and idle tests.

Benchmark Configuration
Prime95 v25.864-bit executable, Small FFTs, 11 threads
3DMark 11Version: 1.0.3.0, Extreme Preset: Graphics Test 1, Looped
Real Temp 3.40Average of maximum core readings at full CPU load
Galaxy CM-140 SPL MeterTested at 1/2 m, corrected to 1 m (-6 dB), dB(A) weighting
12. Heat, Noise And Heat Versus Noise

With 12 fans that turn all the way down to 0 RPM, Mountain Mods' custom case provided the widest thermal range between full and low fan settings. Nanoxia had the least thermal range, while Zalman’s H1 went from high cooling to dragon’s breath at the turn of a dial (or three).

With so many fan holes to let graphics noise out, the Mountain Mods custom case showed relatively little noise difference between full-fan and no-fan modes. Always quiet, Nanoxia’s DS6 was still noisier than we expected from an enclosure weighed down with asphalt dampening.

Zalman’s thermal variation was far greater than its noise difference using different fan settings, so it goes from second-worst to second-best in overall performance after adjusting its fans and vents.

All three cases provided great overall performance with the fans turned up, which says a lot about the quietness of the twelve fans Mountain Mods chose for its custom case.

13. Are Any Of These Three Cases Elite Enough?

Our search for a case with the best of everything is starting to look a little unrealistic. Some might compare it to a car with the cornering ability of a Porsche and the comfort of a Rolls Royce, but cases are far less dynamic. In fact, Zalman’s H1 was the only case that “moved” at all!

Putting the H1 in an elite case round-up presents us with the problem that it’s made of mid-grade materials, using mid-grade design tenets like sliding-tab side panels. It has but one Elite-worthy feature, and while that one is a dandy, it’s not going to get us to best-of-the-best status.

Mountain Mods manufacturers cases for elitists, yet configurability is really the advanced feature you're paying for. The company offers high-quality materials to win us over, along with impressive radiator support, but building and servicing any PC placed into this thing is time consuming. And its acoustic performance…well, let’s just say that the more radiators a case supports, the more holes it has. It looks like a great system for an extreme PC project, but when it comes to daily convenience…can we get a slide-in drive bracket at least? Maybe just some front-panel connectivity?

Nanoxia keeps things plain and simple in its Deep Silence 6. Of course, plain probably isn't the hallmark of an Elite award-winning contender, but we do like the brushed-aluminum accents. As quiet as this thing is, I expected a 49-pound case to be nearly silent. And although I haven't mentioned this yet, you’d better be ready to catch those super-heavy side-panels as they fall after pivoting them only a few degrees from being closed.

All three of today’s cases are definitely high-end in one way or another, though I have to maintain that none of them qualify as the best of the best. We’re already beginning to compromise our search for an uncompromised product.

14. 10 High-End Cases Face Judgement

Remember that we initially scratched two cases off of our list for not even being high-end parts, let alone elite. Still, those submissions are still part of our data collection. Azza’s Genesis and Rosewill’s Blackhawk instead get nominated for "most likely to injure a builder” after their side panels stuck as if they were glued-on.

Those back-of-the-pack finishers ironically perform great thermally. Then again, so does a handful of fans on an open desk.

If noise is going to be part of our evaluation criteria, we should probably set a cut-off point. Perhaps 45 decibels? That unfortunately cuts off high-fan mode for the case with the best finish, In Win’s Tòu, which got to be glassy-smooth by being made of glass.

SilverStone’s FT04 didn’t have an Elite-worthy finish or materials list, but it tops our Acoustic Efficiency chart. In fact, it wins by a huge margin with its fans set to low-speed mode. It’s also relatively cheap, by more value-oriented high-end standards.

In fact, SilverStone’s performance-per-dollar beats those cheaply-made cases that I said I wouldn’t talk about.

This wasn’t supposed to be a performance contest, and any search for the ultimate configuration of quality and features certainly sets aside some aspects of value. Yet, cases with the highest quality, Caselab’s Merlin SM08, In Win’s Tòu, and Mountain Mod’s U2-UFO, came up short on features. Conversely cases with top features like Corsair’s 760T and Thermaltake’s Urban T81 aren't made of top-quality materials, and the T81 even suffered a couple of bothersome shortcuts, such as the slide-on right-side panel and divisible hinges that didn’t divide easily. At least these two less-expensive cases looked nearly as nice as their more-exclusive competitors.

We told manufacturers that we’d consider adding a value award only after exhausting all options for finding a uniquely elite case. Since the most excessive enclosures from our search ended up not having an excess of convenient features, SilverStone’s FT04 surfaces as the top-performing model for value consideration. It wins Smart Buy recognition as a result.