Because they’re not too tall and not too short, mid-tower chassis tend to be the most popular. When choosing our 13 candidates, we tried to collect a wide variety of models, based on the current market situation. Besides well known manufacturers like Silverstone and Enermax, we also found lesser-known companies offering their own interesting products.
We set out to answer a number of different questions. For example, how is the build of the case compared to others in the market ? Which advantages and disadvantages do the cases have relative to each other ? Are all edges sharp or rounded ? Further test criteria include the ease of adding hardware components and good internal ventilation.
An Overview of the Test Candidates
- AeroCool T-Gun Pro
- Antec Three Hundred
- Enermax Phoenix Neo
- Gigabyte iSOLO
- Hiper Osiris
- Huntkey H201 Aeolus
- Ikonik Zaria
- Inwin Gundam
- LanCool PC-K1
- Lian LI PC-B25 Black
- Silverstone SST-KL01B Kublai
- Thermaltake M5 VJ2000
- Zalman Z-Machine GT1000
Previous
Next
Summary
- Introduction
- Antec Three Hundred
- Antec Three Hundred Specifications
- Antec Three Hundred Details
- Enermax Phoenix Neo
- Enermax Phoenix Neo Specifications
- Enermax Phoenix Neo Details
- Gigabyte iSOLO 230
- Gigabyte iSOLO 230 Specifications
- Gigabyte iSOLO 230 Details
- Hiper Osiris
- Hiper Osiris Specification
- Hiper Osiris Details
- Huntkey H201 Aeolus
- Huntkey H201 Aeolus Specifications
- Huntkey H201 Aeolus Details
- Ikonik Zaria A10
- Ikonik Zaria A10 Specifications
- Ikonik Zaria A10 Details
- Inwin Gundam
- Inwin Gundam Specifications
- Inwin Gundam Details
- LanCool PC-K1
- LanCool PC-K1 Specifications
- LanCool PC-K1 Details
- Lian Li PC-B25 Black
- Lian LI PC-B25 Black Specifications
- Lian LI PC-B25 Black Details
- Silverstone SST-KL01B Kublai
- Silverstone SST-KL01B Kublai Specifications
- Silverstone SST-KL01B Kublai Details
- Thermaltake M5 VJ2000
- Thermaltake M5 VJ2000 Specifications
- Thermaltake M5 VJ2000 Details
- Zalman Z-Machine GT1000
- Zalman Z-Machine GT1000 Specifications
- Zalman Z-Machine GT1000 Details
- AeroCool T-Gun Pro
- AeroCool T-Gun Pro Specifications
- AeroCool T-Gun Pro Details
- Conclusion: Quality Has Improved
Ask a Category Expert

Your mid-tower round up article is good. However laying out your article over 41 pages is too excessive. By the time I reached the 20th page I became bored of flipping through pages with only a few paragraphs on each page.
I'm certain your article could have fit on fewer pages. I believe one page for each case reviewed would provide a clean article layout.
Same price range looks better and PSU at the bottom, i like that.
You could set these case up with a Q6600 @ 3Ghz, HD 4870 512Mb and a 650 watt PSU (with stock coolers) and loop 3Dmark06/Vantage for an hour and see if the cases can keep the PC cool enough for that long.
Side intake doesn't have a Dust filter. I had to use that fan as an exhaust until I can order one for it, which means that the case wont have positive airflow until then.
Its really heavy. This case weighs more then my Lian Li full tower case.
It doesn't have a removable Motherboard tray.
One thing that was well thought out was the 3 fans that were not included. While this sounds like a draw back, it isn't. The 3 optional fans that are availible are the 3 most visible fans in the case. Which means that you can customize the color of LED fans you want in it.
I used 3 green antec led 120 mm fans in this case and the air flow is phenomenal.
However having owned the Lian Li B25 I disagree with your comments regarding complexity of installation of the hard drives. Having only built one other system I can say that it takes perhaps 30 sec more than normal to figure out what to do. Also I would have liked to see more details about noise regarding all cases. i can't say for the other but the B25 had sound dampening foam on the front door and on the top cover, the side panels were hollowed out further dampening the noise, the hard drives were connected using rubber (grommets I believe) and there were additional anti vibration features (cant remember) and the feet of the case also used rubber.
I used the Antec 300 and TruePower Trio 650 for my latest build.
The case is spacious and I didn't have a problem installing a full length graphic card. In the past with other Antec cases I've encountered difficulty installing full length graphic cards because it interferes with the installation of 3.5" drives.
The one thing I don't like about the Antec 300 is the power button. I find the button is weak and I have to gently press it to power on my computer.
The one thing I do like is the case ventilation. It’s laid out well and with installation of single 120mm intake fan my overclocked cpu and graphic card remain very cool.
1) You could've made a few pictures of the packaging. Cases are things your visitors can see, and you'd want them to be transported to you without taking any, visible or otherwise, damage. Silverstone do an outstanding job at this, and so does antec, but I don't think zalman or thermaltake would care much for the packaging quality (they care about flash stuff, not quality stuff after all). Also I'd have liked a list of noise levels for the cases.
Perhaps you can make another roundup, without limiting yourself to a specific case size and color, of potential gamer cases. And at the end of the roundup make a comparison list with external dimentions, motherboard orientation, weight and noise levels. I'm still using an old thermaltake lanfire chassis for a lan gamer, cause though it's ugly, it's very very light (3kg) and rather well built.
On another note - does anyone know if it is possible to only buy the side panel for that aerocool chassis ? I'd like to built such a door into a new top cover for my custom desktop system ...
Your mid-tower round up article is good. However laying out your article over 41 pages is too excessive. By the time I reached the 20th page I became bored of flipping through pages with only a few paragraphs on each page.
I'm certain your article could have fit on fewer pages. I believe one page for each case reviewed would provide a clean article layout.
Not sure why you would base a recommendation on this information however.
Throw a couple overclocked 4850s and an overclocked C2D in those cases and measure the various temps and get a decibel reading from a fixed point. Those are the things I should know before buying a case.
Some recommendation can be at use for many folks.
On a side note, I think coolermaster may not be represented because they didn't send in any case in time - it's entirely possible they were asked to take part.
One example would be an antec sonata (forgot version). Sleek looking piano black chassis. But the plastic front felt like it was gonna come off any second (still hasn't though), and the power supply they supplied, while brilliant in specs, featured too short cables for the sata drives. So before I was done building it I had already broken a sata power connector as I thought brute force would help make it long enough (it usually does with antec problems). Also the chassis was rather tiny once a motherboard, two harddrives, a dvd and a graphics card were installed.
Anyway I've heard a lot of good stuff about the 900 and p150 apart from noise, so perhaps the bigger cases are good. But I don't really like the small ones except for the value they sport when comming with a psu installed.
Also, is it better to have positive or negative pressure in a case? I.e should more fans be pulling air in, or pushing air out? These cases differed in their approach (some had two 120s pushing air out, while the AeroCool as a giant 400 pulling air in).
I was always under the impression pulling more air in, and directing that air onto the components, was better than pushing air out, and allowing the air to cut its own path in and around the components (where it might miss some).
Pretty good article though. I like the screen shots of the loaded cases as well so you can get an idea of how much space is in the cases.
Surprised by the build quality of the Hiper case, very nice.
Myself settled long ago for the Antec three hundred. It was a tight budget decision.. but geez did I get alot for my bucks!!!
Corsair support say the clearing of about 1 inch between the fan and the bottom of the case is enough for sufficient airflow to the PSU.. In this case it was in regards to a TX650W. I've got a HX520 there turned right side up. So probably need not to worry install the PSU with the fan down.
There was only two tri-cool fans included with the Three Hundred, one 120mm facing back and one 140mm in the roof. They are quiet at the low setting and a bit noisy at medium.. but way to audible at the highest speed! The Tri-Cool 140mm was vibrating a bit so I eventually decided to replace it with a Fractal Design 140mm fan, this lowered the vibrations though I did not use the rubber mounts.
I can second Toms recommendation for the Antec Three Hundred.