Our 15-way shootout of cases priced between $80 and $120 ends as we compare the last five models to the previous ten, yielding an overall winner. Which chassis offers the best balance of quality, cooling, and noise reduction, and which is the best buy?
Mid-range gaming hardware is a favorite among Tom’s Hardware readers. So, we were not surprised last year when a poll revealed that a majority of responders wanted us to focus on the $80 to $120 range for our next round-up of cases. That's a super-dense field, involving more enclosures than one reviewer can tackle. We set a few reasonable ground rules, though, that helped reduce the number of submissions we received to a more manageable 15. As we prepare to test the last five entries, here are a few links to the coverage of the 10 models that came before.
- Part 1a: Picture Preview of Corsair's 300R, In Win's Mana 136, MSI's Stealth, NZXT's Phantom 410, and Xigmatek's Midgard II
Part 1b: Performance Analysis of Corsair's 300R, In Win's Mana 136, MSI's Stealth, NZXT's Phantom 410, and Xigmatek's Midgard II - Part 2a: Picture Preview of Antec's Eleven Hundred, Cooler Master's Storm Enforcer, Fractal Design's Arc Midi, Raidmax's Agusta, and SilverStone's Kublai KL04
Part 2b: Performance Analysis Antec's Eleven Hundred, Cooler Master's Storm Enforcer, Fractal Design's Arc Midi, Raidmax's Agusta, and SilverStone's Kublai KL04 - Part 3a: Picture Preview of Antec's Solo II, Corsair's 400R, In Win's Buc, MSI's Ravager, and Raidmax's Seiran
Part 3b: Today’s Performance Analysis
Previous performance analysis revealed several award-worthy products, such as NZXT’s high-quality Phantom 410 and Cooler Master’s high-value Storm Enforcer. The big question today is whether any of the final five enclosures are better than the cases we've already tested. At the end of this piece, we'll compare all 15 submissions to determine one overall winner. But first we have to test the last quintet.

| Antec Solo II | Corsair 400R | In Win Buc | MSI Ravager | Raidmax Seiran | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | |||||
| Height | 17.3" | 19.7" | 19.1" | 18.4" | 18.9" |
| Width | 8.1" | 9.3" | 8.6" | 8.1" | 8.0" |
| Depth | 18.9" | 21.3" | 20.2" | 19.7" | 19.7" |
| Space Above Motherboard | 0.6" | 1.3" | 0.7" | 1.3" | 0.8" |
| Card Length | 16.0" | 13.1" | 12.0" | 12.0" to 16.9"**^^ | 11.7" to 16.6" |
| Weight | 20.5 Pounds | 16.8 Pounds | 16.6 Pounds | 15.7 Pounds | 13.0 Pounds |
| Cooling | |||||
| Front Fans (alternatives) | None (2 x 120 mm) | 2 x 120 mm (None) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | 1 x 120 mm (2 x 120 mm) | 1 x 120 mm (None) |
| Rear Fans (alternatives) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | 1 x 120 mm (1 x 140 mm) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | 1 x 120 mm (1 x 92 mm) | 1 x 120 mm (1 x 80 mm) |
| Top Fans (alternatives) | None (None) | None (2 x 140/120 mm) | 1 x 120 mm (None) | None (2 x 140/120 mm) | None (None) |
| Left Side (alternatives) | None (None) | None (2 x 140/120 mm) | None (2 x 120 mm) | None (2 x 140/120 mm) | 1 x 180 mm (1 x 120 mm) |
| Right Side (alternatives) | None (None) | None (None) | None (None) | None (None) | None (None) |
| Drive Bays | |||||
| 5.25" External | Two | Four | Three | Three | Nine |
| 3.5" External | None | None | One | None | 1x Adapter |
| 3.5" Internal | Three | Six | Five | Six | 6x Adapter |
| 2.5" Internal | Three* +1 | Six* | Five* | Six* | Seven* |
| Card Slots | Seven | Eight | Seven | Seven | Seven |
| Price | $90 | $89 | $95 | $80 | $80 |
| *Shared on 3.5" tray **Slots 1-5 ^^w/o Center Cage | |||||
Prices have dropped on several models since our series began. For instance, Raidmax's Seiran sells for only $70 at Directron, and MSI’s Stealth shows up at Micro Center for an online price of $77. Because all of these cases had to be priced between $80 and $120 to qualify for this round-up, we're using the price floor in our comparison. However, we'll factor in the updated prices when it comes time to compare the value of each product in the 15-way evaluation.
- Making A Case For Performance And Value
- Building With The Antec Solo II
- Building With The Corsair 400R
- Building With The In Win Buc
- Building With The MSI Ravager
- Building With The Raidmax Seiran
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Temperature, Noise, And Acoustic Efficiency
- Quality And Value: The Final Five, Evaluated
- One In 15: Picking An Overall Winner
the only tiny problem at the most part i see in that is that it would be slightly harder to test thermal efficiency, since its being cooled by water, rather than air + hsf so in a wc build, the thermal ratings will be extremely close.
I have a qx-2000 case from aerocool. it's a nightmare for cable management and upgrading partsm but I like it
can toms also do an in-depth article on smaller cases?
particularly, I want a similar case as the qx-2000 but the PSU is mounted at the bottom so that adding items inside woundnt be too much of a chore.
thermaltake armor a30 looks awesome, but still has a top mounted PSU
My only complaint is that instead of the title "Gaming Cases Between $80 And $120" I would have titled the article "Overclock-able ATX Gaming/File Server Cases". I'm not sure why a gaming rig needs to be a 20" tower with room for seven drives and seven expansion slots these days. There are two large camps of gamers; those that overclock and those that don't.
For either camp, mATX is the best board to choose these days. Also, no gamer needs 2-9 external 5.25" bays unless they are also building a file server with hat swappable drives. They make file server cases for that. I think everyone appreciates lots of 3.5" and 2.5" internal bays but they should be optional and cooling and noise should always be the primary concern.
For the overclockers, these cases are sized but for those that don't intend to overclock a review of mATX cases would be a lot more what the common gamer is looking at these days. In the recent builder challenge, most of the rigs came with Core-i5 CPUs because the extra CPU power of the i7 didn't really help with the benchmarks that much. The graphics card was where all the bang for the buck in gaming is. Using that same logic, a lot of gamers are not overclocking their CPU because of the cost and hassle as well a reduced component life. More than ever I think you have have a true top tier gaming rig and not overclock anything in it.
I think CM, Antec and SilverStone are going to be pretty sadface about getting those tiny "perform admirably as well and are excellent values" words at the end instead of a big, fat award badge.
Excellent series of articles anyway. Extremely useful to have such a wide selection of cases compared. Case selection IMO tends to be one of the tougher things when putting a build together, it's usually harder to compare cases than CPUs or graphics cards.
Interesting you had the 400R and not the $115~$120 -$15 MIR Corsair 500R.
Cases must have good cable management, features, airflow, and quality -- beyond that it's a Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder.
Just a thought on your grid you might want to add e.g. 1. Front Ports, 2. Side Panel Cable Management, 3. USB 3.0 (20-pin/pass-through)
Without adding that restriction, Tom's Hardware would have gotten at least twice as many cases at just one per manufacturer, and four times as many cases with this series' "twofer" plan.
As a motherboard editor, I can't recommend anything that doesn't have 20-pin. So as a case editor, I can't recommend anything that doesn't support recommended motherboards. Yeh, I'm a little...well anyway, you did know that without this editor we might still be waiting for a front-panel connector standard, right?
Many of the Corsair lines need a 'Version 1.1' with standardized USB 3.0 20 pins, Front Ports, and the 800D with SATA3.
Anyway thanks again
The H100 alone is why I bought this case over others. Although it doesn't take the overall win, I'm very glad to see it gets the 2012 approval. Makes me feel like I did good on my purchase.