Five More Mainstream Gaming Cases, Rounded-Up

By Thomas Soderstrom
published

We've already given you a pictorial walk-through of cases six through 10 of our 15-chassis round-up. Today, we build PCs inside of them, evaluate their value, and pick one as the most likely to satisfy your needs (though several excel in other ways).

Building With The Cooler Master Storm Enforcer

Cooler Master’s Storm Enforcer fits into more traditional mid-tower dimensions, its tall feet and front-panel peak pushing its height to a mere nineteen inches. With an extra-deep door constituting more than an inch of its 21” total depth, this case's interior is limited to ATX-sized motherboards and a maximum graphics card length of 11.1”.

Sacrificing the four-bay center hard drive cage gives builders room for cards up to 16.7”. Fortunately, that sacrifice wasn’t needed for our build.

The Storm Enforcer includes several 3.5” drive rails, a pair of 5.25”-to-3.5” external bay adapter rails, a 3.5”-to-2.5” hard drive adapter tray, several screws, a PC speaker, and cable ties. If you need more 2.5” drive mounting space, you'll find a two-drive cage mounted to the case’s floor.

Installing our 2.5” drive in the adapter allowed us to use one less power cable in the installation, since our power supply's cable has three leads spaced approximately 6” apart.

Drive latching pins for 5.25” devices rest within a swinging mechanism, engaging the drive’s mounting holes with the flip of a lever.

Shoulders on the two factory-installed standoffs center the motherboard over holes to insure proper alignment. These also enable one-handed installation, since they prevent the board from sliding out of position.

Cooler Master unclutters the Storm Enforcer’s cable kit slightly by omitting USB 2.0 connectivity, though some users will likely prefer the added ports you get from some competing products. The firm goes on to add clutter by including an AC'97 audio lead. Motherboards have used HD Audio for many years, guys. Let's retire AC'97 once and for all!

Our oversized motherboard fits inside the Storm Enforcer with barely enough of its cable holes exposed to pass through SATA connectors. Most of our larger cables were forced to follow an alternative path around the hard drive cage, though the case at least has space above the motherboard we could use to route our ATX12V lead.

Red LED fan lighting finishes the Storm Enforcer’s gaming theme, without being so bright as to distract us from getting our work done.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
43 Comments Comment from the forums
  • samorf
    That's a great looking case. I know value isn't a huge point for the CM Cosmos 2 but I would love to see your benchmarks on it.
    Reply
  • mjmjpfaff
    I really thought that the Antec Eleven Hundred would get this site's nod, especially with its build quality and its plethora of features to help with cable management, as well as all of its removable dust filters which many cases at the 100$ mark lack as well as some cases well over 100$.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    mjmjpfaffI really thought that the Antec Eleven Hundred would get this site's nod, especially with its build quality and its plethora of features to help with cable management, as well as all of its removable dust filters which many cases at the 100$ mark lack as well as some cases well over 100$.
    Antec, I think, has fallen behind in case design as of late. While the Eleven Hundred is much better than the aging 900/300 design, it still has some small points of meh such as only one 2.5" drive bay when there are other cases close to the price (not current price but original price) trat support 2.5" in every drive bay.

    Also the design is a bit meh. Though I have fallen in love with the Corsair 500R so its a bit hard to make me think of another case. And the CM Storm Enforcer is ok. Had one in the shop the other day. Nothing amazing honestly but its not overly bad.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    jimmysmittyAntec, I think, has fallen behind in case design as of late. While the Eleven Hundred is much better than the aging 900/300 design, it still has some small points of meh such as only one 2.5" drive bay when there are other cases close to the price (not current price but original price) trat support 2.5" in every drive bay.Also the design is a bit meh. Though I have fallen in love with the Corsair 500R so its a bit hard to make me think of another case. And the CM Storm Enforcer is ok. Had one in the shop the other day. Nothing amazing honestly but its not overly bad.I really liked the Eleven Hundred, it's just that the Enforcer's super-low price makes it a better value for the majority of builds.
    Reply
  • damric
    I really felt like I was reading a commercial. Was this review cut and paste from the marketing documents provided?
    Reply
  • randomkid
    Nice article. I feel glad about my choice of the CM Storm Enforcer... :)
    Reply
  • Crashman
    damricI really felt like I was reading a commercial. Was this review cut and paste from the marketing documents provided?I'll have what you're having! Then I can look past all the careful observations, performance data and criticisms and see a world made of cotton candy!

    BTW, you should at least read the ENTIRE conclusion before calling an article a fluff piece. Thanks!
    Reply
  • randomkid
    ^No editing feature while in the Article comment mode. But I found out that once in the forum, it can be edited or deleted just like any post.
    Reply
  • jaquith
    I tend NOT to recommend cases to folks (personal preference) - it's like saying your Girlfriend is ugly or has a flaw.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

    As long as the case functions and has what you need -- it's all what YOU like and flips that switch.
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    I'm not a fan of obviously gamer looking cases, but the Antec 1100, by virtue of being so similar to my P280, gets my vote.
    Reply