Part 2: Four More Gaming Enclosures Under $50
Garnering playable frame rates from entry-level hardware often requires ambitious overclocking. We test four gamer-oriented cases to see if they're able to serve up the cooling needed to push mainstream hardware to hardcore performance levels.
Inside The Gamma
Many builders insist on painted interiors, and NZXT responds with a black finish on top of bare steel. A chip in the paint near one of the mounting holes reveals that the underlying metal is neither galvanized nor aluminized.
NZXT provides a cooler support plate access hole behind the CPU socket of most motherboards, along with several slots for easier cable management. Keeping cost low does require a few sacrifices, however, such as the omission of screw-free drive clips for external bays.
That’s not to say that all drives must be screwed down. A five-bay drive cage uses sliding rails, rather than screws, to ease 3.5” hard drive insertion and removal.
The front of the Gamma is boxed-in enough to provide moderate stiffness in spite of the case’s thin material, and supports an additional 120 mm intake fan. The two 3.5” external drive bays above the intake fan are blocked by the Gamma’s plastic face plate, though internal drives (hard drives) can still be mounted there.
The Gamma’s inset slot panel and replaceable slot covers, both standard on older high-end cases, are a prized find in the sub-$50 price class. Owners who change card configurations occasionally are most likely to appreciate these features, and they're certainly more valuable than a certain competitor’s fan controller to this editor. Then again, this editor uses motherboard-based fan control.
NZXT even adds a removable dust filter to the bottom of its Gamma case, below the intake fan of many power supplies.
A close examination of its hidden features makes the Gamma appear a little more complete than some of its “fancier” competitors.
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The Antec 300 is the only case in the roundup that doesnt look and feel like your buying a cheap ass case. It is well worth the extra money and I dont think anyone should really consider building with anything less.Reply
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AMW1011 stm1185The Antec 300 is the only case in the roundup that doesnt look and feel like your buying a cheap ass case. It is well worth the extra money and I dont think anyone should really consider building with anything less.Reply
Have you actually used an Antec 300? The quality is only average. Plus it lacks a lot of features that all the others have. Seems pretty cheap ass to me.
Note I've used one Antec 300 and two Rosewill Challengers in different builds. Quality wise I would put them pretty close, the Antec 300's paint finish is like sand paper, where the Challenger is smooth, however the Antec 300 has slightly thicker metal. Feature-wise, its no comparison, and everyone who saw them together preferred the challenger.
Nice review Tom's. Hopefully you will move on to some more gamer class cases ($50-$100). -
wielander "Rosewill destroyed NZXT’s value leadership goals by putting a greater number of fans in an otherwise-similar chassis at the same price."Reply
Except that the NZXT gamma costs $7 less shipped (current and suggested prices) and has for a while now. -
sparkle_ftw I hope the HAF 912 get reviewed and compared. And centurion 590... but that is old and tom's did something with it a while agoReply -
ceps I love my NZXT Gamma (mostly cos no floppy slot and mate finish), although as mentioned, u need to buy fans, 6 fan slots but only 1 included.Reply -
takeapieandrun Its pretty cool how cheap cases nowadays can top cases like the Antec 900 in some aspects.Reply -
TommyV no offense to anyone who owns one of these cases, but all four of those cases are really ugly. All but the rosewill looks like a busted up autobot.Reply -
RazberyBandit Well, you showed us 4 cases, but truly just two designs. The NZXT and Rosewill are almost identical, while the AeroCool and Silverstone are as well. You could have paired each general design together and pointed out their subtle differences simultaneously.Reply
If I were truly on a tight budget, I might consider one of these designs. But, it's easily argued that there are higher quality and more feature-rich cases (that don't cut any corners like grommets, fans, filters, etc.) within a $20-$30 earshot of these. -
Zplendid I love my Gamma because I got it for $35 with a $25 MIR(which I received). Can't complain about a $10 dollar case, eat it 300!Reply