In Pictures: Four Sub-$100 Cases For Your 2013 Gaming PC

Deep Silence 2 Induction

A pair of 120 mm fans that feed cool air into the Deep Silence 2 are screwed directly onto a filter panel, which is then attached to the chassis’ front panel. A cloth-covered asphalt sheet attached to the back of the plastic fascia completes Nanoxia’s silent treatment.

More Deep Silence 2 Dust Prevention

Though its front fan filter uses screws, Nanoxia simplifies maintenance of the power supply’s intake with a slide-out filter that also covers an optional 120/140 mm bottom fan mount.

Deep Silence 2 Drive Support

Rubber grommets on the Deep Silence 2’s trays dampen the vibrations of 3.5” mechanical drives. Smartly, Nanoxia skips that measure for its two sets of 2.5” mounting holes, since most folks are going to install noiseless SSDs in those spots. The second set of holes allows the drive connectors to face either left or right, depending on your inclinations.

A dual-fan mounting bracket attached to the back of the lower cage supports internal liquid cooling radiators, while sliding tabs on the upper cage support screw-free optical drive installation.

SilverStone Precision PS06

SilverStone’s PS06 begins with a sturdy steel chassis and adds enthusiast-friendly features, such as easy-access dust filters and a quick-access front SATA drive bay. Top-mounted I/O means this enclosure is best suited to bottom-shelf or floor placement.

We received the PS06B-W model, which, as the name implies, is black and has a side window. Other versions have grey trim and/or a solid left-side panel.

PS06 Ports

Top-panel connectors are set to the  back of a 5"-wide tray, and are angled forward for easier access from under a desk. These include two USB 3.0 ports and headset (headphone and microphone) jacks. Dust build-up is minimized through positive air pressure, since the PS06 only includes intake fans.

Behind The PS06

Two knockout holes facilitate the installation of external liquid coolers, though the PS06 doesn’t include any grommets to dress those vacancies. Below them, an empty frame allows clip-in installation of standard 120 mm exhaust fans.

Eight slots worth of rear I/O allow dual-slot graphics cards to be properly supported in the bottom slot of a standard ATX motherboard.

Inside The PS06

Four trays at the bottom of the PS06 front section support both 2.5” and 3.5” internal drives, and five 5.25” external bays are up top. Between these, a slot-loading single-space backplane supports both 3.5” and 2.5” drives.

PS06 Cable Management

A shallow channel that wraps around standard ATX motherboards allows cables to be hidden behind the tray. Though space within this channel is tight, the design prevents fitment issues seen in a previous review.

PS06 Induction

Though SilverStone’s PS06 includes a front-mounted intake fan, a giant “Air Penetrator” 180 mm top fan its primary source for CPU-space cooling. Blowing cool air directly onto the CPU heat sink should reduce temperatures there, but fighting against convection probably won’t help with GPU cooling. Mesh within the top cover collects dust for easier cleaning.

Powered by a three-pin fan header, the 180 mm top-panel intake can also be manually controlled at two speeds, 700 RPM and 1,200 RPM, via a two-speed switch seen at the top of the rear panel, next to those two liquid cooling knockouts.

More PS06 Dust Prevention

Designed to exhaust heat passively through rear-panel vents, the Precision PS06 adds a bottom-panel intake fan mount just ahead of its power supply. A long slide-out dust filter covers both the bottom fan mount and power supply inlet.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • tatmmrk2
    that side window looks familiar (I have a coolermaster hafx) onlty dfference is size mesh and window color
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    The slideshows... they don't stop!
    Reply
  • envy14tpe
    Great pictures but horrible choices of cases. Wishing we could have seen the popular and best ones instead.
    Reply
  • envy14tpe
    Great pictures but horrible choices of cases. Wishing we could have seen the popular and best ones instead.
    Reply
  • beoza
    The Cougar case doesn't look too bad, the rest are meh. I'll stick to my CM 690 II Advanced case for now, despite it's 2 issues (not enough room on right side for wiring and bottom dust filter) it's a rather roomy case for a mid tower.
    Reply
  • rolli59
    Anything with doors or even flaps over ports is annoying to use by my experience.
    Reply
  • furianscott
    Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 for a cheap case with a company that offers decent support. I emailed Cougar TWICE with a question to their tech department - NO REPLY. Cougar has the worst service I've ever seen (and my question was a pre-sales question, imagine if I'd already bought it - could they ignore people more? I don't think so). Perhaps Toms Hardware could include a "we emailed their service department and this is the time and quality of their response. That would be a cool addition to the testing. Peace.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    Interesting choices of cases that aren't from the usual contenders. I like the Silverstone PS06 out of the entire bunch. I like the design of that Cougar case but I do not like the black and orange color scheme.
    Reply
  • resin34
    I think the phantom 410 should be in this list. It is a great case.
    Reply
  • allanitomwesh
    Lian Li have a beautiful one.
    Reply