Case selection = SAD!

mullet

mullet

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 19, 2004
Messages
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I have been out of it for almost a decade (see sig) I was thinking about some new rigs and I always start looking for cases. WHAT happened to all the awesome cases, all aluminum? All I am seeing is plastic and stamped steel junk!!! Not to mention holes and grills everywhere making it a dust factory. I guess I will keep my old all Aluminum cases then. Is there a place I am not looking? newegg, amazon, frozen cpu?

Sorry Rant over.
 
mullet said:
I have been out of it for almost a decade (see sig) I was thinking about some new rigs and I always start looking for cases. WHAT happened to all the awesome cases, all aluminum? All I am seeing is plastic and stamped steel junk!!! Not to mention holes and grills everywhere making it a dust factory. I guess I will keep my old all Aluminum cases then. Is there a place I am not looking? newegg, amazon, frozen cpu?

Sorry Rant over.
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Yea no. Most if not all of the popular cases from reputable companies are as you described. Oh and add the RGB.

I did settle on a Corsair 5000D airflow tho. I was impressed by the build quality and features. The new cases DO have many more features the older cases lacked. Wire management is a major bonus, and usually much better airflow.

With proper dust filters (included on the higher end nice cases) you will not have a dust problem. My case has 9 fans, but all the panels have dust filters. Havent had any issue with dust. Or noise for that matter. I keep them all relatively low, since there are so many. Keeps its nice and cool.
 
I went matx with an Asus ap201 case. It's not aluminum but different than the tempered glass and rgb norm that I wanted to stay away from, and doesn't sacrifice much cooling.
 
mullet said:
I have been out of it for almost a decade (see sig) I was thinking about some new rigs and I always start looking for cases. WHAT happened to all the awesome cases, all aluminum? All I am seeing is plastic and stamped steel junk!!! Not to mention holes and grills everywhere making it a dust factory. I guess I will keep my old all Aluminum cases then. Is there a place I am not looking? newegg, amazon, frozen cpu?

Sorry Rant over.
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Ok keep your old cases with no airflow. Computer components suck down a lot more power then they did 10 years ago and the heat they produce need to be vented out the case. Get with the times.
 
Aluminum cases were not even a thing 10 years ago. Sure you dont mean 20?

What makes a good case is how well it can fit the components you want, how well it cools, and noise levels to get there. Also cable routing and ease to build in / work in. What exactly do you gain with aluminum panels over "junk steel"?

I usually pull out insert filters because they are too restrictive. Couple blasts of air a few times a year and one annual good clean seems to work just fine in combination with basic mesh front that you can yank off easily and vacume.

Cases from 10+ years ago were crap. Yeah there is still crap cases, but there are also tons of good options.

The aluminum cases you speak of are only good for a start to a heavy mod project.
 
motqalden said:
Aluminum cases were not even a thing 10 years ago. Sure you dont mean 20?

What makes a good case is how well it can fit the components you want, how well it cools, and noise levels to get there. Also cable routing and ease to build in / work in. What exactly do you gain with aluminum panels over "junk steel"?

I usually pull out insert filters because they are too restrictive. Couple blasts of air a few times a year and one annual good clean seems to work just fine in combination with basic mesh front that you can yank off easily and vacume.

Cases from 10+ years ago were crap. Yeah there is still crap cases, but there are also tons of good options.

The aluminum cases you speak of are only good for a start to a heavy mod project.
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Dual 80mm fans should be enough for anyone. /s
 
A few recent builds of mine I searched and put out WTB posts for older cases that
I liked. I did get a new Thermaltake case for upcoming project
a Core V71
 
I would say the old cases had good air flow.

d58nxvk-2e48c4b4-f2f4-419d-b38b-45ed0367399f.jpg
 
That is a very nice example. Wouldn't work for me due to lack of rad space but still very nice. If you are planning an air cooled setup that would be adequate airflow and no need to buy anything new. Add some side fans and it would run even better. The only thing you are really losing out on in that scenario would be things you may or may not care about like front usb c, usb 3.0 etc.
 
Thx, I forgot to add that there is another 120mm fan in the HD cage in the 5.25 bays.
3 x 120mm in
2 x 120mm out
1 x 80mm out
 
Ya Lian Li still has some decent steel cases, but nothing as prestigious as their older aluminum cases. If you want more aluminum cases you'll have to look at jonsbo, or more niche sff cases. I still have a few Lian Li cases.
 
DooLocsta said:
Lian Li O11D Evo?
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It's like all the rest, stamp steel. I guess this is the times. I have just been out of it for a while, I guess longer then I realized. Getting old sucks. I had no problem back in the day dropping 2 or 3 hundred bucks on a good case. Yes the new cases have a lot better air flow and 10 thousand mounting options BUT they still can make the cases out of all aluminum. I guess the new price point is under 100 bucks so this is what you get. Maybe when I get a little older we will have LAN parties at the retirement home and eat jello.
 
mullet said:
It's like all the rest, stamp steel. I guess this is the times. I have just been out of it for a while, I guess longer then I realized. Getting old sucks. I had no problem back in the day dropping 2 or 3 hundred bucks on a good case. Yes the new cases have a lot better air flow and 10 thousand mounting options BUT they still can make the cases out of all aluminum. I guess the new price point is under 100 bucks so this is what you get. Maybe when I get a little older we will have LAN parties at the retirement home and eat jello.
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Not me personally. I'm a vegan so jello isn't ever an option for my plate. I'll definitely be keeping my all aluminum case with no side window. That look never goes out of style like all these rainbow RGB gen Z cases eventually will.
 
Don't quite like contemporary case designs
Reused existing Silverstone Temjin TJ09S, Temjin TJ09B, and Fortress FT01-BW (all with USB3) for new 7900X builds
Also have a CM Praetorian PAC-T01-E1, and CM ATC-110-SX1 stashed away for a rainy day, both decked out with Panaflo fans and like new in box
 

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If you can't find a good case, you're not looking hard enough.

However if you want it to perform well and look good, expect to pay a bucket. If all you want is performance, then $100-$120 can get you plenty of performative cases. They just might also have ugly RGB, weird case design elements, and require the purchasing of some more fans.
If you want: clean, smooth, minimalist with excellent performance then it's going to be $250+.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
If you want: clean, smooth, minimalist with excellent performance then it's going to be $250+.
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I find that performance is overrated in a case these days. I just want a case that's beautiful and is relatively quiet.
Ever notice how many people here complain about coil whine on the GPU board these days? It's because of how open your mainstream "high performance" cases are. All of these openings in the case leach out a tremendous amount of coil whine noise that otherwise would have been completely dampened by the case.
 
ZodaEX said:
I find that performance is overrated in a case these days. I just want a case that's beautiful and is relatively quiet.
Ever notice how many people here complain about coil whine on the GPU board these days? It's because of how open your mainstream "high performance" cases are. All of these openings in the case leach out a tremendous amount of coil whine noise that otherwise would have been completely dampened by the case.
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I disagree with this. Coil wine is a big problem now and it wasn’t nearly as bad in the past. And the reason for that is not what you said it is. There are tons of people that would run their cases without the side panel on for performance reasons, for at least all of the 90s and the 2000s. And more than likely up to the present. For decades, coil wine as your given example was not a thing. However Delta front fans reaching 52 dB definitely were.

Regardless of if your case was made out of steel or if you spent a bunch of time placing insulating foam on the inside, you were always going to hear those Delta fans. Quiet computing is a more common thing now specifically because performance has become so serious. We now have fans that move more airflow and have more static pressure while making less noise at a given RPM.

Before the present, the only real ways around loud fan noise or poor static pressure was using things like a PWM system. But even those did not become common, or in motherboards until roughly 10 years ago. Before then you had to build one yourself and solder it yourself. And then a few small companies started making them for 3.5” bays by hand. And it was years before they were even a fully manufactured product. PWM’s on motherboards and fan headers that can power all these fans without burning out is a very new and welcomed phenomenon.
 
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My previous case was the first one I got that didn't have any front panel drive bays.
It does look like a space heater though, lol.
IMG_2364.JPEG IMG_2512.JPG
 
UnknownSouljer said:
I disagree with this. Coil wine is a big problem now and it wasn’t nearly as bad in the past. And the reason for that is not what you said it is. There are tons of people that would run their cases without the side panel on for performance reasons, for at least all of the 90s and the 2000s. And more than likely up to the present. For decades, coil wine as your given example was not a thing. However Delta front fans reaching 52 dB definitely were.

Regardless of if your case was made out of steel or if you spent a bunch of time placing insulating foam on the inside, you were always going to hear those Delta fans. Quiet computing is a more common thing now specifically because performance has become so serious. We now have fans that move more airflow and have more static pressure while making less noise at a given RPM.

Before the present, the only real ways around loud fan noise or poor static pressure was using things like a PWM system. But even those did not become common, or in motherboards until roughly 10 years ago. Before then you had to build one yourself and solder it yourself. And then a few small companies started making them for 3.5” bays by hand. And it was years before they were even a fully manufactured product. PWM’s on motherboards and fan headers that can power all these fans without burning out is a very new and welcomed phenomenon.
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Those people who ran their PCs with their side panels off didn't know what they were doing. In most situations this actually increases operating temperatures. And yes, this makes coil whine more noticable as well since there's now nothing between the user and the whining components.
 
ZodaEX said:
Those people who ran their PCs with their side panels off didn't know what they were doing. In most situations this actually increases operating temperatures.
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It really doesn't. The only way it can is if somehow you can make the temperature inside the case lower than ambient. I have seen zero cases where that's possible.
ZodaEX said:
And yes, this makes coil whine more noticable as well since there's now nothing between the user and the whining components.
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Which was the point. But more importantly it wasn't even a thing. So if you're trying to compare some machine with a GeForce 3 to a modern machine in terms of coil whine talking about the case is irrelevant because those cards didn't have that issue. I didn't even "hear" about coil whine until at the earliest 10 years ago.
 
I also dislike most modern cases, and like brushed aluminium. There are a few nicer cases around, but I dealt with it myself by just making a case instead of buying one.

UnknownSouljer said:
It really doesn't. The only way it can is if somehow you can make the temperature inside the case lower than ambient. I have seen zero cases where that's possible.
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I remember doing some tests on this back in the 20th century, and there were cases where removing the side panel would not reduce the temperature, or maybe even increase it. From smoke tests, it looked like this might have been because the air from a front intake fan that would have blown across the CPU would leak out the side without the panel there.

As for controlling fan speed, note that SpeeFan was released in 2001. Before that, PCs were mostly not loud enough to need fan control.
 
I worry more about dust, I always use a fan controller, I never add fans to the MB headers.

I did like this case but I do worry about the air flow seems choked off in the front.

JONSBO U6

AY3SS22090805AAKL7A.jpg
 
UnknownSouljer said:
It really doesn't. The only way it can is if somehow you can make the temperature inside the case lower than ambient. I have seen zero cases where that's possible.

Which was the point. But more importantly it wasn't even a thing. So if you're trying to compare some machine with a GeForce 3 to a modern machine in terms of coil whine talking about the case is irrelevant because those cards didn't have that issue. I didn't even "hear" about coil whine until at the earliest 10 years ago.
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You're wrong. Components had coil whine 11 years ago as well. Search the forum for it. There's proof right here about it.
Just because you didn't personally hear any coil whine doesn't mean that it didn't exist. *facepalm*
 
ZodaEX said:
You're wrong. Components had coil whine 11 years ago as well. Search the forum for it. There's proof right here about it.
Just because you didn't personally hear any coil whine doesn't mean that it didn't exist. *facepalm*
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Oh man, you got me. 1 year before I started saying I saw discussion about it. Inaccuracies abound!
Great, this fails to address the actual points I was making about case design, specifically in regards to users running cases with the side panel off, and essentially case materials being meaningless in relation to sound when viewed in that context.
If you want to quibble, go ahead. But it seems to me that's all you're capable of doing because the main points you have don't stand.
 
IMHO, aluminum cases are pricey... but that's because they really have to have "heft" now for contemporary parts. Steel is better suited from a price and sturdiness perspective. Sure, you can do it with aluminum, it's just more expensive now. YMMV

Also, people don't want aluminum, they want windowed glow in the dark disco lights, etc... And that too is going to favor the sturdiness of steel unless you go extra thick with aluminum.
 
I wish I could get a aluminum case as your could in days of yore... but what I would settle for is no window versions of some of the new cases with modern mounting / cable management options. When you search for atx mid tower case on newegg / amazon..etc 95% of what comes up are cases with stupid tempered glass windows which I do not have any desire to have.... People have been looking at the inside of their pc case for 2 decades now? how are they not bored of it yet? Just give me a nice well built / professional case with good airflow and cable options and solid side panels (and no *****ing RGB)....
 
atarione said:
what I would settle for is no window versions of some of the new cases with modern mounting / cable management options
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theres a ok selection without windows
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007583 600546033 600006506 600473852 600006302 600546574 600006305 600556975 4131&page=1

the fractal define 7(or xl) might suite you, the POP XL is a decent option too and if you can get over the weird face the meshify are nice to build in. the phantek entho pro is a good option too.
 
atarione said:
I wish I could get a aluminum case as your could in days of yore... but what I would settle for is no window versions of some of the new cases with modern mounting / cable management options. When you search for atx mid tower case on newegg / amazon..etc 95% of what comes up are cases with stupid tempered glass windows which I do not have any desire to have.... People have been looking at the inside of their pc case for 2 decades now? how are they not bored of it yet? Just give me a nice well built / professional case with good airflow and cable options and solid side panels (and no *****ing RGB)....
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Many recent fractal design cases seem to have a windowless version, most obvious airflow-focused ones are the meshify 2 and the pop air solid. The latter even has dvd drive bays!
 
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emphy said:
Many recent fractal design cases seem to have a windowless version, most obvious airflow-focused ones are the meshify 2 and the pop air solid. The latter even has dvd drive bays!
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I have never liked Fractal designs cases very much the front bezels feel/look very plasticy and cheap in my view.... I have this way too big case that I will probably keep using for the time being ... I have had it since 2014 NZXT H630 Full Tower case... the airflow is probably not the best ..but it is ok... I still like the looks of this thing, it is just way too big and heavy when I have to work on the computer. But this case has sound damping foam all throughout which I really like it is pretty quiet, I don't think I could handle one of these mesh front cases making fan noises all day? for now I just keep on keeping on with this full-tower I guess.


nzxt.png
 
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