Choosing a case

I've posted this on another forum, but this might be help full here too.

This is a Thread by myself and Komet. Thank you Komet
Choosing Cases

There are a lot of cases out there; desktops, mid towers, full towers, mini atx etc.

Sure you can buy a cheap $20 case and be happy with it, but if you are a cooling freak, or you want to transport the case everywhere you go
you cant just buy a cheap case; it'll break eventually. Problems with cheap cases is that things breaks off, like my problem that i have with my front panel. The cooling is generally crap too; they have tiny restrictive holes for the fan grills.
Most people just buy cases for the looks. Looks aren't everything, most of the time the good looking cases are made with cheap stuff and will break easily or simply not perform.

Also, avoid plastic front panels and plastic doors as much as possible.

Cooling
Check for pictures before you buy a case. see how is the cooling made. heat rises up so having a fan on the top is a good idea.
Try getting cases with holes in the front so that you can install a fan in the front. 120mm fans are much preferable to 80mm because they flow much more air at lower speeds, and create dramatically less noise.

A case with a 120mm in the back, one in the front, a 80mm on the side and another 80mm on top is a well cooled case.

try avoiding cases with fan grills like this :


this is preferable :


Aluminum
Most Aluminum cases are good. Aluminum is light. so for transporting the case from lan party to lan party, aluminum cases are the best.
However, aluminum cases are also generally noisier than steel cases because they lack the sound dampening properties of the heavier steel.

Other stuff
Many cases come with unique characteristics like removable hdd cages and mobo trays. Find some things you'd like to see in a case to help guide your decision.

Tool-less cases: they just dont require tools like a screwdriver, the cheap cases with tool-less stuff,i wont recommend it because I've had lots of problems removing a screw-less drive with the rails. but if its a better quality case, i wouldn't see the problem. the best thing to see if there's a problem is to search reviews about the case.
I prefer cases with screws because most parts in the tool-less parts of the case are in plastic and easily breakable.


Water cooling Cases
there are WC cases out there made especially for WC. Full tower cases are the best for holding all your WC stuff if its internal because a WC system takes lots of space,so a full tower is preferable.

and most water cooling radiators fit in 120mm fan bays. so look for cases with 120mm fan bays.


Suggested Cases by Category

Solid Budget Cases
Thermaltake Mambo - $40
Antec SLK3000B - $50
Cooler Master Centurion 5 - $50
Aspire X-Cruiser - $65

Good Flowing Mid-Towers
Lian Li PC-7APLUSII - $90
Thermaltake Armor Jr. - $94
AeroCool ExtremEngineWTFBBQ 3T - $107
Thermaltake SOPRANO VB1000BWS - $79.99
NZXT LEXA-NP Black/ Silver Aluminum - $129.99
COOLER MASTER Ammo 533 - $75.99
Jeantech PHONG v2

Top Notch
Lian Li PC-60BPLUSII - $115
Antec P180 - $120
Lian Li PC-101B - $200
Cooler Master Stacker 830 - $210
AKASA 62 Eclipse - $146.95

Full Tower / Watercooling
Thermaltake Armor - $125
Gigabyte 3D Aurora - $135
Thermaltake Kandalf - $189

Power supplies
I have a thread about power supply recommandations and lots of other stuff,check it out
Power Supplies

I'm open to suggestions.

AKASA Eclipse 62 is a top notch case with room for 2x120mm front and rear and a 80mm side duct which fits snuggly over the cpu to allow heat to be passed straight out of the case. It also has removable motherboard tray for easy installation of components and plenty of room for air movement.

PHONG 2 has a 140mm fan fitted to front and 120mm fan on rear as standard and the option to fit an extra 80mm on the side, but comes with duct to fit over cpu just like AKASA (I have a 80mm fan fitted as external with the duct to draw extra heat from cpu). As well as excellent cooling potential it also comes with front temp lcd and 2 fan controllers.

Edit: added links

can't find them on newegg, but i'll add them without a link for sure

Great work mages.

Also I can suggest Thermaltake Soprano VB1000BWS - it's awesome...

PS: in a few weeks, I'll have it (I think).

EDIT: mages, just put a linky in your sig, so everybody can read your guide

Mages, I have added links to reviews, you can add them if you want.


Ice.

they aint reviews at all... they go to www.lemonde.fr
.... lol no,i wont add the reviews thanks anyways maybe like tomorrow ill add reviews to each case.

Ok mages here is links to where they can be bought.

AKASA Eclipse 62

PHONG 2

Look forward to reviews later...

all those links are linking to www.lemonde.fr .

I've been thinking about this case and I think it might be worth to think about it.

NZXT case

and then there isa this case from Antec that looks to be good

Antec Case

hope these help you out

Dont know what the hell was going on but I have amended all links and they now work.

'

those cases look pretty plain. nothing really special it looks like for the looks but they got the cooling that a cpu needs

Looks aint everything kid, if it keeps your system nice and cool even when OC'd then that's all that should matter.

you sounded like Han when Luke said that the Millenium Falcon was a piece of junk.

the antec p180 is already there and the nzxt looks a bit cheap. but ill certainly look into reviews.

well I noe that the NZXT is very lightweight as its a aluminum chassis with a plastic door on metal hinges or thats what I heard from some people

you could always build your own case and get it the way you want it built