Who makes the best cases?

Shiminay

I've been thinking about getting a new case for a while and thought I'd poll our delightful and delicious regulars here for some solid advice.

I'm looking at various options from Silverstone, Corsair, Bit Fenix and Coolermaster, but I figured it'd be best to ask the folks here what they thought.

I currently have an ageing Antec P900 and have also had a Nzxt Rogue when I was on an mATX (I should really sell it, it's only taking up space in the flat). Both have been fine, no real cause for complaints, but I just fancy something different

BloodBath

There is no best. There's lot's of really solid cases from lots of manufacturers. It depends what you want from the case and your budget.

Do you need good air cooling performance, room for rads/water cooling?, do you want silence, expansion room, small form factor, atx, matx, mitx?

Coolermaster, Corsair, Bitfenix, Nanoxia are good brands anyway.

The Splat

My new PC has a beautiful ATX CoolerMaster case. But if you were going for mITX, I'd say you could go for the BitFenix Prodigy, that looks pretty smexy!

Serephucus

As usual Bloodbath nailed it. There's no universal "best" as such, only a "best" for your preferences and use-case. If you give us an idea of what you're looking for in an ideal case, as well as a budget, we'll be able to narrow things down for you.

Shiminay

As usual I have derped on the details

Well my current hardware is ATX (ASRock Z68 Extreme 4 with an i5 2500k in it), three hard drives, 2 crossfired 6950s and a 130ish mm tall CPU fan cooler. No water cooling (although one of those Corsair Hydro self contained jobbies tempts me as my 2500k is only on stock speeds atm).

Air-flow and cooling is probably more important to me than silence as it's in my sitting room and the PC is the main thing in the room - I have no telly for vegging out in front of and spend all my time at my desk. Something that doesn't suck in too much dust would be a big bonus, so filters are a most welcome addition.

Daft and all as it sounds, my PC is one of the few things that I own that I really want to look good cause I'm a nerd that way

I haven't seen those Nanoxia's before - they sure are pretty. The Bit Fenix Survivor is also high up on my list I really like the shape and look of it.

Budget wise, I reckon I'd be willing to spend around a ton, but will go for more if there's something particularly seckseh on offer

Lu Tze

Id add lian li and silverstone to the brands listed above. Though best thing i have seen in a long time is this (m-itx only)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pc-ck101-mini-itx-locomotive-review,3414.html

Serephucus

If you like the looks of the Survivor, have a look at Silverstone's cases. They have an FT04 case coming that sounds like it might bit the bill nicely.

Shiminay

Lu Tze wrote: »

Id add lian li and silverstone to the brands listed above. Though best thing i have seen in a long time is this (m-itx only)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pc-ck101-mini-itx-locomotive-review,3414.html

I saw that and thought it was one of the loveliest looking, unique and wonderfully silly ideas I've seen in a very long time. I'd love to be getting one, but have no real need for it tbh.

Lian Li are always on any "sexy case" list and the Silverstone Raven 2 and 3 looked quite interesting too, but the new one Serephucus mentioned doesn't seem to be getting too warm a reception.

BloodBath

I'd probably go with a Nanoxia deep silence one. Good mix of silence and cooling + the build quality is top notch.

Shiminay

Yea, that looks like the winner I think. Thanks for the advice as always folks.

simon360

I think Zalman cases are nice, got myself a budget Z7 one from Komplett.ie for around 50 and it's stunning!