Last time I looked at the motherboards on my shortlist, mostly as a way of sorting out my opinions to decide what I want in my future upgrade path (there will always be a need for more drives), and partially to let others see what kind of thought can go into a system build and how system builders work. This time, I'm moving onto cases, or chassis... depending on what a given website chooses to call them.
When I build systems for other people, they often tell me that they don't care what case it is so long as it looks cool. Well that makes my job a lot easier because most people agree that NZXT Phantoms look pretty damn awesome. Some tell me they want to overclock to the moon and get two or more GTX Titan Blacks in SLI, and that's when it becomes a little more difficult because I then need to make sure what size case they mind and making sure that it's either modular (to make room for graphics) or designed well enough to leave that space free. Plus it needs good ventilation, but that's just about every case these days. The last request I sometimes get is that it has to be quiet - or at least as quiet as possible. Well, there's an easy solution for that too, although nobody should expect maximum gaming and absolute silence. Performance = heat = noisy coolers.
My own case... is somewhat easier. I got a monster case (at the time) in the Antec 1200 because at the time, I was testing out multi-GPU setups and nothing else came close when it came to cooling (3x120mm font fans, 1x120mm side, 2x120mm rear and 1x300mm roof fan). These days the epitome of cooling (without going into custom kits) is the Corsair H110 with it's 280mm radiator (2x140mm fans) which generally must be placed on the roof, and most cases aren't designed to support that. For myself, I only have a H60 with one 120mm radiator/fan, making my options slightly easier, but whilst that's one important consideration for me, the main consideration is the same as with the motherboard - expansion.
My Antec 1200 has 9 HDD slots and 3 front expansion bays. That is populated with 4 HDDs and one SSD in the 3.5" slots, DVD drive, front panel card reader, and front panel USB3 ports (doubles as drive bay for 2.5" SSD) for the expansion bays. Still has plenty of space, but what's making me change is the fact that it was not designed for liquid cooling, and my current H60 cooler is fitted in a position that blocks the top PCIe port. Time for an upgrade, but need to pick one that can fit everything I need without being too big to fit under my desk (680mm or 27").
The first obvious contender would be the Antec 1900, a monster of a case. But before I even get into the details, it's too tall (696mm). It fits 12 HDDs and 3 front expansion bays and looks amazing.
The second obvious contender falls into the same trap: Corsair Obsidian 900D. Standing at 692mm, it can store up to 12 HDDs (only 3x3 HDD modules provided) and has 5 front expansion bays. The kind of thing dreams are made of.
So on to a more serious contender, the Silverstone Fortress FT02B that I used in my friend's system build.
It's not so epic as the others, but it's special feature is having the motherboard rotated 90 degrees so the cables all come out of the top instead of the back. That means USB ports is no longer a problem because you get umpteen of them on top. The main reason for this design is to make cooling easier, as it simply sucks in air from the bottom via 3 180mm fans, and pushes it out the top through the PSU, graphics, CPU and chassis roof fans. Since air is only going in one direction, it's supposed to be more aerodynamically sound.
The second feature is the clever design of the hot-swappable drive cage, where each drive (mounted on its side, vertically) can be ejected individually on its own tray. Forgetting about that feature for a moment, in simple terms it means it can store 5 HDDs there, with one hidden compartment for a SSD in the back. It also has five front expansion bays, which is more than enough for me (remembering that I can always turn one into another HDD bay using a 3.5" adaptor).
Whilst I love this design, and the smoothed aesthetics are really appealing, the main factor that turns me away from it is the price, ranging from £175 to £210. At this price, there are other, more appealing options.
Next is the big sister to the Fortress, the Silverstone Raven RV03.
The first thing to say about this beauty is the aesthetic style. Whilst it doesn't have the smooth contours of the Fortress, it has a more angular style and the gold highlights would match perfectly to the Asus Z97 Deluxe. She also shares the 90 degree rotation design of the Fortress with two 180mm fans sucking air from the bottom and pushing it up to the 120mm exhaust fan in the roof. It can also fit two front 120mm fans, another 2 120mm fans at the back of the expansion bays (can't be used if occupied), one more 120mm fan on the side and again on the rear.
It has 7 front expansion bays and 4 isolated HDD bays on the back and 2 SSD bays. Being on the back and isolated means they don't pick up heat from each other and can cool themselves more efficiently, plus it also saves space making the overall case smaller. There is also the option of either using 3.5" adaptors for each expansion bay to fit a drive in there, or using a Silverstone adaptor to turn 3 5.25" bays into 4 3.5" drive mounts. Whilst the latter appeals, considering my needs the first would be more than adequate (and somewhat cheaper). Plus I could turn them all into hotswap trays.
The one other "feature" of this case is the space saving position for the power supply. I use quotation marks because whilst it does save space, it also limits options as the maximum depth for the PSU supported by this case is 180mm, and my Enermax Galaxy DxX 1kW is 220mm deep. If I go for this case, I have no choice but to buy a new power supply to go with it. Not a bad thing really considering that with all these updates, I'll practically have a new computer anyway and can use my old PSU in my Antec case still and put it as a secondary PC somewhere... but it's an expense that can still be avoided by picking a case with more space. Also, the Raven can be picked up from £85-100, which is much more affordable than the Fortress.
On the quieter side of things, is the Fractal Design XL R2.
This is a case I quite like the looks of. Normally I frown on cases that have a front door, as I have a habit of wanting to plug things in there - see my front panel USB and memory card ports. On the other hand, a front door is a generally good idea for when said ports are not in use. It also has a closed, noise dampening design and whilst I love my Antec 1200 to bits, I have to admit that it's a noisy beast. Fractal are also on the cheaper side of things at £75-100.
It has up to 8 HDD slots and 4 front expansion bays which is perfect for me. It also has a number of options for fitting fans in various places for cooling, both for intake and for exhaust. The drives are in two cages which are modular, fitted either facing sidewards or forwards (better for cooling) and can even be positioned over the slot for the bottom 120mm fan to allow space for a big radiator on the front inlet fans. In theory this might mean buying spare cages to fit up to 16 drives is possible, however this also means that PSU length will be limited to 190mm so it's not all that feesible. On the other hand it is a quiet case and fairly affordable, with plenty of space for drives and expansion. Definitely worthy of a spot on this list.
Then there's the more unusual design of the Thermaltake Urban T81.
This case is claimed to be inspired by "suicide doors" in cars, where the hinge is on the back of the door instead of the front. It has two doors, one for the main compartment of the case and one for access to the drive stack. It also has a modular design for flexibility, with up to 8 HDDs and two 5.25" expansion bays. They're all removable if you need the extra room, e.g. when putting custom liquid cooling kits, reservoirs, radiators and the like. It also has many options for mountain radiators for CLCs or even just a whole lot of fans. It's a monster in how customisable your cooling is.
The downside to this one is that it only has two expansion bays, which I could live with actually, but I don't like such limitations. I'm not the target audience for this case, but it still is a design amazing enough to be worthy of mention. It can be picked up for £125-155.
Moving back to Silverstone (I know, right?), there's the Temjin TJ07.
I keep going back to Silverstone, but there's good reason for this. They make good cases. This time the Temjin is special for its ability to slide its motherboard tray, making it much easier to install/access. It also has good options for CLCs with its top 2x120mm Fans (Corsair H100i anybody?), unlike the other Silverstone cases. Also, unlike the other Silverstone cases, it doesn't feature the rotated motherboard design. Instead it's just got the classic, rear out the rear design, although it does support EATX and SSI motherboards with an extended CPU tray cutout for mountain backplates onto Xeon CPUs. Should I ever ditch the personal PC design and just turn it into a freakin' server.
This one has two HDD cages with their own fans, each with 3 slots. It also has 7 5.25" expansion bays to put anything extra needed in there. Also, being all aluminium is supposed to be good for cooling. Finally, the one feature that I'm least likely to use - it has two PSU slots. Yes, two. For a redudant ATX/PS2 PSU. How crazy is that?!
I won't dwell on this one because no matter how much I like it, it runs for £200-215 and seems to be getting harder to source. I know it's run its course with several other designs being more popular, but still...
Finally, we have another Corsair. The Corsair Graphite 760T.
It's got a full body window design for showing off your custom kit and all your blinking lights, plenty of cooling options for both CLCs and custom liquid cooling kits, is designed in such a way that you can never have an issue with graphics card length, and looks pretty damn cool. That said, the more cooling you squeeze into the case, the louder it's going to get... but considering that my Antec 1200 is as loud as a case will ever get, which isn't too bad since it's under my desk, it's not so much of an issue.
It's a little limited in that it only has six HDD slots, with both cage of 3 drives being modular/removable to suit your cooling needs. They can also be reconfigured to have them either sitting beside each other or stacked on top of each other (if you have a longer PSU like me). You can even go ahead and buy more modules to stack up to 12 HDDs, should you so feel inclined. The other limitation is that there are only 3 5.25" expansion bays, but that's not so bad when you can have up to 12 HDDs squeezed inside. On the other hand, it also has cleverly hidden 4 slots for 2.5" drives (meaning SSDs) in the back, so I no longer even need to waste a 3.5" slot with a 2.5" SSD, when I can give them their own private location in the back, away from the hustle and bustle of the HDD trays.
Making a good buy an even better buy, the price is right too, at £140-155. More than some of the others in my list, but with this level of finish and quality, it's worth it. The one down side is that I won't be able to maximise it with 12 drives with my current PSU - once again it's too long for that (only 1cm to clear for the cables, which just ain't happ'nin'). And I would've liked more than 3 expansion bays, since I do intend to buy a front panel hotswap tray for 3.5" drives, which means I have to choose what to get rid of - front panel USB (plus SSD slot, which isn't necessary for this case) or front panel card reader. Or just toss out my DVD drive altogether (which I don't actually want to do, because there are still those rare occasions where it's good to have). Another thing is that the Graphite is just about as plastic-y as the NZXT Phantom. Every other case has strong metal everywhere, whilst this has lots of plastic frames and acrylic doors. That's the price of style, but it's something to make a note of.
Conclusion
My favourite so far is the Corsair Graphite 760T. Sure the Raven also looks amazing and the expansion options are extensive, but I have no other way than to buy a new PSU to get it. Sure the Fractal Design is quieter and has the perfect number of expansion options, but it has a door that may get in the way and cooling won't be as great as other cases. Sure the Thermaltake Urban T81 is customisable to many different designs, but only two front expansion ports? No thanks. I wish I could put more consideration into the Obsidian 900D or Antec 1900, but height is an issue and there's no way around that.
Of course, this isn't a decision just yet. It's just a spot to voice my considerations and bring the main information into one area to help me decide. When my real decision is made, that will be the day I buy it. Then a week or two later, pictures of my upgrade will pop up here for you to enjoy.
Also, in a future edit I'll add pictures and links to each of these. It's late now so I'll leave it at that. Done now.
When I build systems for other people, they often tell me that they don't care what case it is so long as it looks cool. Well that makes my job a lot easier because most people agree that NZXT Phantoms look pretty damn awesome. Some tell me they want to overclock to the moon and get two or more GTX Titan Blacks in SLI, and that's when it becomes a little more difficult because I then need to make sure what size case they mind and making sure that it's either modular (to make room for graphics) or designed well enough to leave that space free. Plus it needs good ventilation, but that's just about every case these days. The last request I sometimes get is that it has to be quiet - or at least as quiet as possible. Well, there's an easy solution for that too, although nobody should expect maximum gaming and absolute silence. Performance = heat = noisy coolers.
My own case... is somewhat easier. I got a monster case (at the time) in the Antec 1200 because at the time, I was testing out multi-GPU setups and nothing else came close when it came to cooling (3x120mm font fans, 1x120mm side, 2x120mm rear and 1x300mm roof fan). These days the epitome of cooling (without going into custom kits) is the Corsair H110 with it's 280mm radiator (2x140mm fans) which generally must be placed on the roof, and most cases aren't designed to support that. For myself, I only have a H60 with one 120mm radiator/fan, making my options slightly easier, but whilst that's one important consideration for me, the main consideration is the same as with the motherboard - expansion.
My Antec 1200 has 9 HDD slots and 3 front expansion bays. That is populated with 4 HDDs and one SSD in the 3.5" slots, DVD drive, front panel card reader, and front panel USB3 ports (doubles as drive bay for 2.5" SSD) for the expansion bays. Still has plenty of space, but what's making me change is the fact that it was not designed for liquid cooling, and my current H60 cooler is fitted in a position that blocks the top PCIe port. Time for an upgrade, but need to pick one that can fit everything I need without being too big to fit under my desk (680mm or 27").
The first obvious contender would be the Antec 1900, a monster of a case. But before I even get into the details, it's too tall (696mm). It fits 12 HDDs and 3 front expansion bays and looks amazing.
The second obvious contender falls into the same trap: Corsair Obsidian 900D. Standing at 692mm, it can store up to 12 HDDs (only 3x3 HDD modules provided) and has 5 front expansion bays. The kind of thing dreams are made of.
So on to a more serious contender, the Silverstone Fortress FT02B that I used in my friend's system build.
It's not so epic as the others, but it's special feature is having the motherboard rotated 90 degrees so the cables all come out of the top instead of the back. That means USB ports is no longer a problem because you get umpteen of them on top. The main reason for this design is to make cooling easier, as it simply sucks in air from the bottom via 3 180mm fans, and pushes it out the top through the PSU, graphics, CPU and chassis roof fans. Since air is only going in one direction, it's supposed to be more aerodynamically sound.
The second feature is the clever design of the hot-swappable drive cage, where each drive (mounted on its side, vertically) can be ejected individually on its own tray. Forgetting about that feature for a moment, in simple terms it means it can store 5 HDDs there, with one hidden compartment for a SSD in the back. It also has five front expansion bays, which is more than enough for me (remembering that I can always turn one into another HDD bay using a 3.5" adaptor).
Whilst I love this design, and the smoothed aesthetics are really appealing, the main factor that turns me away from it is the price, ranging from £175 to £210. At this price, there are other, more appealing options.
Next is the big sister to the Fortress, the Silverstone Raven RV03.
The first thing to say about this beauty is the aesthetic style. Whilst it doesn't have the smooth contours of the Fortress, it has a more angular style and the gold highlights would match perfectly to the Asus Z97 Deluxe. She also shares the 90 degree rotation design of the Fortress with two 180mm fans sucking air from the bottom and pushing it up to the 120mm exhaust fan in the roof. It can also fit two front 120mm fans, another 2 120mm fans at the back of the expansion bays (can't be used if occupied), one more 120mm fan on the side and again on the rear.
It has 7 front expansion bays and 4 isolated HDD bays on the back and 2 SSD bays. Being on the back and isolated means they don't pick up heat from each other and can cool themselves more efficiently, plus it also saves space making the overall case smaller. There is also the option of either using 3.5" adaptors for each expansion bay to fit a drive in there, or using a Silverstone adaptor to turn 3 5.25" bays into 4 3.5" drive mounts. Whilst the latter appeals, considering my needs the first would be more than adequate (and somewhat cheaper). Plus I could turn them all into hotswap trays.
The one other "feature" of this case is the space saving position for the power supply. I use quotation marks because whilst it does save space, it also limits options as the maximum depth for the PSU supported by this case is 180mm, and my Enermax Galaxy DxX 1kW is 220mm deep. If I go for this case, I have no choice but to buy a new power supply to go with it. Not a bad thing really considering that with all these updates, I'll practically have a new computer anyway and can use my old PSU in my Antec case still and put it as a secondary PC somewhere... but it's an expense that can still be avoided by picking a case with more space. Also, the Raven can be picked up from £85-100, which is much more affordable than the Fortress.
On the quieter side of things, is the Fractal Design XL R2.
This is a case I quite like the looks of. Normally I frown on cases that have a front door, as I have a habit of wanting to plug things in there - see my front panel USB and memory card ports. On the other hand, a front door is a generally good idea for when said ports are not in use. It also has a closed, noise dampening design and whilst I love my Antec 1200 to bits, I have to admit that it's a noisy beast. Fractal are also on the cheaper side of things at £75-100.
It has up to 8 HDD slots and 4 front expansion bays which is perfect for me. It also has a number of options for fitting fans in various places for cooling, both for intake and for exhaust. The drives are in two cages which are modular, fitted either facing sidewards or forwards (better for cooling) and can even be positioned over the slot for the bottom 120mm fan to allow space for a big radiator on the front inlet fans. In theory this might mean buying spare cages to fit up to 16 drives is possible, however this also means that PSU length will be limited to 190mm so it's not all that feesible. On the other hand it is a quiet case and fairly affordable, with plenty of space for drives and expansion. Definitely worthy of a spot on this list.
Then there's the more unusual design of the Thermaltake Urban T81.
This case is claimed to be inspired by "suicide doors" in cars, where the hinge is on the back of the door instead of the front. It has two doors, one for the main compartment of the case and one for access to the drive stack. It also has a modular design for flexibility, with up to 8 HDDs and two 5.25" expansion bays. They're all removable if you need the extra room, e.g. when putting custom liquid cooling kits, reservoirs, radiators and the like. It also has many options for mountain radiators for CLCs or even just a whole lot of fans. It's a monster in how customisable your cooling is.
The downside to this one is that it only has two expansion bays, which I could live with actually, but I don't like such limitations. I'm not the target audience for this case, but it still is a design amazing enough to be worthy of mention. It can be picked up for £125-155.
Moving back to Silverstone (I know, right?), there's the Temjin TJ07.
I keep going back to Silverstone, but there's good reason for this. They make good cases. This time the Temjin is special for its ability to slide its motherboard tray, making it much easier to install/access. It also has good options for CLCs with its top 2x120mm Fans (Corsair H100i anybody?), unlike the other Silverstone cases. Also, unlike the other Silverstone cases, it doesn't feature the rotated motherboard design. Instead it's just got the classic, rear out the rear design, although it does support EATX and SSI motherboards with an extended CPU tray cutout for mountain backplates onto Xeon CPUs. Should I ever ditch the personal PC design and just turn it into a freakin' server.
This one has two HDD cages with their own fans, each with 3 slots. It also has 7 5.25" expansion bays to put anything extra needed in there. Also, being all aluminium is supposed to be good for cooling. Finally, the one feature that I'm least likely to use - it has two PSU slots. Yes, two. For a redudant ATX/PS2 PSU. How crazy is that?!
I won't dwell on this one because no matter how much I like it, it runs for £200-215 and seems to be getting harder to source. I know it's run its course with several other designs being more popular, but still...
Finally, we have another Corsair. The Corsair Graphite 760T.
It's got a full body window design for showing off your custom kit and all your blinking lights, plenty of cooling options for both CLCs and custom liquid cooling kits, is designed in such a way that you can never have an issue with graphics card length, and looks pretty damn cool. That said, the more cooling you squeeze into the case, the louder it's going to get... but considering that my Antec 1200 is as loud as a case will ever get, which isn't too bad since it's under my desk, it's not so much of an issue.
It's a little limited in that it only has six HDD slots, with both cage of 3 drives being modular/removable to suit your cooling needs. They can also be reconfigured to have them either sitting beside each other or stacked on top of each other (if you have a longer PSU like me). You can even go ahead and buy more modules to stack up to 12 HDDs, should you so feel inclined. The other limitation is that there are only 3 5.25" expansion bays, but that's not so bad when you can have up to 12 HDDs squeezed inside. On the other hand, it also has cleverly hidden 4 slots for 2.5" drives (meaning SSDs) in the back, so I no longer even need to waste a 3.5" slot with a 2.5" SSD, when I can give them their own private location in the back, away from the hustle and bustle of the HDD trays.
Making a good buy an even better buy, the price is right too, at £140-155. More than some of the others in my list, but with this level of finish and quality, it's worth it. The one down side is that I won't be able to maximise it with 12 drives with my current PSU - once again it's too long for that (only 1cm to clear for the cables, which just ain't happ'nin'). And I would've liked more than 3 expansion bays, since I do intend to buy a front panel hotswap tray for 3.5" drives, which means I have to choose what to get rid of - front panel USB (plus SSD slot, which isn't necessary for this case) or front panel card reader. Or just toss out my DVD drive altogether (which I don't actually want to do, because there are still those rare occasions where it's good to have). Another thing is that the Graphite is just about as plastic-y as the NZXT Phantom. Every other case has strong metal everywhere, whilst this has lots of plastic frames and acrylic doors. That's the price of style, but it's something to make a note of.
Conclusion
My favourite so far is the Corsair Graphite 760T. Sure the Raven also looks amazing and the expansion options are extensive, but I have no other way than to buy a new PSU to get it. Sure the Fractal Design is quieter and has the perfect number of expansion options, but it has a door that may get in the way and cooling won't be as great as other cases. Sure the Thermaltake Urban T81 is customisable to many different designs, but only two front expansion ports? No thanks. I wish I could put more consideration into the Obsidian 900D or Antec 1900, but height is an issue and there's no way around that.
Of course, this isn't a decision just yet. It's just a spot to voice my considerations and bring the main information into one area to help me decide. When my real decision is made, that will be the day I buy it. Then a week or two later, pictures of my upgrade will pop up here for you to enjoy.
