ATX case suggestions, Zen 2 planning

[porina]

Given it is not long to go, thought I might pick up a case in advance, as it is one of the few areas that don't age. As usual there is "too much choice" so opening it for suggestions.

 

Mid-tower-ish size, no bigger than necessary to meet below.

ATX mobo

Easy to access components when tinkering.

Behind mobo tray cable routing options, with enough room to get cables there

Window preferred but not essential. Acrylic is fine. Would like to avoid glass this time around.

High airflow preferred, say two each substantially unobstructed intake + exhaust fans.

Components will be air cooled, don't care about water fittings

Don't want a PSU shroud, should be removable if present.

RGB don't care

Should have mounts suitable for at least three 2.5" drives, 4 or more preferred. If not native, a 3.5" bay would count as two 2.5".

Bonus points if the design is interesting. I don't know how to define "interesting" other than I'll know it when I see it. I don't like large areas of unpainted aluminium or wood.

Budget: not a problem, but don't go insane. Lian Li is probably out.

 

Random thoughts: I'm overdosed on glass and RGB. In Win make some interesting cases, but the airflow generally sucks. Most things seem a bit boring in a sea of plastic.

[GoldenLag]

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/qvF48d/be-quiet-silent-base-801-window-silver-atx-mid-tower-case-bgw30

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/FjQG3C

 

Silent Base 801 perhaps. 

 

slight airflow concern and i believe you can remove the PSU shroud, but i could be misstaken. 

allows for inverted setup if wanted. 

 

 

@TVwazhere proabbly has a good suggestion. 

[porina]

3 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Silent Base 801 perhaps. 

 

slight airflow concern and i believe you can remove the PSU shroud, but i could be misstaken. 

allows for inverted setup if wanted. 

Front airflow concern, similar design to solid front cases although not immediately obvious how much room there is from pics. Wont rule it out. Bonus points for invertable case. I was undecided on mentioning that, as I thought it would limit the choice too much.

 

 

In random searching this caught my eye:

https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/cases/mid-tower/masterbox-q500l/

Looks a bit cramped to work in, don't like the window mount, and not sure about the holes for airflow, but it looks interesting at least. If they did a bigger version that would be nice. Maybe one for a different build another time.

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Front airflow concern, similar design to solid front cases although not immediately obvious how much room there is from pics.

its a noise concerned case. so its probably not the best. 

[TVwazhere]

2 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

 

@TVwazhere proabbly has a good suggestion. 

Oh snap thats me!

 

Coolermaster Master Case H500 would be a good start, though it does have glass and RGB, the RGB can be turned off. The Half PSU shroud has to be removed anyways to install your PSU (and it's really easy to do)

 

Pure base 600 would be a bit better than the 801, though it's not airflow focused at all, and you'd need to have the "performance mode" set to levels 2 or 3 on the built in controller to get decent airflow

 

Woulda like to include the Original Masterbox 5 but it seems to have bene discontinued in favor of all the closed off front panels of the white version, pro's and lite  At least the Mastercase MC500 is still for sale (and actually seems to fit everything you want really well)  

 

10 minutes ago, porina said:

In random searching this caught my eye:

https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/cases/mid-tower/masterbox-q500l/

The Original Q300L mATX case that's based off has an 80-20 steel to hole ratio, so it's not actually a great airflow front. The ATX version moved the PSU to the front so a lot of the airflow that wasnt there got cut off even more so. The result has been very poor reviews overall, so I would definitely skip this one

[porina]

13 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Coolermaster Master Case H500 would be a good start, though it does have glass and RGB, the RGB can be turned off. The Half PSU shroud has to be removed anyways to install your PSU (and it's really easy to do)

It looks familiar, especially internally, and worked out it's because I have a Masterbox 5 already. While that has a good front area, it seems a bit lacking for where the air goes out. H500 at least has top vent also now. 

13 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

At least the Mastercase MC500 is still for sale (and actually seems to fit everything you want really well)  

Functionally it fits most of the requirements, but it looks a bit... meh. #firstworldproblems

 

[ravenshrike]

Silverstone PM01. Or if you want to go old school, the Cooler Master XB Evo.