Older PC cases Vs New cases

[MiketheFox]

More recently I've noticed PC cases are offering less for more, I mean I haven't bought a case since 2014 but I saw more "features" with cases from that era. I picked up my LEPA LPC 501 Case for $50ish USD but if I where to get another case from that price range Id be missing out on Drive bays, a glass/plastic side panel or very little fans. I'm not sure if this is when I'm supposed to say "call me oldschool but", To be honest I hate cases with restricting airflow to the front fans (or I just hate the look) with a plastic front cover, I miss hard drive cages,water cooling line holes that lead outside of the case and mainly 5.25 drivebays. There are alot of neat things you could put in a drive bay like Watercooling reservoir, Watercooling pump, Speakers, fan controllers, Volume meter, hot swapable drive bay, headphone holders even just storage. I guess I should have expected this to happen as physical media is becoming a legacy technology. I guess for my next build Ill just modify a NZXT build to have visible front fans and retrofit a 5.25 drive bay or just build a case haha.

[SenKa]

16 minutes ago, MiketheFox said:

Snip

Don't worry, you aren't alone here. I have a Fractal Design Mini C TG. The lack of a 5 1/4" bay is annoying as anything. I would never give up front side USB 3.0, but my favorite case ever didn't have it. I built a sleeper in an old Gateway tower from 2001, loved that damned case... I want another, eventually.

[SuperCloneRanger]

there's still plenty of 'old school' cases out there, your just not looking hard enough. every case in this list has at least 2 external 5.25" bays;

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/case/#G=2,12

[Tristerin]

19 minutes ago, MiketheFox said:

More recently I've noticed PC cases are offering less for more, I mean I haven't bought a case since 2014 but I saw more "features" with cases from that era. I picked up my LEPA LPC 501 Case for $50ish USD but if I where to get another case from that price range Id be missing out on Drive bays, a glass/plastic side panel or very little fans. I'm not sure if this is when I'm supposed to say "call me oldschool but", To be honest I hate cases with restricting airflow to the front fans (or I just hate the look) with a plastic front cover, I miss hard drive cages,water cooling line holes that lead outside of the case and mainly 5.25 drivebays. There are alot of neat things you could put in a drive bay like Watercooling reservoir, Watercooling pump, Speakers, fan controllers, Volume meter, hot swapable drive bay, headphone holders even just storage. I guess I should have expected this to happen as physical media is becoming a legacy technology. I guess for my next build Ill just modify a NZXT build to have visible front fans and retrofit a 5.25 drive bay or just build a case haha.

I bought a new PC for my Ryzen only because my OLD late 90's CoolerMaster solid aluminum brushed case...had lost its side panel in a move.  I am happy with that purchase but Ill NEVER get rid of my CoolerMaster HAF XM...no cases offer what it offers without spending an arm and a leg and when I got it I want to say I spent $50.  It would be $120+ case these days.

[flibberdipper]

I suppose I feel you there. The only case that I've really wanted since I got my Enthoo Pro shortly after they launched is the Node 202 (for obviously entirely different reasons). Well and the S4 Mini but that is way more than I want to spend on a case.

[grss1982]

Still rocking an Antec 300 myself and new cases don't excite me at all.  Call me old but I still want a Antec P180 or a CM ATC201 if they were still in production.

[MiketheFox]

On 2/5/2019 at 5:57 PM, SuperCloneRanger said:

there's still plenty of 'old school' cases out there, your just not looking hard enough. every case in this list has at least 2 external 5.25" bays;

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/case/#G=2,12

Oh man, I didn't know PC parts picker had cases on their website Ill check out more cases there. Thing is, more recently cause I've been traveling more I've been buying parts in stores if I ever need them... Also I just prefer going to buy anything in store instead of buying online, my roommate actually forces me to buy groceries online for some reason. I guess that's just me being picky, but thank you for showing me this man!

[Mick Naughty]

Times change. Normally for the better. Simple. 

[Drivestort]

I like the more open interiors of modern cases. I've never had need of putting some 6+ drives in a case to justify needing the entire height of it being taken up by drive trays.

[VIVO-US]

On ‎2‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 5:37 PM, MiketheFox said:

I picked up my LEPA LPC 501 Case for $50ish USD but if I where to get another case from that price range Id be missing out on Drive bays, a glass/plastic side panel or very little fans.

There are 3 major reasons I can give you for the change.

 

The first reason is changing hardware.  Decent water coolers have become affordable(ish), and graphics cards are longer than ever.  Cases have been changed to compensate at the cost of reduced drive space.

 

The second reason is the changing media environment.  More and more people are streaming now instead of buying physical media, so 5.25" bays were replaced to make more space for fans, and hard drives have more capacity than ever and take up less space as a result.

 

The third reason is increasing labor and other costs in China, where basically 99% of cases are produced.  Since 2014, wages have increased about 40 or 50% on average, steel prices have increased somewhat, factories have been forced to rework processes to comply with new environmental laws (well over 10,000 factories were shut down over the past couple years due to non-compliance), and shipping is more expensive.

 

I miss the days when you could get a sturdy case full of features for dirt cheap, but it's simply not possible anymore (unless the brand is willing to take a loss on every unit sold).  There's also inflation of the dollar factoring into the increased prices.