How do you pick your case?

[Lee989]

For some context... been over a decade since I last built a PC. I fancy building something to pass a few hours on games like Civilization. Apart from getting into LTT videos earlier this year i'm completely out of touch with modern hardware. Based on reading these forums, my current plan is a budget friendly R5 3600 + RX570/580/590 build. I'd like to go small but mini-ITX adds £££'s and micro-atx doesn't seem to offer much space saving over a mid-tower, so i'll probably go for a mid-tower.

 

So the question is... How do you guys filter down the list of available cases?

 

There's the obvious filters:

• Form factor
• Does the GPU fit?
• Can you afford it?
• Do you like the look of it?

 

Unfortunately, applying these filters to the list of available cases still leaves me with lots of options. I'm not planning on water cooling, over clocking, OTT RGB so it seems like nearly every single ATX case fits my needs at the moment.

 

I'm currently being swayed towards the Corsair Carbide 275R or the Cooler Master MasterBox Q500L. Not sure why, maybe I recognise them from other peoples builds. Or because they have the most stars on the product pages.

 

So are there any other things I need to think about when picking a case? Or do I just accept they're all just metal tins and buy the one that's been hammered into a design I like?

[Statik]

The only things I think about are;

 

1. Price?

2. Does it have any airflow?

3. Is it a Lian Li PC O-11?

 

 

[Sorenson]

I've always been a sucker for ITX cases. I personally like to make sure my cases have decent enough air flow, will aesthetically fit into my space, and have support for my planned cooling method. If you want to go ITX I would recommend NZXT's H210. It's not too pricey, support air coolers, and an ATX power supply. This keeps the ITX Tax confined to just your motherboard. 

[Tristerin]

1.) Price Bracket

2.) Airflow (I prefer cases with front and side intake, top and rear exhaust available)

3.) Radiator placement options (cause Im into water cooling atm this option would change to cooler clearance if I was into air cooling)

 

[jaslion]

1.Price

2. Has good airflow

3. Is a boring box without windows and stuff

4. Size. So I can tuck it away so it's not in the way or so I don't need to look at it.

[TVwazhere]

Always Considered:

1. Holds hardware required
2. Adequate Airflow for the planned build
3. Cable management options
4. Extra fans if any
5. Price

Sometimes Considered:

1. Size (full towers are rarely considered)
2. Expandability/Hardware change compatible (IE: bigger coolers or more hard drives)
3. Color Options
4. Style/Aesthetics
5. Tempered Glass Panel

Rarely Considered:

1. RGB
2. Anything made by Inwin or EVGA

[Zusafek]

I chose the Phanteks P400 series for it's build quality, cable management, expandability for HDDs, and the looks. I have since upgraded the solid front panel to the mesh panel found on the P400A to improve airflow. Absolutely love that case now. 

[Lee989]

Thanks for all the replies. So it seems the general consensus is very much along the lines of what I was expecting with the addition of airflow (which i'm not sure how you decide on that, but i'm guessing somewhere to get cables out of the way and front/rear fan mounts... But i'm sure a forum search will yield some advice on that).

 

My final decision will probably be based on popularity of the case. I can see £20 cases and £150 cases that seem to pass those checks with the biggest difference (for me) being the amount of plastic (cheaper) vs metal (more expensive) used. So might be time to look at a bunch of similar build plans and note down the cases used and go from there.

 

16 hours ago, Sorenson said:

I've always been a sucker for ITX cases ... If you want to go ITX I would recommend NZXT's H210. It's not too pricey, support air coolers, and an ATX power supply. This keeps the ITX Tax confined to just your motherboard. 

 

I do like that case. And when I started looking at doing this I was thinking of trying to get as small as reasonable as it's got to sit on my desk. I keep flipping between an ITX build and a Mid-Tower ATX build. So maybe I just need to do a pcpartpicker build for both options and go from there.

 

[TVwazhere]

2 hours ago, Lee989 said:

(which i'm not sure how you decide on that, but i'm guessing somewhere to get cables out of the way and front/rear fan mounts... But i'm sure a forum search will yield some advice on that).

Generally for very high end hardware builds, I look for a fully mesh or perforated panel (Primary intake; can be front, bottom or side. Sometimes the Top) for unobstructed airflow for the fans. For mid-ranged builds (IE: R5 3600 and a RX580, 590 or GTX1660 (variant) I look for at least good side vents with the fans properly positioned that allow them to draw air into the case (Fractal Design Define C and the NZXT H500 are good examples of this). For a super budget web browser, airflow is basically a non factor, the cheapest microATX with glossy black front panels thats has no air vents from Newegg is just fine. 

 

Hence the emphasis on Adequate airflow. Because some people will just mash "Meshify C or Bust" like it's a macro. 

 

Cables actually have zero impact on the airflow in your case. Cable management is purely an aesthetic thing (so long as they're not getting into fan blades) and things like Hard drive cages, restrictive front panels or crappy fans are usually the cause of poor airflow. 

 

[Lee989]

Thanks for the advice. I remember watching that video now you've quoted it. So when you talk about adequate airflow, you're primarily looking at where the air vents are in the case and where fans can be mounted in relation to them. I think even I can just about understand that

 

Going to start putting together some builds today so I'll be putting the advice into action. We'll see if I really understood it when I post asking for feedback before purchase