Coolermaster 690III vs Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 vs NZXT Phantom 530 [£50 vs £70 vs £95]

[Notorious544d]

Hi everyone, this is my first thread, so yeah... 

 

Anyways, I have all my parts ready for a new, 1st time build except for the case. My build is centred around the Intel i5 4670k and I will be air cooling with a Thermalright Macho.

 

I am looking for a nice, aesthetically-pleasing, well-built case with good acoustic efficiency (but with airflow prioritising silence) and a side window within a flexible budget of £70. Three cases come to mind.

 

The first case is the Coolermaster 690III. As the title states, I've found a great deal and am able to get this for around £50. This ticks all the right boxes but I'm worried about the build quality. Is it fully plastic or is the mesh metal?

 

 

The second case is the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2. This is available for around £70 and once again, ticks all the right boxes for me. I'm concerned whether its worth £20 more than the 690III though. Also, despite being a minimalist, I think this case might be a bit too bland but I get a weird impression that this case will look better in real life than the promo pictures. 

The last case is the NZXT Phantom 530. This is definitely the most appealing case to me since it has amazing airflow as well as very quiet operation. It's aesthetic is a love/hate thing but I love it. It literally is my perfect, dream case but I find it hard to justify the extra £50 over the 690III. I am aware that this is a full tower case, but personally I don't necessarily need the extra space, it's more of a bonus feature.

 

I believe all three of these cases are solid offerings and I have done a fair bit of research. All these cases are easy to work in and have very good watercooling support. Although I'm not planning to watercool any time soon, I may change my mind if prices drop during my next upgrade cycle.

 

So which case do you guys think is most suitable for me? I am very price-concious (as you'll see if I do a build log *hint* *hint*  ) but I'm thinking whether spending the extra money will be justified in the long term since the chassis is the component that is likely to be reused the most.

 

Thanks!

[tryphaa]

Arc midi, no question.

[Stefano]

Fractal

[waxbytes]

I have a Phantom 630  and it's perfect for me. The 530 is just a little smaller.

You will regret not getting your "dream case" as it's the part of the pc you see every day, maybe

for years.

[WoodenMarker]

They are all fine. If you like them all equally, go ahead and get the 690 III. If you like the others however much more, weight your money against how much more you like a certain case. 

[theelitegamer]

I know all people going to say the R2, I would go with the NZXT, look at it like this... you have better air flow, might be 25% more noisy if that, (some people hate it & some people don't care) and you have the looks. The NZXT (IMO) is more ''out'' or more design to the case and in my case I love. It's what your looking for too though... let me know what your pet pevs and such are, then I could help you. 

[JoshM]

NZXT 530 any day of the week, fractal is so over rated and boring. 

[Notorious544d]

I have a Phantom 630 and it's perfect for me. The 530 is just a little smaller.

You will regret not getting your "dream case" as it's the part of the pc you see every day, maybe

for years.

That's exactly what I was thinking. The 530 is my dream case and I'm thinking whether I'll regret it if I buy the 690III. But a price difference of almost £50 is hard to swallow, especially since my target build price is £700.

On another note, I've been looking at some 2014 cases. The Phanteks Enthoo Luxe looks very nice and Corsair have leaked the 450d. This adds an interesting spin...

[Notorious544d]

I know all people going to say the R2, I would go with the NZXT, look at it like this... you have better air flow, might be 25% more noisy if that, (some people hate it & some people don't care) and you have the looks. The NZXT (IMO) is more ''out'' or more design to the case and in my case I love. It's what your looking for too though... let me know what your pet pevs and such are, then I could help you.

Not sure if you made a typo or if I'm just a noob but what is 'pet pevs?'

[theelitegamer]

Not sure if you made a typo or if I'm just a noob but what is 'pet pevs?'

a pet peeves is something you find really annoying that some one else could with stand, like my biggest pet pev is touching or seeing feet, I can't stand it it bugs me so much! Though other people are like meh.

[theelitegamer]

NZXT 530 any day of the week, fractal is so over rated and boring. 

I second this

[Imabigmac]

If you aren't going to fully utilise the size of the 530, don't spend the money. I absolutely love the look of the phantom's and so I bought a 630 because of I thought I would do a custom loop eventually and I wanted it so I could "grow into it". Now having it and not done a custom loop yet, I find it big waste of space and money. My advice to you is too look for a smaller case that you might actually fill half of it up, that also appeals to you aesthetically. Or follow your heart and love and get the 530 if you don't care. 

[Hushpuppy]

Why not the phantom 410? It's smaller and cheaper.

[Imabigmac]

Why not the phantom 410? It's smaller and cheaper.

its a goodoption but lacks some of the updated features that the 530 has as well as the large window i think. 

[WoodenMarker]

a pet peeves is something you find really annoying that some one else could with stand, like my biggest pet pev is touching or seeing feet, I can't stand it it bugs me so much! Though other people are like meh.

It's pet peeve*

Just saying.

[Notorious544d]

Why not the phantom 410? It's smaller and cheaper.

Phantom 410 would have been perfect but it is too outdated. The front design of the 530 looks nicer and the 410 lacks features like dust filters.

If NZXT were to release a Phantom 430, it would be perfect. In fact, I have an eerie feeling that NZXT will announce the 410 successor at Computex because there's a little pattern. The 630 was announced CES 2013, 530 announced at Computex. Although no phantom was announced at CES 2014 (h440 was announced) , I'm thinking it's logical of NZXT to update the mid tower phantom pretty soon.

[Notorious544d]

If you aren't going to fully utilise the size of the 530, don't spend the money. I absolutely love the look of the phantom's and so I bought a 630 because of I thought I would do a custom loop eventually and I wanted it so I could "grow into it". Now having it and not done a custom loop yet, I find it big waste of space and money. My advice to you is too look for a smaller case that you might actually fill half of it up, that also appeals to you aesthetically. Or follow your heart and love and get the 530 if you don't care.

That's what I was thinking. The Phantom 530 is considered great value for its watercooling capabilities and full tower design but I get the impression that I'm paying extra money on features I don't need. Between the 690III and the phantom, it's like I'm paying £50 for aesthetic and a fan controller.