General PC case survey

[DeepCool Alan]

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T79J2LM

 

Hello everyone, official DeepCool rep here. We got permission from the mods to post a general PC case survey in the off-topic section that's looking to take a pulse on the current case market to help guide us into making a better product.

 

No personal information or emails are required, so no marketing shenanigans here. We're just looking to get honest answers and opinions from the community.

 

I've posted this up to other areas on the internet and in hindsight there were a few questions that we definitely missed such as 5.25" drive bays, so if you feel we missed something make sure to leave a comment on the last question of the survey!

Thanks!

[atxcyclist]

Happily filled out, it's nice to see manufacturers reaching out for product ideas.

[Chiyawa]

I may be old school, but I find modern case lacking 5.25 inch drive bay(s). This severely limit your front IO expansion, including optical disc drives or card reader expansion.

[soldier_ph]

Took the Survey.

[Rybo]

Since you're targeting enthusiasts with the survey, it might behoove you to specify which PC you want us to think about when referencing features of "your current pc".  I have three PCs in sight right now and two more in the house, and they're all different.  I have air cooled, AIO cooled, and custom liquid cooled systems, cases of all different sizes, hard drives from various generations and form factors.  I assumed you want us to reference our "primary" pc, but the most recent and the most expensive case I've bought wasn't for my primary pc (though I realize I may be an edge case).    

[TVwazhere]

On 2/19/2021 at 7:10 PM, DeepCool Alan said:

 make sure to leave a comment on the last question of the survey!

I may have gone a bit overboard on mine

[sub68]

yes I am going overboard (seriously I have saved my family more times than I can rember by having this )

[sub68]

4 hours ago, Chiyawa said:

I may be old school, but I find modern case lacking 5.25 inch drive bay(s). This severely limit your front IO expansion, including optical disc drives or card reader expansion.

I love having my 5.25 also the expand ability of 5.25 is great

[WhitetailAni]

2 minutes ago, sub68 said:

yes I am going overboard (seriously I have saved my family more times than I can rember by having this )

I mentioned "more 5.25" front bays" like 2 or 3 times.

RGB?
Naw.

Tempered glass?
Side intakes are better.

Front fan mounts?
Just put them between your hard drive cage and the mesh front panel with 5.25" front bay inserts.

[WhitetailAni]

1 minute ago, sub68 said:

I love having my 5.25 also the expand ability of 5.25 is great

I use 4.

I will use 5, and maybe 6.

Hence why this case is never leaving me - there's no other case that has the room.

[sub68]

1 minute ago, FakeKGB said:

RGB?
Naw.

agreed

1 minute ago, FakeKGB said:

I mentioned "more 5.25" front bays" like 2 or 3 times.

you mad lad

1 minute ago, FakeKGB said:

Front fan mounts?
Just put them between your hard drive cage and the mesh front panel with 5.25" front bay inserts.

big brain

1 minute ago, FakeKGB said:

Tempered glass?
Side intakes are better.

hmmmm side intakes are great for compents freash air

[WhitetailAni]

Just now, sub68 said:

hmmmm side intakes are great for compents freash air

The big 190mm side fan on my case is probably the only reason my 2 blower cooler cards aren't overheating.

I have basically no airflow, other than that fan.

PC upgrade priorities for this year:

1. SSD for Big Sur (coming soon!)

2. Arctic Liquid Freezer II 120mm

3. Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 2000 (for front intake)

4. Some good ARGB 140mm fan for the top

[paddy-stone]

I filled in all the questions, yet it kept telling me I hadn't... so after like 6 tries I killed it. Reminded me why I hate questionnaires so much.

[Tristerin]

I started to take the survey but stopped.  Feels like I have to corner myself on a case (my "personal" PC case - CoolerMaster HAF XM that Ive modded) when in fact, thats just the current case I use - whereas when I turn around in the same room there is:

 

Rosewill Nautilus

ANTEC 300 2

Cougar MX330's

Generic Dell cases

NZXT cases (2, just got em)

Fractal Design Focus G ATX in black (still in box)

Fractal Design Meshify 2 (still in box)

 

Generally speaking, sometimes I want a case with 5.25" sometimes I dont.  Sometimes I want water cooling support, other times form factor.

 

For me, and why I have yet to buy a DeepCool case, simply put is, feature to price there are other options on the market that are more affordable that have the options I am looking for.  UNLESS a case requires specific components, I go to Newegg and filter cheapest case in form factor I need and peruse my selections...DeepCool either isnt represented well on Newegg or pricing wise they dont offer features that make sense at the price point.

 

EDIT - what I look for in a case generically speaking:  Airflow, whether its for air or water cooling.  Thats a top priority for me.

[sub68]

2 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

The big 190mm side fan on my case is probably the only reason my 2 blower cooler cards aren't overheating.

I have basically no airflow, other than that fan.

PC upgrade priorities for this year:

1. SSD for Big Sur (coming soon!)

2. Arctic Liquid Freezer II 120mm

3. Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 2000 (for front intake)

4. Some good ARGB 140mm fan for the top

*stares at prebuilt that has no extra fans*

let me show you something I want

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Cases/Carbide-Series™-100R-Silent-Edition-Mid-Tower-Case/p/CC-9011077-WW

[Dedayog]

Done, and thank you.  Good survey.

[Zando_]

Filled out, pretty solid survey. My main beef with current cases is poor EATX support for really wide boards, or ones like EVGA's that put the 24 pin laid flat, forcing me to run the 24-pin power through HDD mounts, or else hop up to a full tower. Which tbh, there's also a poor selection of just decent full towers. 

 

5 hours ago, FakeKGB said:

Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 2000 (for front intake)

I'd go for a Redux P12 (or up to the A12x25 if you don't mind the colors). iPPCs drone a bit in my experience, my Reduxes didn't (I have 6 NF-F12 iPPC 2000s and IIRC 5 or so NF-A14 iPPC 3000 PWMs in various towers, have used the Redux P14s and P12 as well). 

[Letgomyleghoe]

15 hours ago, FakeKGB said:

Side intakes are better.

Front fan mounts?
Just put them between your hard drive cage and the mesh front panel with 5.25" front bay inserts.

side intakes actually disrupt the airflow of most cases, and are just there to make up for the lack of frontal airflow. Front fan mounts and a mesh panel have greatly increased airflow in the last few years, we need to be moving forward in 2021 not backwards, hard drive cages can be placed in a basement or behind the motherboard in a separate compartment, think 011 dynamic. If you really need an optical drive get a USB one. 

[Mling]

invert the motherboard like my silverstone RL08!

Change the rear fan to intake and the front to exhaust. This way the 2 hottest components get fresh cold air and I get 2X140mm exhaust fans.

[Mling]

30 minutes ago, WikiForce said:

i am confused if i should choose asia or middle east for India

India is Asia.

[rakkir 196]

filled out

there is something that has been bugging me for a while, motherboards support 6 to 8 front usb ports, why do cases only have 2?

[Mling]

Just now, WikiForce said:

too late, i initially chose asia then switched to middle east. BTW, i don't think it matters much because they ask your country as well.

Isn't area of china and it's below is called middle east?

Think of it like this. The continent is Eurasia (Europe in the west, Asia east) and the middle east connects this continent to the African continent. 

[Chiyawa]

1 hour ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

If you really need an optical drive get a USB one. 

The slim type one are really slow. They can only achieved 16x speed when writing DVD whereas the 5.25 inch one can write at 24x speed, reduce the burning time of a DVD by up to 15 - 30 minutes.

 

Of course you can get a desktop enclosure one for the 5.25 inch optical drive, but it need an external power source to operate as the 5.25 inch drive requires 12V to operate as USB only supply 5V only, which can clutter your work place.

[DeadnightWarrior]

Survey done, kudos to Deep Cool for this!
 

As for me, I think we should have at least one 5.25" drive bay: it's not just for optical drives but for a plethora of add-on panels that you simply can't have if you lack the proper bays. Just make the 5.25" bay easily removable and you've got a win-win.

[tkitch]

11 minutes ago, DeadnightWarrior said:

Survey done, kudos to Deep Cool for this!
 

As for me, I think we should have at least one 5.25" drive bay: it's not just for optical drives but for a plethora of add-on panels that you simply can't have if you lack the proper bays. Just make the 5.25" bay easily removable and you've got a win-win.

Hate to say it, but very very few people make regular use of 5.25" bays anymore.  You're growing to be much more of an edge-case.

 

In the last 4 years, the number of non-audio optical media I've touched with a computer is....  probably countable on one hand.  Two hands, at most.