Help me pick a case

[YellowJersey]

I'm in the market for a new case, though I'm in no hurry to buy. I currently run a 5700X (cooled w/ a Noctua NH-D15S) and a 6600 XT (on an ATX board) and am generally a solid "medium man" in terms of specs. My monitor is a 1440 100Hz ultrawide. I'm not particularly interested in water cooling. Looking for a full tower or mid tower in terms of size (though I'm willing to consider anything that has good airflow/thermals/noise and can fit my NH-D15S)

 I was watching Steve from GN and he had a few "best cases of the year" videos, so this is what I've based my prospects on. I'm currently torn between the Corsair 4000D airflow (currently $140 CAD at Memory Express) and the NZXT H7 Flow (currently $170 CAD at MemEx) (I'm also considering the Fractal Design Pop Air, currently 120 CAD at MemEx ). I'm looking for good airflow and thermals as well as something that's reasonably quiet. I also have three BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 120mm fans that I'd be carrying over from my current case.

 Any reason why I should choose one over the other? At my specs, does it really matter? Any other cases I should be looking at? any thoughts? I'd like to keep it under $200 CAD.

 

[Bombastinator]

GN seems to do almost entirely atx and eatx cases.  If your motherboard is that size, that’s a good place to look.   There is also matx and itx though. There have been a few Matx or itx cases like that cat one on GN, but gn’s focus seems to be largely on those cases.   On the bright side an atx case will hold matx or itx, whereas the reverse is not true.  Myself I just don’t use enough pcie cards to justify atx.

 

matx is generally ever so slightly cheaper for the same thing.  If you wind up with a matx board there are some really good very cheap cases as well that are smaller.   They won’t hold an atx motherboard but if you don’t HAVE an atx motherboard to put in them then it’s pointless.  So first pick your board and cooler.  Once we know what we have to house then a case is easy.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Bombastinator

[YellowJersey]

3 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

GN seems to do almost entirely atx and eatx cases.  If your motherboard is that size, that’s a good place to look.   There is also matx and itx though. There have been a few Matx or itx cases like that cat one on GN, but gn’s focus seems to be largely on those cases.   On the bright side an atx case will hold matx or itx, whereas the reverse is not true.  Myself I just don’t use enough pcie cards to justify atx.

 

matx is generally ever so slightly cheaper for the same thing.  If you wind up with a matx board there are some really good very cheap cases as well that are smaller.   They won’t hold an atx motherboard but if you don’t HAVE an atx motherboard to put in them then it’s pointless.  So first pick your board and cooler.  Once we know what we have to house then a case is easy.

Mine's an ATX board

[thrasher_565]

as long as its got a mesh front it should be good. for better gpu temps intake from the bottom is ideal but we are talking like maybe 3c so... w/e

 

the 4000d with fans in the front and side probably wont make much difference at lest cost per c drop. 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, YellowJersey said:

Mine's an ATX board

Ah.  So atx case then. The 6600 isn’t very long, and the nh-d15s isn’t exceptionally tall.  One way to think of case width for cooler height is what size exhaust fan can it hold? There’s 80, 92, 120, and 140.  5

the cooler fan has to sit “over” the back panel, which is a standardized height.  So you can get a rough estimate just by looking at the back fan grill.  I suspect cases with 120mm exhaust fans will fit tight, 140mm will fit loose.  There are more or less two kinds of cases: isolation and airflow.  Isolation cases were the quieter cases back when mechanical hard drives (which chuckle to themselves and burp and stuff) were common.  SSDs made fans the loudest thing in cases, so few fans were better, so airflow (the other kind) if you got mechanical drives an isolation case by be quiet, for example, might be your quietest option.  If you don’t, then an airflow case with as few fans as possible spinning as slowly as possible will produce the least noise.

[YellowJersey]

6 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah.  So atx case then. The 6600 isn’t very long, and the nh-d15s isn’t exceptionally tall.  One way to think of case width for cooler height is what size exhaust fan can it hold? There’s 80, 92, 120, and 140.  5

the cooler fan has to sit “over” the back panel, which is a standardized height.  So you can get a rough estimate just by looking at the back fan grill.  I suspect cases with 120mm exhaust fans will fit tight, 140mm will fit loose.  There are more or less two kinds of cases: isolation and airflow.  Isolation cases were the quieter cases back when mechanical hard drives (which chuckle to themselves and burp and stuff) were common.  SSDs made fans the loudest thing in cases, so few fans were better, so airflow (the other kind) if you got mechanical drives an isolation case by be quiet, for example, might be your quietest option.  If you don’t, then an airflow case with as few fans as possible spinning as slowly as possible will produce the least noise.

Any cases you'd recommend then? I'm thinking 2 or 3 120mm intake fans on the front and a 120mm exhaust fan on the back. Maybe a 120mm exhaust fan on the top-rear, but I don't think that'll be necessary given my cpu/gpu combo not kicking out that much heat. (I'm keen on 120mm fans since I already have a bunch. I'm really liking the Silent Wings 3 120mm fans I got). I generally try and buy things like coolers, cases, etc with a view to be able to carry as much forward to a future build as possible, so I usually buy something that's a bit more than I currently need to give myself room to grow into something more powerful (the dread "F" word)

[Bombastinator]

I wound up with a matx board so I got a thermaltake core 21 which imho is the best case I’ve ever dealt with.  In this case though it also means my opinion is near worthless.  The pop is quite popular.  I think it comes with 2 200s though so you’d likely be only using one of your fans if that.  Myself I’m a cheap bastard.  Why spend on smooth edges and Velcro straps when you’re only going to build in it once?  Also tempered glass always eventually breaks.  It may be a century, but it will do it.  Tempered glass stores breakage energy so you may kick it 100 times and it’s fine but then a butterfly lands on it and poof.  I’d rather have grillwork myself.  I do not consider tempered glass a feature.  On that basis the zalman T6 appeals to me.  To start, it’s under $50.  It seems to be an airflow case with two 120/140 in front and 1 120 in the side (a major bonus imho) pointed right at the video card. The downside to the thing is it’s short on fans but you’ve got 3 120s just sitting there.. so 

[YellowJersey]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah.  So atx case then. The 6600 isn’t very long, and the nh-d15s isn’t exceptionally tall.  One way to think of case width for cooler height is what size exhaust fan can it hold? There’s 80, 92, 120, and 140.  5

the cooler fan has to sit “over” the back panel, which is a standardized height.  So you can get a rough estimate just by looking at the back fan grill.  I suspect cases with 120mm exhaust fans will fit tight, 140mm will fit loose.  There are more or less two kinds of cases: isolation and airflow.  Isolation cases were the quieter cases back when mechanical hard drives (which chuckle to themselves and burp and stuff) were common.  SSDs made fans the loudest thing in cases, so few fans were better, so airflow (the other kind) if you got mechanical drives an isolation case by be quiet, for example, might be your quietest option.  If you don’t, then an airflow case with as few fans as possible spinning as slowly as possible will produce the least noise.

Yeah, I don't really understand the tempered glass side panel trend. It's hard finding cases without glass. I also find it weird that there are so few cases where you can mount a fan on the side for a GPU intake. You'd think that would be ideal for cooling.

[thrasher_565]

49 minutes ago, YellowJersey said:

Yeah, I don't really understand the tempered glass side panel trend. It's hard finding cases without glass. I also find it weird that there are so few cases where you can mount a fan on the side for a GPU intake. You'd think that would be ideal for cooling.

side intake i think was not officaly for gpu cooling but was more cpu for down draft coolers thow at the hight of case they did put them more for sli gpus thow like the antec 1200. but there was alot of case that did have fans on the side and mods to add fans. 400mm fan anyone? haha but then there were the 200mm fan in the front as well. then the haf taking that to the max with 3 200mm fans... and of corse the antec cases with the big boy fan i think thats what it was called

 

but we also did things as cheap as posable and used cheaper blower gpus and hybrid water cooling and well killed them as we didnt no about vrm cooling.. thats when gpus were around the gtx 260 and you got about 4 years out of it. hot and loud...

 

inwin cases for the famuse 4x 120mm fans on the side...

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by thrasher_565