Looking for my perfect case

Notaneggspert · February 26, 2017

This is my current build as it sits today and I hate the lack of cable management and cheep build quality of the Thermaltake V3 black.

I have the Z97 sitting next to me and I'm going move everything into a new case on that motherboard with a new copy of Windows 10 installed on the new SSD.

I'm looking for a mid tower case that's like the Corsair Obsidian Series 750D Performance Full Tower Case just smaller if possible. Price isn't a huge issue, I don't want to spend much more than $150 but I would ideally like to order through Amazon Prime.

I need:

Good cable management
Front panel USB 3.0
Front panel USB 2.0
Headphone/mic jacks
Fan filters
Two 5.25" front bays
Plain black inside and out
Side window (could be smaller doesn't need to be that large)
Available on Amazon Prime
"Sideways" mounted HDDs for cable management.

I could skip the case front panel audio I/O and usb 2.0 for a 3.5" stand alone solution but would need an additional 5.25" front bay and an adapter or a need 3.5" front bay.

I want to buy one nice case now and never need to upgrade it. I might regret buying a full tower as large as the Corsair 750D, I think a slightly smaller full tower or a larger mid tower designed for liquid cooling and cable management would give me plenty of space inside but not take up too much space under my desk. I'm obviously not liquid cooling now but it's something I might do in the future through a custom loop since I'd love a water blocked GPU.

The Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full Tower is cheaper and a littler smaller than the Corsair 750D but has a cover over the front panel I/O which I could deal with but would like to avoid. It's not as bad as the cover on the Fractal Define R5 which won't fly with me at all because I swap HDDs in and out throughout the day via a 5.25" front mounted drive tray.
If the NZXT Source 530 had front panel usb 2.0 it'd be great but still a full tower and I might as well get the Phanteks since it seems to have a few more features.

Hope this formatting and everything works, first post on here. Thanks for the help!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

TVwazhere · February 27, 2017

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811133306

MidnightBanshi · March 1, 2017

Fractal Design Define R5 has what you're looking for - has the drive bays, front IO with USB 3 & 2 (2 of each):

https://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-Computer-Case-FD-CA-DEF-R5-BKO-W/dp/B00X13Z756/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1488331745&sr=8-2&keywords=fractal+design+define+r5+blackout

mealto · March 1, 2017

The R5 kicks butt. It's one of the best cases ever made in my opinion before all this RGB / Windowed stuff came out. The only downside is that the R5 being a little older does not come with a power supply shroud. And be sure to get a power supply with long enough cables to reach everywhere. It's a long way to the SSD slots on the rear as well as to the optical drive and then the HDD bays. Some power supplies come with 3 SATA (3x3 ports) and some only come with 2 SATA (2x3 ports) and you may have to grab a molex / sata converted to connect the 3 areas where power needs to go. Just a heads up.

Just peaked at the power supply you picked and it has 2 SATA + 1 Perif power connections. The Perif may be molex so you may need to grab molex adatper if it doesn't come with one. Pretty sure perif ports can be used to power optical drives, not sure about SSD or HDD's.