High End Mid-Tower Case

[CafeenMan]

Hi, I've been watching Linus vids for months but just signed up for this forum a few minutes ago.  So this is my first post and my first question.

 

I always go looking for answers before I ask anything about it in a forum.  So I've been at this off and on for a few months and pretty heavily for a couple weeks.  So far I'm not real satisfied with what I've found - mainly cases don't meet criteria in one or more of four areas - number of 5-1/4" bays, number of hard drive bays and access to 5-1/4" bays.  The fourth problem is a lot of these cases come with USB 2.0 installed.  That's not a huge problem or a show-stopper by itself but no case made today should even consider having 2.0 installed.

 

Some of these requirements are based on the notion that I may never be able to get a server working reliably.  I've tried several times and never got one working right.  So ultimately what I want is my main system which is for everything.  It's the first state-of-the-art system I've built.  In the past I always used CPU's and graphics cards a couple gens old because they're a lot less expensive.  This build was several grand including two raid housings and lots of drives.

 

I have a Mobius with five 8 Tb drives in it ( four in RAID 10 plus a spare).  That drive is backup and installation software (ISO's, drivers, games, etc.)

 

I have two more 8 Tb drives internally in RAID 1 as a second backup.  All my really important stuff also gets backed up to two other portable HD's and sometimes a third but it's always way out of date.

 

I have 64 Gb of ram installed and a Strix 1080 card.  I had a 1500 watt PSU but it was way overkill.  I only have two other choices - one a cheap one from staples I bought in an emergency years ago and really isn't an option.  The other is a 1000 watt Corsair which is what's installed now.

 

Also finally got a good (expensive) UPS.  What prompted me to build this computer in the first place is that my last system fried all the hard drives including a couple externals at the same time.  Also fried my front panel stuff and a couple PCI-E cards.  I still don't know what happened but kudos to EVGA who replaced the PSU without any hassle including all the cables.

 

So I moved my computer and it's in a much better place but I have way less room to work on it - particularly the back.  So I took everything out of the Silverstone TJ07 case and put it in a low-end Lian-Li case that I actually bought to put my last system in when I took it out of the Silverstone so I could move my new system in.

 

Now I want to put the Silverstone in another room and use it as a server.  If I can get that working then all those external drives will go with it and I'll really only need two internal 3.5" drives in the case I'm asking about for a local backup.

 

I have a second RAID enclosure that has two 5 Tb drives in RAID 1 that I store all my files and media on.  This is the stuff that gets backed up.

 

So this assumes I can't get a server working again....

 

Requirements:

 

Must be mid-tower.  I'm looking for something a lot smaller that isn't cramped and will fit everything I want.

 

(3) 5-1/4" bays.  More is better but that makes the case larger than I want it to be in many cases.  Need this regardless of server status.

 

(4) 3-1/2" HD bays minimum.  Six is better.  Internally I want two drives in RAID 1 for backup.  Only really need two if I get a server working but will still want more than that because I may want another drive or two for reasons I don't know yet.

 

No transparent panels.  I don't do great cable management, I smoke and have cats.  I don't want to see how nasty my computer is inside and I don't want to be cleaning glass all the time which I know I won't do  - and yes I do clean my systems out regularly and haven't had any smoke or cat-related failures that I know of other than a cat knocked an external HD on the floor which was my fault for having it in a place that was likely to happen.  And I also know smoke and cat-hair isn't good for my system but it's not going to change so it is what it is.

 

No doors to open to access 5-1/4" drives.  By that I mean I don't want them covered with a hinged door.  They must be accessible at all times.  If there's a door it will be permanently open and just look bad.

 

There will be one BluRay burner and at least one USB/Card Reader hub mounted in front.  I'd have a second USB panel mounted if I could ever get them all working at the same time.

 

The Mobo is an X399 Taichi.  I don't use any 2-1/2" drives but have two M.2 drives on the mobo.

 

The two cases I'm looking at are a Silverstone:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008J0ZPE4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

 

And a Fractal Design:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KM4B1W0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ARQTZAKIXKWIQ&psc=1

 

I haven't read any reviews of the Fractal Design yet but a couple on the Silverstone indicated it had some stupid problems that would be easy to fix if Silverstone would actually get to it.

 

Anyway, I've looked at all the major case makers and am not finding anything that doesn't make me think I'd be settling for something I really don't want.

 

Help please.

[CafeenMan]

OK, just noticed the Fractal Design I was looking at is for micro-ATX so it won't work.

[TVwazhere]

Cooler Master HAF 912?

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/g9rcCJ/cooler-master-case-rc912kkn1gp

[CafeenMan]

TVwazhere.  Thanks.  I forgot to mention that the reason I'm looking for "high end" cases is that I've had several sub-$100 cases and every one of them has something wonky about it that's obviously a result of cheapness.  That case looks great and I did look at it before but I'm concerned that at that price there will be things I just don't like about it.

 

This would be a lot easier if I lived someplace where I could see a lot of cases in person.

[CafeenMan]

The Lian-Li I bought looked great and I REALLY don't like it now that I have to work with it.  It's a PC-9N.

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112395

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, CafeenMan said:

TVwazhere.  Thanks.  I forgot to mention that the reason I'm looking for "high end" cases is that I've had several sub-$100 cases and every one of them has something wonky about it that's obviously a result of cheapness.  That case looks great and I did look at it before but I'm concerned that at that price there will be things I just don't like about it.

 

This would be a lot easier if I lived someplace where I could see a lot of cases in person.

Just one tip. Before writing a persons name add an @. Let me demonstrate:  @TVwazhere  . Like so. This way the person sees that you have replied, and can answer you further questions.

[CafeenMan]

WILCO. Thanks.

 

One more tidbit - I've actually found several cases that I would buy without hesitation - but they're out of stock everywhere which tells me they're probably out of production.

 

One example is the Corsair Carbide 500R:

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/J2yFf7/corsair-case-500rbk

[TVwazhere]

14 minutes ago, CafeenMan said:

The Lian-Li I bought looked great and I REALLY don't like it now that I have to work with it.  It's a PC-9N.

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112395

This is the list of computers I'm looking at with 4 5.25" bays and six 3.5" bays in a mid tower size.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/case/#G=4,12&J=6,20&t=3&page=1

[CafeenMan]

I swear that baby Jesus hates me.  I keep seeing cases and thinking, "Yeah... that's the ticket!' and then nobody actually has it.  Several cases in your list would be perfect if they actually existed.