PC Case Features

[Nastylucas]

Hi all, I wanted to get your feed back on this question. As PC a Builder/Gamer, what are the most common features you look for when purchasing a PC case?

[LukeSavenije]

enough space for your harddisks, airflow, space for graphics cards, size of supported mobo's. rgb lighting, io if needed, side panel or not, material.

there's a lot to look at, but we're here to help

[pbx2]

4 minutes ago, Nastylucas said:

Hi all, I wanted to get your feed back on this question. As PC a Builder/Gamer, what are the most common features you look for when purchasing a PC case?

I personally chose the Define R4 for the noise reduction foam, Easy Cable management and the front door to cover the ugly optical drive.

Typical things people look for is probably, Window/Tempered Glass, Lighting, Cable management, Specific look, feel or material, Radiator compatibility and Power Supply Shroud.

[TVwazhere]

1 minute ago, Nastylucas said:

Hi all, I wanted to get your feed back on this question. As PC a Builder/Gamer, what are the most common features you look for when purchasing a PC case?

• Adequate Airflow for the system I'm building. If it's an i3-8100 web surfing system, it doesn't need a mesh front panel with 3x120mm fans.
• Build quality. Do they use thin steel and plastic? or is there some rigidity ot the frame? How are the HDD bays and SSD trays constructed, if any?
• Ease of cable management. Do I have what I need to easily keep everything manageable, or do I have a case that I need to push the side panel closed? Does the case have a PSU basement?
• Dust Filters. Are they easy to remove? Are they too restrictive? How many sides do they cover?
• Side window. In most cases people like to see the interior of their system, so a Side panel is nice to have, especially tempered glass. On that note, a decent Tempered glass mount. Some are garbage like the Corsair 275R, some are great like the Evolv Series with their hinged design. 
• Hardware compatibility. Can i fit a large Air tower, or my AIO/watercooling loop? How long of a GPU can I use? Do I need more than 2 HDD's?
• I/O. Does it have a modern configuration? do all the plugs match my motherboard, or planned expansion?
• (Optional) Colors. Do they only offer it in black? Or are their white versions? What about other colors?

 

Things I do not look for:

• RGB lighting. These are purchasable outside the case (case fans, RGB strips, etc) and I'd rather buy a good case without RGB and add it later than a bad case with RGB.
• Vertical GPU mount. This blasphemous trend puts GPU's way too close to side panel and chokes fans, resulting in a loss of performance in games. Rule of thumb: Aesthetics are good as long as it does not significantly impact performance!
• 5.25" Bays. There's less and less need for these now-a-days. For some people this is still really important.
• (optional) Silence Optimized cases. Since I wear headphones I'm okay with a little bit more noise within reason, but some people might not be. 

[DVA]

10 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

• Adequate Airflow for the system I'm building. If it's an i3-8100 web surfing system, it doesn't need a mesh front panel with 3x120mm fans.
• Build quality. Do they use thin steel and plastic? or is there some rigidity ot the frame? How are the HDD bays and SSD trays constructed, if any?
• Ease of cable management. Do I have what I need to easily keep everything manageable, or do I have a case that I need to push the side panel closed? Does the case have a PSU basement?
• Dust Filters. Are they easy to remove? Are they too restrictive? How many sides do they cover?
• Side window. In most cases people like to see the interior of their system, so a Side panel is nice to have, especially tempered glass. On that note, a decent Tempered glass mount. Some are garbage like the Corsair 275R, some are great like the Evolv Series with their hinged design. 
• Hardware compatibility. Can i fit a large Air tower, or my AIO/watercooling loop? How long of a GPU can I use? Do I need more than 2 HDD's?
• I/O. Does it have a modern configuration? do all the plugs match my motherboard, or planned expansion?
• (Optional) Colors. Do they only offer it in black? Or are their white versions? What about other colors?

 

Things I do not look for:

• RGB lighting. These are purchasable outside the case (case fans, RGB strips, etc) and I'd rather buy a good case without RGB and add it later than a bad case with RGB.
• Vertical GPU mount. This blasphemous trend puts GPU's way too close to side panel and chokes fans, resulting in a loss of performance in games. Rule of thumb: Aesthetics are good as long as it does not significantly impact performance!
• 5.25" Bays. There's less and less need for these now-a-days. For some people this is still really important.
• (optional) Silence Optimized cases. Since I wear headphones I'm okay with a little bit more noise within reason, but some people might not be. 

Pretty much got all the bases here, the only thing I can add is longevity. Is this something you can see yourself still using in 3-5 years time without hating it. 

Does it have enough expansion space in it for whatever projects you might want to tackle, ie customer water cooling

 

[Nastylucas]

24 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

• Adequate Airflow for the system I'm building. If it's an i3-8100 web surfing system, it doesn't need a mesh front panel with 3x120mm fans.
• Build quality. Do they use thin steel and plastic? or is there some rigidity ot the frame? How are the HDD bays and SSD trays constructed, if any?
• Ease of cable management. Do I have what I need to easily keep everything manageable, or do I have a case that I need to push the side panel closed? Does the case have a PSU basement?
• Dust Filters. Are they easy to remove? Are they too restrictive? How many sides do they cover?
• Side window. In most cases people like to see the interior of their system, so a Side panel is nice to have, especially tempered glass. On that note, a decent Tempered glass mount. Some are garbage like the Corsair 275R, some are great like the Evolv Series with their hinged design. 
• Hardware compatibility. Can i fit a large Air tower, or my AIO/watercooling loop? How long of a GPU can I use? Do I need more than 2 HDD's?
• I/O. Does it have a modern configuration? do all the plugs match my motherboard, or planned expansion?
• (Optional) Colors. Do they only offer it in black? Or are their white versions? What about other colors?

 

Things I do not look for:

• RGB lighting. These are purchasable outside the case (case fans, RGB strips, etc) and I'd rather buy a good case without RGB and add it later than a bad case with RGB.
• Vertical GPU mount. This blasphemous trend puts GPU's way too close to side panel and chokes fans, resulting in a loss of performance in games. Rule of thumb: Aesthetics are good as long as it does not significantly impact performance!
• 5.25" Bays. There's less and less need for these now-a-days. For some people this is still really important.
• (optional) Silence Optimized cases. Since I wear headphones I'm okay with a little bit more noise within reason, but some people might not be. 

Thank you your in-depth response. There's a lot to consider here and it's extremely useful. What kind of I/O would you consider to be useful or needed in a next-gen case? USB 2.0/3.0/3.1, SD Card etc...

[TVwazhere]

2 minutes ago, Nastylucas said:

Thank you your in-depth response. There's a lot to consider here and it's extremely useful. What kind of I/O would you consider to be useful or needed in a next-gen case? USB 2.0/3.0/3.1, SD Card etc...

Personally I try to stick with all USB 3.0. Fast charge ports and/or Gen 2 is a bonus (usually in Type C) but of course this assumes I'm build with a motherboard that has the 19pin Gen 2 header. Reset buttons are very useful. I personally dont care about SD card readers, fan controllers or lighting controllers as those can be done using other methods. 

 

Some people like the I/O on the front, some on the top, some on the side. To me it's not important, but some cases can change the locations (Thermaltake Level 20 VT and Cooler Master Q300L come to mind)

[Nastylucas]

39 minutes ago, DVA said:

Pretty much got all the bases here, the only thing I can add is longevity. Is this something you can see yourself still using in 3-5 years time without hating it. 

Does it have enough expansion space in it for whatever projects you might want to tackle, ie customer water cooling

 

In regards to longevity, obviously ensuring that that build quality is good, what type of aesthetic would make you not get bored of it? Case skins maybe?

[DVA]

1 minute ago, Nastylucas said:

In regards to longevity, obviously ensuring that that build quality is good, what type of aesthetic would make you not get bored of it? Case skins maybe?

Never used a skin personally. But it has to be a case you're in love with. Heck, I find usually cases with a simple but sleek design go a long way because it's just that. Simple and sleek. 

 

Now if you get one of those "ultra cool gamer dude" cases then it may become old and stale after a while. These of course, are all just personal preference. 

[TVwazhere]

7 minutes ago, DVA said:

Now if you get one of those "ultra cool gamer dude" cases then it may become old and stale after a while. These of course, are all just personal preference. 

*cough* my old Level 10 GT *cough*

To be fair I still like the case but I didnt utilize it enough to justify its size and age (2008!).

[DVA]

3 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

*cough* my old Level 10 GT *cough*

To be fair I still like the case but I didnt utilize it enough to justify its size and age (2008!).

I'm sad that 2008's electronics now look like relics. We're growing up too fast

Or technology needs to slow the eff down

[Nastylucas]

53 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

*cough* my old Level 10 GT *cough*

To be fair I still like the case but I didnt utilize it enough to justify its size and age (2008!).

 

49 minutes ago, DVA said:

I'm sad that 2008's electronics now look like relics. We're growing up too fast

Or technology needs to slow the eff down

Honestly, I still do like that case as well. For the time it was huge! And DVA, yes, tech needs to slow down! haha.

[Nastylucas]

Thanks to everyone that responded to this so quickly! It's a huge help to have your input on the matter.