i need help on figuring out which case to buy

[The_Dunadan]

i need some help and tips for what case to get for my pc i'll eventually build. please help me:)

-thanx in advance

[gekko]

LianLi makes a good aluminum one. Or if your a fan of Alienware's, there is a company that makes replicas.

[Cyrax9]

Dragon Full-Towers are my Faves, they're what Alienwae uses to make into thier "Colored Cases", if you have an AW invoice with the new case, see if it says Dragon Full Tower Case on it, or if you have an old one, it should say Antec on it. Alienware has awesome cases, and the siliver ones are great, Dragon only selss Balck and Silver Directly I think, if you want a "Genuine" Aluienare Colored case, you have to buy an Alienware PC.

[sdtPikachu]

Whatever you do, no matter how funky it looks, don't buy a plastic case. They give poorer cooling, little EMR protection (both inside and out)and have a nasty tendency to fall to bits.

If you're building your own comp, it's worth shelling out for a really good case. It'll outlive the comp you put in it now, and it should do fine for your nest two mobos as well. Buy a tower; they tend to provide much better airflow and access to interior gubbinz, at relatively low cost to desktop real estate.

Heat retention is becoming a big problem with high end PC's, and for tgetting around this aluminium cases are the best, but they're not cheap...

This is one I'd like... (http://www.coolermaster.com/products/atc/atc101.html)... 5 5.25" bays, 5 3.5" bays... 3 case fans... c/w 300W PSU... front mounted USB ports...

But this one would be even better (http://www.coolermaster.com/products/atc/atc201.html) for a high end home workstation... :drool:

Did I ever tell you aluminium cases also happen to be well sexy?

[The_Dunadan]

where are the prices for the ones sdtpickachu listed?

what site has the cases cyrax mentioned?

[Cyrax9]

I'd just search yahoo or google for a "Dragon Ful Tower" case to find one like what Alienware uses.

It's not a Plastic Case, but a Combonation, their are "Drive Bay Covers" that are plastic, and some plasic buttons, but most of the case, including the rest of the front is a Aluminum Case, which is why the "mold-injected" painting works so well on it.

Gatewa ships their PC's with Plastic Cases, and my Bro has one, it works for his 450MHz piece of dung, but not for anyting high-end, also I could mash a plastic case weith my fist, as I almost did on my "Family PC", because it wasn't working right, again. I've also noticed that Plastic Cases sem to break quickly, and if you take them apart to add stuff, the towers don't fit bac together correctly, so I'd go with the Alumin/Plastic Combo, where only a smal part of the case is Plastic, like mine, which has one plastic Piece on it, that is removeable for another Device in a 5.25 bay.

Hope this helps.

[The_Dunadan]

this is a pretty sweet case, isn't it?

http://www.crazypc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=120199&Product_Code=8130

[sdtPikachu]

Whoa, a case with a mod as one of the options. Me like... :drool:

Now all you need is a couple of cold cathode tubes to light up the inside with, and you'll have the sexiest case on the planet. Well, no you won't (you wouldn't believe some of the case mods I've seen - there's one guy who's fitted a PC, Xbox, gamecube, NES and Atari into one heavily modded PC case), but at least it'll be better than your average ****ty plastic box.

Like Cyrax says, all-plastic cases have a tendency to fall to bits, and yes they are impossible to put back together properly (they're not designed to be taken apart in the first place really). Metal/plastic combos are OK, as long as most of the case is metal. Plastic coated metal is alright, but it won't cool as well and it'll mean you can't earth yourself on the case as easily.

If you're thinking of buying a plastic or plastic coated case I would straongly urge you to look for an anodised aluminium one rather than painted/coated. They're just too god damn sexy...

[The_Dunadan]

it looks like that aluminum case i posted will be what i get so far. i don't know about gettting the mod window. it would be cool but the case is already 200 and that doesn't include powere supply i don't think:(

[sdtPikachu]

Well, I don't go a bundle on case mods either - they tend to look crap unless you spend a shedload on them.

But that seems a damned nice case for the money... and yeah, the base price was sans PSU. I think the lowest they did was a 300W, no? You'll probably be wanting at least a 350 W if you're making a highly specced up computer...

[manasecret]

Tom's Hardware has a very good article on case and power supply selection, which helped me choose which case I'm going to buy (the Antec Performance Plus 1080).

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/02q2/020521/index.html

db

[Yoda9864]

My advice, splurge on your case. It is the only part of your computer you will see constantly. If you don't like it, you will kill yourself. Like me, I thought I'd save a few bucks, get the lowest case i could get. I want to punch myself in the kidneys now.

My friend got the one you posted, except my friend had a window built into the side. He spent a good $200 on it, but trust me, it was worth it. Oh, if you do decide to get a window, get it done professionally. If you do it with one of those do-it-youself kits, they look like ****e.