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I'm building a PC and have everything planned out and picked out except for one thing, the case.
I'm not sure if I should get a mid tower or full tower case...
What are some of the advantages of a mid tower versus a full tower and vise versa?
Also some suggestions for a long-term gaming rig case would be appreciated. Thank you.
Notes: I'm living in Canada so newegg.ca is a bit pricey on shipping.
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Why are you purchasing from Newegg if you are in Canada? That should be the last place you should purchase from. The shipping from Newegg is expensive because most of their items ship from the state warehouses.
A full tower case offers more space which makes it easier to work in, easier to manage cables, more HDDs/SSDs can be added, and may/may not provide better airflow. That's about it.
Case is personal preference and there are many to select from. If you want a quality case, you either go with Silverstone or Lian Li. If you want flashy designs, you go with Coolermaster.
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Mid tower has less dead space, meaning it's easier to direct airflow. Full tower has more space, which can be handy for cable management, although in a well designed mid tower, that's not an issue, and a full tower will typically have more bays, although with how cheap storage is these days, that's rarely an issue.
Most important things to look for are cable management features, tool-free assembly, airflow, noise, and aesthetics. You pretty much have to prioritize those things yourself.
silentpcreview.com has good reviews if you want a quiet rig.
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There are no advantages unless your gonna have like 20 drive bays or 10 hdds bays as well for the full tower. Otherwise there the same in the fact that your gonna get roughly the same air flow depending on how many fans you have and what not. Downside to some midtowers is they don't fit some graphics cards longer that a foot in length. But most mid sized towers do. Plus's to fullsize tower is that you get enough room for all your crap you want to put in. Midsized tower depending on what you put in it will be just fine.
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After working on several PCs with different sizes, I always prefer bigger, since it just means more space to work in.
It gets annoying being in a cramped space if you're always in there tinkering.
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On July 07 2011 08:56 jacosajh wrote: After working on several PCs with different sizes, I always prefer bigger, since it just means more space to work in.
It gets annoying being in a cramped space if you're always in there tinkering.
Quite a valid consideration. Of course, I rate aesthetics first, cooling second, and noise third, with convenience dead last. Kind of artificially inflates the amount of tinkering I get to do with a build.
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I went with the lexa blackline series it had feet that keeps the PC off my hardwood floor and that helps keep the dust from collecting around it. It also has top front back and side fans, modular drive bays etc.
Choose something with good air flow and suited for your situation. I chose that one more for the "feet" than anything else.
My other choice was going to be the antec 900
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On July 07 2011 09:05 manawah wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I went with the lexa blackline series it had feet that keeps the PC off my hardwood floor and that helps keep the dust from collecting around it. It also has top front back and side fans, modular drive bays etc. Choose something with good air flow and suited for your situation. I chose that one more for the "feet" than anything else. My other choice was going to be the antec 900
Ewww, Antec 900. The original? Pain in the ass. No CPU cooler cutout in the mobo tray, terrible cable management, terrible HDD bays.
Sold that thing for $40 bucks to a friend, felt like I was ripping him off.
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Generally speaking, the case (in my experience) has always been an aesthetic thing. I picked out all the parts for my friend's computers and then showed them to ncix's cases page and told them to pick out one that they thought looked good. A full tower is actually pretty big so keep that in mind when deciding on a case. Do you place your case underneath your desk? on your tabletop? Those are also things to keep in mind when selecting a case.
One last thing to point out, your budget actually does play a pretty big factor in this. For example,
Case 1
Case 2
Two same sized towers, very different priced, different quality cases.
As for a straight out recommendation, I would go with this:
Fractal R3
It's a subtle conservative design and I don't think it'll go out of style any time soon. Your tastes may be different than mine though.
One last thing to note. If you are getting a case with a window and you aren't planning on opening it up to clean dust off or cleaning out air filters, the window might actually be a bad idea.
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My baby. Slightly above average on cooling, only semi-quiet, excellent for cooling multi-GPU, and fun as hell to tinker with. Also rather sexy, if you like the retro sci-fi look it has going on.
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A mid-tower should be more than enough unless you are planning on building a massive Super computer. A full tower could also be a bad thing if you are planning on going to any lans or taking your computer around with you, they're super heavy. As for me, my favorite cases are Raidmax cases, here`s the case I have: Looks pretty sexy, not too fancy, not too expensive, pretty noob friendly case ;p.
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skyR is probably gouging his eyes out looking at this thread right now... poor minimalist.
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I don't mind a good minimalist case, or even a straight up oldschool beige box. The lanboy air just happened to catch my eye when I talked my wife into letting me spend some money to ditch the Antec 900.
I read all the reviews I could find on the gimmicky features, decided that at the least it wasn't bad enough to make me hate it, and bought it. I would have been really pissed if I'd bought it uninformed of the quirks though.
It's got a very unique look, and some gimmick features that would be awesome if they were implemented a little better.
But yeah, Lian Li makes some sexy cases too, as does Silverstone.
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Coolermaster enforcer is a pretty sweet case.
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my nice little case:
It's a nice small midtower budget case from fractal. Maybe a little overpriced right now @70$ on NCIX but if you like the aesthetics like me then its a good case. Drawbacks are the cable management and a personal issue I had with mine with the microphone port at the front not functioning.
Little review where you can see noise/cooling levels compared to other cases: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=30808&page=1
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Why didn't you just buy a lanboy air? If you use RTV silicone to attach fans where they didn't expect you to, you can get something like a grand total of 17 120mm fans on it.
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On July 07 2011 12:46 JingleHell wrote:Why didn't you just buy a lanboy air? If you use RTV silicone to attach fans where they didn't expect you to, you can get something like a grand total of 17 120mm fans on it.
it was part of a combo deal, warranty was some how voided like a year after i bought it or something, so i said screw it, and i took out my powersaw! took about 2 hours to mod, but now its sick. I did have a fan controller but the LED screen went out and stopped working.
It only has 8 fans on it not including the cpu/gpu/psu fans.
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On July 07 2011 12:53 Boblhead wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2011 12:46 JingleHell wrote:Why didn't you just buy a lanboy air? If you use RTV silicone to attach fans where they didn't expect you to, you can get something like a grand total of 17 120mm fans on it. it was part of a combo deal, warranty was some how voided like a year after i bought it or something, so i said screw it, and i took out my powersaw! took about 2 hours to mod, but now its sick. I did have a fan controller but the LED screen went out and stopped working. It only has 8 fans on it not including the cpu/gpu/psu fans.
You should buy a controller with knobs next time. I got a Sunbeam Rheobus on Wom's suggestion, very pleased so far. Pretty blue LED's in the knobs to match the existing ones on the fans.
I'm only at 8 fans myself, but I don't really need more anyways. Might add more for giggles and looks though.
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On July 07 2011 13:00 jazzyjazz wrote:Hey, Here's a case that has received many good reviews. It's pretty solid, well-built and is relatively inexpensive. It's the Antec Three Hundred. You can grab one from canada computers for $60, however I'm not sure if there's one near you. Anyways, here's the link below. http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_112&item_id=018460
The antec 300 is the old faithful of cases, i used it on all my builds and never had any issues. And, unless someone can prove why i shouldnt, ill keep using it.
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InWin dragonrider. Awwwweee yeah
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I love antec cases.
One thing that is really important about a case is that it will sit under your desk. You *can* spend a lot of money on a case but that is money that could be spent on hardware.
Personally id prefer more ram/cpu power that flashy led's ....
The real thing to look fro in a case is a decent psu ... if you buy a seperate psu then you can often find really cheap cases.
As for size, i wouldnt consider anything less than a full tower. You will want the space for air flow, upgrades ... you may end up buying a card that is long or tall that wouldn't fit in a midi. Small cases come with a lot of catches that usually cost money to solve. Over hte years i have developed a large HD collection.
I also have suspicons about these cases with a lot of grating - my gut is saying that they would ahve less directed airflow because it would come in from all directions and so have less pressure than through a few well chosen spots. A lot of the really open cases are designed to have extra fans. That and crap can fall into them when the top is a grate (my current one has this and well i know some ash fell in)
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On July 08 2011 04:20 MrTortoise wrote: I love antec cases.
One thing that is really important about a case is that it will sit under your desk. You *can* spend a lot of money on a case but that is money that could be spent on hardware.
Personally id prefer more ram/cpu power that flashy led's ....
The real thing to look fro in a case is a decent psu ... if you buy a seperate psu then you can often find really cheap cases.
As for size, i wouldnt consider anything less than a full tower. You will want the space for air flow, upgrades ... you may end up buying a card that is long or tall that wouldn't fit in a midi. Small cases come with a lot of catches that usually cost money to solve. Over hte years i have developed a large HD collection.
Any decently designed mid tower has room for almost any graphics card, actually. A much bigger concern is CPU cooler clearance, although even there, the vast majority of mid towers can take at least 160mm, which is all you need.
And 98% of PSU's that come with cases are shit, better to ignore the PSU completely when looking at cases. If it comes with one, you're usually better off replacing it with something that you can trust your components to anyways.
Spending decent money on a case is usually a worthy investment, as you won't end up needing a new one nearly as soon, and if you upgrade for performance parts, a good case will already have the airflow, and usually you're paying for handy design features. If you're going to spend good money on a PC, you should be willing to spend decent money on the case that holds it all, for whatever set of features you expect out of a case, be it thermal or acoustic performance, aesthetics, or convenience building.
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Yeah, agreed on both counts (especially about coolers lol)
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+ Show Spoiler +On July 07 2011 10:37 Crossed9 wrote:A mid-tower should be more than enough unless you are planning on building a massive Super computer. A full tower could also be a bad thing if you are planning on going to any lans or taking your computer around with you, they're super heavy. As for me, my favorite cases are Raidmax cases, here`s the case I have: Looks pretty sexy, not too fancy, not too expensive, pretty noob friendly case ;p.
Ugh, I really hate the smilodon. The motherboard tray was nice but the thing that drove me crazy was the 6 or so 80mm fans that daisy chained together with 4 pin molex connectors. Also, the door on that thing is made of cheap and chunky plastic, I found it really annoying.
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I have an NZXT Phantom.
It costs quite a lot, but has amazing air flow, looks pretty nice, is very quiet, comes with a good amount of good fans, and has space for everything you'll ever need!
Great case, i'd recommend it to anyone, I've also used many other cases in the past and would recommend an Antec case if you have a smaller budget..
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
This is what skyR suggested to me. Its very plain and simple (suites my personality). My gf loved this over all the other blings. its HUGE inside, easily swallowed my motherboard with minimal efforts and nice doors for easy cable management. Comes with two fans, and you can easily install 2 other 120mm on top to go along with ur HSF. But I loved this case!!
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yes as jingle hell said the antec 900 is a pain to work with. built my friends pc in it and It wasnt very fun. still seems like a pretty solid case. crossed 9 also mentioned the raidmax smilodon. I owned the blue version of the case and really loved it. one of the easiest cases I have ever worked with. only down side is it doenst have any back area for cable management if i remember right(havent owned it for a few years) I curently have a coolermaster cosmos. It is a super awesome case. has legs/handles, noise silensing kinda. full size and is a tank. its steel. I legit dropped mine down the stairs and it was totally fine. the only drawback is it is pretty heavy so not too much fun carying around to lan parties and stuff. but there isnt really a single plastic part of the case very durable and long lasting i have had mine for about 4 years.
nowdays you probably want to make sure the case has usb3.0 though
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On July 08 2011 06:15 tsmitho wrote: yes as jingle hell said the antec 900 is a pain to work with. built my friends pc in it and It wasnt very fun. still seems like a pretty solid case. crossed 9 also mentioned the raidmax smilodon. I owned the blue version of the case and really loved it. one of the easiest cases I have ever worked with. only down side is it doenst have any back area for cable management if i remember right(havent owned it for a few years) I curently have a coolermaster cosmos. It is a super awesome case. has legs/handles, noise silensing kinda. full size and is a tank. its steel. I legit dropped mine down the stairs and it was totally fine. the only drawback is it is pretty heavy so not too much fun carying around to lan parties and stuff. but there isnt really a single plastic part of the case very durable and long lasting i have had mine for about 4 years.
nowdays you probably want to make sure the case has usb3.0 though
Meh, you want annoying cable management, try the Lanboy Air. It's actually got what should be awesome cable management, except for the fact that the side panels are split, and they close down by putting thumbscrews into a side support. Totally makes for weird solutions if you try to bring stuff over from behind the motherboard tray.
But then, it's all mesh, so at least you don't screw your airflow by not being able to get it perfectly clean. And there's tons of room, and you can ziptie cables pretty much anywhere you want.
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Just built myself a new computer and i got for a fulltower,Fractal Design Define XL Titanium Grey
Really liked the clean design, didn't want anything too flashy. A real beauty to work with, lots of space and good cable hiding solutions. It also had sound dampening padding on the inside of the side doors, and the front door +strategically placed dust filtres. It is also priced pretty decent, i can do nothing but recommend this case.
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