Case recommendations - basic, good airflow

MRAB54

Gawd
Joined
Sep 9, 2001
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853
Happy new year! I'm starting the year off right, building my first rig since my Intel 2700k I've been banging on for a while now.

I'm building an AMD 3900x, Gigabyte x570 Aorus pro wifi, Gigabyte Aorus NVMe Gen4 1TB, 2x16GB RAM, reusing PSU and GTX 1080 TI GPU. I have plenty of case fans of various sizes.

With three kids, my free time and patience for overclocking has diminished ;) so that's not a priority. I'm just looking for something with good cable management, good construction, good airflow, full size or mid size, reasonably priced. But, would like to be able to use my existing fans.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
The P400A from Phanteks seems to be a solid, safe choice for good airflow, solid construction, and features at a low price point. Also has TG.

If I was going to 'champion' any brands right now for the most feature rich chassis, I'd probably recommend Fractal or Phanteks. My second recommendation would be a Meshify S2 which has tons of 140mm fan mounts so you can push plenty of air while maintaining relatively low nose pollution.
 
The biggest question is: how many drive bays will you need?

If you're willing to forgo extra bays, the best choice hands down is the Meshify C. It's a compact ATX case that comes in 4 flavors and is exceptional in every measure.

Another compact ATX case with high marks is the NZXT H500/H510. It goes toe to toe with the Meshify in all areas except for airflow.

If you need the extra bays, then a throwback case is the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M. It doesn't have the modern design of the others but is high quality with lots of bays.

Those are the best options at $100. For $60-70 you can get good cases that are a lot more plasticky. For $140-150 you can get premium cases with all the features.
 
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Also, how old is your PSU? I know it's tempting to reuse it, but if your PSU is as old as the 2700K or older than 5 years, you really don't want to be putting a 1080 Ti and brand new 3900x on it's back.

If you're not planning to overclock, you can save $50 or more by using a B450 board.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'll be overclocking, just nothing crazy ;)

My PSU is about two years old, so I think that will be OK.
Seasonic PRIME Ultra 850W 80+ Titanium

I decided on the fractal meshify s2. I wanted to be on the safe side with a little more room. The phanteks enthoo pro m was my other choice but has no front USB c, and the shipping took longer.

Can't wait for the case, thanks for your help!!!
 
Don't get me wrong, I'll be overclocking, just nothing crazy ;)

My PSU is about two years old, so I think that will be OK.
Seasonic PRIME Ultra 850W 80+ Titanium

I decided on the fractal meshify s2. I wanted to be on the safe side with a little more room. The phanteks enthoo pro m was my other choice but has no front USB c, and the shipping took longer.

Can't wait for the case, thanks for your help!!!

Perfect choice! You're going to be very pleased with the S2.

Just FYI, the S2 tempered glass comes in 2 flavors, clear and dark. If you really want to see the RGB fully make sure to order the clear version.
 
This is the case you want. Back when I got the ver 2 case after reviewing it for BenchMark Reviews--now defunct--I sold my Cooler Master Aluminum 830 Stacker, and replaced it with this one.

You won't be disappointing abourt space, cooling, and options. I recently necro'ed my 7 year old gaming rig and this case, and I'm still impressed with it (too big for me now, but for what it is, it's really nice.).

What I like about it is that it come apart easily, simi-modular, and it can use 230mm fans in the top, front, and side panel. I have all three 230mm fans and use no other fans in the system. I had my core i7 Bloomfield 920 OCed to a stable 3.8Ghz on air and NEVER had any heat problems.

Fans I used were researched to be as quite as possible and I wanted them to be high pressure also. That led me to using the Bitfenix Dynamic Bearing spectra pros:
https://www.bitfenix.com/products/fan/spectre-pro-led/
Spec:
At a full speed 0f 950 RPMs, they put out 156 CFM and are virtually dead silent.
Air pressure is an amazing 1.81 mmH20
With three of them running full blast, I can't hear them 2' away.

The case allows for a 140MM or 120mm in the bottom also.

It's a heavy. steel guage case built like a tank, and fit and finish are perfect, no bending, forcing, etc. For the price, you would be fortunate to find anything as nicely done:

This is what it comes with:
– Front 1 x 230mm Red LED Fan (pre-installed)
– Rear 1 x 140mm Fan (pre-installed)
– Top 1 x 230mm Fan (pre-installed) or 2 x 120 / 140mm Fan (option)
– Side 1 x 230mm Fan (pre-installed) or 4 x 120mm Fan (option)
– Bottom 1 x 120/140mm Fan (option)
https://www.rosewill.com/product/ro...ports-up-to-e-atx-xl-atx-4-preinstalled-fans/

Comes in black or white:
https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Gam...&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0058P5S9A&th=1
61SmcxkgGnL._SL1000_.jpg


The vents in the top open up, or you can leave them closed:
61ZnsZz6GEL._SL1000_.jpg
 
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Define C/Meshify had a clearance issue with an aio front and a long 1080ti.
I had to take out the hdd cage for 360 cooling.

O11 mini looks interesting.
Pair of bottom fans for air cooled gpu is desirable.
Side intake with rear/top exhaust is out of the way for an air cooled setup.
Aio support should be solid, just scaled down but clocking isn't a concern since there isn't much real world gain with 3900x.
 
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