Not Thrilled Over My Case

[monkey_slap]

I just put together my newest build, and i used an Antec Two Hundred for the case. It's nice and everything, just feels cheap and the front fan has a plastic grill over it that makes a decent amount of noise. It was part of a budget build and helped but since my bday is coming up i was contemplating asking for something a bit nicer, but still not terribly pricey (thinking A CM 692ii).

Is it worthless to move to a different budget case?
What could i do with the old one?
Could i just mod it to reduce noise?

Stuck between a rock and a hard place here

 

[Swampdonkey]

What is your budget? Everything that I've heard about the CM 692 is good. Seems that it would be a decent step up from the Antec, but I'm not sure that you would have any quieter of a case.
You could of course "mod" your case: sound dampening, better/quieter fans with voltage control. In my experience however, this only goes so far.

 

[monkey_slap]

I'd keep the case around $100 tops. I thought i was getting the Antec 300 in a combo that i bought and then saw the 200 show up at my door. Reviewed the receipts and seems like i was just dumb and didn't pay attention.

Are stock fans usually pretty vocal? I thought they would be pretty silent, but seems im wrong ha.

 

[Swampdonkey]

Stock fans are notoriously sub-par, and yes they can sometimes be fairly noisy. If I were you, I would start by replacing the stock fans in your case with some better fans attached with rubber grommets. A fan controller could help as well.
Seems like the 200 is a solid enough case. Good fans could do a lot.