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Sub-$50 Case Conundrum

r PIck?

  • Total voters
    9
Z

zantaff

n00b
Joined
Jan 5, 2013
Messages
24
I've been looking at cases, and I've found 4 sub-$50 cases I like.
One main feature that I'm looking for is the painted interior.
Side window would be a plus, but it's not necessary, since I can make one myself.

The challenge is now, which to pick?
Which do you think is the best, based on price & features?

Rosewill CHALLENGER ~ $49 on eBay

COOLER MASTER Elite 430 ~ $45 on Newegg

Xigmatek ASGARD II ~ $34 on eBay

XION XON-180 ~ $35 on Newegg ($25 with $10 mail in rebate)

Let the battle begin.
 
Out of the four cases you listed, the only good one from a price to performance standpoint is that Rosewill. The Rosewill is the only case out of the four that has cable management holes. The other three don't and therefore are just crap.

However my general budget case recommendations these days is the NZXT Source 210 Elite and the Corsair 200R/300R cases. The 300R is currently on sale for $60 from Amazon.com which makes it a fantastic deal considering its normal price is $75 to $80. At $60, that 300R is a far far better deal than the Challenger at $50.
 
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I own the 430 Elite and it is actually pretty nice for the price, but I got mine for $35. It doesn't have wire management holes but the way it is built its pretty easy to tidy up.

The source 210 would be better I think.
 
Ok now it's defintally between these two cases:
Both have wire routing, 2 side panels, 3 Pre-installed fans.

ZALMAN ZM-Z9 U3 ($48 after rebate)
Pros:
Front pannel display
Side Window

Cons:
A bit more expensive
Mail in rebates are VERY sketchy.

Rosewill CHALLENGER-U3 $40
Pros:
Screw-less features
Less expensive

Cons:
No real cons, just a few less features than the Z9
 
zantaff said:
So, the cable management is very important :/

In that case, the ZALMAN ZM-Z9 U3 should be a good buy, because it's only $48 after rebate on Newegg.
Click to expand...
No, not a good buy since you have not received the MIR yet. As such, at $68 shipped, it's a bad buy due to reasons I shall cover below.

zantaff said:
ZALMAN ZM-Z9 U3 ($48 after rebate)
Cons:
A bit more expensive
Mail in rebates are VERY sketchy.
Click to expand...
Additional cons
- No side fan placement. It's been shown that for optimal GPU and overall system cooling, a side fan actually helps a lot more than a front fan.
- The Front fan is partially obstructed by those "artistic" triangles which means that it'll impact the cooling you'll get from the front fan.
zantaff said:
Rosewill CHALLENGER-U3 $40
Cons:
No real cons, just a few less features than the Z9
Click to expand...
It does have a few cons:
- Due to pricing, the quality of the case itself is more than likely to be lower than other cases. When you see similarily priced cases from Antec, Corsair, and Coolermaster, and NZXT only come with two fans, that should tell you something about Rosewill had to do to get the case down to the same price but with one extra fan.
- It's cramped compared to other cases like the NZXT Source 210 Elite, Coolermaster HAF 912, or Corsair 200R/300R. In other words, longer video cards and cable management will be a pain in the ass.
 
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