why are these cases $600+? Who would fell for it?

So we are supposed to spend high end prices for a supposedly customized case, and then we have to mod it ourselves with shoddy dust filtering and noise suppression.

No Thanks, I would just get a Fractal Define series, with better dust filtering and noise dampening than some retrofit hack.
What do you mean shotty? You can get very high quality dust filters http://www.demcifilter.com/ for example, also yes these cases are highly customizable, most of them are modular allowing you to configure them in tons of ways . Ever think of the tooling and Engineering/material costs for these? Also, they are US made, I will always pay a bit more for that personally. Lasty, its not like you have to spend $600, they have lower cost options as well.
 
That is a matter of opinion.
Not true, I have dampened many a case like these.

You can dampen all you want. has an open front, so you hear the fans, where a FD like case puts a baffle in front of the fans.


Again, not specifically true, I have also gotten fan filters that are incredibly easy to install, remove, clean etc.

Then you should have no problem linking such removable fan filters?

No, its not, its about materials, build quality, and craftsmanship. You just don't value that as much as others do, and that is fine.

I care about function first. You are greatly exaggerating/fetishizing the differences in build quality.

A low volume case make is not going to have access to better metal stampers, or anything else.

Being low volume doesn't make it better.
 
but to cut to the chase, does the material Al justify the price?
I paid $250+ for my mass-produced Silverstone Temjin TJ-09S, so I'd say yes.
If you want the best and it costs, so be it.

In 2001 I bought the Coolermaster ATC201 aluminium case for £270, there was nothing like it at the time.
I still use it for my spare PC, its a great looking case, its been worth the money.
Car quality painted/lacquered panels and a lovely brushed aluminium front.
I still have an ATC-110, PAC-T01-EK, and PAC-T01-E1 in active service. Beautiful cases, though outdated in the cooling department (eg. no 120mm tower HSFs).

coolermaster_atc_110_2.jpg~original
 
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So you go on to say there ore more intangibles, yet your entire arguments seem to rest around quality and treatment. To answer your post, I have done a fair bit of research on this topic in the past, and scientists have determined that it is indeed a mix of chemicals, time, and materials that make the unique sound of the Stradivarius. The problem is they cannot quite replicate it. This is similar to how wines evolve based on seasons, weather, and region. It is not a simple task to truly replicate something even with advanced science. Thus the reason for the high value of these specific instruments.
A violin that was every bit as good, or better, and could be proven to be better than, the best Stradivari, would today retail for absolutely no more than the mid 5 figure range. Even then, there'd be purists and other such purveyors of bollocks, shouting at every turn that there's "Just some hidden mojo" about Stradivari violins, etc etc etc.

It's much like the how and why of why natural, say, ruby, is worth more than lab-made Ruby, despite there being absolutely zero difference between the two materials aside from origin.

The same goes for the much vaunted 1958 Les Paul. There are not only equally good, but significantly better, instruments being made today.

To choose just one point to exemplify this - the pickups. The 1958 Patent Applied For Humbuckers had TERRIBLE quality control, and tolerances were extremely variable. As a result, there were significant differences in sound across the produced pickups at that time. Some of them did not sound good. Some of them were overwound and gave more body, and fullness to the sound at the expense of treble response. Some had more winds on one bobbin than on the other, and as such did not effectively noise-cancel with the other coil, etc etc.

There were even the famous "Peter Green" PAF humbuckers, which were the "victims" of a magnet installation error at the Gibson Factory, and thereby unintentionally were out-of-phase in the middle position. As it happens, Peter Green and many others found that to sound excellent, but by the standards of the Gibson factory that built the instrument, that *should* have been a Quality Control reject, sent straight back to be fixed - yet it slipped out of the factory with a massive defect.

But yet, today, there are still many, many people who do not know or understand these things, who will say "The 1958 PAF pickup is the best ever made", despite the fact plenty of them weren't, some of the most famous were faulty/made incorrectly, and even of the ones that sounded great, there were large differences. (Not to mention that materials were variable - maple spacers, butyrate bobbins, mismatched bobbin colours under the pickup covers etc)

The value is almost entirely based on rarity, history, and age. The quality of the instruments serve as an underpinning, not the source of, their value. More often than not the perceived quality of an instrument is far more important than the actual quality of an instrument.
 
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You can dampen all you want. has an open front, so you hear the fans, where a FD like case puts a baffle in front of the fans.

I have dampened many cases with open sides, grill plates, etc. There are tons of ways to dampen.

Then you should have no problem linking such removable fan filters?
Sure, easy to google, like this or this.

I care about function first. You are greatly exaggerating/fetishizing the differences in build quality.

Again, that is your opinion.

A low volume case make is not going to have access to better metal stampers, or anything else.

Being low volume doesn't make it better.

No, but its design is typically based around people that do heavy watercooling or complicated systems. More so than other cases.
 
No, but its design is typically based around people that do heavy watercooling or complicated systems. More so than other cases.

Pretty much this...no one does an air-cooled CaseLabs build. At least not in their larger ("$600") cases. They're made for people who want to mount several large radiators, and that's something almost no other manufacturer does at any price.
 
Pretty much this...no one does an air-cooled CaseLabs build. At least not in their larger ("$600") cases. They're made for people who want to mount several large radiators, and that's something almost no other manufacturer does at any price.

Which is why I paid a lot for my original mountain mods case, that and mountain mods will make completely custom cases.
 
Which is why I paid a lot for my original mountain mods case, that and mountain mods will make completely custom cases.

Awesome! I had a Mountain Mods UFO for probably 8-9 years before I switched over. They were amazing at the time.
 
Not all cases are equal. As stated, these are heavy duty cases that will last your life time, they are all metal and there are a number of CM and the like cases that are close to the same price range but filled with plastic and cheap feel. You are also talking about the top of the line side by side case with pedestal at $600+, maybe I should post some photos to put that case you are talking about into perspective....

Cxnacydh.jpg


20ud0yah.jpg

WOW I was looking at their catalog and thought... this one looks amazing.. and seen your pictures... I bookmarked the page and will highly consider something from their portfolio !
Yes it's expensive but as someone stated, those cases are the type you do not trash or give away...

Again, WOW
 
How another person spends their money is how they spend it. I have a $1000 cpu and I play a video game on it built on the unreal 3 engine. I'm not one to judge what people spend their money on.

Though spending others money is sometimes fun :)
 
I have dampened many cases with open sides, grill plates, etc. There are tons of ways to dampen.


Sure, easy to google, like this or this.



No, but its design is typically based around people that do heavy watercooling or complicated systems. More so than other cases.

The first filter wouldn't really work on filters installed inside the case, and the other is magnetic. Will that work with an Aluminum case?

Nearly every new case designed for watercooling today. It's kind of annoying because I don't want to water cool and it ends up making cases bigger leaving extra room for radiators I don't want.
 
Pretty sure Demciflex filters can be ordered with adhesive backing. You can also custom order them.
 
This is an astonishing thread. Ever heard of capitalism? Supply and demand and all that jazz? If a company puts product A on the market and it has a price point at which it sells they are a successful company even if it is something you wouldn't pay for it. Not every product needs to appeal to everyone. I have a teddy bear I paid 120 USD for. Would you? I suspect not. But as long as there are a few people like me, Merrythought stays in business and ... that's it.
 
This is an astonishing thread. Ever heard of capitalism? Supply and demand and all that jazz? If a company puts product A on the market and it has a price point at which it sells they are a successful company even if it is something you wouldn't pay for it. Not every product needs to appeal to everyone. I have a teddy bear I paid 120 USD for. Would you? I suspect not. But as long as there are a few people like me, Merrythought stays in business and ... that's it.

Depends, how hot is the girl I am getting it for and is it getting me laid?
 
This is an astonishing thread. Ever heard of capitalism? Supply and demand and all that jazz? If a company puts product A on the market and it has a price point at which it sells they are a successful company even if it is something you wouldn't pay for it. Not every product needs to appeal to everyone. I have a teddy bear I paid 120 USD for. Would you? I suspect not. But as long as there are a few people like me, Merrythought stays in business and ... that's it.
Let's not pretend capitalism is some beautiful, flawless system whereby anything that can be done in the name of profit, justifies itself if it makes profit.

I own things that I know only have the value I place on them - Vintage Fountain Pens being key offenders in my house. But what we're discussing here isn't whether someone will buy something at an idiotic price. We all know that someone, somewhere, is dumb enough to pay almost anything for almost anything, if you take advantage of them and treat them like an idiot.

What we are discussing is whether the price of something is, based on the products own merits, actually justified, and that is a healthy discussion to have, because it encourages not allowing other people to make shitty, harmful decisions.


Capitalism is subject to a great number of problems, not least of which is the idea that consumers make logical, informed decisions. In a world where consumers make informed decisions, a bad product will not sell and a good product will sell a great deal. And that's fine.

But in practice, either because of lack of information, or outright misinformation peddled by the seller, consumers make terrible decisions all the time, and hurt themselves. Then, thanks to the wonders of cognitive dissonance and pride, people will often invent positive things about disappointing products in order to avoid admitting that they have made a mistake.

Companies like Apple, Bose, etc, have gotten so very good at convincing the consumer to hurt themselves, that their customers actually assist them in doing it! They laud a removal of options, choice and even capability, as "streamlining", they encourage the adoption of new, apple-centric, closed platforms as "integration", etc etc etc. All the while, Apple rake in the cash while doing ridiculous things, often outright lying to their customers. Remember the first Unibody macbooks? Apple claimed that milling the entire shell out of a solid block of Aluminium was "Environmentally Friendly". How many people do you think repeated that to their friends, completely unaware of what mind-boggling horseshit it was?
 
Let's not pretend capitalism is some beautiful, flawless system whereby anything that can be done in the name of profit, justifies itself if it makes profit.

I own things that I know only have the value I place on them - Vintage Fountain Pens being key offenders in my house. But what we're discussing here isn't whether someone will buy something at an idiotic price. We all know that someone, somewhere, is dumb enough to pay almost anything for almost anything, if you take advantage of them and treat them like an idiot.

What we are discussing is whether the price of something is, based on the products own merits, actually justified, and that is a healthy discussion to have, because it encourages not allowing other people to make shitty, harmful decisions.


Capitalism is subject to a great number of problems, not least of which is the idea that consumers make logical, informed decisions. In a world where consumers make informed decisions, a bad product will not sell and a good product will sell a great deal. And that's fine.

But in practice, either because of lack of information, or outright misinformation peddled by the seller, consumers make terrible decisions all the time, and hurt themselves. Then, thanks to the wonders of cognitive dissonance and pride, people will often invent positive things about disappointing products in order to avoid admitting that they have made a mistake.

Companies like Apple, Bose, etc, have gotten so very good at convincing the consumer to hurt themselves, that their customers actually assist them in doing it! They laud a removal of options, choice and even capability, as "streamlining", they encourage the adoption of new, apple-centric, closed platforms as "integration", etc etc etc. All the while, Apple rake in the cash while doing ridiculous things, often outright lying to their customers. Remember the first Unibody macbooks? Apple claimed that milling the entire shell out of a solid block of Aluminium was "Environmentally Friendly". How many people do you think repeated that to their friends, completely unaware of what mind-boggling horseshit it was?

You are only talking about value, and not just any value, but your own. You can not put your valuation onto something you do not like but someone else does. There is nothing wrong with that, it also doesn't mean they are stupid or misinformed or lied to, I know many extremely tech savvy (work in IT) people who have $3k+ gaming PCs, but they rather a mac for everything else. They are anything but misinformed, they just like the system/looks/OS etc, because you don't does not make that a bad choice or even a bad product.
 
The first filter wouldn't really work on filters installed inside the case, and the other is magnetic. Will that work with an Aluminum case?

Nearly every new case designed for watercooling today. It's kind of annoying because I don't want to water cool and it ends up making cases bigger leaving extra room for radiators I don't want.

If you don't understand how to add simple additions to cases, how cases work, how fans work, how grills work, then I can't help you. This is [H]ardForum, not [L]azyoftForum.
 
Not all cases are equal. As stated, these are heavy duty cases that will last your life time, they are all metal and there are a number of CM and the like cases that are close to the same price range but filled with plastic and cheap feel. You are also talking about the top of the line side by side case with pedestal at $600+, maybe I should post some photos to put that case you are talking about into perspective....

Cxnacydh.jpg


20ud0yah.jpg

That looks ridiculous, like a closet on wheels. Might as well just rack mount everything at that point.
 
Good point. Wonder how well those filter frames would adhere to the screws. I'd be tempted to pilfer a couple neodymium HDD magnets for the job.

I've done it before, depending on the weight and metal of the screws it works well enough. Also makes it easy to detach when you want to clean it.
 
your fan screws are still steel.

And as Eric mentioned, Demicflex do have adhesive if you want to use it.

Looking that the front design, fans are recessed and attached from the back. Screw heads are not on the front panel.

But yeah, you can take you expensive case where you pay double the price for better finishing, and use adhesive to stick some filters on the front of it. That should look really slick.

I will definitely go with Fractal for better filtering out of the box at half the price.
 
Looking that the front design, fans are recessed and attached from the back. Screw heads are not on the front panel.

But yeah, you can take you expensive case where you pay double the price for better finishing, and use adhesive to stick some filters on the front of it. That should look really slick.

I will definitely go with Fractal for better filtering out of the box at half the price.

You don't mod cases much do you?
 
heh ... I am ghetto. A used dryer sheet with a coupe pieces of tape on the lower front intake. Cannot see it at all on front of metal case under the front bezel. Pop that puppy off once a month and replace. This thread has inspired me. Since my case is steel think I will upgrade to a piece of flexible magnetic sheet with a hole cut in it.
 
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Looking that the front design, fans are recessed and attached from the back. Screw heads are not on the front panel.

But yeah, you can take you expensive case where you pay double the price for better finishing, and use adhesive to stick some filters on the front of it. That should look really slick.

I will definitely go with Fractal for better filtering out of the box at half the price.

Look, if you wanna hate on the case you're going to find issues, enjoy that.
Doesn't change the fact it's a damned fine case, and some end users would be happy to pay the premium to get it.
 
That looks ridiculous, like a closet on wheels. Might as well just rack mount everything at that point.

Normal server racks only support a very narrow form factor and are in no way friendly to watercooling etc, which these cases are aimed at, server racks also cost WAY more than this case does and it has far more room and usability for the highend desktop market. This case is close to what, a U22 cabinet? A U22 runs around $700-1.5k? And thats without any shelves/cases etc in it. Now add in a few chassis at anywhere from 300-1k a pop to be able to put stuff in it and you get the idea....
 
Look, if you wanna hate on the case you're going to find issues, enjoy that.
Doesn't change the fact it's a damned fine case, and some end users would be happy to pay the premium to get it.

Pointing out facts, is not hating.

You are mainly paying more because this is small volume, not because it is substantially better.

If you find some unique CL case that you must have, and think is worth paying more, I have no issue with that.

But for most people this is simply poor value for the money. You pay more and get less.
 
Pointing out facts, is not hating.

But you are not pointing out facts, you are pointing out opinion. You are also shilling another brand while doing it. So yes, other people would see that as hate.

You are mainly paying more because this is small volume, not because it is substantially better.

Again, this is opinion, not fact.

If you find some unique CL case that you must have, and think is worth paying more, I have no issue with that.

But for most people this is simply poor value for the money. You pay more and get less.

Obviously you do have an issue with it, because you have repeatedly attacked people's opinions on the case with your own opinions, and then claimed your opinions as facts.
 
But for most people this is simply poor value for the money. You pay more and get less.

And nobody in their right mind would suggest this for most purposes. I'm an enthusiast and this case is still beyond silly for me to consider.

I've also never seen someone suggest this closet of a case to people who aren't interested in something /special/
 
Obviously you do have an issue with it, because you have repeatedly attacked people's opinions on the case with your own opinions, and then claimed your opinions as facts.

Other cases that I like are half the price: Fact.
Other cases that I like already come with better built in dust filtering: Fact.
Other cases that I like already come with better sound dampening and baffles: Fact.

As far as quality goes. It isn't just my opinion. I have read dozens of case reviews, I haven't seen any quality issues on the cases I prefer either.

The reality is the objective data (AKA facts) are on my side, and the opinions on the others where it is entirely in the realm of the subjective.

What is funny, is that I started out defending the pricing on these case, until the zealots show up and started like these cases were just better, painted in unicorn tears or something.
 
Other cases that I like are half the price: Fact.
Other cases that I like already come with better built in dust filtering: Fact.
Other cases that I like already come with better sound dampening and baffles: Fact.

What does that matter?

As far as quality goes. It isn't just my opinion. I have read dozens of case reviews, I haven't seen any quality issues on the cases I prefer either.
The reality is the objective data (AKA facts) are on my side, and the opinions on the others where it is entirely in the realm of the subjective.

I am sorry, but reviews are not objective data. Reviews are opinion based. You have absolutely no objective facts on the quality, just opinion. Yet you keep stating its fact. The fact is, it is your opinion not fact.

What is funny, is that I started out defending the pricing on these case, until the zealots show up and started like these cases were just better, painted in unicorn tears or something.
.

The only zealot is you, who keep claiming facts instead of opinion. Other people simply gave their opinion that they felt it was worth the price and listed their reasons. Then you came out guns blazing trying to state it was a fact that they were not better. That is more in line with being a zealot.
 
You are mainly paying more because this is small volume, not because it is substantially better.
To add to this friendly discussion ... as someone who has been a metalworker most of their life, including a stint as a sheet metal mechanic, there is a lot of truth to the above statement.

From what I see CaseLabs is low volume and customizes these units as the orders come in. Time and production costs will certainly be much higher than a gigantic high volume robotic facility pumping out many thousands of the same thing. Thus requiring less manpower per piece, and little to no reset of materials, tooling, and machinery. Just saying.
 
If you are looking for Al cases and are a bit more mass produced, Lian Li is an option. Case labs forte is well engineered custom cases. When you've worked inside a case with even a bit of proper engineering behind it instead of the cookie cutter stuff, you'd know what spending the extra $$ is worth. My corsair 750d looks nice from the outside, but internally it is a miss mash of basic 90's case design mixed with dell pieces and a few off modern updates and spray paint it black. My 8 year old lian li despite its age is a treat to work in, each part put in it has a well thought out mounting method. Case labs takes it a step beyond that.
 
Hi All

All this talk of aluminum cases had me go up in the attic & pull out my 1st aluminum case, the CoolerMaster ATC 101 SX=4. I might use it for my upcoming Ryzen build.
 
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see, I have been trying to get an alternative of the NZXT phantom 820 for my next PC. I simply want a nicely design case w/ 200 mm fan on the front, 140 back and 2 x 200 mm top, as well as a side 230 mm fan.

https://www.nzxt.com/products/phantom-820-white

the problem that I have w/ the phantom 820 is the fan controller failed in less than 1 yr. So I bought my own fan controller. Then recently, the LED lights failed. So I have been looking for a nice case w/ filter that support 200 mm fan and to this date, I can't find one.

I hate to see the last course of action is to pay $600 to case labs
 
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Make your own case from wood with a suitable wire mesh on the inside to kerb emissions.
Paint it any colour or scheme you like.
It will cost a fraction of the price of any decent case.
You can make it any size and kit it out how you like with the best quality parts.
Transfer drive bays, motherboard tray, back plane etc ... from an old case.
Something to be truly proud.

I converted a dining table into a lowered coffee table/PC case in the living room.
Hides the PC and makes it very quiet.
 

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