Which PC case do you use?

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,240   +192
Staff member

One of the very first premium aftermarket computer cases I acquired was a Lian Li PC-60. In the 15 or so years since, I've had the opportunity to work with probably a hundred or more cases of varying shapes, sizes, building materials and price points including my current chassis, the hulking Cooler Master Cosmos II.

I've owned this behemoth for nearly four years now and have no plans of replacing it anytime soon. Outfitted with Noctua fans, a towering heatsink and a passively cooled video card, it's nearly silent and large enough to accommodate virtually anything I can throw at it in the future.

With this week's open forum, we're curious as to what computer case you're using these days? Does your current case meet all of your needs? Are you eyeballing an upgrade? Feel free to share in the comments section below!

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Graphite 600T with custom 1/2" acrylic side panel.
I love this case and will keep it another two years at least.

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I have 6 machines in these cases, best I have found. Fantastic cooling, interior sound absorbing mats, roomy enough for anything, and top connections means never reaching around or trying to see back mounted IO. They stay very very clean inside too which is a plus in my book.
On mine I covered the front in a single sheet of carbon fiber wrap and it is very understated and elegant in it's simplicity. There is a small rectangle that is slit into the front to allow the bd disc burner to open.
 
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Coolermaster HAF932, it's pretty old, but I guess so is my desktop. The large fans in this thing run really quiet and keep everything pretty cool.
 
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I have 6 machines in these cases, best I have found. Fantastic cooling, interior sound absorbing mats, roomy enough for anything, and top connections means never reaching around or trying to see back mounted IO. They stay very very clean inside too which is a plus in my book.
On mine I covered the front in a single sheet of carbon fiber wrap and it is very understated and elegant in it's simplicity. There is a small rectangle that is slit into the front to allow the bd disc burner to open.

Which PC case do you use? I dunno what the name is but I will provide a picture and a two paragraph story ;)

For anyone wondering the answer was "Silverstone Fortress Series FT02".
 
Antec 900. I've heavily modded the inside to get ride of all the cable management issues that they were known for, but they were the first of their kind so it's kind of an icon as far as cases go. I took a dremel too it, painted the inside black and then flooded the case the grommets
 
Which PC case do you use? I dunno what the name is but I will provide a picture and a two paragraph story ;)

For anyone wondering the answer was "Silverstone Fortress Series FT02".
I thought you'd know the name, It's a Silverstone Fortress FT02BW
Just click on the picture to see all the details. (guess that has to be said for some people to figure it out. :))
 
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Carbide Series® Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case, best case I've ever had! I love the dual chambers and it has a LOT of room for all the good stuff =)
 
I have the Silverstone ft02-bw, and the Cosmos 2. Fun seeing them mentioned here. My current case though (I still have the other 2 cases...Silverstone is my wife's case, Cosmos 2 one of my kid's computers) is Phanteks Primo SE-R. The interior is painted red. I'ts similar in layout to the Cosmos 2, but has lot's more room up top for thicker rads/push/pull/whatever else. The only bummer on mine is the window is tinted, so it's dark. One of these days I'll mod some glass on it. Or not.
 
I'm still using my black windowed ThermalTake Tsunami Dream from my first build, around 2004. It doesn't have cable management and is showing its age, but it still looks nice and functionally it is fine. I likely won't be replacing it any time soon, unless I win the lottery or some generous benefactor donates a new case.
 
Silverstone Raven RVZ01. I needed something small, but at the same time I didn't want to give up on performance and devices. This case lets me do it. Working with it was not easy but after a year I am totally happy about it.
 
Corsair carbide air 540, for all the same reasons Nitrotoxin stated and it's such an easy case to build in. also it looks very cool illuminated with a few discrete led strips.
 
Currently have a Corsair Carbide 300R but I'm eyeing the Corsair Carbide 400C for my new build.

Love the case features although got very annoyed when I had to buy a 8 pin power extension cable to hide cables the way I wanted.
 
Case? I screw all the components onto a piece of plywood so it's easier to dust!

Actually I do have an old unit I use for testing that exactly like that. Easier to plug components in and out, swap hard drives for recovery, etc. Not too traditional, but it's been running for 10 years now and still going strong.
 
I don't ever see my case, it's completely under the desk.

It's a Corsair Obsidian 750D with some mods. Completely removed all the hard drive cages and have the hard drives mounted in the 5.25" bays to get the bast airflow possible. Replace the windowed side door with a custom solid panel. Both panels have a sheet of dynamat high density sound absorbing material. Have 12 fans total. 5 Cougar PWM Vortex 120mm, 4 Noctua 3,000 RPM 120mm, and 3 Corsair SP 140mm. The 4 Noctua are mounted to a front rad. I've never head them reach their max RPM but they can be very loud during a stress test. Worth it though because they don't allow my 5820k 4.4 Ghz to get past 50c. The front panel of the case has been laser cut to increase airflow.
 
NZXT Switch 810. A remarkably versatile and inexpensive piece of kit. It did require some minor work with a drill and hole cutter to provide pass throughts for the top 5.25" bay in order to have the radiator fittings towards the front of the chassis, but the versatility and front bay mounted hot-swap caddy more than offset the somewhat chintzy use of plastic (before some of the parts were replaced by CNC'd billet aluminium).
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Corsair Obsidian 650D
see thru side panel is replaced with optional screen and I installed a 200 mm fan
top 'insert hot-plug hd full size' thing is removed, had to for recent build to fit radiator for Corsair H110iGTX
case dates from circa 2011 i7-2600k build, recently put in i7-6700K and an Asus Z170-Deluxe so it is serving me very well.
 
Fractal Designs Define R4 . solid black non-windowed version. love how quiet and simple the case is. only running 2 140mm intakes in the front, then the140mm radiator from my gtx980TI hybrid-cooled graphics card as an exhaust out the back, but its enough to keep everything running very cool.
 
Of the cases mentioned so far in this thread, I have done builds in all but the Carbide Series® Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case that Nitro mentioned. I like the look of that case btw, but I couldn't find the dimensions of it, more precisely, the width and depth. (footprint size). It might be nice to build one for one of my current clients I am doing builds for. I am sort of taking a breather after the last big order that went overseas to the military in Afghanistan. For that I used 165 Corsair Vengance c70 cases in, you guessed it, OD Green. :)
 
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