Gamers tend to take a lot of pride in building their own rigs, but it's generally not enough to have top-notch performance without the looks to match. For those who wade deep into the enthusiast side of things, part of the fun of assembling a new machine is coordinating components so everything is pleasing to the eye. It's easy to get sucked into the aesthetics of a new system, and not just with external parts.

Motherboards, for instance, have transformed from generic green slabs to works of art. Interestingly, it seems increasingly common to find aggressive military styling among high-end motherboards, with some examples including Asus' Sabertooth series as well as Gigabyte's G1.Sniper2. Despite the prevalence of military-themed motherboards, enthusiasts haven't had a whole lot of stock options for matching cases.

Hoping to fill that void, Corsair and Thermaltake have recently released two new chassis. The former updated its Vengeance gaming lineup earlier this year with the C70 case series, which comes in three colors: Arctic White, Gunmetal Black and Military Green.

Around the same time, the latter launched Level 10 GT's "Battle Edition" with the same olive drab paint job that Corsair offered for the Vengeance C70.

Although this'll be our first hands-on with the Vengeance C70, we've spent plenty of quality time with the Level 10 and its smaller sibling, the Level 10 GT. We don't care for the GT very much – partly because it feels like a cheap mockup of its elder and partly because we think it's ugly – but we admire some of its core concepts and features, such as its pre-installed cables and its hot-swappable HDD bays.

Granted, we recognize our opinion for what it is and the Level 10 GT's garish looks have earned it a place in the hearts of many enthusiasts, so we figure it's worth examining the newest version.

Meanwhile, those of you seeking something a bit tamer but still military-themed may be drawn to the C70, which we find more attractive both aesthetically and monetarily, as it costs about half as much as Thermaltake's offering.