Treasures or Trash, 5 PC Cases for Gamers

An anonymous reader writes "Tom's Hardware has a look at 5 different customized PC cases and a few peripheral devices that may be of some interest to gamers. From the article: 'Those who believe it is impossible to make any missteps when buying a gaming case are sadly mistaken. In most cases, you get too much plastic for your hard-earned money. Case components, covers and door panels break off far too easily, and are hard to use besides. That's why we advise savvy buyers to spend a few more dollars on their cases, and make sure they're getting quality components - especially where plastic covers or door panels are present.'"

Too many pages...

[jonoid]

29 pages? No printer-formatted single page? I'd rather not give my wrist an RSI by all that clicking or waste my allotted amount of bandwidth downloading all those ads.

Does a case matter

[mikesd81]

I would think the hardware in the case is more important for a gamer. A case doesn't provide power and storage, it just provides a place to put it. Go buy a metal slide on case with a a plastic face plate, perferably a decently large one, and cram all your hardware in that. I never really understood why to pay $100 or more for a case with a window and lights. Even @ LAN parties...the hardware is more important.

pages

[joe 155]

my god, thats a lot of pages to scroll through... I'm inclined to be a little lazy when buying a case; I only put my feet on it so it doesn't really matter what it looks like. Inside they are all pretty much the same so long as they have enough room, and a construction which will allow you to put your feet on it safely.

I've had a friend who had a case with really bright blue lights on his computer; all that that meant was we had to stick post-it notes over them when we wanted to watch something to avoid blinding us. I wouldn't want lights on my case...

Re:Too many pages...

[mikesd81]

The article is actualy only 2 pages, the remaining 27 is eye candy on cases that you can go to an actual web store and see. Some are neat though with luminated keyboards and mice. I only looked @ a few pages after the the first 2. There isn't any other paragraphs to describe or prices. Mostly just images. You can find them on e-bay or froogle looking for luminated keyboard or mice or custom cases.

Now IBM Could Make a Case

[Greyfox]

I used to do on-site tech support at IBM. Those guys could make a case, but not consistently. All their consumer model cases completely sucked, but their PS2 servers had some of the best designs I've ever seen. They had screw-free fasteners for everything, and the drive bays and power supply were on hinges and could swivel out to provide easy access to the motherboard.

Those little touches are incredibly easy to do, but no one ever adds them. I'd much rather be able to swing out my power supply so I don't have to disassemble my computer to add RAM or whatnot, rather than have my case look like it's got eyes on.

A bit of personal experience

[BertieBaggio]

According to (a 30 page bonanza of mostly pictures) TFA, I own a something that could qualify as a 'gaming' case. And my vote for the "Treasures or Trash?" conundrum is: trash. Why?

LEDs on the front of the case

Yeah, they look cool. For about 5 minutes. They are dim enough not to illuminate, but bright enough to catch your eye. Hardware equivalent of a flash ad. Also, if you keep your PC in your bedroom, you'd better find something to put in front of the LEDs.

"Cheap plastic USB port covers"

Yup, cheap is right. I snapped mine off literally about half an hour before reading the article. How's that for irony? To be fair, the cover was fine until now, just a bit superfluous. I won't miss it.

Side panels

I have seen about 3 PCs in my lifetime that get sidepanels right: easy to take off, but fit snugly and stay on well in spite of semifrequent access. For my last few boxes, I hav mostly kept my sidepanel off, but laying up against the case. Well, it helps cooling...

Sliding front / moving bits

I said the cheap plastic USB port covers were superfluous? My mistake. Any moving parts such as the case front are entirely superfluous and downright annoying. My last case had a sliding front. Up, it blocked the optical drives. Down, it blocked the USB ports. Argh...

Power supplies

Gaming cases tend to get these right, assuming they include a PSU with the case. No real complaints here in my experience.

----

I'd say that unless you are shallow and/or a showoff at LAN parties you'd be better off with a standard case. The money you save on the case can go on a bit of better quality RAM, or at the very worst, a round of beers. So if you have a big budget to blow on a computer you are going to be showing to a lot a people, then sure, get a cool-looking case. But make sure it's cool looking 'features' don't compromise its rather more important 'functions'.

Ugly.

[Deadguy2322]

The more P.C. cases I see, the more I appreciate my Mac.

portability is more important

[sl4shd0rk]

Attractive design holds some merit with the gaming crowd but most however don't want to lug these overdone designs around to lans. Want to sell a good gaming case? Make it small, portable, easy to work with using standard parts, and cooling a big consideration. Even if it looks somewhat bland, it will be a guaranteed sell. They will mod it.

Re:But... but...

[Ohreally_factor]

Well, there's conspicuous consumption, but then there's plain old bad taste. Pink Flamingos and Polyester.

Re:But... but...

[gfxguy]

No, they're the same people who buy old Civics and Neons, put giant spoilers, racing stripes, and "fart can" mufflers on them because they think it makes the car go faster. These are the same people who pay extra for flashing LCD's, clear side panels and lighted fans in their cases - they think it makes it compute faster.

Let's call them "Rice Nerds."

Re:But... but...

[donweel]

Too much plastic ... that about sums it up. Some came with power supplies but I'm not sure the manufacture is trustworthy, I am not familiar with the ones included. Alternatively you could get an aluminum Lian Li http://www.lian-li.com/main.htmcase [lian-li.com] like I did five years ago, it still looks like the day I bought it. I won't have to get another case unless form factor changes radically. And the big knurled nuts and sliding modular construction makes installing hard drives, power supplies or motherboards a snap. They cost a little more but they last a long time and don't break.

Re:No point in posting the full text

[vux984]

Man, what the hell happened to Tom's Hardware? You guys used to be good.

-rant on

That's an understatement, I remember when they were practically an authority on pc technology. The hardware reviews were relevant, and well done, and the content was well organized.

Now its just a giant sprawling ad-generation scam. Content quality has taken a nose-dive. Their benchmarks which used to be highly informative are usually utterly pointless...(Hint: 15 different games all within 1% of eachother on all the products in question merits a rethink in testing methodology.)

But the breaking point for me was when they introduced "intellitext" - I hate that more than popups. Sure I can block it with ad-block (and I do), but the fact that they are willing to annoy their readers by popping up worthless adds everytime they fail to dodge an ad trigger is ridiculous.

Its worse than the "catch the monkey" adds of a few years back. At least you could just ignore those. Now you *have* to play dodge with the page content. I fear the next big-thing will be ads that actively try to put themselves under your mouse... think intellitext but the keywords chase the mouse instead of just waiting for you run into them... (Hmmm... Patent pending... )

-rant off...

Re:But... but...

[muhgcee]

Oy. I'll leave the car thing alone, but as far as the computers go, most people do it because they a) like how it looks and b) enjoy doing it.

I built my cousin a computer once and he wanted to mod it out. He spent 10 hours custom carving a biohazard logo in the side of it. I think he enjoyed making little tweaks to the appearance over the next few months as much as he liked playing WoW on it once he turned it back on.

So what is wrong with that?

Re:But... but...

[AndyAndyAndyAndy]

Nothing, but that's exactly the point. Your case (or car, for that matter) can look as dull or as flashy as you want it to. It's how it preforms that makes it what it is. Even if I mod my case to have neon lights and a slurpee machine, all that won't matter unless it keeps everything inside working well.

Re:ugly!!!!

[strider44]

I'm glad reading the grandparent's post since it shows that I'm not the only person who thinks that the Mac G5s are horrifically ugly. For me (not that this is a totally subjective argument) it's one of the ugliest cases I've seen.

Re:Does a case matter

[Antique Geekmeister]

I agree with some of what you say. Steel cases instead of cheap fragile plastic are definitely worth it. But some of the strangest things wind up being really important, such as whether the case forces you to cut your hand trying to get the power supply mounted, or inevitably drop screws in the case inextricably into weird slots while mounting things, or break badly designed feet. And it's also important to look at whether fans can be cleaned, because let's face it: many gamers are slobs and have their rooms filled with dust. Worse, many games are inclined to rest a Big Gulp on their desk where they will leave it for 3 days, half-filled, until the cheap paper cup dissolves and spills onto things, such as your suggested blowhole fan.

Cases with side fans are inevitably put in "computer desks" that have closely fitted walls that block the side fans. Front to back is the way to go for cooling, baby, with big blower fans in unused drive bays. Noise is fairly irrelevant if you're wearing good headsets with earpieces that actually cover your ears, instead of these foolish wienie headsets that try to stuff things inside your ear canal. Blocking out even hideously large case fans, and cubicle naighbors, and screaming kids nearby, with good "over-the-entire-ear" $100 headsets gives you a vastly better sound experience than even $1000 stereo systemas and sound cards.

A case that is well designed against spills on top of it is priceless. One that is well designed to allow you to reach components, and not grab a network cable inextricably into the case is also worth quite a bit. I've had the devil of a time extracting CAT5 cables from some otherwise cheap cases, and seen too many people actually set things down on top of or pour them into fans or ventholes on top of cases. And Cases with funky feet that tilt, or prevent you from setting things down safely on top of the case are merely foolish, because people will inevitabl pile them up, drop them, and wonder why their CD that's been sitting on the dirty, dusty, scratchy floor for a week with the dong walking on them don't work right.

And those stupid cases with "Exciting! Graphical! Clocks!" that have incredibly cheap built-in chips that drift a minute a day are worse than useless, they're actually worse than the "blinking 12:000" clocks that can't be set by anyone over the age of 6.

Re:But... but...

[Mistshadow2k4]

Has it occured to you guys that a lot of these people just don't know any better? That they don't know that a metal case with spaces for more fans is better than a case with space for one fan and a plexiglass window? Go ask people and you'll fidn out that a lot of them don't know. And why not? Because when they shop for them it says nothing about how one fan isn't such a good idea for a high-powered computer or that plexiglass windows can scratch up. Hell, even the metal cases with space for four fans don't even say that -- go look over cases at newegg.com and you'll see. The reviews are one of the best ways to learn but not everyone shops there and even a lot of those who do don't read reviews beyond those on the item's description page.

Give me an ugly old solid case with space for three or four fans any day over those with the plexiglass windows, but the fact is most of them have that now. I don't even look at the cheap plastic cases myself.

Re:But... but...

[imdx80]

"It's how it preforms that makes it what it is. Even if I mod my case to have neon lights and a slurpee machine, all that won't matter unless it keeps everything inside working well"
and putting a picture up on a wall won't help the wall keep the outside out (infact it may weaken it) but there is a pretty large market in after market mods for walls, some people spend millions on them...

Re:But... but...

[contrapunctus]

Yeah, they are the same people that hang pictures on the walls. It doesn't make the wall perform better.

Re:But... but...

[gatsby0121]

Honestly, why is it that someone who makes their computer flashy, is considered an idiot. Mine is a plain case, but I have to admit that some cases out there look pretty cool, and I have to give credit to the time and effort that those people put into their cases.

And people that do up their cars, that looks pretty damn cool too. It just means that they happen to be more visual than those that don't.

Just because it's not your view, doesn't mean it's stupid.