Case Expense

[BonzaiDuck]

I just ordered the tempered glass version of the Enthoo Pro M yesterday. $99 on Amazon and Newegg, and worth looking at if you don't have specific requirements that the Evolv meets.

I'd look closer at the different model specs myself, but offhand I'd say $99 would trigger my purchase without hesitation if I needed to purchase a case at the moment.

 

[you2]

Newegg seems to have it for $89 but perhaps there is a subtle differnetly model

 

[AntonioHG]

Most expensive case I've ever bought was a Lian Li X1000. Spent $450, not including shipping, for that thing and I felt like it was definitely worth it as it wasn't made of cheap plastic, looked fantastic (IMHO), and had the cooling performance. It was a beautiful monolith of a case. Got rid of all the large cases when my second child began to walk though. She couldn't resist trying to pull herself up using them as leverage. Recent pic is first, old pic last:

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Most expensive case I've ever bought was a Lian Li X1000. Spent $450, not including shipping, for that thing and I felt like it was definitely worth it as it wasn't made of cheap plastic, looked fantastic (IMHO), and had the cooling performance. It was a beautiful monolith of a case. Got rid of all the large cases when my second child began to walk though. She couldn't resist trying to pull herself up using them as leverage. Recent pic is first, old pic last:

That thing is YUGE!

 

[EliteRetard]

That thing is YUGE!

lol

You must be young...

 

[Ajay]

Tall, but not very deep at all (~17").

 

[Chaotic42]

I think I spent $300 on my Codegen S-201:

I still have it. If AMD ever gets off their behinds and releases the 32-core workstation CPUs I keep hearing about, I may pull it out of retirement.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

lol

You must be young...

No -- I've had full-tower cases, and I modded a 1995 Compaq ProLiant server case that was wider and higher than any "full-tower". I had it on 3" double-caster braked wheels. I gave it away to my brother in haste, and now wish I'd kept it. It would've been a fantastic water cooler with some more effort. It was prepared and ready for a 280mm double 140mm-fan radiator assembly on the bottom with intake 3+" off the floor, and another 280mm in the front if I could have found room for the four 3.5" HDDs in hot-swap trays inside the front door. By today's storage standards, I might have had the same number of devices or more without any issue as to where to locate them.

It had two San-Ace 120x38mm exhaust fans. Visibility as shown in my picture was obscured by a ducting project that pulled air across the motherboard and into a pyramidal funnel-shaped duct for the top fan which you see most clearly. The heatpipe cooler was ducted pulling air from the 140mm unit to which the circular cathode light is appended, pulling air also through the four RAID5 drives. I'd even harvested a detachable PSU "cage" from a 1995 IBM midtower, and refitted it (top-rear) so the "detachable-removeable" cage detached and removed as it had from the midtower.

I'm trying to remember actually how many dollars I had invested in the case. I paid $1.95 for it to a friend who owned a computer shop in front and a computer-recycling operation in back. Lexan costs whatever Lexan costs. I bought other aluminum metal pieces (note the cross-bars supporting the double-casters) to make the fan cage in bottom from the local metals-shop across town. Perf-steel and aluminum angle pieces to build the 2x 140mm fan cage at the bottom. Overall, I'm sure I spent less than I might have paid for a brand-new full-tower. Probably a lot less. But how many cents is a drop of sweat worth?

 

[you2]

Well I'm very happy with the $130 i paid for a LIAN LI PC-A75. The only thing I dislike about it is the cheap fans that Lian used but they were easy enough to replace. I have 9 drives in the thing and it runs pretty darn cool.

 

[AntonioHG]

Tall, but not very deep at all (~17").

Loved that about the case. It was deep enough to have all the useful bits and you could sit it on a not-so-deep desk.

 

[ddogg]

The most I've spent is $350 on my Corsair 900D 3 years ago and it has served me well after a lot of cheap ones. The case is massive and can accommodate most watercooling needs in it, but it weighs 45lbs with nothing in it and has a lot of design flaws. I'm thinking of upgrading to a Caselabs SMA8 soon which is pricey ($650) but the build quality is otherworldly.
I think it's worth spending on a nice case as much as your budget allows and what you intend to do with your build. Getting a case as big as mine and then air-cooling would be a waste of space and money.

Here's a pic of my current build

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[bigboxes]

Well, I went nuts this last year and bought Lian Li PC-V1000L for $340. I believe it retailed for $400. I planned on using it to build a new dual Xeon workstation/home server. All my other builds have recent upgrades, but my file server is a eunuch. It's the one thing that has never gotten the love from me. Always hand-me-down/cheap parts. So, I have been planning out a monster build that will be able to do many things/projects that I want to do. Unfortunately, my finances took a dive soon after purchasing it. I'm thinking that when all is said and done it should run north of $5K. I love the case, but all it's been doing is sitting in my office taking up space. Damn thing looks beautiful though!

I have three cases doing nothing at the moment. A P180, P183 and my first case... the lovely Cooler Master ATC-200. The P180 that currently houses my file server will join them whenever that day comes when I'm able to build the dream machine. Still haven't thought of a name for the upcoming build. I name all my computers. Main rig: Robb Stark; File server: Elwood; Wife's rig: Jake; HTPC: Hatfield.

 

[EliteRetard]

What an ancient case, aren't those from like the 90's? I'm pretty damn sure the first 2x SCSI CD drive I played with was in one of those.
Are you saying you picked one up new last year? Maybe they're still making them...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

What an ancient case, aren't those from like the 90's? I'm pretty damn sure the first 2x SCSI CD drive I played with was in one of those.
Are you saying you picked one up new last year? Maybe they're still making them...

'90s is too far back for the Lian Li in his pic. MY case in post #33 is a 1995 ProLiant Server case.

The Lian Li has been around for a good time. A time when they probably designed cases for larger number of storage devices. Or at least one can say that the Lian Li has plenty of bays and plenty of radiator-room.

 

[AntonioHG]

'90s is too far back for the Lian Li in his pic. MY case in post #33 is a 1995 ProLiant Server case.

The Lian Li has been around for a good time. A time when they probably designed cases for larger number of storage devices. Or at least one can say that the Lian Li has plenty of bays and plenty of radiator-room.

Yeah, it's a newer model. Lian Li in 2008 didn't have those easily removable hdd mounts nor the thumbscrew fan/filter assembly. Back when I got my first LL case all of that stuff was way more complicated or didn't exist at all hahah.

Looked it up and it's from 2014-15. So yeah, newish.

 

[pcslookout]

You all are such stalkers lol.

 

[bigboxes]

Yes, it's an updated version. Has four USB3.0 front panel ports. It doesn't have a shroud for the power supply. That's a Lian Li thing. It's wide, long and deep. It will fit an E-ATX/SSI EEB, tall performance air coolers, any video cards, has easy storage for 9 HDDs and casters to easily move the case along the floor. With room for water cooling, easy toolless side panel removal and bottom intake filters there's a lot to like about the design.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Good cases such as that one provide a variety of options and alternatives, and you can pick and choose which to use.

 

[bigboxes]

I plan on populating that with a lot of storage. I can remove individual internal bays if I'm not using them. I'm still up in the air on hot swap bays.

 

[EliteRetard]

Yet I very clearly recall a rounded metal case perforated just like that way back in the early 90s.
Though I admit I can't recall 100%, and I'm kinda thinking it was perforated top and back too.

The reason I can remember this as well as I do is because I really wanted that case, and the CD drive, and all the other awesome shit that was in that PC. And this was back when CD drives were first coming out, which I think was late 80s early 90s. I still had the Kaypro 10, with it's 10MB HDD...though at that time my primary was one of those computers with a turbo button (think it was the 386).

I had the same reaction when DVD drives first came out, especially when I got to demo that wing commander game with the live action video cut scenes and shit.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Yet I very clearly recall a rounded metal case perforated just like that way back in the early 90s.
Though I admit I can't recall 100%, and I'm kinda thinking it was perforated top and back too.

The reason I can remember this as well as I do is because I really wanted that case, and the CD drive, and all the other awesome shit that was in that PC. And this was back when CD drives were first coming out, which I think was late 80s early 90s. I still had the Kaypro 10, with it's 10MB HDD...though at that time my primary was one of those computers with a turbo button (think it was the 386).

I had the same reaction when DVD drives first came out, especially when I got to demo that wing commander game with the live action video cut scenes and shit.

Oh, Man! A Kaypro! That's a true archeological rarity! Like the Compaq Transportable . . .

You shouldn't talk about these things so openly. The young women will know how old you are . . .

 

[dlerious]

Those were the days - or so I heard . I remember bragging to my brother when I bought a Seagate hard drive because it was an RLL, while his was MFM. I think my first computer was a Gateway 286 (12Mhz?). I still have the case around here somewhere.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

What is the most you ever spent on a computer case? Is it worth spending a lot on a computer case ?

$130, w/ a PSU.

It depends - if you're on a very tight budget, it's obviously the easiest place to cut corners. (You can find ATX towers for $30-$40, free shipping, all the time. Sometimes even less. A far cry from the $100+ that a lot of people spend on their cases.)

But if you have a little extra money, it IS the part that you actually look at every day, so finding one you like aesthetically isn't a terrible idea. (Going from bargain basement $30 cases to, say, $100, gets you a LOT of midrange options. Amortized over the life of the case/computer, that's probably <$1/month.)

And if you intend to walk the upgrade treadmill, upgrading individual components every few months instead of doing a complete rebuild every few years, spending some extra money on a case with tool-less assembly, rolled edges, etc., can save you some aggravation in the long run.

At the high end of the cost spectrum, the overclocking and gaming enthusiast community have their own needs, which determine things like internal volume, layout, number of fan/radiator mounts, etc.. They're willing to pay the money, so the manufacturers charge it.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

$130, w/ a PSU.

It depends - if you're on a very tight budget, it's obviously the easiest place to cut corners. (You can find ATX towers for $30-$40, free shipping, all the time. Sometimes even less. A far cry from the $100+ that a lot of people spend on their cases.)

But if you have a little extra money, it IS the part that you actually look at every day, so finding one you like aesthetically isn't a terrible idea. (Going from bargain basement $30 cases to, say, $100, gets you a LOT of midrange options. Amortized over the life of the case/computer, that's probably <$1/month.)

And if you intend to walk the upgrade treadmill, upgrading individual components every few months instead of doing a complete rebuild every few years, spending some extra money on a case with tool-less assembly, rolled edges, etc., can save you some aggravation in the long run.

At the high end of the cost spectrum, the overclocking and gaming enthusiast community have their own needs, which determine things like internal volume, layout, number of fan/radiator mounts, etc.. They're willing to pay the money, so the manufacturers charge it.

Well, sometimes you can find those things in a cheaper case. Other forum members have linked case models that were on the higher side of the price spectrum, used quality materials like tempered glass, but offer fewer options in airflow.

For me, function trumps aesthetics. More often than not, cases don't come with double-caster wheels, but I insist on them, which costs me an extra $25 and time spent with some metal-work.

Ultimately I see a case as a metal box for installing my components, either designed or modded to provide an airflow strategy. All of the cases I'm using now have at least two fan/air vents that I've blocked off with art-board. I always aim for cases with lots of vents . . .

 

[Valantar]

What is the most you ever spent on a computer case? Is it worth spending a lot on a computer case ?

3024 NOK for my Cooler Master Stacker 820 Nvidia edition (housing my crossfired Radeon HD 4850s, haha) back in 2008. That included an 850W PSU, but was still expensive as all hell. I ended up severely disliking the case for a number of reasons, and finally replaced it with a 720 NOK Fractal Define R4 two years ago. Oh, 3024 NOK is $363 in today's money, $376 back then. That includes 25% VAT, by the way.

Now, I'm leaning towards replacing the R4 with either a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX or a Fractal Define Nano S. Not quite sure. If I didn't have to water cool my GPU and didn't have a great ATX PSU, though, I'd probably be looking at either an Ncase M1 or something similar. Those are definitely worth the price, IMO.