Case for New Desktop PC Build

[brianj320]

i'm looking into building a new desktop PC for gaming mostly with possibly home video editing down the road. i've built several systems over the years but now it's time to upgrade as my current rig is roughly 4 years old.

i thought i was settled on my case, an NZXT H440 but i've been reading a lot recently about the case not being the best for air cooling when it comes to a gaming rig. my component list is below of what will be included. i'm not looking for critique on the individual components but rather the best case option for this setup.

ideally, the case needs to be a mid-tower with good-to-great air cooling. other than the closed-loop CPU cooler, i'm not interested in liquid cooling at this time. all input and opinions welcome!

CPU- Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon Quad-Core 4.0GHz
CPU Cooler- NZXT Kraken X61
Mobo- ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO LGA 1150 Intel Z97
RAM- G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 (PC3 19200)
GFX Card- EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB
SDD- Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, SATA III
HDD- WD Black 4TB Desktop Hard Drive - 3.5", SATA 6 Gb/s
PSU- EVGA SuperNOVA 850GS 850W 80+ GOLD Certified Full Modular

tl;dr - i need the best air-cooling, mid-tower case for the components above.

 

[smitbret]

Fractal Design Define R4 or R5
Nanoxia Deep Silence are great, too, if you can get one

 

[Essence_of_War]

Fractal Design Define R4 or R5
Nanoxia Deep Silence are great, too,

2nd'ing these. I'd also add:

1) The Phanteks Enthoo Pro - I've been really impressed by the reviews of these.
2) Corsair's Carbide 500R and Obsidian 450D. I like that the former has a 200mm side fan, I like that the latter comes with two front 140mm fans.

Edit: I don't believe the 500R is compatible with 280mm AIOs like the Kraken x61. I'm not 100% sure though, so if you find a good price, def check the compatibility.

 

[Steve Rimar]

II am also looking for a case. I like the Fractal Design Define R5 FD-CA-DEF-R5-TI-W white but can't find one.
Corsair's Carbide 500R is also a good one along with the Phanteks Enthoo Pro .
I wonder how the Corsair Carbide Air 540 would fit on a desk? Any one have anything to say about this case.

The more I look the worse it gets...............

 

[Tifosi248F1]

I vote for Fractal Design, but not the Define series. Those are built more towards "silence" with sound dampening materials and modular vents. It's undoubtedly a great case, but the Arc Midi series is geared towards airflow and cooling. Define comes with 2 fans, Arc Midi comes with 3 if that means anything to you. Define also has a front door while the Arc Midi has an open, removable front grill. Just my two cents.

 

[_UP_]

I have the Enthoo Primo and I love it. It is super functional as well as beautiful. Also, has a great build quality. I read that the Pro mostly follows suit, just smaller. So I vote for that one.

 

[xthetenth]

I have the Enthoo Primo and I love it. It is super functional as well as beautiful. Also, has a great build quality. I read that the Pro mostly follows suit, just smaller. So I vote for that one.

I've got a Luxe, and it was absolutely great to build in. Everything I've seen of the Pro seems it's very similar. It's a very well ventilated case with a bunch of room for fans or rads.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I just built a system in a Fractal Design Core 1000. It's mATX (why does anybody buy full towers anymore when most mATX boards support SLI/Crossfire) and while it's kinda ho-hum on the features, it looks nice. Too narrow for a Hyper 212 though.

The Fractal Node 804 is a mATX cube case that is designed to be extra wide/roomy for crazy cooling. (Or NAS use. Your call.)

 

[Steve Rimar]

i'm looking into building a new desktop PC for gaming mostly with possibly home video editing down the road. i've built several systems over the years but now it's time to upgrade as my current rig is roughly 4 years old.

ideally, the case needs to be a mid-tower with good-to-great air cooling. other than the closed-loop CPU cooler, i'm not interested in liquid cooling at this time. all input and opinions welcome!

CPU- Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon Quad-Core 4.0GHz
CPU Cooler- NZXT Kraken X61
Mobo- ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO LGA 1150 Intel Z97
RAM- G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 (PC3 19200)
GFX Card- EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB
SDD- Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, SATA III
HDD- WD Black 4TB Desktop Hard Drive - 3.5", SATA 6 Gb/s
PSU- EVGA SuperNOVA 850GS 850W 80+ GOLD Certified Full Modular

tl;dr - i need the best air-cooling, mid-tower case for the components above.

I have probably looked at 50 cases on line, read reviews and comments of most all of them. The two cases I seem to keep going back to are the Fractal Design R5 and the Phanteks Enthoo Luxe. Even though the Phanteks is a full tower it does not seem as big as some full towers.
I am also not going to water cool at this time but would also like good dust filters. I want enough room for cable management so things look good inside. I plan on getting a white case but not sure of a window door.

 

[Ketchup]

I'll just through in a plug for the Trooper here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119297

Large, yes. But that is the best way to get the best cooling on air. One nice part too is that it is built to accept water as well, so that would be an easy addition if you are ever inclined to do so.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'll just through in a plug for the Trooper here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119297

Large, yes. But that is the best way to get the best cooling on air. One nice part too is that it is built to accept water as well, so that would be an easy addition if you are ever inclined to do so.

I won't discount that: all of my current cases come from CM.

The size of some of these -- your Trooper, my HAF 922s and a CM Stacker midtower -- suggests a consideration for air-cooling. And the fact is -- you need airflow for water-cooling as well.

The choice of a case is best made after you choose the cooling strategy, or at minimum, the two criteria are joined at the hip.

The other thing about some of these older mainstream cases: they favor ample opportunities for storage installation. But you can now buy 2.5" adapters that mount between two and four 2.5" SSDs or HDDs.

I just finished building an Ivy Bridge Z77 system for my brother. The only case available for use -- other than the CM Stacker midtower the system replaces -- is a ten-year-old CM Centurion case. Power supply in the top rear, no top vent, a side-panel vent for an 80mm fan and lower-front-panel opportunity for nothing more than a 120x25mm fan. We decided that we needed no more than two 5.25" drive bays. So I installed a 140mm Akasa Viper fan in the three lowest bays. Two SSDs fit in a single adapter, and the only HDD is a 500GB WD Blue laptop drive we fit into a second adapter.

Cool, quiet -- it's working tip-top.

Meanwhile, retrieving the old LGA-775 system in the Stacker, I was stunned at how huge this midtower Stacker case is. Huge! And with space for storage devices that are hardly needed. I can see a case-mod on the horizon for the Stacker.

 

[Crab Balls]

This is the case I use. Plenty of room and well designed for ultimate air cooling without noise. It has an 8-bay SATA/SAS backplane that will spoil you. No need to screw around with cables. Built like a tank. It will probably be the last case you buy. I'm on my second build with in this case.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/743/SC743TQ-1200-SQ.cfm


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...SuperChassis_743TQ-_-2KH-0001-00036-_-Product

 

[BonzaiDuck]

This is the case I use. Plenty of room and well designed for ultimate air cooling without noise. It has an 8-bay SATA/SAS backplane that will spoil you. No need to screw around with cables. Built like a tank. It will probably be the last case you buy. I'm on my second build with in this case.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/743/SC743TQ-1200-SQ.cfm


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...SuperChassis_743TQ-_-2KH-0001-00036-_-Product

The backplane or hot-swap features look great. How is that sucker vented? $478 is a hefty pile of change. . .

 

[Crab Balls]

The backplane or hot-swap features look great. How is that sucker vented? $478 is a hefty pile of change. . .

They got everything laid out nicely for high efficient air flow, which exits out the back. A well designed case is much better than the ones we see with 20 overpriced fans fighting each other. Price is relative, you pay a little more upfront for a good featured packed case or you buy a cheap box and load it up with what you want. Also, If you are in no hurry you can always search eBay and find one in excellent shape for around $100.

 

[Aikouka]

I'll just through in a plug for the Trooper here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119297

Large, yes. But that is the best way to get the best cooling on air. One nice part too is that it is built to accept water as well, so that would be an easy addition if you are ever inclined to do so.

How is the cooling on that case? It looks like it's going to hurt its airflow by having so much crossflow around the hard drives. I'm not against keeping the hard drives cool as that's a huge priority in something like my server (when you've pulled a HDD out before and it felt almost too hot to touch, you like to keep 'em cool), but when it comes to having little cooling for a video card? I'm not a fan of that. If it had a side-panel fan, I'd probably be a bit more lenient with it.

 

[Ketchup]

How is the cooling on that case? It looks like it's going to hurt its airflow by having so much crossflow around the hard drives. I'm not against keeping the hard drives cool as that's a huge priority in something like my server (when you've pulled a HDD out before and it felt almost too hot to touch, you like to keep 'em cool), but when it comes to having little cooling for a video card? I'm not a fan of that. If it had a side-panel fan, I'd probably be a bit more lenient with it.

I was wondering the same. I tested with the fan on the front and the side (not too hard to move). It was actually a bit cooler in the default configuration when I had my WD Black in there, probably because that hot air is not going back to the cpu/gpu. I only have an SSD in there now, and it makes no diff. either way.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Too much time on my hands early Sunday morning . . . I'll just throw in a few words.

If you use a lot of HDDs -- for server or whatever -- you need a bigger case, even if only a midtower. On that angle, I've just recovered my CM Stacker from Bro's room upstairs, and I have already remarked at how huge it seems.

I was a bit surprised at the results produced by another member __ WGusler -- with his i7-4790K project. He used a Corsair C70, which seems to use a concept of an ammo-box in its design. It's a midtower case, but I regard it as "small."

Our larger cases like the HAF series attempt to accommodate 200mm fans, for which some folks have an aversion for whatever reason. I'm only guessing the C70 may allow for one or two such fans -- I'd have to take a closer look -- again. I think WGusler limited his fan deployments to the 140mm variety.

I think you can use 120 and 140mm fans with higher static pressure (which would be preferred) in a smaller case; you can thermally-control them to run at slower speeds for CPU idle or low-stress usage; and the airflow will be just as good, since there's "less volume in the bellows" for a smaller case.

More effective airflow is a different concept from "greater" airflow in CFM. It means that you are pushing air at faster velocity through narrow apertures around the hotter components. Thus, the reasoning behind building ducts for your case-interior, or motherboard-duct-plates supplemented by one or two small fans strategically placed to force air around those hotter components.

Barring all that tedium, you can add more 140mm intake fans to a smaller case, limit your storage choices to reduce the volume consumed by HDDs, and get some superior cooling results.

But it all depends on your cooling strategy. With water, you'd like bigger -- wider or thicker -- radiators. You'd want fans with higher static pressure. There are going to be limitations for reducing the size of the case you choose. With a heatpipe air-cooler, a small well-sealed case that forces all the air through the cooler fins may have fewer limitations -- based on what I said above.

Depending on the strategy, you might use more fans for intake with less attention to static pressure, and fewer fans for exhaust with higher static pressure.

 

[Steve Rimar]

Thanks for all the information. I went with the Define R5.