Question Looking for a new case.

[goobee]

Howdy all,

I'm looking for a new case but haven't had a lot of luck. Here's what I'm looking for. Glass front with 2 140 fans and 4 external 5.25" drive bays. Glass top with room to do Push/Pull with a 280 AIO (4 fans total). A full glass side would be nice but I can live with a windows. I'm going full RBG on the fans so glass on front and top is a must. I've seen cases with glass top and front but no external drive bays. I don't needed 3.5" external bays, just the 5.25". Does any such animal exists? My budget is $200.

Concessions. I can live with a single 240 in the front.

 

[UsandThem]

I'm looking for a new case but haven't had a lot of luck. Here's what I'm looking for. Glass front with 2 140 fans and 4 external 5.25" drive bays.

What do you mean by external bays? External means outside of the case, like an external hard drive.

I suspect you mean you want a full glass front, that has four 5.25" drive bays? Even the majority of metal cases have gotten rid of 5.25" bays all together, let alone ones with a glass front, which I don't think I've seen any that come with even one 5.25" drive bay. If a glass front is something you have to have, you will have to give up it having drive bays.

 

[goobee]

Exactly. I will put a drive plane into the 5.25 bays and install hot-swap trays. Yeah, it's been tough, that's why I decided to try here.

 

[UsandThem]

There are only a hand-full of cases I know off hand that support four 5.25", but none have glass on the front let alone the top.

Rosewill Thor V2, Fractal Design XL R2, and the Phanteks Enthoo Pro and the Enthoo Luxe. The Enthoo cases both have the option of a tempered glass side panel.

 

[goobee]

Yeah, if I went with no bays, there are many choices. I'll just keep looking and hoping. Thanks

 

[aigomorla]

Exactly. I will put a drive plane into the 5.25 bays and install hot-swap trays. Yeah, it's been tough, that's why I decided to try here.

Not going to work with a glass front.
Im fairly sure all glass fronts are hard screw mounted, and not swing arm for reasons of it slamming open and shattering.

 

[goobee]

Not going to work with a glass front.
Im fairly sure all glass fronts are hard screw mounted, and not swing arm for reasons of it slamming open and shattering.

What I am conceptualizing would not have a glass door, only about half of the front would be glass. Imagine this in a full tower. There would be 2 more 5.25" bays and instead of mesh on the front over the fans, it would be glass. The side and top would be glass too. I suppose for appearances, you can have a shiny aluminum door cover the exposed bays that would swing.

 

[UsandThem]

What I am conceptualizing would not have a glass door, only about half of the front would be glass. Imagine this in a full tower. There would be 2 more 5.25" bays and instead of mesh on the front over the fans, it would be glass. The side and top would be glass too. I suppose for appearances, you can have a shiny aluminum door cover the exposed bays that would swing.

I guess it could be out there somewhere, but while I was deciding on what new case to buy (Dark Base 900), I pretty much spent a good few weeks looking at all the cases on the manufacturer's websites; Corsair, Thermaltake, Fractal Design, Be Quiet, Phanteks, Cooler Master, Deep Cool, Antec, NZXT, Lian Li, In Win, etc. I just never saw anything like that.

Unless you hire someone who does custom case work (Custom case work from user here), I don't think you are going to find anything that checks all of the boxes. Anyways, good luck in your search.

 

[Instantwow]

I’ve been planning on building a new PC this year and have been looking at cases over the past 3-4 months. In that time I’ve seen an increasing smaller number of cases with 5.25” bays and I don’t recall seeing any that were clear on the front. I too like the 5.25” bays but they are aren’t what people buy anymore.

 

[goobee]

Looks like you have only 2 choices. Go completely into showy with glass and RGB or serious with cases like the Dark Base 900.

 

[aigomorla]

What I am conceptualizing would not have a glass door, only about half of the front would be glass.

not meaning to offend, but that would be terribly ugly, especially with hot swap cages showing.

 

[goobee]

not meaning to offend, but that would be terribly ugly, especially with hot swap cages showing.

Not at all. That's where the aluminum doors I mentioned would come in, for aesthetics purposes.

I may go with this one, it has 4 built-in hotswap trays and is pretty sweet looking. No glass on top but I guess I can compromise.

PC-O11D XL - E-ATX ,ATX Full To wer Gaming Computer Case

Bigger in every way a mighy powerful chassis. Modular design flexiblity for any configuration. Hot swappable drives.spacious for multiple and bigger components.Seamlessly supporting E-ATX motherboards.RGB lighting sync front panel addressable RGB. Tempered Glass on the Front, and Left Side...

www.lian-li.com

 

[aigomorla]

The 011 is a beautiful case.
I have done a full custom lcs build with one using the eK distro plate along with rigid tubing, and i get compliments all the time when people see it.
You really need to bling the thing out with RGB fans tho, because its such a showy case, and needs a showy light show.

You will not be unhappy with that case.
Lian Li makes great products.

 

[goobee]

What do think about fans? I like these Azzo fans but I've heard people say they are junk.

Azza

www.azzatek.com

 

[aigomorla]

as long as its not for your cpu or radiator, any fan will work.

 

[Stuka87]

I have an 011 Dynamic, and I really like it. Still trying to best figure out cooling. I have a 240mm radiator up top, and I had to block the grill for the front 1/3 or cold air got blown out by the side fans rather than going through the case. I have no fans down below currently, and that area needs to be blocked too. Basically you want the air to go out the back.

The fans you show will function fine as intakes. I went full corsair for all my fans because then I just have one piece of software to control the radiator, fans, and all the lighting. That and the Corsair QL series lights look amazing. I am not using the QL's for the radiator though, they would be really bad for that.

 

[goobee]

I have an 011 Dynamic, and I really like it. Still trying to best figure out cooling. I have a 240mm radiator up top, and I had to block the grill for the front 1/3 or cold air got blown out by the side fans rather than going through the case. I have no fans down below currently, and that area needs to be blocked too. Basically you want the air to go out the back.

The fans you show will function fine as intakes. I went full corsair for all my fans because then I just have one piece of software to control the radiator, fans, and all the lighting. That and the Corsair QL series lights look amazing. I am not using the QL's for the radiator though, they would be really bad for that.

Hmm, that changes things. I want all my fans to be the same so that the light show will be consistent. I plan to set things up very similar to this with all fans However, I'll be using a 360 AIO standing up instead of a custom loop. So I'll need at least 10 visible fans for the exposed areas (there will be 3 push fans behind the AIO that won't need RGB but needs to be in sync with the RGB pull fans in front of the rad). I'm a noob with all of this. Any recommendations on 13 fans that won't cost me an arm and leg?

 

[Stuka87]

Why the push/pull setup for the AIO? You really won't see any difference unless you are going to be doing some extreme overclocking. My AIO cooler stays at a pretty low speed with my 3700X, its very rare they spin up much.

I would put the radiator along the top, exhausting. Then you can have three LED fans along the side intake, and three along the bottom. And it won't matter if the radiator has LED fans. You can put strips up there if you want light from the top.

 

[goobee]

I'm planning on a 3900x. I don't have AC and ambient room temps, especially with warm weather coming, keeping those 12/24 cores/threads cool will be challenging. I'll be video editing with this box and ti'll will be running full tilt for many hours while encoding.

 

[Stuka87]

I'm planning on a 3900x. I don't have AC and ambient room temps, especially with warm weather coming, keeping those 12/24 cores/threads cool will be challenging. I'll be video editing with this box and ti'll will be running full tilt for many hours while encoding.

Ok, with that use case the push/pull setup may be better. But it may get to the point where the radiator isn't efficient enough to pull heat from the coolant. I would suggest some noctua pushers fans for the backside of the radiator. They have some specifically designed for radiators, and work very well.

 

[goobee]

Ok, with that use case the push/pull setup may be better. But it may get to the point where the radiator isn't efficient enough to pull heat from the coolant. I would suggest some noctua pushers fans for the backside of the radiator. They have some specifically designed for radiators, and work very well.

Should I use high static pressure fans only on the push side or both?

 

[Stuka87]

Should I use high static pressure fans only on the push side or both?

As far as I know the pull side does not require a static pressure fan.

 

[goobee]

Newegg seems to be out of stock in a lot of things. Covid-19 is impacting supplies I imagine.