What's the BEST sub $50 and sub $80 case to buy on or offline?

[AndrewPaulNet]

OK....

Heated feud going on between me and my friends about aluminum cases. Those who have them swear by them - others who have them say, pfft.
How our little feud got started? Well it's a long long story...here goes:

2 months ago I decided to upgrade from my K62 500 which I've had since K62s came out (Sad, but True). Yes I love Computers and I try to keep up on current tech but I currently have to endure with paying or should I say helping my parents pay for college. I'm international and get charged as such....approximately 500 percent. Citizens pay 1000 per semester, I pay 5000. This is not including books or anything else. I also have to pay about 2000 every three months for my apt and bills bills bills. Anyhoo....thus the poor college student thing, blah blah blah. I finally saved up enough money to upgrade. I figured I'd go with Athlon, that way I can use the rest of the money to get cool peripherals n' stuff. I bought my stuff and it came down to the last thing. Can you guess? If not then, A Case. There's a plethora of cases out there - some beautiful and elegant; some tastily fruity looking and some completely tacky over the edge. Then I started seeing aluminum cases....to be honest, my dumbass was thinking, ok, what cheap vendor decided to not paint their cases?! till I realized that normal cases are made of regular metal and steel, not aluminum. So, I went around doing some research and found many makers and review sites claiming that aluminum cases help to cool the system by 1. letting in more air. 2. being a lighter metal, soaking up the heat while being cooled externally. A couple of my friends have it and swear their system is cooled by at least 5 degrees....others say theirs is the same. None of my friends overclock, just for info. On of them did make an interesting argument saying that with everything the same, his system used to overheat in a regular case, now he has the alum, it's a whole lot below the overheating mark.

Thats my long story. It's now a month and about 3 weeks later and I'm trying to decide on a case. Is it really worth it to get aluminum or should I stick out with regular metal?

I have an enlight case 4x5.25 External, 2x3.5 External, 1x3.5 Shadow, 250w Power with Semi-Screwless design and the drive bays use rails (love that feature).

OLD POST UP THERE.....^
CURRENT POST DOWN THERE.....

Whats the BEST <$50/80 case out there?

Requirements:
Has to be Screwless or Semi-Screwless (At least for access to the inside, like sides and front), The bay rails I like but don't need.
Must have same bay specs as my Enlight (the more 3.5, the better though)
Power Supply has to be optional, as I already have my 300w waiting for me.
Must not slice my fingers like tomato or butter.
Must not squish all my pc parts or cables together.
Must have a transfer panel or AT LEAST USB ports transferred to the front.
Has to be nice and sturdy and not rust or let my screws rust ANYWHERE.

My picks to choose from are now the Ever Case and the Directron/Antec cases. The Cheftecs arent for me - they look so square. If they're functionally better I suppose I'd get it for the price. I really want a transfer panel, ie: usb ports at the front, but if a case is say, 25-40, then I can go ahead and buy one for the 5.25.

I'd need something cheaper than the Antec. I love the directron too but, gees - iz kinda expensive too. Whatever, I'll prolly end up buying a freakin' Lian Li.
More posts are welcome though. With your experiences with cases and such, and good ones etc.

Well...looking forward to your responses. Thanks for reading this essay....

 

[Pothead]

If you could scour maybe some more money, the Lian Li would be perfect for you. (PC65) It has plenty of space with thumbscrews everywhere (close to screwless), a slideout motherboard tray, and a side window, 4 front USB ports, 4 Adda fans (one on top, 1 exhaust, 2 intakes-speed controlled). However, the pricetag is the big thing. I guess thats out of the question.

Here's a decent alum. case 70+ shipping: http://www.svcompucycle.com/almida2wus2n.html

How about the Evercase @ Newegg...very cheap price-wise but sturdy. Without a PSU, it runs no more than 25 + shipping. It is entirely screwless. It also has 2 front USB ports. It has 4 external 5.25 bays, 2 external 3.5" bays and 4 internal 3.5" bays.

I have both of the cases mentioned above and really like both of them. I even modded the Evercase with a window in it. Linky

I originally had a 1Ghz T-bird in a Antec SX1030 case with panaflos L1A as an intake, exhaust, psu, and on top of the heatsink. I switched the system to a the Lian Li. Temps went down by 5 degrees.

Good luck.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

Thanks a whole lot for the reply. I'm gonna go check em' out now.

Earlier this evening I found the enlight website...it was down I guess for a while. Anyhow, they have 2 new cases and I love em'! Unfortunately, they seem pretty rear!

Lian Li is the case I'll go with when I'm out of university and working 80000 a year....meaning, that's my ultimate case. Maybe I'll buy a cooler master - who knows, it's out of them 2. Have you ever seen a more customizeable case? *drool* ... *spaces out* ..... ..... ok, I'm back. For now...lemme check those cheapies.

Thanks again!

 

[Sukhoi]

How about a Chieftec Super TX-103 for ~$50 at Directron.com? It's just an Antex SX1030 style case but without the door on the front. I love mine, and it looks nice too.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

Thanks for the suggestions guys,

I like that Ever Case alot...I'm going to check out the Antec. As I said - I don't want a case that starts to rust. I have 1 and 2 year old parts that look like new because my Enlight NEVER ever rusted....nor did the screws.

Well, Thanks again - keep the suggestions comin'.

 

[JokerF15]

Get an aluminum case, but DONT go extremely cheap. Look into what you buy. Some aluminum cases out there are made of ALMOST nothing and will bend, and break pretty easily. If shipped via UPS ground you may never see it in one peice. Trust me, I deal with many cases, and i've seen some panels that will bend by just taking it off the computer.

Save up as much as you can and get a Lian Li, Chieftec, Coolermaster, Kingwin etc...

The Raidmax A288 is actually a decent budget case. You can find the Chieftec case w/o ps and w/o window for ~80 dollars.

-JokerF15

 

[woodcomp]

Your top of the line case would be an Enermax 5190AL but it retails for close to $400. For $50 I would put a new power supply in that Enlight and keep using it. They are built very well.

What I don't understand is where do you find a case that has rusted? I have been around computers for a long time, and have never seen one with any type of rust on it. Short of bringing your PC into a rain storm I can not see this happening.

By the way the Codegen cases are cheaply made, you would be very dissapointed with one after owning a very well made Enlight.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

I get back to the U.S on the 10th.
Go ahead and give me, affirmatively, the best sub $50 case with these features:
Doesn't have to be aluminum now, I decided to drop that.

Has to be Screwless or Semi-Screwless (At least for access to the inside, like sides and front), The bay rails I like but don't need.
4x5.25, the more the 3.5s, the better.
Power Supply has to be optional, as I already have my 300w PS.
Must not slice my fingers like a tomato or a hot knife through butter.
Must not squish all my pc parts or cables together (aka, must be spaceous)
Must have a transfer panel or AT LEAST USB and sound card ports transferred to the front. I'd also like the PS2 and Game ports there, but we can't have everything we want for under $50, can we?
Has to be nice and sturdy and not cheaply built.

So far, I'm going with 'Potheads' suggestion with the Ever Case. I checked out the chieftec but it was not for me. I decided not to bother to go with Aluminum because I'm positive my system temp won't be so high as to say that 5 degrees will matter. I am not overclocking and my max proc. is the 2200+ which will not run hot under my Cooler Master HC-001 Fan.

Woodcomp, thanks for telling me. Looks can be rather deceiving because they are very nice looking cases.
Anyone know about Sky Hawk USA cases? Joker mentioned thin aluminum....I'd like to know a little more about this - not for now, but maybe a year down the line when I plan to upgrade. (Hopefully AMD will have a worthwile upgrade to the 2200 by then).

Thanks for your replies again fellaz.

 

[Pothead]

The evercase may not satisfy this: Must not squish all my pc parts or cables together (aka, must be spaceous)

It may be just me but my psu wires are all wrapped in split loom and I am using round cables so it's kinda tight for me, especially with the alpa 9482. To tell you the truth, the Enlight case you have is a much better case than the evercase other than that the evercase is screwless.

 

[Neuroanatomist]

Antec SX630 is a great case. 8 bays, swing-out side panels, drive rails, good fan placement

Go to www.provantage.com and search for SX600 ($43 without powersupply) and SX630II ($67.24 with powersupply and front USB/firewire)

 

[PG]

I just bought one of these from Directron: http://www.directron.com/dx01bd.html

It's less than $50, and it's the cheapest case like that at Directron. There are others that look and are exactly the same, but for some reason the other brands are more expensive.

Directron also has really cheap and relatively quiet fans on sale now: http://www.directron.com/3110kl.html
They are only $ 0.99, but Directron's warnings are correct, you need extensions or a 3 to 4 pin adapter since the leads are so short.
SVC has the best deal on the 3 to 4 pin adapters: http://www.svcompucycle.com/conad.html


edit: just noticed this:

The evercase may not satisfy this: Must not squish all my pc parts or cables together (aka, must be spaceous)

This is very true. I upgraded from an Evercase to the Chieftec case from Directron.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

Thanks alot Fellaz.

I guess now it's down to the Antec and that case from Directron.

I guess any way I look at it I'll be spending more than 50 for a case, thats OK I guess.

Thanks again - I'll look into em'.