Question Which case should I buy?

[torlen11cc]

Hello,

I am about to build a new computer. I am feeling uncertain about which case to buy. I'm looking for a minimalist appearance, something that is easy to build in and that is a solid dependable case. High build quality is the most important aspect for me.

Right now I'm looking at:

• Antec P110 Luce
• Corsair 4000D
• Be Quiet! Pure base 500 Window.

My build is going to be:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 w/ Stock cooler.
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H
Memory: DDR4 16G (8GX2) 3200 CL16 DELTA TUF Gaming Alliance RGB TEAM
Storage: Silicon Power 512GB SSD
Video Card: RX 5500 XT 8GB
Power Supply: Seasonic S12II-620

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's a pretty decent, if a bit middle-of-the-road parts list. Should be a nice rig.

If you want minimalist, I would probably lean towards the Corsir, but I haven't really looked at the other two, the Corsair is the only one out of the three that I've looked at. It certainly has a "minimalist" selection of front-panel I/O, with only 1x USB-C, 1x USB3.0 Type-A, and 1x combo headset jack, along with Power and Reset.

I guess I personally wouldn't go for such a minimalist selection of USB ports on my own personal case, not because of aesthetics, but more due to the fact that, these things get used, and they break. Having 2x USB3.0 Type-A ports, for example, makes sense to me, because if one breaks, you still have one working one, etc.

 

[Stuka87]

The only one of those cases that I would consider would be the Corsair 4000D Airflow, which is the same case as you have listed but with a mesh front. Solid front panels are just terrible for cooling and result in fans having to run faster. Which then means louder.

 

[charlietee]

I would suggest you look at the Lian-Li Lancool ii Mesh...the build quality with Lain-Li is second to none in my opinion.

Hard for me to imagine getting a case of this quality for $90.00...

Just the cover's on the back right side make it worth the price of admission. I have 8 fans mounted in mine and the rat's nest of wire's would take me hours to get to my standard of wire management.

 

[charlietee]

I can give you some advice on problems I encountered. I have never done RGB or ARGB before this build. The Asus Tuf Gaming X570 seemed like a good choice for a sub $200.00 dollar board and it is.

The Lancool ii comes in several different flavors. I chose the RGB version. There is a front panel (actually top on the lancool) USB C slot that is plugged. You can buy a accessory USB 3.1 type C cable that was $15.00. So of course I picked one up. Well the Tuf Gaming X570 WiFi does not have a internal USB 3.1 type C connector. So Lian-Li sells a USB 3.1 (Type-C) to USB 3.0 (20 pin) connector that cost $30.00. Well the Tuf Gaming only has one USB 3.0 internal header.

So I seach around for a known brand pci-e USB 3.1 card as I want the USB C speed and increased charging power. Found a Vantech USB 3.0 internal card for $18.00. So I would be $63.00 dollars to get there and still not get a properly functioning USB C front port.

Onward through the fog as Oat Willie said back in the day. The Lancool ii RGB comes with 3 basic RGB, (12 volt 4 pin) fans up front. So I find the BoraLite 3 pack of 120m/m fans. Well because you know you just have to have 2 fans mounted on the bottom and the rear fan with the matching fancy smancy aluminum trim and rings. All is good. Or so I thought.

Enter the Lian-Li SL120 Uni fan's. Way cool fan's I must admit. But 3 fans cost $79.00. Had to wait weeks for them to appear in stock at one of the big online vendor's. So of course having checked 10 times a day for weeks I decided I just had to have 2 kits.

So I take the "stocker" fans out of the front. Put the three BorlaLite RGB fans in the front. Oh yeah...Now I really am too cool for school. So I bust out the SL120 Uni's took the 2 140m/m fans I had up top and put two of the SL Uni's in with one in the back. Fired it up and wow. Bad to the bone I am thinking.

Went to put the 2 fan's in the bottom and low and behold. Without modding the bottom of the case the Uni fan modular option was off the table. Had to turn them to drop in the case bottom. No biggie. That ain't even a step for a stepper like me (I'm telling myself that anyway).

Lian-Li also sells some diffused LED strip's of which I had already purchased one of. Well why have one running along the bottom edge of the case when I can get two more and run them vertically behind the front mesh cover and have 2 diffused strips framing my fancy smancy aluminum trimmed center LED illuminating fans. Now the SL120 Uni's are ARGB that are 5 volt 3 pin. The SL120's come with a fan controller. But of course it will only control SLI Uni fans.

No big deal I am thinking. Had bought a 5 way ARGB splitter along with a 3 way RGB splitter from the jump. I just split the one ARGB header on the motherboard. One to the SL120 fan controller and plug the 3 diffused LED strips to 3 the splitter. Hook everything up and decide the horizontal strip at the bottom of the case distracts from the Uni fans. Again no big deal. Disconnect it and fire it back up only to discover the bottom back fan is not as bright as the other 4 fans and is light is not circling in the same direction.

Well as it turns out the one ARGB header on the Tuf Gaming only supports 120 LED's. Unplug the strips and the 5 SL120 are exactly the same brightness. Insurmountable ??? Nah...would I have preferred to have a plug and play let rip tater chip LED experice ??? Of course. Just not this time.

Moral of the story is knowing what you intend to do in the future with this rig. Now my plan is to sell the Tuf Gaming and buy a motherboard with 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, and 1 USB C connector along with a motherboard that also has 2 ARGB and 2 RGB headers.

The board you have chosen has 2 ARGB headers but no C header. Asus has come out with a Tuf Gaming Pro X570 with the USB C header but only 1 USB 3.0 header and one ARGB header.

The guys here at Anandtech are really sharp. If you give them detailed spec's on your build and what you are going to use it for. Along with future plans on upgrades. You will save yourself and lot of headaches. I know the members here have saved my bacon many, many times.