Slashdot Mirror
Reviews for PC ATX Cases?
Jason asks: "Well, I am stumped. While there are hundreds of sites for PC case modding -- water cooling, titanium-alloy, pyramids, etc -- there appears to be no sites I can find dedicated to simply reviewing ATX cases. Case manufacturing seems to have come a long way, with many successful vendors (and imitators). Tom's Hardware, Anandtech, et al, might cover an especially significant case here or there -- but where is a general source of information for Luan-Li, Antec, Superflower, Enermax, CaseTek, Inwin, Cooler Master. Geez! They all have their varying price points and obvious style lineations... where can a geek go to get some comprehensive info?" If no specific site has such information, feel free to use this space to make your own reviews of ATX cases. What sites are the best for finding information and/or reviews on the latest PC cases?
Well, you were looking for a website that has case reviews - here's two.
I've been using the Supermicro 750A for a long time. It is an awesome case, both in design and size. Bringing it to a lan party is an exercise close in scope to Stonehenge...
What I like about it:
1) Size. It fits 4 hot scsi drives, a floppy, 2 optical drives, and a flash-card reader without a problem.
2) Cooling - plenty of places for cooling fans. And you really don't need to use all of them. I have 4 10kRPM HDs, and I only have 4 case fans used.
3) Solid construction. Buy two and a door, use it as a desk. Stand on the desk. Put 3 21" monitors. No problem. Also, no sharp edges anywhere. I don't think I've cut myself on the metal in the case in 4 years.
4) No stupid windows! Stop the insanity!
What I don't like:
A) I needed a new power supply: the 300W supply that came has been replaced with an Antec Truepower 480W.
B) My version doesn't have a slide-out tray
C) No drive-rail clips.
D) No front mount usb/sound/firewire. I got around that with an internal flash card reader/usb panel
E) expensive and/or discontinued.
My friend recently bought an Antec full tower with a locking front (pesky kids!). That is a nice case -almost as big, drives mount on rails, front usb and firewire, Antec truepower 430W ps, pewter grey color, and 2 extra leds for an internal lan or whatever. It cost $129 at Frys. Just don't drop it on your foot.
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.