Most modern PC cases suck

[libadwaita (she/her)]

There's been a trend of stripping out functionality for making the cases look prettier that we've been seeing over the past decade. RGB vomit everywhere, stripping out drive bays, fans behind glass (making them useless) and more.

Some of these cases aren't that bad, some are focused on airflow and do a decent job at that. But for every one of those cases there's several more that are designed to look good more than being functional.

Also, talking about aesthetics most modern cases just seem to be a variation on the same thing. Big windowed side panel, glass (or hopefully mesh) in the front showcasing 2/3 RGB fans and such. There is little uniqueness anymore. The 2000s and early 2010s certainly had cases with much more uniqueness and personality.

I think one of the biggest losses is the disappearance of external 5.25 inch and 3.5 inch drive bays. While external 5.25 inch bays were mostly used for optical drives, they had many more uses than just that. Card readers and more front panel I/O could be added by using a 5.25 inch drive bay.

For example, a 2014-era case with multiple 5.25 inch drive bays might not have the most modern of frontal I/O, but it can be added with a 5.25 inch drive bay. I could have a case from 2014 (or earlier) with USB C if I really wanted to even if it didn't come with it. If some new port comes into popularity by 2034, you won't have access to it on a case from 2024 on the front panel but may have access to it on a case from 2014 via a 5.25 inch drive.

I certainly won't be buying a "modern" style case for as long as I can avoid to. Luckily, there are some older cases still in production that offer these features. Right now, I use a Deepcool Tesseract SW (which does have external 5.25 inch drive bays) but if I had to buy a new case still in production it would be a Phanteks Enthoo Pro.

[_I_]

optical disks dont last forever, they will rot after some years
data is written from center out, so some will take longer for rot to reach the data areas

kinda similar with usb sticks and other backup methods
but the safest way is a hdd, those will last 20+ years

[76561199540158642]

main issue is PSU units get hot the heat then directly travels upwards onto the CPU and motherboard. The other issue with today is yes the closed glass cases need air holes , you are better off going without the side on leaving your computer open aired.

what you want is a true custom experience, take a few old pc cases a can of spray paint and a cheap riviting gun and your metal cutting grinder and drill, start chopping the computers up as you see fit and create your own, put the PSU outside of the computer, in the front of the pc, not belove the GPU or Processor.

Idealy the best concept is a completely open air pc that can utilize fans around the home to create ambient temps. also keep in mind the tiny profile of the computer case and ths fans inside it offer minimal heat distribution.

Larger Cases are better as they offer more circulation with todays high wattage CPU's

while the concept of compact home desktops might seem fasionable they are infact the reason why most people's computer systems overheat.

[_I_]

Originally posted by Golden Unicorn:

main issue is PSU units get hot the heat then directly travels upwards onto the CPU and motherboard. The other issue with today is yes the closed glass cases need air holes , you are better off going without the side on leaving your computer open aired.

what you want is a true custom experience, take a few old pc cases a can of spray paint and a cheap riviting gun and your metal cutting grinder and drill, start chopping the computers up as you see fit and create your own, put the PSU outside of the computer, in the front of the pc, not belove the GPU or Processor.

Idealy the best concept is a completely open air pc that can utilize fans around the home to create ambient temps. also keep in mind the tiny profile of the computer case and ths fans inside it offer minimal heat distribution.

Larger Cases are better as they offer more circulation with todays high wattage CPU's

while the concept of compact home desktops might seem fasionable they are infact the reason why most people's computer systems overheat.

if the case has a good airflow design, it will cool itself better with the side panel on
top, front, and rear fans, keep air moving the same direction, bottom facing psu can keep itself cool with its own fresh air from under the case

[smokerob79]

i just wish we could get back to real air flow as the main point of the case.....the coolermaster 932 was re-reviewed in 2018 and it was the coolest temps for GPU with the 3rd best temps for CPU out of everything on the market 8 years after release.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wIuovCCdNM


its sad they are worried about making fish tanks VS real cases.....side intake was listed the most as the reason it still had the best temps if you watch the video....

[Carlsberg]

Originally posted by smokerob79:

its sad they are worried about making fish tanks VS real cases.....

They make what we buy, its just basic demand and supply. We as consumers just don't want anything better. Faster gpu's, faster ram, more storage, better visuals, more..

And the expense? apparently we don't care, whatever they ask, we pay. And we whine about it while we accept it.

[76561199540158642]

Originally posted by _I_:

if the case has a good airflow design, it will cool itself better with the side panel on
top, front, and rear fans, keep air moving the same direction, bottom facing psu can keep itself cool with its own fresh air from under the case

this is a misconception as the fans quickly gunk up and heat can't escape over longer periods of time. having a open air pc allows the heat to readily move away from the motherboard while fans push and pull to add extra cooling, unless you have a pet like a cat or small dog or puppy and you put your pc on the floor where they could climb into it due to the warmth i wouldn't keep a side cover on the pc.

Fans should be mounted with exhaust at the top and rear of the pc and intake in the front

for my pc build i put the psu fan facing downwards next to an exhaust fan as my psu is still mounted at the top of my pc, below the rear exhaust fan is a second fan which is intake, that is aimed at the cpu, the cpu fan is a flat mounted fan which is exhausting downwards onto the heat sink, not away from it

what this does is pulls colder air from the bottom of the pc, and channels it across the heat sink with the help of the heatsink fan, then as the heat rises out of the heat sink fins the top fan pulls the hot air and exhausts its upwards and out my heat sink fins are mounted vertically, i have no front air intake, but a air exhaust at the top, the gpu card fans are faced down and i do not keep a cover on the side of the pc, if i was to install a fan side cover i would have intake at the bottom and exhaust at the top, however, due to the position of the GPU fans intake at the bottom would lock up the gpu fans circulation and create a dead air spot over the cpu with exhaust at the top, this is why i do not use a side cover.

due to the build of my EXLG tower case the front offers minimal air flow my gpu temps and cpu temps remain under 60C consistantly even when pushing the envelope on high graphic demand games.

[smokerob79]

Originally posted by Carlsberg:

Originally posted by smokerob79:

its sad they are worried about making fish tanks VS real cases.....

They make what we buy, its just basic demand and supply. We as consumers just don't want anything better. Faster gpu's, faster ram, more storage, better visuals, more..

And the expense? apparently we don't care, whatever they ask, we pay. And we whine about it while we accept it.

again still using a 922 and 912.....i have not accepted anything other then i will have these cases until they stop making ATX boards or the cases rust apart......there is no "what WE buy" its what you and the rest of them buy.....

[_I_]

most cases top/rear are exhaust, and front/bottom are intake

there are some cases designed with backwards airflow
designed to pull air in the back and push it out the front
lian li has some

but many newer cases have a mesh behind fans that limit how effective they are

or if you just reverse all the fans, it wont be as effective
on most it would take away the front from pushing cooler air into the gpu area

[UserNotFound]

I have two rigs, my main one is *looks left, looks right* RGB, it's housed in a Coolermaster H500M, so RGB is inevitable.

My 2nd rig is house is a case I've kept for years, cost me a pretty penny back when I'd gotten it, it has a simple industrial, utilitarian design that I love. It's an all aluminum case made in Japan by a now defunct company called SOLDAM, it's part of the 'Windy' series, mine's the XR-1 Black Knight. I'd even got a 5.25" front bay flip cover that allows a CD/DVD/BR driver tray to push open (doesn't come with case IIRC, it was an 'extra' item that had to be bought).

I have a Sapphire RX 6900XT + R9 5900X (Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120) in it and I have no issue with heat....

Edit - Found a link to the case, see that top bay cover that has the word 'Windy' on it? That's the 5.25" BR tray cover I'd gotten for mine....
https://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/g146417208/

And here's a shot of mine with my GPU and other stuff....
https://i.imgur.com/BMdFv5M.jpg

[The_Abortionator]

Originally posted by CygGame:

I purchased two of the below cases for some specific uses. Build quality on the shell is OK, the bays are pretty low quality. Among some other issues, but the price is right if you need a lot of bays.

https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Versa-Computer-Chassis-CA-1B2-00M1NN-00/dp/B00J0NZ3Q4/ref=sr_1_5?crid=17WZTI33W5AEY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.I5w8z0m4ddpJI1qwEjsoEVGZiBIAOaqGoo7hgz8m2ZrSIb7nTnY4EVvs1TCDIQi7KclJHfPvT0yq99qkD0wwqpxfxeqhFpQwfI6PB7z16SLTCETQDs8rwMMGcKw_FsTso7uQdI-_JD-BlpFdINxLoZvQCM7FTU1u5UXc16x-SFNhGRMrx7qWf77ZYBirOj41T81TuQ-yQuaR_cYIntKv9Dqa0MoMSb-CdPfZzpSGjm0.OSZ9CVWL3zNGjeWIMyxzv11sjIbrDSEbdmUuQGyw3Ok&dib_tag=se&keywords=thermal+take+case&qid=1733840137&sprefix=thermal+take+case%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-5

Well well well if it isn't the favorite case of my customers during my side hustle days, we meet again.

[smokerob79]

Originally posted by The_Abortionator:

Originally posted by CygGame:

I purchased two of the below cases for some specific uses. Build quality on the shell is OK, the bays are pretty low quality. Among some other issues, but the price is right if you need a lot of bays.

https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Versa-Computer-Chassis-CA-1B2-00M1NN-00/dp/B00J0NZ3Q4/ref=sr_1_5?crid=17WZTI33W5AEY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.I5w8z0m4ddpJI1qwEjsoEVGZiBIAOaqGoo7hgz8m2ZrSIb7nTnY4EVvs1TCDIQi7KclJHfPvT0yq99qkD0wwqpxfxeqhFpQwfI6PB7z16SLTCETQDs8rwMMGcKw_FsTso7uQdI-_JD-BlpFdINxLoZvQCM7FTU1u5UXc16x-SFNhGRMrx7qWf77ZYBirOj41T81TuQ-yQuaR_cYIntKv9Dqa0MoMSb-CdPfZzpSGjm0.OSZ9CVWL3zNGjeWIMyxzv11sjIbrDSEbdmUuQGyw3Ok&dib_tag=se&keywords=thermal+take+case&qid=1733840137&sprefix=thermal+take+case%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-5

Well well well if it isn't the favorite case of my customers during my side hustle days, we meet again.

I almost bought the AMD version back in the day.....

Originally posted by UserNotFound:

I have two rigs, my main one is *looks left, looks right* RGB, it's housed in a Coolermaster H500M, so RGB is inevitable.

My 2nd rig is house is a case I've kept for years, cost me a pretty penny back when I'd gotten it, it has a simple industrial, utilitarian design that I love. It's an all aluminum case made in Japan by a now defunct company called SOLDAM, it's part of the 'Windy' series, mine's the XR-1 Black Knight. I'd even got a 5.25" front bay flip cover that allows a CD/DVD/BR driver tray to push open (doesn't come with case IIRC, it was an 'extra' item that had to be bought).

I have a Sapphire RX 6900XT + R9 5900X (Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120) in it and I have no issue with heat....

Edit - Found a link to the case, see that top bay cover that has the word 'Windy' on it? That's the 5.25" BR tray cover I'd gotten for mine....
https://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/g146417208/

And here's a shot of mine with my GPU and other stuff....
https://i.imgur.com/BMdFv5M.jpg

wow these guys did good engineering on the case....2 chambers and just how it was put together was very nice.....

[MonkehMaster]

the case for my current build, is a rosewill b2 spirit, its a "full tower" (there is also a larger size called a "super tower" which is meant for dual systems) as i dont personally like the "mid" to smaller sizes for various reasons.

that said, mine has 4 drive bays, only 1 is currently not used, while 2 are filled with an oc panel/fan and cpu speeds, temps, etc.. (asus rog front base) and 1 has an asus dvd rom (write/rewrite).

side note: i modded the front fan panel cutting holes to match the 2 fans sizes and made a mounting with filtering for better air flow and less dust.

also while i dont care much anymore of seeing through the side (viewing) panel, i was planning (likely not anymore) going to cut to size the hole and fit it for a piece of museum glass (look it up, but the main take on specified glass, is that it doesnt have reflection and is so clear it looks as if there is no glass, also while a useless property for my case (no pun intended) it filters 99% uv light).

[libadwaita (she/her)]

Originally posted by smokerob79:

i just wish we could get back to real air flow as the main point of the case.....the coolermaster 932 was re-reviewed in 2018 and it was the coolest temps for GPU with the 3rd best temps for CPU out of everything on the market 8 years after release.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wIuovCCdNM


its sad they are worried about making fish tanks VS real cases.....side intake was listed the most as the reason it still had the best temps if you watch the video....

the HAF X was such a legendary case from back in the day, and it's still a fantastic case.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

I use a PC case design from 2016 and I liked it so much that I bought another revamped model in 2018 for the future build.

[smokerob79]

Originally posted by ♥libadwaita♥:

Originally posted by smokerob79:

i just wish we could get back to real air flow as the main point of the case.....the coolermaster 932 was re-reviewed in 2018 and it was the coolest temps for GPU with the 3rd best temps for CPU out of everything on the market 8 years after release.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wIuovCCdNM


its sad they are worried about making fish tanks VS real cases.....side intake was listed the most as the reason it still had the best temps if you watch the video....

the HAF X was such a legendary case from back in the day, and it's still a fantastic case.

man it was big....was so glad they did the 922 as the 932(the HAF X) was just to big.....thou the hot swap bays in the 922 would have been nice.....