Gadgetory

there's been a few caves and ups out there lately but we decided to put one together with actual thermal and acoustic testing we're looking at the best cases that have come through our lab in the past year narrowed down to a scope of 50 to 100 dollars of the mid-tower requirement and these are all on the market today this includes chart toppers like the silverstone our l06 the define C and the Corsair 270 R and for more of the best cases that we've worked with with a couple of honourable mentions before getting to those that this coverage is brought to you by EVGA and their 1080p is c2 which we've recommended fairly highly for its build quality and the icx sensors which are kind of fun to play with you can check our full sc2 review for the 1080i if you're curious to learn more or you can click the link in the description below to find the product page for the 1080i st2 the goal here is to go rapid fire through the cases that we've found to be the most appealing for one reason or another in our actual testing of the last year so that includes it things that like thermals and acoustics but also build quality and positioning in the market overall so we go in over that today if there are any of these charts or cases that you find interesting check our channel and website for full reviews as those will contain the full charts and all the depth that you would want on the matter but we're going to go through as quickly as possible for sake of this roundup links for each of these cases can be found in the description below or in the full article on the website along with our testing methodology if you're curious about how that's conducted but let's go ahead and start the low end with a 50 to $60 range and work our way up to 100 Corsair spec oh for in cooler masters master box 5 start us off for the round up being the two cheapest cases of the laws for the Corsair spec oh four runs about fifty dollars but add another eight for an extra fan for this one we'll show why in a moment the spec of four is small lightweight and fitting for an ultra budget PC that might leverage something like a g4 560 or GTX 1050 class of hardware given the price point the case is reasonably well built so as illustrated in our charts like this chart showing TV performance when using these stock configuration versus two of our aftermarket configurations adding a fan is absolutely worthwhile for a ton more data on this case see our full review but for something simple and a budget build it's really not a bad starting point the master box 5 meanwhile gets an honorable mention for its unrestricted take modularity and low price at $60 cooler masters Master box five resolves some of the airflow problems of other cases on the bench by including the two 120 millimeter fans and optional mesh front and additional installation configurations for builds of various types moving on to the next price bracket there were a few potential candidates from Corsair for this round up so we included two one was the spec of four and this one is a 270 yard 270 our one our editors choice award at last year for its quality and price when it launched in 2016 it's easy to build in not too flashy and the cooling is good when tested in our thorough benchmarks $60.00 for the non windowed variant isn't bad though you lose a fan but the extra ten bucks per window and additional fan is perfectly acceptable despite entering the s3 40s price range it's not wild or exotic we even combined its review with the more visually exciting 570 X but the to so many our is one of the safest bets on the market right now in terms of price to performance in our testing as you can see here we found that see Sony arts be adequately cooled with our configuration landing between the noise focus defiance II and thermal chart-topping Silverstone our l06 in fact thermals were good enough that even at reduced our PM's like 1000 to 1200 rpm on all case band we would still be in good cooling performance range provided reasonable cooling on the core components like the GPU cooler always had our test configuration running under 37 DBA when tested with the Twin Frozr cooler at 55% of the CPU cooler at 1,100 rpm which really isn't bad at all of course we can't talk cooling without mentioning Silverstone's our l06 right now cooling is 100% the priority of the our l06 Pro even an hour torture workload silverstone $75.00 our l06 pro is the competition to Beach for CPU cooling in this price bracket and that remains true even when reducing fan rpm to a thousand rpm as seen in this charged GPU cooling is much the same story as the previous chart with the Silverstone case a few degrees lower than the next closest competitor even if we look to our new blender benchmarks with a CPU worker going at full utilization Silverstone places several degrees cooler than these somewhat open core p3 noise of them to priority for silverstone considering its 43 DBA output with our component internally but we have so much thermal headroom that we can down 2,000 rpm and land under 40 DBA and our config the three front fans and mesh front panel made the RL zero six the best cold enclosure we've tested this year and March to return to roots with mesh paneling rather than the new noise focus that often features flat panels as it's become more and more acceptable to eliminate five and a quarter drives from cases it's also become possible to shrink case footprints and increase front intakes aesthetic results are a matter of opinion especially with this case as up to you but the performance results are definite it works well the interior is very basic and plain but Silverstone included fans add a lot of value to the total package as a bonus the PMO one from silverstone has the same three intake and one exhaust layout it's similar in quite a few other ways in fact careful observers might note how much of the chassis and tooling is exactly the same you like both cases but the differences between the two is mostly in appearance are all the 0 6 of course is also cheaper silverstone therefore takes a no frills approach if that's your thin the RL 0 6 is a worthy contender under $100 in win meanwhile is an all frills company as far as anyone is concerned fans are thrilled so is cooling in general and also anything that is aluminum or animatronic like the H tower the n1 3 or 3 of those simplifies things and drags down price to $90 which for a win is quite a feat we were impressed by the solid construction glass in one point two millimeter thick steel with panes included results in a total weights of 24 pounds sturdy cases in this price range with big glass panels rather than small acrylic windows are uncommon we would like to see better cable management and support for wider radiators on the 303 but overall the 303 manages a good enough in the performance Department while still looking great the biggest obstacle in the original review was the lack of any fans included but considering the quality of many stock fans that may be a good thing in for a case with fans and then replacing them is more expensive overall this is a case you buy for it looks but be sure to grab a couple case pans with it one upshot of being a solid metal and glass box is relative silence in the least and with that note of silence it's time to move on to fractal and their $90 defined see we've been interested in review in fact those cases for a while and finally got our chance with a define C this is a no-nonsense boxy case with a focus on performance in the noise department like the rest of fractals lineup but with a small footprint and some acoustic foam it's a stripped down chassis and that's many cases are mediocre because they try to do everything but the define see instead focuses on doing a couple things very well there are only two hard drive bays no five and a quarter bays and no wasted space whatsoever Kayle management was easy and the whole installation process was pleasantly simple their old tests weren't incredible but the advantage of the defined sea is its size build quality and the noise suppression that doesn't impede too much on performance on our DB a charge fractals define C was the quietest case without the word quiet in the company name leaving that badge firmly in the hands of German manufacturer be quiet define C is about as small as a case can get while still fitting a full ATX board and lands in its spot securely in our best of roundup moving now to one of the more expensive cases in this listing the $90 MDX es 340 elite fancies itself something of a luxury case in the market and to be fair it was one of the first $100 cases with tempered glass paneling making it one of the cheaper options when that fad started bass 340 Aleta is a good looking case and it preserves many of the features we like them the original ass 340 which we still think is one of the best cases made and that particularly includes a good cable management the elite model got our recommendation based on this and its most obvious new feature a tempered glass side panel revealing the tidy interior and new prominently placed as a steam out and the air T expanded the cable management bar made slight tweaks to the s3 40s already good features and stuck a sheet of glass on it and call it a day not so bad functionally the elite is identical to the original except for the extended side panel at the cost of air intake thermals were therefore unimpressive and the included rubber puck has become the bane of our existence and a tit-for-tat skirmished with NZXT but the cable management and looks make up for it with the right build that alone gets s340 on the charts Roseville is Cullinan is a close competitor at $110 and gets an honorable mention the case improves on thermal performance over NZXT s340 elite by way of brute force as we can see in our torture chart that's on the screen now but it loses some of the finer touches of the elite those are good considerations with NZXT is taking the win for the best cable management features currently in the industry Sarala takes t-series enclosures our unique simple case is suitable for tradeshows or fancy liquid cooling setups surprisingly despite being made for high-end enthusiast audiences then we'll take charge as a modest price the open frame of the p3 doesn't support fans anywhere except for the radiator mount but it doesn't need them even with an air cooler enough ambient air circulates through to properly cool components modular parts are included for liquid reservoir mounting their even parts for different PCIe card configurations like basing outward versus vertical or horizontal mounting laying the case sideways is another option stand it up of course or even while mounting it though shouldn't be much of an issue for the case as long as it's mounted high enough on a wall or only used for shows but there's a filter behind the radiator mount so if you do make use of that that will hopefully help out we can show you our noise testing short with this case on it and will but because there are no included fans when the body doesn't do much to contain noise the noise output depends entirely on your component to figure out noise levels for the case plug a radiator fan in and listen that's the noise level thermals though we're good as we see in this CPU torture charge the p3 places toward the top third of results showing that open air remains one of the best solutions the only option that best the open configuration is of course directed airflow in the RL 0 6 or acting the acrylic wall on the p3 to us this is one of the best cases available if only for its affordable test bench configuration options the p3 can be used as a hot swap component rig for open-air testing which can't be said for anything else other than true open-air benches and many of those like the ones we have are $200 or more and on that note I've just come to the realization that we spent about $1,000 on open-air benches in the last few years so they are expensive but an open-air bench is Anessa what everyone wants there are plenty of actual closed enclosures real enclosures like this one in the list hopefully that helps you all out there are several honorable mentions we cannot reasonably include everything many of you will surely comment below and note the cases that you like that were left out but these are the ones we've tested they've come through our lab and we've had time to validate them and figure out what needs improving if anything of course there's always something like the spec before in its fan or just what you should look out for other honorable mentions not in this core content would the Corsair 400 C which is about a hundred bucks it competes with this directly the NZXT s340 elite but it's got a bit of a different take on its overall layout so check our 400 C review for that they also have the 600 C if you're a corsair fan and want to see what they did with that one but if you're not necessarily into the coarser stuff there are still plenty of other options Silverstone's pmo one is a more expensive version of the RL zero six that we looked at to some extent there are plenty of other cases on the market from inland that are more expensive all kinds of options in the 100 200 dollar range but for today's list this will get us started we'll revisit this topic soon because we'll be at copy tech so if you're not subscribed to subscribe now that we can follow our coverage there we looking at all the newest cases on the market including stuff that's not out yet may not ever make it the market as always and go to patreon.com/scishow selves that directly link in the description below for the cases or for our article thanks for watching I'll see you all next time you