Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Steve from gamers Nexus dotnet and today we're doing a case roundup for 2014 this includes all of the cases for the most part that I saw at CES 2014 so we're highlighting some of the best of the best here I did see about 30 cases and this one we're gonna start with the mid-range gaming enclosures so this will be cases in the 100 to 160 170 dollar range stuff that we technically 150-plus you're entering enthusiasts but we're gonna call it mid-range so first of all we're starting off with the NZXT h4 40 case this is the one I'm not afraid to call an innovator in some ways I mean they remove the optical drive base so sure other cases have certainly done that but in this market it's generally not seen too much for gaming enclosures so NZ FC has removed the optical drive base they've also added a power supply shroud covering the power supply and all the cabling which is awesome that's something that's generally modded in buy case modders they added in stock so that's pretty cool it's it's not something you have to pay extra for anything that's just included this is a 120 dollar case it ships with three 120 millimeter front fans and can support obviously a 360 millimeter radiator in the front if you remove those fans and additionally the top will support a three sixty millimeter radiator if for some reason you wanted to or if you just want it at the top and and then the rear supports a standard 140 millimeter fan and that's about it there are no bottom fans because the PSU shroud covers everything and there are no drive scaffolding mounted fans so that is the h4 40 it's very cool-looking it's it ships in black red and white black so basically on this case you're seeing right now replace all the white with black and all the black with red and that's the other option and here's a photo of it so that's the h4 40 let's move on to the next the next mid-range case here this is a $160 case is $40 more than the h4 40 and it's the Thermaltake corvy 71 so the corvy 71 I thought was pretty neat when I saw it in their suite at CES 2014 it weighs in slightly above the h4 40 in terms of size on price that said it does have a bit more cooling support if you want a 420 mm meter rate for what reason if you're building something insane go for it this is the case supports for 20 millimeter radiators on the top and the front and supports just about every other radiator size in the bottom the back you name it in terms of cool features you can actually mount a harddrive vertically on the rear side of the case the right side so if you want to mount something vertically and get easier access for cabling you can do that and finally it does come with a pretty large side panel window this is different from the t-80 one which we'll get to in a second the the side panel on the V 71 is just a standard side panel it's one window one panel no no quote unquote suicide doors that you'll see on the T 81 it is mesh across little case to the front the top that's all mesh and then the sides are standard steel and now we're moving into the enthusiast market this is for cases that are in the 180 plus sort of spectrum and we're starting with Corsairs graphite 760 T it is a full tower case I was in love with this case when I saw it at CES just because of the massive side window it's it's pretty neat it's it actually hinges outward so the side window gives you good visibility inside of course I had this one they had on display actually has the fourth video card is bent so don't do that at home it will be very bad for your motherboard but that was a display system so I imagine it was a shipping issue the 760 t in terms of fans ships stock with three 140 millimeter fans those are the AF 140 ELLs it also has an included fan controller that can switch between high and low that's 12 volts and 7 volts so you can run the fans at about half speed maybe 60% speed aftermarket air cooling you can include 3 140 millimeter fans in the top to 140 s in the front and 1 144 rear exhaust and then finally a 120 millimeter bottom mounted fan if you want that for your video card cooling so the biggest thing here is just really it's just the window the window is the coolest thing overall pretty easy to cable manage from what we've seen and very good-looking with the side panel so moving on to wheeler master is 1/2 XC doesn't yet have a price and it's actually in flux this case might not make it to market in its current form so do like Coolermaster know if you'd like to see it this one is special because it's kind of like Corsairs carbide air 540 that's the the double wide case as i call it it is like a double wide tray in both the air 540 and the half XE that we're talking about now you install the power supply and the drives and some of the other non-essential will call them board components in the right half of the case they're completely obscured to the user and then you install the board and everything else as standard in the left half of the case and on the half XE the left half has a full side panel window so just like the the case I just spoke about it covers the entire side panel so you can see everything in there and it actually bends around angles around the corners which is pretty neat so that that can give you some pretty awesome options for lighting and cascade lighting effects if you do any modding moving on to the thermal take ta t1 this is our next enthusiast class case this one is priced at 180 ish dollars Thermaltake sort of described it as a 900 d that fits under your desk so instead of being your desk it fits under your desk which is probably a good thing because the 900 d is pretty freakin big so we saw that last year the TA t1 as part of thermal takes urban family of cases and it's similar to the v71 except it has a hinging quote unquote suicide door left panel you can actually use a key to open the side panel and then there's a black steel body that covers the drive scaffolding that opens separately from the glass panel that covers the motherboard and the rest of the core components other than that it does ship with the same full radiator support if it's about every radiator you can possibly think of and just like the V 71 it's the 420 millimeters you know 360 whatever everything so same specs just a little different side panel and a little bit more expensive and it includes three two hundred millimeter fans installed stock with removable dust filters and that's pretty much it for this one it does again have modular cages moving on to the antique 1900 this is our final in the enthusiast lineup it is a two hundred five dollar case technically I think MSRP is like 270 but it's everywhere for 205 so that's what it is as far as I'm concerned I've actually I saw it for 170 which was an insane deal on Newegg definitely keep an eye out for that in the future again the 900 d had a huge target on its back this year and tech and coolermaster were both gunning for it so it was thermaltake and even Corsair is kind of competing with themselves in a way but no one quite touches it in terms of size the 1900 is a little bit skinnier than the 900 it's a little bit shorter but it offers almost the same internal specs so it fits I think 17 total drives that's including the 5.25 drives so it will fit 12 3.5 s and 2 2.5 s natively and then three five and a quarter drives it has nine expansion slots so it's a pretty damn big case and stock it ships with all fluid dynamic bearing fans these are real FDB fans not the fake ones that we've seen with other cases and they are in order three 120-millimeter front FTB's two 120-millimeter top and one 120 millimeter rear pre-installed fan so that's everything for the 1900 definitely worth looking into I was pretty excited about the price for the amount of features we get moving on finally to the last two budget cases so these are the ultra budget cases for system builders the GX 900 is the first one I don't have a price on this yet I have a very good indication that is going to be a sub 70 price point but we will see it's similar to the GX 700 that I reviewed recently the the body the chassis are a little bit different but in terms of target market it is very similar to the GX 700 it ships with support for 170 millimeter CPU coolers in height so that's pretty good that covers just about everything including the argon AR 0 1 and a 3 10 millimeter video card so again just about every video card on the market except for maybe some really crazy ones cable management wasn't a huge feature with this case as with all the other ones we've discussed but it does have enough room you can fit pretty much a whole hand back there so as far as we're concerned you'll be able to manage it easily enough and it might take some more fighting than the other cases but definitely a possibility to manage all your cables so nothing too special here I want to give a quick shout to the P 100 because it's also a very good case the front panels a little too flimsy for my taste hopefully they'll fix that but it is a 100 dollar case if you want something slightly more expensive also from an tech and finally Coolermaster silencio 452 is a $95 case it is a silent themed case so it uses 800 rpm fans which are they're a little bit slower but much quieter I think they advertise 15 DBA I'm not sure how they test that but that's what they advertise it doesn't use mesh paneling for the fans instead it uses slits on the side of the case similar to the aged six thirty by NZXT and what that means is the noise is directed away from the user toward the back or the side of the case so the user isn't hearing as much of the fan noise the the case itself has a more discrete look it's all pretty flat matte colored and and not too gamer themed quote-unquote this case does support slightly smaller CPU coolers so keep that in mind you're gonna eliminate a few since it's only 158 millimeters in height hit the link in the description below for the full article coverage and quick shoutout if you don't like these budget options check out the Roseville stealth that's in a video it should be on the sidebar my Rosewill CES coverage that's a bit cheaper and yeah as always thanks for watching we will see you all next time peace