Gadgetory

hey guys I'm doing tree with harken ox and welcome to another video as this year comes to a close we decided to do a top five cases of 2013 because if you look at our review history we've taken look at a lot of cases and hopefully can provide you guys a little bit of an objective and also slightly subjective opinion about what you should consider if you are looking for a case now before we get on with our top 5 list I want to first give some honorable mentions to a few cases that actually are from 2012 that should still be considered so one of the cases is you if you're looking for a micro ATX case is the Cougar spike now a lot of people are going to jump up from your chairs and the red flags are going to be flashing everywhere danger but the Cougar spike in my opinion is one of the most budget-friendly micro ATX cases on the market it's only $35 it offers enthusiast compatibility free graphics cards because there's a lot of room at the bottom as the power supply is installed at the top true you are facing no fans in the front all your hard drives are facing internally so that might create some issues with cable management but from when I was working with it it was actually not a big issue at all it was definitely something that stuck with me because it's only $35 and to give this in perspective when I was buying a side panel for cool master 692 that cost just as much as this entire case so that alone $35 price tag for a budget-friendly micro ATX build is totally perfect looks might be not so good but moving up next case is beat Phenix prodigy up to this day it's still very popular simply because it's a mini ITX case that has water cooling support without any sort of compromises and that's definitely a case that still is very popular today so huge mention to that next one is Corsair 200 R it's only $60 it's an ATX case very open like we know to come to expect from Corsair cable management is decent and only 60 bucks for sort of this budget-friendly six chassis is very nice and the last one in this auto mentions before we get in our top five list is Silverstone Sugo SGO nine this is one of the most compact and most user-friendly micro ATX cases that I've worked in simply because it is so tiny yet that can fit in so much into it so a huge shout out to Silverstone for design in this amazing compact enclosure so with those four cases mentioned in the honorable mentions let's dive in in our top five cases of 2013 all right starting at number five is case labs mercury s5 we've recently taken a look in this case and this is one of the best built quality cases that I've ever taken look at here at Eric Knox it offers extreme user flexibility from the initial configuration because you have to order it from from their website and there you choose different color options different panels different water cooling options you can actually order even sort of the base paint so you can paint it yourself which is really cool but in terms of functionality it offers all the basics and more that you would need if you're doing anything enthusiast related this would be in the enthusiast great case because it's likely more expensive than so you're sort of your consumer great products and consumer great chassis but it is totally worth it and deserves the number 5 place on our top 5 cases of 2013 number four is the courser obsidian and it's not going to be 900 d because we've had so many issues with it until it just does not offer the same functionality and actually no build quality on the 900 e is a little bit out of whack and so number 4 space goes to 350 d this is a micro ATX case it's beautiful very elegant case very open internally has an SSD caged something that's at the time was sort of innovative now we are seeing more as the cage is being implemented but a really cool thing to see from Corsair so definitely if you're looking for a micro ATX build Corsair 350 d should definitely on your consideration list number three is Coolermaster and 600 you also have the N 509 and 400 and 300 and 200 s a lot of cases in the end series there n series is the compact yet feature packed and functional and closure I think the N 600 is one of the best ATX cases on the market because it's only $80 it has a side Raider amount not particularly for custom water cooling loops because of the limitation with space because again this is a very compact enclosure but for an all-in-one water coolers or 240 ml radiators that are slim that don't have any much much of those tubing's coming out this is going to be a perfect spot for a radiator on the side allowing you still utilizing the top fans and the back fans and actually looks beautiful it's a very simple and elegant case for eighty dollars and packs in a lot of the features with cable management air flow options storage options especially with the SSD cage that you can sort the hard drive cage that you can turn from a 3.5 inch hard drive cage to a 2.5 inch drive cage something or giving a users a little bit more flexibility there okay number two is going to be a little bit different because a number two I actually have three cases here simply because they're I would say they're almost the same case they're all from different companies and they are they have slightly different price point but I feel they all offer the same features the same functionality and so the first one is beat Phenix ronin it's $99 i think it's one of the best cases from beat Phenix it has the stealth cover that covers your hard drives and your power supply but yet still offers a beautiful window to look inside it's always a big bonus here it offers flexible hard drive gauges what are cooling options especially because you can install fans above the frame I think that's very important next one is arc MIDI or two from fractal design it's a slightly more expensive than the BitFenix Ronin but still very elegant offers very much similar features with module drive gauges beautiful tinted window water cooling options air flow options and user flexibility and user-friendly assembly it's very important as well and also in the same line of number two is NZXT phantom 5/3 again offering very flexible user assembly a lot of options to choose from SSD mounts at the back so you don't need to utilize your hard drive cages especially for SSDs airflow option and it looks awesome as well so you can have the white version that looks a little bit like a starship trooper and all three cases again are very similar in design very similar in functionality but they all have a little bit different aesthetics and a little bit different price points so it would really depend on what you like and what your preference is like for each brand so those three cases definitely deserve the number two spot in our list and number one case of 2013 that we've taken look at while I was doing the review it was sort of a foreshadowing what's about to come so number one is phantoms and two primal this is the best case of the year this is totally it deserved spot fantex this is their first case and I'm super excited to see what they come up with next at CES they're actually revealing their mid tower I'm really excited to see what type of next level they took because with the enter primal it really smokes every other enthusiasts case in its price category which is only $250 this is $100 cheaper than the Corsair 900 d so anybody who is thinking about water cooling enthusiast components air cooling whatever enter primal is totally the choice for you and I would give them the number one spot in our top 5 cases of 2013 simply because it looks awesome lots of flexibility those chambers separating components dual power supply options and also integrated water cooling support for your pump for your reservoir brackets I mean they've really thought about everything cable management is a complete breeze so fantex really happy that you guys are on the market really excited to see what you come back next alright guys so this concludes our top five cases of 2013 we always appreciate your continued engagement and always come back to watch our heart hearing reviews hopefully this makes a little bit easier for you to make an informed decision if you're on the market for chassis we have some cases here that we were able to put on this desk some of the one we haven't reviewed yet but that's all coming in 2014 which is going to be an amazing year so as always thanks for watching and Happy New Year alright so number and so starting with number five is case labs mercury s5 this is one of the most better