Print
A Prime Suspect Emerges In Each Price Category
For a lineup like this one, which features cases of all shapes, sizes, and prices, there’s no sense in declaring a single standout. How can a $70 budget mid-tower ever hope to compete with a $600 machined-aluminum behemoth, and vice versa? Thus, we evaluated each case on its own merits to see how it stacked up at its own price point and niche. With that in mind, here are our conclusions.
Budget Badass
Four of the eight cases in our lineup are mid-tower cases between $70 and $110—enough for a mini-roundup of their own. But despite their similar sizes and prices, there’s enough variety to distinguish each of them. The Fractal Arc Midi’s less-is-more interior impressed us with its cooling prowess, ease of installation, and good looks. Both the CM Storm Enforcer and the Antec Six Hundred V2 offered decent cooling performance, as well, though, between the two, we much prefer the Cooler Master for its superior build quality. We liked the build quality and soft-touch exterior of the BitFenix Shinobi quite a bit, but its dearth of stock fans meant it ran hotter than the others. At $70, though, it’s a good choice for less-demanding hardware.
Midrange Master
The battle between our two midrange cases was tough. Corsair’s 650D is everything we’ve come to expect from that company’s cases—stylish, simple-looking, and a joy to build into. Yes, it was trounced in our thermal test by the Silverstone Raven RV03, which takes full advantage of Silverstone’s rotated motherboard configuration and the ease of cooling that allows, but we still have to give the nod to Corsair. After all, it offers plenty of options for more fans.
The Kingpin
We’ll close with our ultra-luxe cases. Both Thermaltake’s Level 10 GT and Silverstone’s TJ11 performed well in our thermal testing, though for their asking prices they’d better. Thermaltake’s Level 10 GT isn’t exactly the soul of minimalist design, but if that sort of chunky sci-fi motif is your thing, you’ll appreciate its cooling prowess, ease of building, and Level 10 styling. Silverstone’s TJ11, on the other hand, strikes a balance between restrained minimalism and extreme overengineering. If you need 30 pounds of aluminum that stand over 2 feet high, and you want a case that unquestionably looks and feels luxurious while having plenty of room for as many top-tier parts as you can fit into your shopping cart, and you have $600 to spend, you’ll like the TJ11. It’s overkill for the vast majority of people. But so’s an Aston Martin.
| CM Storm Enforcer | BitFenix Shinobi | Silverstone RV03 | Antec Six Hundred V2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Burn (C) | 60.5 | 64.25 | 56.75 | 60.25 |
| CPU Idle (C) | 35.25 | 36.5 | 33.75* | 35.75 |
| GPU Burn (C) | 84.5 | 85 | 83.5* | 85 |
| GPU Idle (C) | 44.5* | 50 | 46.5 | 46.5 |
| System Burn (C) | 63 | 67 | 57* | 62 |
| System Idle (C) | 35 | 36 | 33* | 36 |
| Fractal Arc Midi | Corsair 650D | Thermaltake Level 10 GT | Silverstone Temjin TJ11 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Burn (C) | 58.25 | 62.75 | 55.75 | 55* |
| CPU Idle (C) | 34.25 | 37.25 | 34.75 | 35.25 |
| GPU Burn (C) | 85 | 85.5 | 84.5 | 84 |
| GPU Idle (C) | 49 | 50.5 | 48.5 | 47.5 |
| System Burn (C) | 62 | 65 | 59 | 59 |
| System Idle (C) | 34 | 37 | 34 | 35 |
Best scores are marked with an asterisk*. CPU temperatures are averages of four cores; GPU temperatures are averages of two cores. Our test bed consists of an Intel Core i5-750 overclocked to 3.2GHz on an Asus P7P55D Premium board with a two-fan Prolimatech Armageddon CPU cooler, GTX 590 dual-GPU videocard, 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drive, and 850W Thermaltake Toughpower PSU.
Comments are closed on this article
delpi98
October 24, 2011 at 1:35pm
I like this I am new reader thank you to post Apple Black Friday Black Friday Apple
mocomike
July 14, 2011 at 3:12pm
ive been intersted in the fractal arc case since these guys reviewed it. Only problem is No One Sells It! Why must you tease us with a case we cant buy! fractal shows only Ncix.com and newegg as their dealers in the us but neither of them has it. I even tried amazon but no luck...
yancey42
June 14, 2011 at 8:48pm
I was wondering why no cases from NZXT. I just bought my first NZXT case for around $35 from Amazon. It was a GAMMA Classic Series ATX Mid Tower Interior Steel Chassis (Black). It was pretty barebones, without a lot of fans, but had places to mount them, if needed. It seems to have good build quality, and for $35 bucks it had both hidden cable routing and tool-less hard drive mounting, and included zip-ties (A nice touch). I bought this for a server build I was working on, but it would have worked well for a budget build as well. Don't know if you could get a large graphics card in there or not, but did I mention it was $35 bucks. I have bought cases in the past for much more without this ones build quality. I never worked with a NZXT case before, but was impressed. I know MaximumPC has reviewed NZXT cases in the past, I was disappointed that one wasn't included in this review.
nedwards
June 14, 2011 at 10:51pm
We just reviewed the NZXT H2, and I asked if they had any cases we hadn't yet seen when I was collecting cases for the roundup. They didn't at that time. They did just announce some new cases, I believe, and we'll review 'em when we get 'em in.
yancey42
June 14, 2011 at 8:48pm
I was wondering why no cases from NZXT. I just bought my first NZXT case for around $35 from Amazon. It was a GAMMA Classic Series ATX Mid Tower Interior Steel Chassis (Black). It was pretty barebones, without a lot of fans, but had places to mount them, if needed. It seems to have good build quality, and for $35 bucks it had both hidden cable routing and tool-less hard drive mounting, and included zip-ties (A nice touch). I bought this for a server build I was working on, but it would have worked well for a budget build as well. Don't know if you could get a large graphics card in there or not, but did I mention it was $35 bucks. I have bought cases in the past for much more without this ones build quality. I never worked with a NZXT case before, but was impressed. I know MaximumPC has reviewed NZXT cases in the past, I was disappointed that one wasn't included in this review.
fallout330
June 14, 2011 at 4:41pm
Looks like the Corsair 650D would be my choice....if I had flexibillity with cost. Great looking Case.
Kazz
June 14, 2011 at 8:04am
Sub-$100 is where it's at for me. And I don't need a case to come with countless fans. I install my own. The BitFenix looks good...
newegg911
June 13, 2011 at 7:11pm
I'm with Neufeld. I actually consider tooless PCI brackets a minus. They are almost always uneeded garbage.
newegg911
June 13, 2011 at 7:09pm
I still don't like it, but the Thermaltake Level 10 is almost reasonably priced this time.
What's up with the Silverstone Temejin? $600? Are you freakin' kidding me? Does it include an expresso machine? It doesn't even look like anything special anyway. And what's up with the TEN bay slots? Cool... it can hold every optical drive I've ever owned at once! I can jam my 4x CD burner from 1997 in there!
I have a HAF 922 and I love it. It's heavy steel, has awesome cooling out of the box, and can be found for under a C-note.
Jasker
June 13, 2011 at 4:35pm
Since when is 57 degrees hotter than 59? Silverstone won system burn also.
MrSatyre
June 13, 2011 at 4:31pm
Huh? The Temijin's slots all point to the top?!? Who wants all their cables sticking out of their case's top like Medusa?
Marthian
June 13, 2011 at 11:52pm
to some, it looks cool. Others, why on earth are there cables up there?
I also believe the reason for the wierd mount is because the air moves better up so I hear. Vapor chambers in the nvidia gpus benefit from this I believe.
Cooketh
June 13, 2011 at 4:14pm
I'm sitting on the Thermaltake Xaser which is a massive tower. I believe it cost me around the $200 range and though it's large, it's all metalic, very little plastic, a ton of fan slots, excellent cooling, roomy, all the perks, but no USB 3 on front.
It's similar to the Silverstone one in alot of ways, but not as tricked out internally. I'd reccomend anyone who wants a big case for modding, cooling, etc take a look at it and the Corsair case featured in this review. My friend uses that corsair case and he loves it. And it looks beautiful in person.
plaskon
June 13, 2011 at 4:04pm
Cooler Master HAF-912 Advanced ... toolless, roomy, plus two very quiet 200mm fans.
Insula Gilliganis
June 13, 2011 at 2:45pm
Wrong about "early Dream Machine builds" not listing the case used.. take off the S on "buildS".. only the original 1996 boot 01 Dream Machine didn't list the case used. But a year later with the 1997 Dream Machine 02, the case was listed as the IW-A500 CompuDEX ATX Medium Tower and every case used in the Dream Machine builds going forward were also listed.
The one time I really cared that Maximum PC miss mentioning what case was used was in the November 2000 issue when reviewing the "Chamsalot P-III 1GHz". Josh Norem mentioned that it was the "Case of the Gods" and "The case is an ace!" but the model number wasn't listed in the specs and only mentioned that it was made by Antec. I hope Mark Miller (aka Chamsalot back then and I believe now roams the MaximumPC hallways as "Number Six") will tell us what model Antec that he used 11 years ago! If only that RAID array would have worked correctly, Mark would have had a Kick Ass 11 rig in his law office! BTW, that case would have fit in nicely inside a Cylon basestar. By your command!
Neufeldt2002
June 13, 2011 at 12:54pm
I really don't understand why you knock points off for a non tool-less design on the PCI slots. I have had tool-less and every one has been flimsy and cheap, that leads to breakage and loose cards. I would gladly take screws on the PCI mounts anytime over tool-less, unless they are thumb screws.
