Case recomendations?

[TheJkWhoSaysNi]

I'm looking for a good black case for ~£40 or less any recomendations? It doesnt have to be anything fancy but i'd like 4 5.25" bays.

any recomendations would be great

 

[(Shovel)]

Sorry to say it, but I'd advise SAVE UP.

Spending £40 will, in all liklihood, give you a very very poor power supply - to the degree that it could cause operation problems.

I'd advise saving up until you've got around £80+. That will get you a better quality power supply, and likely better case on top.

My brother recently built himself a machine and I recommend him a Chieftec Dragon. They are lovely and spacious - which is a blessing for assembly, and cooling. There's around 5 5-1/2" bays and 6 3-1/2" bays. Depending on what you put in them they wont all be usable (putting two hard drives on top of each other is not a good idea, for example) but as I say, it's nice.

See here: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/kl.asp?AvdID=1&CatID=13&GrpID=6&t=589&l=2
This lists all the variations on colour, as well as with/without a door and the enhanced model with USB/Firewire on the front.
They also do the Chieftec "Matrix" cases, which look different.

They all come with good quality 360W Power Supplies (at least). The one my brother ended up with made a point of saying it had ball-bearing fans in it, no idea if this is standard these days, but it does at least make it quieter

NB. When I say "Good quality" power supply, I don't mean the Wattage. A bad quality PSU will not perform at its advertised Wattage, which is where the problems start. Contrary to instinct, you can't buy a PSU based on the biggest numbers.

 

[Big G]

I'm away to purchase a black case (everything else i have is black; beige makes me wanna barf), and there is absolutely no substitute for class, looks, sexyness and internal features (such as loads of room, variable speed fans etc.

Here it is:

Lian-Li PC-71. Full tower in brushed black aluminium.

Pricey, £150 inc vat and no PSU. As Shovel says, get saving and spend more than £50: i couldn't find anything decent under £80/90.

G

 

[Big G]

Or this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Antec_160.html

(the top one)

It comes with a 380w PSU and is £87 inc vat and it's designed to be quiet.

G

 

[Rubric]

I got one of these

Nice and roomy, plenty of screws. Nice window on the side too. The Neon bubbles at the front only change colour in the bottom half but it still looks cool.

Edit: At 42.30 as well its a bargain.

 

[mookie]

i've got a lian-li pc-61, same as that one above, but pc-60 sized, it is an AMAZING case, worth every penny. everything is extremely easy to get at/remove and is supplied with 4 decent fans,2 of which have voltage selectors.

 

[TheJkWhoSaysNi]

Thanks, I think i'll get an Antec one they look nicer imo. I can spend more money on a case, just means i'll have to get less RAM/HD space for the moment

 

[Happy Go Lucky]

I have just put together a system on the antec sonata case, it's a very nice case, wide so there is lots of room inside. and it looks good if you keep it finger print free, so it's shame to keep it under the desk, so I've put it on a desk. It's quiet..the only fault I have is that I don't reccommend it as a newbie case, as putting it together is quite hard work, the front doesn't come off easily or taking the orginal back plate off for the ps2 connectors etc and putting your own one for your mother board. Installing the internal hdd's is easy and well explained in the instructions, but putting the cdrom and floppy is drives is not, and isn't well explained in the instructions. Some diagrams would have been really wellcome in the instructions. Having said all that, this case is excellent value for money, and comes with a huge quiet case fan which is thermo controlled by the psu. These larger case fans are tipped to become standard in future cases, because they are quiet.