Corsair 200R vs 300R

[AphoticFlash]

Hi,

I'm planning on building a more compact PC, as I am headed off to college next year and need a computer that will not take up too much of the dorm.

I've been looking at cases and I almost decided on the Corsair 300R, but then I discovered that there is also a 200R. Which do you guys think is the better case? Price is not an issue, what I'm looking for is a small, well-built case.

These two cases have been criticized for not including some features such as additional hard drive bays and hot-swap capability, but I really don't need any of that. As I said, I'm looking for a well-built case, which means quality over quantity of features.

Thanks in advance!

 

[dma0991]

TJ-08E. Its small and well built. It costs a lot more but if space is a concern, go with a mATX sized case. But if you're only limited to these 2 choices, go with either one or the cheapest. They're both in the budget category and should not differ much.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Compact=go with mATX or ITX

 

[C2bcool]

I used the 300R for my build back in June '12 and loved it. It was my 1st build and was ridiculously easy to work with (even though I have fairly large hands), great cutout and wire management. The only thing I added to is was rubber grommets for the cable pass thoughs and a Acasa HD audio extension cable so I didn't have to directly run the cable from the front audio ports.

Here is my build thread if you wanted more info abou the case:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2253931&highlight=

200R looks great as well and basically the same thing just a bit smaller.

 

[dkm777]

I use a 300R for my second rig and what can I say? It has great cooling, decent cable management, looks industrial (what I was after at the time). The only problem I had was that it uses thin steel for the side panels and they can bend slightly making it difficult to close them. Also since it is not very wide you are limited in CPU cooling options. My Cogage Arrow with two Thermalright TY-141 fans barely fits. There's ~1mm gap between the fans and the side panel.

 

[Sleepingforest]

A second vote here for the TJ08e. It's pretty small, quiet when you turn down the front fan, and runs cool. The only difficulty is that it's a bit small, so people with large hands may have difficulty plugging in headers and so forth.

 

[Rezist]

There is the new corsair 350d, also if you want better steel etc there is the fractal define mini and arc mini which are the larger of the matx cases

 

[blastingcap]

For a basic medium-caliber gaming rig on down to HTPC/NAS levels, if you do not need more than a couple of HDDs and SSDs, 200R is good enough. But if you need more cooling or if you want to heavily populate the SSD/HDD bay, you want the 300R which has an open front intake and less reliance on plastic for the SSD/HDD cages. I own the 200R, 300R, and 500R.

If you are talking about a very, very small non-gaming rig to hold just 1-2 drives then you might be able to get away with an ITX but I like real cases which allow you to have a lot more ventilation and thus cooling. It's easier on the components when they run cooler.

Hi,

I'm planning on building a more compact PC, as I am headed off to college next year and need a computer that will not take up too much of the dorm.

I've been looking at cases and I almost decided on the Corsair 300R, but then I discovered that there is also a 200R. Which do you guys think is the better case? Price is not an issue, what I'm looking for is a small, well-built case.

These two cases have been criticized for not including some features such as additional hard drive bays and hot-swap capability, but I really don't need any of that. As I said, I'm looking for a well-built case, which means quality over quantity of features.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rvenger]

200R is a fantastic case. I had both! If the 200r is $30 cheaper, then it would be worth to go with it. Sheet metal is the same quality and around the same gauge.

 

[AustinInDallas]

Bitfenix prodigy miniITX.