Help with case recommendation

[echineko]

Hi guys,

I'm coming to the end of the new build, and all that's left is choosing a good case to put everything in. First, let me summarize the hardware that will be going in:

Maximus VI Extreme mobo
I7 4770k
Zalman CNP9900 heatsink
Sapphire HD 7970 x1
SSD x2
HDD x2
Corsair 1200i PSU
Corsair Dominator platinum 32gb
Several Noctua 120mm fans

A few points on intended usage:

1. Not planning to go for water cooling to start, so I'm looking for good air flow/support for additional fans, might look into water cooling if the air-cooling doesn't cut it
2. In the future I foresee going with a multi-GPU setup, and potentially a larger motherboard to support more RAM
3. Some of the parts (especially the GPU and heatsink) have a long form factor or significant depth

Budget I'm looking at is anything up to $250 or so, I favor a half or full tower design, something sturdy that will keep the components managed well (wire management, ease to swap/add components, air filtering, easy to open etc).

I've seen some interesting cases from Corsair, Silverstone and Cooler Master, what would you guys go for if you were building this?

 

[Cerb]

2. In the future I foresee going with a multi-GPU setup, and potentially a larger motherboard to support more RAM

That's generally an either/or proposition. A bigger motherboard that will support more RAM will have few slots for GPUs (owing to the 2nd socket for the other Xeon, and those extra RAM slots). As it is, you can get MSI boards that have validated 16GB sticks, and that Asus will probably work with some, that being the case (Asus just won't have any on their QVL).

With your budget, you'll need to narrow things down a lot more. You really want to decide on what kind of looks, drive arrangement, etc., you'd like. If you are planning to upgrade to water in the future, consider your radiator placement options, as well, as part of figuring the case. Some Silverstone and Corsair cases, FI, have fan mounts sized and placed to fit common CLC and custom-loop radiators, but usually only of certain sizes, and with certain dimensional clearances.

 

[echineko]

That's generally an either/or proposition. A bigger motherboard that will support more RAM will have few slots for GPUs (owing to the 2nd socket for the other Xeon, and those extra RAM slots).

Currently, I'm going with the i7 Haswell, but it does not yet support 64 Gb of RAM. When there are newer models of this line released, I might pick one up. This would then also require a new mobo, and I'll resell my CPU/mobo at that time. I just didn't want to wait another 6 months or so till they're released, my current desktop is on its last legs

With your budget, you'll need to narrow things down a lot more. You really want to decide on what kind of looks, drive arrangement, etc., you'd like

Well, I'm not really hung up on the look of the casing, the functionality is key to me. Other than wanting a tower rather than a mini form factor (which will actually be able to fit in my hardware), I'm pretty flexible. I've been pretty impressed with the Cooler Master Cosmos II, its currently topping my list, even if it does seem to be a bit over budget >.<

Water cooling is a possible upgrade if air cooling multiple GPUs doesn't work out well. If I were to get a case that has decent airflow and is reasonably silent, that would be just fine.