The entry level computer case and PSU hot deals thread

[Macgyversite]

No Rebate. Free shipping. $35. Lots of fans.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353061&ignorebbr=1

 

[abrandoncadabrandon]

Just picked up one of these for my Plex server. I was so tempted to get the badass green and black but went with orange and black to match Plex.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0756NCCG7/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Replay]

$19.99 AR Rosewill VIPER Z - ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, includes 4 fans, card reader, fan control.

One day deal, January 15th. $49.99 less $30 rebate, free shipping.
Good features for the money, but it has some flaws.
Four fans installed, 120 mm and 140 mm, with room for more.
Best for a tinkerer. Several one star reviews for a flimsy power switch (hot melt glue job fail?).

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147240
https://images10.newegg.com/uploadf.../Rosewill11-147-240_11564Jan15Jan1518py05.pdf

2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, Audio In/Out, Fan Speed Control Panel, Card Reader.
Front: 2 x 120mm Blue LED fan (pre-installed)
Rear: 1 x 120mm fan (pre-installed)
Top: 2 x 140mm Blue LED fan (1 pre-installed)
Bottom: 1 x 140mm fan (optional)

 

[VirtualLarry]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...-_-ComputerCases-_-11353108-S3A6B&ignorebbr=1

$9.98 after $10 MIR for a DIYpc red led front fan USB3.0 micro-ATX mid tower case. (free ship)

Not bad!

 

[cbn]

Rosewill TYRFING, $19.99 AR free shipping:

(ATX with 2 x 120mm fans installed)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147253&ignorebbr=1

 

[cbn]

Another Mini-ITX option, the Coolermaster Elite 130:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811119286

$27.99 AR AP free shipping.

$2 Promo code "EMCELGM66" ends 8/3/2016

$20 rebate ends 8/3/2016 and must be postmarked no later than 9/2/2016.

This one on sale for $31.99 free shipping after 20% Promo code (which expires 3/26/2018).

 

[you2]

I have a couple of the elite 130; at first I thought they were neat but i would never use them again. There are two problems; first cooling isn't that great (compare the lian case i now use); but the big issue is that it is a royal PIA to work on them after the build is complete. Accessing drives is a total pia if you want to replace or add one. On the other hand lian li pc-q33b is trivial to access the drives after the build (my cpu also runs 30c cooler at max with the pc-q33). The elite 130 offer two advantages - it supports an internal dvd player and it is cheap.

(the reason the cpu runs so much cooler are three factors - the pc-q33 will support a ridiculously large cpu fan (i use octua NH-U9S) and the exhaust fan is much larger (the situation might be different if you water cool with the elite 130)).
-
Anyway just my 2ct. I like the pc-q33 but one of these days I might try one of the new mini-itx cases (such as n1).

 

[cbn]

I haven't used the Elite 130 yet, but one difference I am noticing so far is the the Elite 110 (which I do own and have built in) has more room around the expansion bays than the Elite 130:

So one thing to consider might be the use of a Mini-DTX (or Mini-DTX plus) board with PCIe x16 in the second position with the Elite 110 in addition to a single slot card with a tall cooler (ie, dual slot height card that uses single slot sized bracket. Example here).

P.S. Ncase M1 (which you2 mentioned in the previous post) can also mount a Mini-DTX board with PCIe x 16 in the second slot and use that Zotac GTX 1050 Ti. This because Ncase M1 is a Mini-ITX case with three expansion slots. Main difference is that Ncase M1 would also be able to use true dual slot cards as well.

 

[cbn]

Another Mini-ITX option, the Coolermaster Elite 130:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811119286

$27.99 AR AP free shipping.

$2 Promo code "EMCELGM66" ends 8/3/2016

$20 rebate ends 8/3/2016 and must be postmarked no later than 9/2/2016.

This one on sale for $31.99 free shipping after 20% Promo code (which expires 3/26/2018).

$10 rebate now available....so the price dropped to $21.99 AR AP Free shipping.

 

[cbn]

$15 (AR $15) ROSEWILL SRM-01 Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case. USB3 & 80mm fan.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147248

I do like the looks of that case:

It also shares the same vertical drive arrangement as the Fractal design Core 1000/Core 1100. (So hopefully it doesn't have the same 3.5" HDD install issues as the Rosewill FBM-01, FBM-02, FBM-05, Ranger-M, see post #13)

However, being a good deal smaller than the Fractal design Core 1000 at 20.5L displacement (Core 1000 is 26.5L displacement) I do wonder how long of a video card it could use with the bottom drive bay occupied with a 3.5" HDD? ( Core 1000 can use a card up to 170mm long with the bottom bay occupied with 3.5" and 350mm without the bottom bay occupied with a 3.5" (see post #9) but it also a deeper case at 16.54" vs. 13.19")

P.S. Regarding case depth, some Newegg reviewers were complaining the optical drive and top mounted PSU they used were too close together. However, one three egg reviewer had the following to say:

Now on sale for $9.99 AR FS.

 

[cbn]

3.) Coolermaster Elite 110 (Mini-ITX). $29.99 AR free shipping:

$10 rebate expires 4/30/2016 and must be postmarked no later than 5/30/2016

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119299&Tpk=elite 110

Back on sale for $29.99 AR FS.

I really like this case when used with a semi-modular PSU.

 

[cbn]

$15 (AR $15) ROSEWILL SRM-01 Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case. USB3 & 80mm fan.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147248

I do like the looks of that case:

It also shares the same vertical drive arrangement as the Fractal design Core 1000/Core 1100. (So hopefully it doesn't have the same 3.5" HDD install issues as the Rosewill FBM-01, FBM-02, FBM-05, Ranger-M, see post #13)

However, being a good deal smaller than the Fractal design Core 1000 at 20.5L displacement (Core 1000 is 26.5L displacement) I do wonder how long of a video card it could use with the bottom drive bay occupied with a 3.5" HDD? ( Core 1000 can use a card up to 170mm long with the bottom bay occupied with 3.5" and 350mm without the bottom bay occupied with a 3.5" (see post #9) but it also a deeper case at 16.54" vs. 13.19")

P.S. Regarding case depth, some Newegg reviewers were complaining the optical drive and top mounted PSU they used were too close together. However, one three egg reviewer had the following to say:

Now on sale for $9.99 AR FS.

Looking more closely at this case (which is pretty small at 20.5L for mATX) I think having some slots for removable feet on side would be very helpful. Then some people could use the case horizontally for HTPC or alternative desktop usage.

 

[cbn]

$15 (AR $15) ROSEWILL SRM-01 Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case. USB3 & 80mm fan.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147248

I do like the looks of that case:

It also shares the same vertical drive arrangement as the Fractal design Core 1000/Core 1100. (So hopefully it doesn't have the same 3.5" HDD install issues as the Rosewill FBM-01, FBM-02, FBM-05, Ranger-M, see post #13)

However, being a good deal smaller than the Fractal design Core 1000 at 20.5L displacement (Core 1000 is 26.5L displacement) I do wonder how long of a video card it could use with the bottom drive bay occupied with a 3.5" HDD? ( Core 1000 can use a card up to 170mm long with the bottom bay occupied with 3.5" and 350mm without the bottom bay occupied with a 3.5" (see post #9) but it also a deeper case at 16.54" vs. 13.19")

P.S. Regarding case depth, some Newegg reviewers were complaining the optical drive and top mounted PSU they used were too close together. However, one three egg reviewer had the following to say:

Now on sale for $9.99 AR FS.

Looking more closely at this case (which is pretty small at 20.5L for mATX) I think having some slots for removable feet on side would be very helpful. Then some people could use the case horizontally for HTPC or alternative desktop usage.

On Sale for $19.99 Free shipping.

 

[jsalpha2]

Last Day Rosewill R536-BKhttps://www.ebay.com/itm/Rosewill-R...AOxyffZSXHRS:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!85365!US!-1
Mid Tower Case with power supply
Pros Looks nice to me.
Cons Power Supply not to good.
Price after 20% off is $56

 

[BenJeremy]

Last Day Rosewill R536-BKhttps://www.ebay.com/itm/Rosewill-R...AOxyffZSXHRS:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!85365!US!-1
Mid Tower Case with power supply
Pros Looks nice to me.
Cons Power Supply not to good.
Price after 20% off is $56

That case layout is right out of 1998. Ugh... PSU on top? Cutout for 3.5" floppy? Front-to-back drive bays? No place for AIO coolers or liquid cooling?

I'm pretty sure I've got a couple of these sort (minus the 2 USB 3.0 ports) unopened in my basement, headed for Goodwill next time I clean.

 

[jsalpha2]

Don't give them to goodwill, send them to me. (I'll pay shipping)
With a first gen i3 and some other parts from the junk box you can make a good work/kid/gramma box for under $200.

 

[BenJeremy]

Don't give them to goodwill, send them to me. (I'll pay shipping)
With a first gen i3 and some other parts from the junk box you can make a good work/kid/gramma box for under $200.

Well, to be honest, those old school cases are usually pretty easy to be had for $20 with free shipping on NewEgg and Amazon. I'm pretty sure I couldn't ship them for that cheap.

As for modern tower-style cases, they should have the PSU at the bottom, some gap at the top with venting for mounting a radiator and fan (or fans for 240mm radiators), some sort of basic cable management and drive trays. My last three builds didn't even have optical drives (I have an external USB 3.0 case with a Blu-ray writer) and my next main machine might not even need a drive tray or messy SATA cables (that's anticipating 6TB for my boot drive, with 3x 2TB M.2 NVMe sticks in RAID-0).

The problem is many old factories still have tooling for the old-school cases, and still seem to be happy to put them out real cheap... decent enough, I guess, for system builders content to sell granny systems. but less than ideal if you plan on using any performance components. I'm pretty sure there's a factory or two in China that probably ships them by the pallet-full for $10 each, but making even a cheap, but modern-layout case couldn't more than double that price.

 

[Macgyversite]

EVGA is having a pretty good sale.

https://www.evga.com/products/featured-bundles.aspx

https://www.evga.com/products/feature.aspx