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Who makes the best cases?

PeteRoy

PeteRoy

Senior member
I am thinking Foxconn makes the best cases because they have a good cooling design and tooless installation of hardware.
 
Lian-Li. I own several and their build quality is unmatched. They were selling all-aluminum cases with tooless designs years before anyone else. They don't skimp on anything, including the cabling and fans. Prices aren't bad considering the quality. Styling is professional and slick, unlike the tonka-toy gaudy ricer crap most other brands put out.
 
My best cases to date have been Enermax (FS2300BB) and Cooler Master. I won't buy Lian Li again, but I would purchase another CM or try Silverstone.
 
Originally posted by: nerp
Lian-Li. I own several and their build quality is unmatched. They were selling all-aluminum cases with tooless designs years before anyone else. They don't skimp on anything, including the cabling and fans. Prices aren't bad considering the quality. Styling is professional and slick, unlike the tonka-toy gaudy ricer crap most other brands put out.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I am using an Antec 3700BQE at the moment but after seeing a Lian Li case my cousin owns I will be buying from them next, VERY slick!
 
Good cases? Plenty of them. Best? That implies just one. There is no "best case" because it is very subjective. One person may totally love a case, while it is too expensive for the next person. Someone may love doors over drive bays while another hates them.
 
Only about half of the above actually make cases in terms of from design all the way through to final assembly. Antec, for example, is mainly a marketing company, but theirs is the name most will think of first when it comes to cases. So they are definitely good at marketing and picking the products to sell. Their longevity has helped too. I can probably find several examples from most of them that are at least adequate. I've only seen mid to low end boxes from Foxconn and don't think I've had hands-on with one, so I can't comment. I dislike the way Lian Li treats the US market - they've never even had even an office here AFAIK, so I won't buy or recommend one except perhaps on the occasion of another Rocketfish-style anomaly.

.bh.
 
lianli's are beautiful. Unfortunately, if not water-cooling, keeping things cool is laborious.

antec, cheap enermax and cm.

For me, it's fairly simple. If there's a place for a 120mm fan by the cpu with the mb in the 'normal' orientation and a place for a fan blowing over the hard drives, I can make it work.
 
Low End = Cooler Master
Midrange = Antec
High End = Lian Li

Thats how I feel. I want a Lian Li next time but man they are expensive.
 
I had a Lian Li PC75 for about 4 years or so. It was a real solid case, big and roomy. But, after 4 years, and moving a lot (moving computer to and from home at the end of every college semester), it definitely started to show some wear. It started to get pretty ugly. Since I was rather tired of how it looked, and I was getting ready for a new build, I decided to go with Antec (1200). I gotta say, it's a great case. Huge amount of airflow, and very sturdy. I don't mind that it's not 100% toolless either. I don't see myself getting rid of this case for a long time.

Antec 1200 is currently $149 at Microcenter too.
 
Originally posted by: Zap
Good cases? Plenty of them. Best? That implies just one. There is no "best case" because it is very subjective. One person may totally love a case, while it is too expensive for the next person. Someone may love doors over drive bays while another hates them.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
What I might consider "best", someone else might think it sucks.
Some might not like wheels on the bottom of their cases while another does...right Zepper?? 😉
 
Originally posted by: Tullphan
Originally posted by: Zap
Good cases? Plenty of them. Best? That implies just one. There is no "best case" because it is very subjective. One person may totally love a case, while it is too expensive for the next person. Someone may love doors over drive bays while another hates them.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
What I might consider "best", someone else might think it sucks.
Some might not like wheels on the bottom of their cases while another does...right Zepper?? 😉
Click to expand...

Wheels FTMFW! lol
 
To add a few more: InWin and Enlight. Both have made sturdy cases for the business environment for many years. As long as the buyer makes an accurate needs determination, s/he can't go wrong with either. They have tried to branch out a bit into some higher end markets with not a lot of success thus far, but Enlight makes very sturdy server boxes. InWin has recently made some interesting-looking gamer cases, but I don't know how well they are doing in the market.
. Evercase is similar to the two above making workmanlike cases that will last a long time and have some modern features. Their 4252 chassis is the basis for several of the Asus Vento models. They also make excellent and popular rackmount and server chassis.

. Chenbro made one of the finest aluminum cases ever produced with the unfortunate name of Gaming Bomb II (toward the end of its run, it just had a number). It has not been sold in the US for a good while (and any that show up on the used market get snapped up so fast it can make your head spin) and I think it recently disappeared from their Taiwan web site, so I guess it's gone for good. Their server cases are built strongly and with much of the attention to detail of the GBII (I have an SR105xx series box that was OEM for Alienware here and it's nize, all except for the buzzcutter fans that can make one's ears bleed at full speed...). Chenbro still makes consumer level cases which exhibit some of the features found in the GBII, but are seldom seen in the US. They probably can't compete on price with the bulk of the others in their market segments. But if you can find them, they are worth a look. It's nice to see cases built by computer people rather than "designers".

.bh.
 
foxconn makes cases?

:lost:

you have a link for this? i wanna see a foxconn case.

I tought they only made planer boards. ie, motherboards.
 
in terms of quality, Lian Li is matched only by Silverstone and maybe Zalman ($$$)
I've owned 3 LL's and 2 cooler masters. The quality is immediately felt and noticable.

if you're looking for cooling, look for any case that has as many 120mm fans as possible
if you're looking for cheap + value, look for cooler master
if you're looking for balance and willing to cut some corners on quality, look for antec
If you're looking for high quality and long lasting case (10 years), look for Lian Li

 
Oh and Global Win makes at least one nice case which forms the basis for the Akasa Eclipse 62 series and the Ultra m998 - I suppose they are the OEM for Akasa and Ultra.

.bh.
 
Originally posted by: Zepper
Only about half of the above actually make cases in terms of from design all the way through to final assembly. Antec, for example, is mainly a marketing company, but theirs is the name most will think of first when it comes to cases. So they are definitely good at marketing and picking the products to sell. Their longevity has helped too. I can probably find several examples from most of them that are at least adequate. I've only seen mid to low end boxes from Foxconn and don't think I've had hands-on with one, so I can't comment. I dislike the way Lian Li treats the US market - they've never even had even an office here AFAIK, so I won't buy or recommend one except perhaps on the occasion of another Rocketfish-style anomaly.

.bh.
Click to expand...

I didn't realize that. Who actually produces the cases Antec sells?
 
Originally posted by: aigomorla
foxconn makes cases?

:lost:

you have a link for this? i wanna see a foxconn case.

I tought they only made planer boards. ie, motherboards.
Click to expand...

I believe Foxconn also make cases for Apple, Dell and HP

It's already confirmed Foxconn make all the Intel boards.
 
Lots of assemblies for motherboards like the card sockets, memory sockets and CPU sockets are made by Foxconn. That doesn't mean the whole mobo is made by them...

DSF,
. Chenming, Compucase and Casetek are three I'm pretty sure of. A lot of the Casetek designs have a big, stylized "C" in the mobo pan like the one in the Titan in the Newegg photo gallery. The new "C" shape has the left of the curve straight up and down and the points of the C more rounded. The Chenming connection is obvious.


The "E" shape that is in the mobo pan of the old SLK (5700, 3000, etc.) series and the Three Hundred is often in Compucase-made cases. Look at the inside of their current 6A series and you'll see the twin to many Antec chassis.

Casetek also made some cases for Enermax.

Antec will contribute mainly some styling changes to the effort and perhaps pop for a proprietary bezel design to differentiate their cases from others based on the same chassis.

.bh.
 
I have the 16th Ed. of Upgrading and Repairing PC's by Scott Mueller and in the DVD he proclaims his love for Foxconn chassis's due to their tool-less designs and 120mm fan mounts. Mind you this was a few years ago and his recommendations might have changed. Also he is a stickler for industry standards so that's why he tends to prefer industry leaders like Intel and Foxconn. Personally I thought his case picks were o.k. but kind of ugly and plastic-y. Personally I have had cases from Lian-Li and Antec predominately in the past and been pretty happy with both. Right now I'm loving the Antec P182, although its a steel anchor wrapped in plastic so it strikes me as very fragile and every time I have to move it even to hook up cables it makes me nervous. As stated previously the "best" case is a pretty subjective thing. The best way to go about it IMO is to decide how far you want to in terms of these criteria:

How quiet do you want it to be? 120mm fans are probably the best if you want quiet.
How much video card power do you want? A larger case with room for a um... powerful power-supply and plenty of room for one or more double slot cards is needed if you want max gaming.
How many hard drives do you want? Is there room for alot and more importantly are they going to be able to be properly cooled? Some cheap cases have the drives literally stacked on top of each other and this is just bad.
Do you need multiple PCI cards and/or optical drives? I personally like the amount of space a workstation-type case provides.

It would be nice if case mfr's. would nix the 5.25" bays (who really uses that many dvd drives anymore? and provide better accommodations for 3.5" raid setups/hot swappable drives, etc.

None of this is news to AT techies but my $.02


Edit- I thought I take the time to brag about the insale deal I got on the P182 from Newegg- 110 including shipping with a 50 dollar rebate bringing the total to a cool $60 shipped... I guess it was worth the 7 month wait for the rebate!!

 
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