Was originally thinking of getting a Fractal Design Define S2 tempered glass midi-case, but after discovering that it has no access to front-mounted optical drives or card readers, I am now at loss. Currently have an Antec 900/2 case but as it does not really support water-cooling as much as say the Fractal Design would have, hence the need for a midi with access to front-mounted optical drives and a card reader. Yes, I am aware that USB hubs are available but then that would use up a USB port. I'd like to avoid that, if possible. Thanks for help.
feel your pain, I have TB's of stuff on optical disk's and case makers want to give me 38 2.5 inch SSD mounts so that leaves you modding or really searching, for my wife's computer I ended up with a raidmax alpha, which the prime version has glass side and front (the cheaper version I got has plastic in a frame side and mesh front) but will support a pretty decent sized rad front and top with a single 5.25 inch drive the **** thing about that case is it has like 12 2.5 inch drive mount's but they couldnt figure out where to put 2 3.5 drive mounts so they put them like one nanometer away from the PSU's cable exiting side with my computer I modded it, cause god help you if you want a optical drive in a mATX format that doesnt look like a 17 year old e-machine (in black) otherwise
I would honnestly go for the case which has the formfactor, coolinng and asthetics you want and add card readings and optical drives via USB, as moder cases simply arenn't designed for them and you'll end up with a far better system this way!
I built a PC for someone in one of these not too long ago: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078K6DZMP Yes, it takes up quite a lot of space, but damn good build quality, easily fits a decent radiator and pretty affordable.
This in my opinion too. I, for years, held off upgrading my case through lack of 5.25" bays in modern cases but found a way around it and am so glad I did. I recently moved over to a P600S and modern cases have so much going for them that cases from even 5 years ago didn't - better cooling, better cable management, better layouts, more space for watercooling, support out the box for vertical GPUs, quieter and the rest. Unless you were constantly using 5.25" drives or card readers (and I mean multiple times per day) then I would just bin them off and use USB devices, especially considering the speed of USB nowadays.
This. The difference between my new Corsair Carbide 275R and my older fractal define 3 is so big. It weighs so much less, so moving and maintenance is less of a pain. I don't need space for a DVD-R, as I install windows from a USB stick and backups are faster and better on an external drive. My only regret is not doing it sooner!
I would think it not to hard to mod a slim optical drive. USB drive would be the easiest or transfer the content onto a NAS.
