must be: simple design cool quiet wouldn't mind if it had: dust filters good cable management black interior i won't be watercooling. that's all i could think of.
Simple, Corsair Obsidian. Just got one 2 weeks ago. Cable management is a doddle, beautiful interior finish. Well made. Heavy and large, so it is not a LAN case in any sense. I wrote a small review for it the other day available here -> [ZiiP] NaloaC review of Obsidian 800D Personally I think it is one of the best looking cases out there. Overclockers have it for 210 sterling -->OcUK
+1 for the Corsair, only because you mentioned black interior. But with that budget I would consider the Silverstone TJ07. I know its a couple of years old and loads of people have one, but it still is one of the best cases in the world. The Lian Li 2010 is worth a look also
Corsair Obsidian + some extra 120 fans... This is on my shopping list...!! Lovely.. Overclockers got some more in this week i see. Just over 200 as well
For £250 you could easily get a sizeable case and a watercooling setup, most large format rackmount cases have plenty of space in them Though if you're really hell bent on air cooling, i'd go Antec 1200 (though I've never had a play with the Obsidian, so it could be just as nice). That, or build your own with Alu sheets
If money is no object (£250 should be able to get you any case you want) why not one of the quiet classics - the Antec P183 or one of the Silverstones (FT01 or upcoming FT02 if you've got tonnes of room)? Should set you back just above £100 from memory.
Im lost as to why people like the Obsidian so much. It looks alright, it's got some nice features but Corsair won't send us one to test... Im very much wanting to get hold of a retail sample.
Odd. Maybe they saw the ripping apart of the Mars card Personally, the aesthetics of the Obsidian are great. The build quality surprised me alot. I had read some previews/review where people complained about the "flimsiness" of the materials, but there is nothing flimsy at all about it. I wish I had a temp probe and something to measure decibels, then I would integrate them into the review I did, but I can only do it based on the case on it's on. I'm still working on the PSU, so not had a chance to fire it up yet. So many small details that were not mentioned in many reviews, so glad I found them. Keeps surprising me.
You basicly described the Corsair Obsidian right there. It checks out all points on your list. EDIT: 1000th post yay.
Same here really. Its looks are pretty average to me, and the only stand-out features are the simply awesome cable management system and hot-swappable drive bays, neither of which interest me greatly. Here's an excellent video review on it: If you still really like it after watching this then go for it, but I'd still rather go for a case with better airflow, or if I wanted classy looks and had a large budget then I'd go with a high-end Lian-Li.
It's purely down to aesthetics for me to be honest - however, the case is far too big for my liking. Like James (Gorbold) I can't stand horribly garish, f***ing bling bling Antec 1200 type cases. They look stupid (especially the 900/1200). Saying that though, I do have an Antec 300 - reason behind that was due to the potential of the case as well as the sleek, streamline aesthetics. It's all down to taste (obviously) & criteria. If it fills your criteria then it doesn't matter if others don't like it or not. The Obsidian may not have anything earth shattering, but it does meet the criteria for some.
I agree, it's nice and, um, black, but honestly to me there's no contrast or style: it's just a big black box. Can you also tell me if Corsair still uses glue to stick the alu front panel to the plastic mount? and if the side panel window is still thin perspex? and if the plastic fan shrouds still feel cheap? It's just these little things that in a £200 case I would expect to be perfect because that's a lot of money. If they are fixed in the retail model, then fantastic. I will get a retail model to review, because Im dying to know how it stacks up against the all aluminium ATCS 840 which is £40 cheaper.
See, that's the sort of attention to detail we all love from you Bit-Tech guys. Obviously, £200+ is way too much for me, way too much to spend on a case. So, I definitely agree with you on the case being perfect for that amount of money - it's to be expected. As for the ATCS 840 - I can't understand why that is an attractive case at all - fugly is the word and I'd rather spend £40 extra on something I like looking at. Without any hands on experience with this case I can't answer those questions, but if I had £200 to spend on a build I definitely wouldn't spend it all on a case. I swear the Antec designers were all off their face on drugs when they designed the 200/900 and 1200 cases and their come-down/hangover resulted in them designing their best case - the 300. If they could reduce the size of the 300 slightly (to the same size as the mini P180) then I'd really happy. Oh, and if they include cable (management) grommets, that's one of my old snags.
From what I can tell with the bezel here on the table beside me (measuring it up for a sketchupmodel), the aluminium bezel does have the front IO port cover glued into place as well as the surrounding plastic shroud of the hotswap bay area, although this is all behind the aluminium frame. The bezel itself is on some strange retention clip mechanism but holds firm and comes off smoothly. The fan covers are slightly loose in places, but if the direct the airflow as intended, then I don't see why not to use plastic as opposed to alu. The side panel is indeed a thin piece of acrylic/perspex (I can't tell the difference ) held on with counter-sunk bolts and hex-nuts. With regards to the colour, I am intending on using the all-encompassing black to help me contrast the internals that I will be putting into mine, hence the UV-Green sleeving. Again, your own opinion on the case is paramount and what you want in a case. Everyone has different tastes in aesthetics and also functionality.
I'd go for a P182/3 (if you can find one of the older ones). It's got the dust filters, is quiet, pretty good cable management if a little fiddly.
Add another recommendation for the ATCS 840. I'm gonna agree with bindi, it's just a big black steel box, should be aluminum for the money. The front access hot swap drives are kind of pointless (how often does a person swap out a hard drive?) even more so since it doesn't have a lock. Air flow is also seems to be a concern once you start cramming gear into it.
