After getting all the innards to replace my old PC I was going to do a transplant but realised that I can't have a lot of downtime if things go south so now I am searching for a case.
Has to fit an ATX mobo and not much else (single SSD, no GFX). Prefer something quiet, most stress on the PC is rendering Illustrator files and some video editing, no gaming. This purchase was not in the original budget so looking to keep costs down.
White would match the office decor if possible and a window for a bit of bling is preferred. No RGBs required.
I have narrowed it down to the:
Corsair 4000d airflow - $129
Pros: cheapest, well rated
Cons: not the best front IO ports, fans may be mediocre?
Fractal design define S2 - $159
Pros: good set of front IO ports, large = easy build
Cons: large…
Fractal design S7 compact - $165
Pros: good size and design
Cons: price getting up there.
BE QUIET! Silent base 601 black/orange - $160 posted
Pros: supposedly quiet and has good fans
Cons: might be thermally challenged, pissing away $30 on postage seems against the ozb way. Black in colour.
Any suggestions?
For airflow type cases like the 4000D for similar money, there's the Coolermaster TD500, just turn off/disconnect the RGB if you don't want it. The 3 120mm fans only go to approx 1200rpm and they're 3 pin ones (comes with a splitter) - they are quiet enough for me to leave them at 100% with the box on the floor (yes, raised up an extra ~30mm so the PSU can breathe if any pedants are going to call heresy on putting a PC on the floor)
Can theoretically put a 360mm rad in either the front or the top, it is a relatively compact case for what fits in it so you might only be able to actually fit a 360 in the front and a 280/240 in the top if you're going open loop for a CPU rendering monster - not sure if two 360s in there would have their tanks in the way of each other.
Air cooled, I shoehorned a Deepcool Assassin III in there by putting the fans on the back of the towers - on the front of them how air coolers usually are had the front fan too high up over the RAM to get the side panel back on. 165mm cooler height clearance on the specs is pretty much accurate, so any 140mm air cooler is going to mean fan on the back like I did cause of the RAM clearance. Without any raised fans the plastic cover on the heat pipes is about 3mm from the glass side panel.
Also similar money when I was looking was the Lian-Li 215, it has two oversize 180/200mm non RGB fans in the front and reviews well, but if you need a big rad/s tossing out the fans would suck and no idea what the front mounting points are like, but for air cooled the big fans spinning slow but moving a lot of air per RPM should be great for your purposes - cool and quiet.
Both of those cases have been on Amazon AU for about the $130 shipped, same as the Corsair 4000D back when I was buying.
The TD500 has various RGB variants both in white and black, and a newer variant where they updated the ARGB fans to proper PWM 4 pin units the same as the retail ARGB fans they sell normally rather than the cheapo 3 pin variants I got. I saw the cheapest black DRGB 12v version of the TD500 go down to $110 after I'd ordered the ARGB 5v one in black, I have a second ARGB one in white for my daughter who likes the bling and shit (actually bought it for her first then bought the second black one for me cause I was impressed enough for the money).