Double tower. You take two full towers, cut out the bottom of one and the top of the other, weld them together, then run 2 CPUs in CPU-SLI with quad video cards. It's able to run Pong in 84,000 FPS.
Many years ago I actually did a double tower build, but side by side rather than on top.. Left side was a conventional style mid-tower with 3x GPUs, loaded up with HDDs and all the water cooling going into the back wall, through to the other side. Right side was another of the same case but effectively hollowed out and the window moved to the outside, and this one housed the PSU, radiators, pump/res Imagine a LianLi PC-08, but much uglier and not very practical
Anyone remember when we filled the front half of tower cases with DRIVES? Instead of fans, guys would have like 6 CD/ DVD drives on the front of their case?
Case Reviews are also good because there are so few actual Brick and Mortar computer stores where we can get a good look at cases and their size, and all the little caveats in person.
To me mid towers are still the sweet spot. Good amount of room where you aren't shoe horning components in while still been small enough to place on or below the desk.
@@ryanokeefe12 Matx is the sweet spot for most people. But those of us who are strapped for budget have to buy the motherboard which is cheapest, size regardless, and select a cheap or used case for it, not the other way around.
My favorite case is the CoolerMaster HAF932. It's a massive case that I bought in 2009 for my first gen i5 processor. I purchased it because I wanted good airflow for hardcore WoW raiding during BC. Larger fan = less rpm = less noise.
I settled on an ITX build because I’m tight on space and while there are a number of things to keep in mind it’s really crazy how much you can fit into such a small enclosure. You don’t have to make many sacrifices as far as hardware goes.
I'm looking at building an ITX build, myself, specifically for a home server, used for media serving, and data backup, but in a different version than what most would think of. What's different, is that I want to put it into a 1999 iMac bubble Mac AIO machine, which is currently gutted, including getting rid of the CRT monitor from the inside, to make more room for the components, and more room for less heat as well, while attaching a portable monitor to the front... Also, it'll probably be an AMD APU build, so that'll help as well, with the heat, as there won't be an extra graphics card putting heat into the system... It will look crappy on the outside, I'm sure, since it's an old machine, that doesn't look shiny like in the pictures, but at least it's a good test machine, to see if the idea might work, after which I can get something like the see-through graphite version, instead of the current one which is a see through blue color, which I don't specifically like
Compact mATX cases are a great size imo. Still gives you decent options for components that fit in the case. Easy to work with compared to SSF builds. Light enough to carry/transport easily. Good middle ground between Mid Tower and SFF.
@@jameslewis2635 true but building something powerful and crammed in a small package like the geeek a30 or velka 5 can be very fun to build if you don't mind the challenge
Thing is it can also be quite hard to find a compact case that’s only slightly bigger than itx that would fit an matx board. the only one I have seen that would tick the most boxes imo is the meshify c
15:00 - Now I sort of want to see Jay put four or more ITX boards into a single case that size. Bonus points for cooling all CPUs and GPUs with a single loop.
I bet he will do it! He has enough stuff around to make a great content video and thinking of it might be usefull in day to day use like i sometimes use 2 computers at the same desk ..hmm typing this i think i just got gived myself a ideea for saving space...
Running a ITX system in a Velka 3-like case mainly for the portability. I'm on the move a lot right now so being able to fit the whole system into a backpack has been super handy. The entire system is only a little bigger than the ITX motherboard itself moving this thing around is incredibly easy (You can pick it up with one hand, It's smaller than a PS5 or Series X!)
@@Landjrin It was the first image popping up in my mind, some gnome holding an ITX System in his hands, which just looks normal sized for everyone else 🤣
@T.C. B Agreed. I went with an mATX case, specifically the thermaltake s100, because it is white and tempered glass and like you say; big enough to hold what I needed and fairly portable, it was also within my budget and fairly cheap actually.
My first build was in a mid, my second one in a full tower. But lately I fell in love with sff builds. It´s more challenging but also more practical. And it feels like a huge success when you managed to fit your custom loop in the tiny case and every cm is utilized.
I built my first computer when I was 13 in 1997, the only thing I didn't do that my dad did was install the CPU. My second computer in 2002 is the only desktop I have ever purchased that I didn't build myself. That was a Dell Dimension 8200 pentium 4, geforce 4 TI 4800, top of the line then lol. Besides a laptop, netbook, and tablet I have built all of my computers and a couple friends computers. Having wasted all that time, I am very interested in buying one of those tiny computers by beelink or NUC or something. It would never be my gaming rig, but man are they small with very impressive hardware and able to upgrade ram and storage.
"but also more practical" How is a smaller case that is more challenging "more practical"? My view of practical / practicality involve convenience, usefulness and sensibility. Being limited on component choice, component placement and cooling when compared to other form factors, I don't see building in SFF as being practical. Fun, challenging, interesting, sure, but not practical.
@@racerex340 Practical is a very subjective word. Maybe they are living in a tighter space or maybe they travel and bring their machine with them. Yes, there is not much expandability but not everyone needs that.
I get the appeal, but I'm all about dual chamber cube cases now. Just buy parts and put them in without concern of running out of space or future expandability. Also, I've always put my cases on the floor or on a low shelf under the desk. Also, also, the cube shape is easy to lug around and can chill riding in the passenger seat without much fuss.
I got a super large Phanteks 719 case that Phil's using because I love jamming a crap tonne of rads in my rig so I can run my fans at barely audible speed even under heavy impractical loads. Utilising even the mini-itx space at the bottom of the case for an additional radiator stack I managed to fit 2x 480, 1x 360, 1x 240 and 1x 120 rads plus a set of dual d5 serial pumps in there to keep flow rate up through so many components and travel distance. Ironically GPU coil whine became the loudest noise coming from my rig under load 🤣
Having three Corsair 1000D's I can safely say that you really don't need that many rads for a dead silent build. It sounds sick though! I've always been too much of a chicken to build a custom loop... My newest gaming rig case is the Corsair 5000D mid-tower. CPU is water cooled by an AIO but my RTX 3090 Strix is fan cooled, yet all I hear is the card whining. I did change all fans except the GPU to run at ~800 RPM unless shit's getting toasty and I never really hear them. Even with a custom quite fan curve my i9-12900K stays cool enough during stress testing.
@@m4ster_root Yeah you're right the cooling is way overkill even for a silent build. But it's fun to design and build nonetheless. I have a 3090 with active backplate to watercool the back of pcb vram modules, plus a 5950x of a CPU, and the thermal paste is now the bottleneck in terms of cooling lol. Yeah can't solve the coil whine. I limit fps when gaming to my monitor's max refresh rate so it doesn't always run at full power that seems to help just a little. Edit: You might want to also keey an eye out on the VRAM temp if you run your GPU at low fan speed. RTX 3090 is notorious for having hot VRAM at the back of the PCB.
I've got a Thermaltake View 71 with dual 420mm rad loops (1 loop for CPU, 1 loop for GPU). It's pretty quiet and even when the fans ramp it's just a gentle whooshing sound. It weighs a TONNE with all that glass and water, though.
I’m just sad that of nearly all the cases available nowadays, very few (if any, anymore) have at least one external bay for CD drives. Sure I might be old-school and everything is downloaded nowadays, but I still like having the option of being able to toss in a CD for music ripping of that brand new album you just picked up, or throwing in a movie that’s not got a streaming option, or even install an older disk-based game!
Another reason for the popularity of case review videos, from my perspective at least, is that they are an opportunity to showcase physical innovation. Compared with performance reviews of other components (CPUs and GPUs predominantly) there's something really interesting about cases and water-cooling builds/tutorials because they offer up something visual, physical and tactile in terms of new features and different ways of doing things, rather than just looking at comparative numbers.
i'm running a 4000d airflow because it takes up the room i have for a pc on my desk while fitting my components and cooling them extremely well :) i'm obsessed with airflow and fan setups so it was very important to me that i had a case that could accommodate what i had in mind in terms of cooling , and i got it for like 80 bucks too so it was the right price for me
I moved from a smaller mATX case (Antec NX200M) to a mid-tower (Corsair 4000D Airflow White) because I wanted more than 2 M.2 slots. It really changed how well my system runs. It is bigger and more bulky but the increased space and the ease of building is welcome! Although the recently released ASUS AP201 case makes me wanna go back to mATX. 😓🤣😭
Buying things like a Case or PSU, just 'because'. The reasons? You can stock pile them until you are ready to complete the build. (unlike the Motherboard CPU and Graphics card over lrisk of losing warranty period) You can be reasonably sure the case you buy, wont become obsolete, sitting on the shelf.
Extremely helpful ! After two full tower (HAF) builds I thought about going to mid-tower, but after watching this I think now I will stay with full tower. Now just have to find what I feel is the best full tower that doesn't cost me $800 !
I remember my first PC - where i installed windows 95 through a ton of floppy disks - was bigger than any of those cases. And i LOVED IT!! Took 15min to boot but I loved it. Come 2022 and I only like mini ITX.
Was it a Chieftec CS 901 by chance? I have still its predecessor with three holes cnc-milled in the top. Yes, it was for a 360 rad. 😁 Nowadays I going towards sff-builds with good airflow.
3.5 disks were not called floppy disks. That name was reserved for the 5.25 disks. The 3.5 were called diskettes. Hell I remember the old punch cards and 8 inch disks we had to use. Fun times indeed.
I hate having to buy new computer cases every time you upgrade because a new gpu or other component doesnt fit my old case. So one decade ago i decided to spend a little more and bought an ultra tower. Guess what? i never had to change case again! and probably never will! this shit is lit, you can even live inside it.
27 kg .... oh, I think I exaggerated with my old pc, it weighed 41 kg (no glass, CM HAF-X). Perhaps the reason was the 2x 560mmx80mm push / pull radiators that I placed on top of the case ^^ .....COOLEST pc im my town, project red scorpion
Last 3 builds I've done have gotten smaller and smaller. Most recent was Q58 with 11700 (w/ 240 Galahad AIO) and 3060 and temps have been great and it's very quiet.
I love my Thermaltake View 71 and there's a sense of pride when everyone I know says it's the biggest computer they've ever seen. All the space to come up with a variety of cooling/fan setups along with lighting themes is awesome. I can't go back to mid towers for my main build. I could see myself doing a small form factor or mid tower for a secondary PC to play with though.
Its easy to answer, based on Cost? If you're outside the US? *Mid tower* Smaller doesn't = cheaper with Mini ITX. Since Mid Towers are basically the standard, all parts are mass produced. So what often ends up happening is the cheapest Mini ITX board is more expensive than ATX with less features. US prices don't apply anywhere but the US
Agreed. The ITX case options at reasonable prices has come a long way. SFX power supplies are at a bit of a premium, but got damned the boards are ridiculous. I'd love to build a simple little 12300k iGPU rig for a minecraft server but the cheaper board for it is basically still an enthusiast board and coast way more then the processor. Makes it impossible to justify
if you're still looking for a case i can't recommend the phanteks enthoo 719 enough. absolutely massive, high quality, slick as hell looking and for a gigantic case it's reasonably priced too
I had wanted an itx system since I got into pcs around 2014. At the time there weren't too many cases that appealed to me, but last year I got a SSUPD Meshlicious and a new system to go in it. I've loved it ever since, it's great to keep on my desk, and easy enough to take to my friend's house without too much hassle.
I have a Silverstone RVZ01. I first built it in 2014. I liked it so I built in in again. Its not flashy, but I like that I can put it behind my monitor and it doesn't take up any more space on my desk. I feel like these days, unless you are going really high spec and plan to overclock etc., mini ITX is all you need.
Tiny. Rebuilt my rig in a Cooler Master NR200P a while ago, overall really like that case. With a rear 92-mm fan as intake and tuning the voltage-frequency curve and max power of my 5800X the rig is crazy efficient and quiet.
Do you recommend that case? Because I just discovered them the other day and Amazon has a gorgeous Hot pink one and I'm in the process of building a PC and I have a Corsair carbide Delta mid tower which I'm sure will be nice when I actually get to installing everything (waiting for a GPU 🤦🏼♀️) but I saw those cases and I really liked the look and now I'm thinking about going to an itx build.
@@YouMadBr0Br0 In principle I do recommend it, yeah! It is relatively small compared to something like a Fractal Design Define Nano S, so it can be a little bit finnicky to build in, but in general it worked well for me. One thing I do remember was having a bit of trouble mounting my 2.5" SSD on the PSU bracket, but that wasn't major. Double-check your cooler height, though! I had to change my Noctua U12S for a L12s that I will be kitting with a NF-A12x25 for more air flow. I have two 120-mm intake fans at the bottom blowing straight into the GPU, one (filtered) 92-mm rear intake with a RPM-reducer cable getting some extra air to the CPU and then two top exhausts. Also using the tempered glass sidepanel. I might recommend an SFX-L PSU because of their lower fan RPMs, if you care about noise.
"rear 92-mm fan as intake" this is mind blowing to me. I have 23 fans in my case not including CPU/GPU fans. 3 of which are 120mm, 20 are 140mm :D I have an ultra super mega tower case (thermaltake core w200) and it's 2 PC's in 1 haha. Also it's near impossible to cable manage. Omfg it's hard. I need about a dozen cable extensions to cable manage properly and NO. I already spent as much on the case as I did fans and fan controllers. Bottom/front fans in, top/back fans out. It's big enough to BE my desk.
@@taxa1569 I should perhaps clarify that I also have 2x120 mm as intake on the bottom and also as exhaust up top, it's just that I use the rear 92-mm spot for intake rather than exhaust, because otherwise the CPU would have to breathe GPU exhaust only.
Top priority for me in a case is cooling/airflow, then the build quality and features, finally aesthetics. Aesthetics includes how the components will "fit" in the case. If there is too much room left over or too little, that, for me is an aesthetic concern as well as a cooling concern. I have generally opted for mid-tower cases.
Thank you for covering this Topic Jay! I work in Data Science and really needed to build a multi GPU machine that could work without watercooling I wish this video existed when I was trying to find the right tower for my build
Full/Super towers are my jam. Mid are good too, but the large ones still invoke nostalgia to me from seeing the beige monsters sitting under desks or on a very sturdy desk/table from back in the day. Still niche use cases for the big ones just like mentioned in the video, plus those were AT and not ATX which means a lot more expansion cards for things that just weren't integrated into the motherboards yet, so you needed bigger cases to hold all of it. My biggest issue with modern cases is the fad of RGB and glass. I'd love to see more professional looking cases make a comeback even if it's black or white for the color vs silver, grey, and beige.
I always go with the big towers for several reasons: 1. It's much easier to reach everything when building your system and you'll never run into the problem of having to cram in parts / cables. 2. Airflow. More air means better cooling because the closer together various parts are, the more heat will build up inside the case. 3. Space for the 38 mm thick push / pull configuration 360 cooler. It just doesn't fit in a midi tower. 4. Space for 3 fans and still have space left over for a fan controller and a all in one media hub. I just like having a display for my temps and lots of I/O at the front. 5. It's just more impressive than a small case because of all the neat stuff you can cram in it, all the lights and the sheer size.
@@geeker9545 The Xigmatek Elysium is my favorite for big hydro cooling builds because it can fit a double thick 420 mm CPU radiator with 6 fans and a 360 or 480 mm radiator for the GPU. For my latest build I got a Fractal Pop Air XL with a 280 mm CPU cooler and that is a great case if you want something that's around the 100 dollar mark with good airflow that already has fans build into it, but it is limited to a 280 mm cooler. GamersNexus has a lot of case reviews and a playlist for it so I would recommend looking at that if you want to see how much space there is inside a case and how easy it is to fit big coolers and graphic cards.
I've historically gone with full tower cases because I wanted to future proof as best as I could, and often had lots of 3.5" hard drives. My latest build is a mid tower (Corsair 570x crystal). I love that case but miss the extra space. Especially now that I just finished a CPU/GPU custom loop. Ditto for the cable management on the back. Not enough space.
Yep had the same problem went from Full Tower to Mid + Custom Loop and it wasnt enough space (IMO) to proberly hide and organize all the mess. Went for Full Tower again.
Recently I've been going for SFF builds as I like the small footprint. I also enjoy the challenge of building a decently powered gaming rig in them. My current build is a custom loop in a Meshlicious with a 5600x and a 6900 XT. It all manages to be kept cool with a Corsair XR5 280mm radiator with 2 x Noctua 140mm fans.
all ive learned in my experience is...unless youre gaming in 4k....where a 12400 is a great NEW solution that is budget oriented towards affording a 4k capable gpu....Any other cpu...like a k series or zen3....will require a custom loop for ideal thermals and clocks...to actually get the most out of the GPU. Or else theres a fall off point. Where cost comes into play be it VIA custom loop or generally A good performing SFX psu like corsair. Where you wouldnt need that level of PSU/12v performance with a 100-150w gpu or a non OC heavy oc oriented cpu. The second i try to incorporate a 200w+ gpu or a high boosting cpu into the equation on a duel load...it gets troublesome/expensive to remedy. As fun as it is to build and benchmark.
My current case is 22 years old lol. I've had to cut out the case multiple times to fit new video cards and it's a 11 bay mid tower server case lol. I wonder if it's time to change out my 22 year old case? ;)
I've always been a mid tower fan, but for the Mame table top cabinet I'm building, the small case will work great.. And with Mame, the most basic hardware will do.
When I did my first build, I went with a super tower because I was worried about parts not fitting. Phantex P500A is a great airflow case though so it works.
I’m all about the small form factor cases now personally. Maybe I’d consider going up to mATX, but I love the little ITX motherboards and cases! You can pack so much into them!
I've went with an ITX build myself, although I have limited desk space I felt like the extra volume in my Lian Li Lancool 2 mesh case would help with the the cooling and for future upgrading of components, would really love a mini ITX build but think I would only go down that route if it could be water cooled....and I win the lottery 🤣
My first build was a mid tower. Now I just completed a build in the A4-H2O, and I gotta day, it's nice being able to put it on my desk without wasting too much space, and I feel comfort knowing I've user all the space available to me without sacrificing thermals.
It's cool to see that the OG glass tubing system is still around, I just built in that case this year after remembering that video. One of the few ITX cases that would fit my 280 and 240 AIO on my CPU and GPU.
Now I wanna see what's the biggest case you can put the smallest parts in, and what the performance issues would be. Given the space, a massive case with tiny parts and not fussed about a performance hit would make for some interesting themed interiors.
Hit nail on the head, like placing a fresh coat of paint on an older ok system. Recently treated myself to an 011D Air Mini, had better airflow which was in itself an upgrade over my old black box. Previously had an old Fractal Design with the sound dampening padding inside, found airflow was much worse that fans had to spin higher to over come it and made the panelling pointless. 🙂
Another important thing to think about is that there would be more ways that dust can get inside your tower if you chose a large case compared to medium or small. Be prepared to clean out dust more often with a large case.
Might be worth to mention that SSF cases tend to get more expensive than regular and sometimes even large cases. In addition, if you want to try an ITX/SSF build, you have to plan your build ahead as cables will be your worst enemy.
I went full compact, started out with an H500 but decided quickly it just was too big. Moved into a Sliger Console a couple years ago but I recently got an EVGA 3060 Ti so I can go even smaller. I just purchased a Densium 4+ about a week ago (they should start shipping next month). Having an R5 5600X and a 3060 Ti in a sub 5L case will be awesome for the LAN parties I still regularly go to.
i swear with each gen leap it amazes me how much YIELD they get out of that small of a PCB/power envelope.... my buddy has a 2 fan 3060 and i just blows me away that it accomplishes with 170w compared to the 150w 1070 they sold to upgrade. Hell even laptops with their 120-140w "big boi" gpus have proven how well these various newer gpus operate compared to previous gen.....right up to the desktop cards...talking sub power level operation like 50% or less..or scenarios where you add a frame cap to a game....watching how my 3070 strix runs vs the 2080ti strix it replaced(at a considerably less cost). With the same frame caps across various pve/single player titles....way less watts overall and insanely better thermals/noise. I bet youre pretty stoked on that 5L build its power and noise of operation too withthose frame yields. IT really is just amazing to benchmark on a system that small and quiet vs what a 2070 or 2070S would be like in ITX. As if the pcb would even be small enough.
Why are you so obsessed with going small on a desktop? Its not a laptop. It just stays under your desk for years and no one is going to regularly see your "cute and small" system.
@@angrysocialjusticewarrior true, why do you care? pls elaborate. if you have nothing to add other than blatant general knowledge Go post this on some SFF vids see if you gain anymore knowledge about something you have no interest in since its worth your time...OOOOOH Senpai my bad DID you want me to care back my bad G>.< so sorry youre BIG D pc is so Gangster g. Its under your desk and nobody looks at it and it goes bleep bloop the end
@@angrysocialjusticewarrior If you read what I said, I do regularly attend LAN parties, people do see my small build. I like that it's small enough to fit in a backpack.
@@MrShadow1617 games on physical media, music and video on physical media, and also burning a disc from time to time. Mostly it's for nostalgia though.
I got a bluray drive, because I forgot that the Bluray Disc Association seems to think that just because you paid for the disc, and the reader, doesn't mean you're not some filthy pirate, so fork over for those aacs keys too, which makes playing brurays a pain in the arse.
I was glad to see the Nano S in your lineup. I did a Ryzen 3700x build in one a couple of years ago with a full size graphics card, air cooled, which I'm still using. I think the Nano S is the right compromise for my needs. I prefer it to my mid-tower build because it has as much muscle with far greater portability, yet no extreme limitations like some of the tiny ITX cases on the market.
Does anyone have an opinion on who builds the best case? I have used Fractal Designs, and so far I am very impressed -- but not an expert by any means. 😀
It really is as subjective as it gets. So long as it has enough space, some ability for cable management and enough ways to move air through. It doesn't matter that much and one is better picking based on aesthetics as depending on where you place it. You may be looking at it repeatedly for years to come. I personally have started to gravitate more towards smaller systems that can still fit components like atx. So i'm probably going for a O11 mini like case, even if it would cause Jay to loudly sigh at another dual-chamber case build entering this world... ^^;
As someone that modded the hell out of his mid tower one to fit more components that it should, I really get the use of a full tower or a super tower with shitloads of space. Im actually on a sunked cost situation because I already modded my chassis, but when the 4000 series gets launched, im 100% sure im going to use one of those phantek gargantuan 2 system chassis just for ease of cable management.
I have a Meshify S2, so a kinda between medium to small case. That's perfect for me right now, it fits full size ATX and 360mm aio without wasting too much space like a regular mid-size
I went full tower with my last build. I spent a lot of time looking at cases because I wanted future-proofing and the ability to add watercooling in the future. I had my last case for 12 years so I wanted another case that would last several years.
I went Fractal Design R6 when I did my build at the end of 2018 as I wanted a case that allowed me to put an ATX board inside it while also keeping it within the height restriction I had for where my system would be at the time. I also liked how deep the case was as it has now proven it can fit a EVGA 3080 without interfering with any potential storage drives I might add plus it had a 5.25 bay so I could keep a disc drive for now.
ive got the same case curently but removed all the main HDD drives (using m.2 drives). opened up the case so much and allowed for much better airflow. granted i also have a front mounted 280mm corsair aio
Just had delivered the HAF 700 EVO. I am going from an 8 year old HAF X. The X was big but the 700 is about a 1/3 bigger. I can't wait for the rest of the build.
I cant find the case that I want. There are hundreds of cases and not one! I dont want glass tempered -- or if it was put it on the other side to suit my table set up. I dont want coloured fans and lights I want some hard drive storeage and SSD as well And I want front IO ports with USB-C
I ran a mid-tower for years until I switched to a full tower in 2016 and that's all I've used since. I went with a Coolermaster Storm Trooper-windowed case. So much easier to build in with my extra large hands.
@@slaaneshgod HDD were my biggest PITA the ribbon of power connectors colored sata cables etc....just ruining the aesthetic/flow of the build...HDD cages/locations etc and plug access when trying to troubleshoot drives too....fkn nightmare. So glad i tore mine out and chose not to ever use a HDD again outside of external drives. Running an itx build got me used to it...then going back to fulll...and having to rip my cage out to fit a front mount arctic push pull 280. Had me happy i had rear panel 2.5" mounts tool less too...and a hinge back panel so i can access them with ease. Sometimes updates/bios/chipsets make certain programs run finicky which is nice having a duel boot system or a secondary drive i can just plug in to enable duel boot.
I have always had a soft spot for the classic old "Big towers" although i do miss the 5.25" drivebays in the newer models..I still love the look of them and would always prefer a big tower over a medium tower... Sadly there wasnt any affordable option for me to put my newest system in a big tower :(
@@bluephreakr the local "recycling street" has had my number for years :) they always contact me when they have some IT hardware that isnt obviously broken and/or in pieces :) Would not be the first time I would be able to pick up a fully functioning system.. I have repaired and rebuild many rigs for people that would otherwise not have any options
Phanteks still makes some pretty great full towers with a mixture of new features and support for 5.25" bays. My rig is housed inside their Enthoo Pro, and I couldn't be happier with it!
I've always had mid-towers, but I really think I'm going to switch to a mini-ITX for my next build. I like the look of a lot of those cases (the NZXT H1 v2 looks really nice). I was always worried I wouldn't be able to keep a SFF build cool enough, but I just started water cooling with my current build and am comfortable with it now. Once AM5 comes out, I will see how it compares to 12th gen and figure out which way to go.
I've usually had the big towers. Right now I'm considering building a secondary computer in the NZXT H1 v2. It looks really, really good imo. My primary computer is in a Fractal Define 7 XL though.
@@illyont I recently built my wife a computer in the Thermaltake Tower 100. It's a very nice case, and while not as small as the H1 it was my first forray. I want to do something smaller next haha. Have fun with it!
It’s cool if you have a small form factor lifestyle. I found being home with such small computers causes more headaches than admiration of a console sized PC.
I have the H1 V1 with a new riser, fan mods and a mini screen mod, and it’s amazing! I’m running a full balls to wall build (5800X + 3080) and it can most certainly handle it with decent temps. Though the Revolt 3, meshlicious and NR200P max are also great options! They’re cooler by 5-7c but don’t look as cool :p
I like my H1 a lot but I am switching to a lian li mid tower this month. I like to tinker with my PCs and the H1 is kind of a build it and don`t touch it kind of PC.
Well I'm in love with Phanteks Enthoo luxe. Just an overall great case. Four dust filters, FOUR 140mm fans (already routed with a fancomtroller), awesome airflow, great cable management, MASSIV tempered glass window, support 6 Harddrives and 4 ssds right of the bat. Also since it's Phanteks, it includes basically every type of screw you'll need for your build, even for a water cooled setup since they include two mounting brackets for a pump.. Recommended for sure!
I have two build, an ITX and mid tower. The ITX build is for playing VR in living room, so it make more sense to be blended in with the environment and be good-looking. The mid tower build is for daily use and the thing with mid tower ATX is you can use all 6 SATA slot for extra storage.
For my "gaming rig" I use midtower (if you can call a define 7 a midtower), and for my fileserver I choose the Define 7 XL. Both choices are made for the reason that I have to have enough room for my hands down there, and they are a size 11/12 glove, and stiff after some 35 years as a scaffolder. The Define 7 XL could today have been a Define 7 with miniturasation of HDD's but at the time of the build, some 2½ years ago, I needed the space for HDD's, running stripped and mirror'ed disks, as I'm the storrer of family photos and videos and failure is not an option.
I'm the storage guy for my family too. Redundant storage is essential. I have at least 3 copies of my family photos and videos at any given time, not including cloud storage that adds two more copies for the photos.
I've been running the cougar conquer for about 2 years, i love the look and amazing temps being open chassis, i am running a custom loop and have been wanting to go back to a regular case, i'm leaning towards the 5000D just because of the similar components in your builds.
Think I saw a cougar case called a "darkblade" or something along those lines. I was thinking of getting it because it seemed like it'd be very great for air flow and cooling. Glad to see someone else is liking a case from the same brand
I was really attracted to mid tower cases when I built my first PC in 2018. I’m all about SFF now. You can fit a high end cpu and gpu into such a small space and provide adequate cooling. Takes less space off your desk and make your space look super clean. SFF is convenient too as it is easier to travel with versus mid tower/full tower builds.
As someone who is considering the modern era and building a system since my last in 2002 (I think?), I'm grateful for this video and others you have done.
I am quite happy that I went with a mid tower….the right balance between space and weight. Mine has a mesh so I’ve been able to keep the system cool with air flow too.
I got all my pc parts today and I want someone to help me figure out what case to get u mind helping ?, I got a tuf gaming 660-plus wifi motherboard with a c7 12700,kranken x53 Rgb cooling system and a rtx 3070 ti gigabyte
There's 2 cases I've truly loved over years, NZXT Vulcan - the side was all grill, great Micro-ATX case. The other was Coolermaster's 935/915 combo - you could take 2 of the 915's and side mount radiators on each, keeping all your airflow/heat away from the main rig in the 935. Would really -really- love to see a refresh of that design!
I’ve been a big fan of ITX systems for some time (circa Shuttle XPCs) though I’ve had plenty of others too, but lately I’ve found a micro-ATX case that’s as small as many of the newer ITX cases, the Sama IM01 and it’s works well with micro-ATX or Mini-ITX boards, as well as ATX or SFX PSUs. Take a look at it.
I’ve been using ITX for about two years now. I’m only using my computer for gaming so I don’t really have to worry about cooling high a watt CPU and my case (FormD T1) is open enough to cool any GPU I can put in it. I really just like the challenge of building in some ITX cases and the amount of engineering that goes into them.
My recent build reuses the Phanteks Enthoo Pro (Limited Edition) I bought 3 years ago. This particular full tower had features I wanted.. namely lots of HDD/SSD bays, more than 1 ODD bay, removable filter screens for ease of cleaning, built-in cable management options behind the MB tray, and plenty of room for fans/air flow. It was also on sale at the time. The reasons I usually buy full towers: - I prefer internal storage rather than building a home server, and full/super towers tend to have more HDD bays. I also still use ODDs and prefer them to be internal as well. - Having the room to keep things internal cuts down on the potential clutter of cables needing to be routed to external devices. - As you showed in the video, full towers offer more room to fit rads & fans without interfering with MB connectors. I have been hesitant about putting water anywhere near these expensive parts, but my 5950X doesn't seem happy with an air cooler so that may change. - Having a full tower saves me from changing cases just because I change cooling methods. - Desk space isn't an issue for me so I don't feel a need for a smaller form factor.
This is why I went with the obsidian 1000D. I have 9 SSD's and 4 HDD's. I wanted a dual system capable tower so that I could host dedicated servers for what ever game my friends and I are playing at the time (ark, valheim, etc). Having 16 fans on the front all pulling in cool air means with that much airflow, the fans run at a lower RPM resulting in an almost silent obelisk beside my desk crammed to the gills with what ever I want to put in it.
I have the same case but the base (2014?) model and I bought it for the exact same reasons. I was shopping for features at the time and the Phanteks Enthoo Pro checkmarked every box. Also I wanted to be sure that an NHD15 would fit no compromises. The case has great default airflow and the ambient temps are very nice. I remember some OEMs having ridiculous ambient temps and I wanted to avoid that at all costs. The 200mm intake is just icing on the cake.
@@The_Man_In_Red My (correction: Special Edition) has the white interior and came with the Phanteks Halos RGB fan frames for the two 120mm fans in the front. Like you, I wanted a case that was wide enough to comfortably fit today's larger air coolers. I had no problems accommodating the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4.
videos like this are still interesting as you usually pick up something you might have not thought about or have forgotten. 2 years old and still relevant.
I use a full tower as my main build (or at least what was considered a full like a decade ago, it's the Azza Solano that you can't find anymore) because A) I use air cooling and more space for airflow = better and B) so I wouldn't have to worry as much about what could or couldn't fit in there. Good thing too since it just barely has enough space to fit my 6700 XT after I removed a couple of the front grill sections and kicked a fan forward. My backup/travel build is a mini-ITX that was specifically chosen because it fits in my backpack. It uses the Mastercase H100. Neat little piece of hardware.
I recently swapped to a new case and I wanted to go as with the smallest footprint I could where it was still ATX and could fit a 280mm radiator on top. Price and aesthetics were also a big consideration. I went with the 4000D Airflow because I like the boxy look of it but I was trying to avoid going to the slightly bigger 5000D.
One thing I noticed about cases was how hard it was to find a decent one with an ODD slot. It's like they died a death. That said, I've used a mid tower with an mATX board simply because it was a CPU-only system and running a larger chassis made for better airflow with less fans. Compared to a small form factor case - it runs a fair bit quieter.
For my new build, I fell in love with the Corsair 1000d right from the start when they showed it off at Computex. I knew that my next build had to be all or nothing kind of thing, so that's what I'm doing. The spec list is much too large to list here, but I'm very happy with the case. Now it's just a matter of having a funeral for my wallet.
I agree, I want to be able to expand and change components through time.. just look how big the new 40 series gpu's are. What do you have for cpu, gpu and Mobo?
Hey thanks for the video! What I learned is full tower is better for space in any build, mid tower is just smaller for looks if that’s your personal preference great video thank you
I just built a old school full tower Thermaltake Core V71. Replaced the 200mm fans with Noctua's, it has removable storage bays, I removed all but 2. With 3 SSD's in bays, 1 in the back panel, 4 NVMe's on the motherboard I have ample storage for video editing. The huge fans and Noctua CPU cooler keep the rig cool and quiet at all times.
One of my favorite form factors now is mATX (with the right case). You get a lot of the benefits of ITX with less compromise to airflow for your GPU. My favorite case for this is the Silverstone PS15.
Just finished my custom loop in a 5000x. ATX mobo, 3080, 240 reservoir, 2 360 rads, 10 fans plus rigid PETG tubing. It fits really well. Well enough that I went with an overcomplicated loop order for aesthetic (res>rad>gpu>rad>cpu>res). The case fits alot more than it looks like and it fills out really nicely. I had a 4000x with my components in it before while it was on air and comparison wise, the length between the both cases arent that different. The extra height gives alot more space than it looks!
your iFixit skit should be on TV because honestly you make a way more entertaining commercial interruption then 99.9 percent of all American and Canadian TV commercial providers
My AeroCool Xpredator cube was the smallest cube (with horizontal mobo) that I could buy and still easily fit all my components, footprint is large, airflow is only decent and the windows is relatively small and made out of cheap plastic (it's an old case) but is exactly what I needed, I tried a Zalman Z3 in the past with a more standard design and it was terrible.
prefer larger case for more modern builds and tend to favor airflow, been using corsair carbide 400r mid tower in past 3 builds but do really enjoy smaller cases for older/low heat output parts or anything that could be considered retro
exactly and in reality you still have to "set" yourself up for upgrade path if its ultimately the intent of the end user to have a"better" pc tomorrow. The best they can do to "SHAVE" costs towards those upgrades is a tower that has enough room for a bigger gpu/airflow.....buy a bigger/better psu outright instead of 2 down the road via gpu upgrade.....and a good mainboard that will subplant proper power/performance via vrm and said "better" psu once a larger core/power envelope or unlocked cpu is upgraded...then that eliminates having to buy a new board an potentially "faster" ram....once "upgrade" bridge is crossed....or else most ppl building "budget" oriented builds will have to buy a new cpu/psu/gpu/ram which really doesnt justify the "budget" build in the first place...im talking strictly ppl with intent of upgrading or upgrading once they generate a lil more income....Id suggest to them waiting 1-2m into purchasing in order to add those "FUNDS" towards a better mainboard/ram/psu. Bc at least even with a non k cpu...they can run xmp/oc ram, also tweak their turbo boost duration etc on intel up until upgrade time. If i have samaller or less....my gpu upgrade then becomes limited to pcb size....and cpu may need a custom loop to cool bc of upgrading...especially in the case of ITX/sff. There really isnt any money saved if some of these ppl that didnt plan their build right wind up having to buy double of half ther parts/builds bc of bottlenecks etc with a gpu upgrade. With added emphasis on PSU quality/performance and vrm/board quality.
I use mid towers in most of my small business system builds. My favorite cases are the Lian Li Lancool II and NZXT H440 in white. I build everything myself. My main two systems are an R9-5950X, ASUS ROG X570, 128GB, RTX-3080 and an i7-6950X, ASUS ROG X99, 64GB, RTX-2060. There are various other systems of various ages.
As an owner of a 5000d and 27" monitor, I think we have different definitions of "Plenty of space". lol Great case to build in though. The arctic liquid freezer 360 didn't fit because it hit the MOBO heatsinks. Pulled the top panel off to remove the dust filter, only to find passthroughs for the fan cables. I thought I was going to have to use the rad as an intake for a minute. That little detail was most excellent. medium he says... lol
I also have the 5000D and I hated building in it. 3x front Fans, 3x side Fans, 280 liquid freezer in the top. That AIO alone is a huge pain in the ass and there is no way to fit the rad fully inside the case. And using the top 3 Fan slots + 3 side Fan slots is a huge fckup. Nothing has proper space, there are no cable routing options and there is literally no way to comfortably get the front fans wired to the backside. Also no space to work with. The 5000D has some big flaws IMO
@@maxzett Why do you use the motherboard tray for 3 fans? Doesn't that create vortexes inside your case? I thought you would always want a direct airflow from either bottom to top or front to top and backside.
@@maxzett Ah I see, yeah I guess that wouldn't impact direct airflow so much and provide decent cooling for the radiator. Going to look up some videos. I want to build in this 5000d airflow.
@@gambino883 be aware the panels take a disconcerting amount of force to open. Other clips also have..... strong retention. Lots of cable straps. You almost have to put more effort into poor cable management it's that easy. Not tons of routing options but it's great in comparison to others in the price range. Corsair or lian li cases seem to be my favorite to build in
Years ago, when every feature that you wanted to add to a PC required an expansion card, ATX boards made sense. I'm talking about back when if you wanted your PC to be networkable, you had to add a network card. If you wanted it to have sound, you had to add a sound card. And of course if you wanted it to display anything, you had to add a graphics card. Oh, and with dial-up Internet, you had to add a modem as well. Nowadays most of those features are already provided by the motherboard (graphics too, if you use a processor with integrated graphics). Also, with the availability of USB 3.0, the vast majority of peripherals connect via USB and don't require their own expansion card either. So, while I would have said "no" to ITX in the past because of the limited expansion options, I said "yes" to ITX for my last build, which used the same Define Nano S that Jay used back in 2016 (I would have gone with the Torrent Nano if that was available when I built it last year). The only issue with the ITX boards is if you manage to damage the PCIE slot, you don't have a spare one on the board to use, but how often does that happen? :-).
Mini ITX is just a trend. Upgrade, maintenance, cable management, airflow %90 of the time is limited. I don't even mention SFF. My current build is in a mid-tower case. Next time I'm gona use something bigger.
Yeah, there are always compromises on cooling, price and expandability. Still the arrival of large M.2s and SSDs has made this form factor possible for the people who only need one pcie card. Its not for me though: I have multiple hard drives and SSDs, M-Disk drive, high airflow system with the capability to add in more stuff whenever I want. I do not need to consider space: if it is a PC component, it will fit.
I build an entire new pc purely because of sff. I had so much fun getting all the custom wires and making everything fit perfect all while being so simple.
I moved from a cougar panzer max to Cooler Master Master Case Master Block Master Q500L, simply, so I could carry my PC around as I have been using it at LANs. Just for ease of use and I'm exceptionally happy with that change.
Double tower. You take two full towers, cut out the bottom of one and the top of the other, weld them together, then run 2 CPUs in CPU-SLI with quad video cards. It's able to run Pong in 84,000 FPS.
Threadripper times two 👀
Oddly specific. hehehe
@Matuse Super slow-mo Pong videos never looked so smooth!!
Many years ago I actually did a double tower build, but side by side rather than on top..
Left side was a conventional style mid-tower with 3x GPUs, loaded up with HDDs and all the water cooling going into the back wall, through to the other side.
Right side was another of the same case but effectively hollowed out and the window moved to the outside, and this one housed the PSU, radiators, pump/res
Imagine a LianLi PC-08, but much uglier and not very practical
Thermaltake makes a case (W200 I believe) that should be able to do just that.
Anyone remember when we filled the front half of tower cases with DRIVES? Instead of fans, guys would have like 6 CD/ DVD drives on the front of their case?
Case Reviews are also good because there are so few actual Brick and Mortar computer stores where we can get a good look at cases and their size, and all the little caveats in person.
Is that not the true, I miss Frys, I which there was a Microcenter near me.
That's what we get for shopping online to save $20 on a build.
@@UnknownMoses I assume you are in Phoenix
Glad I've got two microcenters and a b&h nearby 😎
To me mid towers are still the sweet spot.
Good amount of room where you aren't shoe horning components in while still been small enough to place on or below the desk.
Have a look at compact mATX if you're looking for a proper sweet spot of small size vs minimal constraints on components.
@@ryanokeefe12 Matx is the sweet spot for most people. But those of us who are strapped for budget have to buy the motherboard which is cheapest, size regardless, and select a cheap or used case for it, not the other way around.
@@curvingfyre6810 Hence why I said mATX is the sweet spot for smaller form factor.. mITX is far more expensive than mATX.
Small midtower's are nice.
Or just buy a super size atx tower and use THAT as your desk?
My favorite case is the CoolerMaster HAF932.
It's a massive case that I bought in 2009 for my first gen i5 processor. I purchased it because I wanted good airflow for hardcore WoW raiding during BC. Larger fan = less rpm = less noise.
I settled on an ITX build because I’m tight on space and while there are a number of things to keep in mind it’s really crazy how much you can fit into such a small enclosure. You don’t have to make many sacrifices as far as hardware goes.
I like ITX builds. But, you pay a premium for the form factor. Especially for optimized, boutique cases.
Can confirm.
N200
3090 FE
12900k
280mm aio
And 4 other fans
So much in such a small package.
It's easy to cool (air or water) a 3080 and 5900x in a Nr200p at this point and that's a very easy size to work with. Not too big, not too small.
I'm looking at building an ITX build, myself, specifically for a home server, used for media serving, and data backup, but in a different version than what most would think of. What's different, is that I want to put it into a 1999 iMac bubble Mac AIO machine, which is currently gutted, including getting rid of the CRT monitor from the inside, to make more room for the components, and more room for less heat as well, while attaching a portable monitor to the front... Also, it'll probably be an AMD APU build, so that'll help as well, with the heat, as there won't be an extra graphics card putting heat into the system... It will look crappy on the outside, I'm sure, since it's an old machine, that doesn't look shiny like in the pictures, but at least it's a good test machine, to see if the idea might work, after which I can get something like the see-through graphite version, instead of the current one which is a see through blue color, which I don't specifically like
Wallet
Compact mATX cases are a great size imo. Still gives you decent options for components that fit in the case. Easy to work with compared to SSF builds. Light enough to carry/transport easily. Good middle ground between Mid Tower and SFF.
SSF builds don't have to be difficult to work with, just chose a decent case rather than try to cram everything into half the area of a shoe box.
@@jameslewis2635 true but building something powerful and crammed in a small package like the geeek a30 or velka 5 can be very fun to build if you don't mind the challenge
Trouble is that good mATX boards are getting pretty hard to find. It is sadly falling out of favour.
@@philallen7626 that's what I thought as well but the recent z690m mobos are promising
Thing is it can also be quite hard to find a compact case that’s only slightly bigger than itx that would fit an matx board. the only one I have seen that would tick the most boxes imo is the meshify c
15:00 - Now I sort of want to see Jay put four or more ITX boards into a single case that size. Bonus points for cooling all CPUs and GPUs with a single loop.
a lan party in one case
@@ThePlacemat Four gamers, one case.
Or two gamers, one streaming computer, one server host.
If love to see where he puts all those power supplies. Sounds like a cool build
and only use sff parts
I bet he will do it! He has enough stuff around to make a great content video and thinking of it might be usefull in day to day use like i sometimes use 2 computers at the same desk ..hmm typing this i think i just got gived myself a ideea for saving space...
Full Size all the way! Plenty of room for everything!!
Running a ITX system in a Velka 3-like case mainly for the portability. I'm on the move a lot right now so being able to fit the whole system into a backpack has been super handy. The entire system is only a little bigger than the ITX motherboard itself moving this thing around is incredibly easy (You can pick it up with one hand, It's smaller than a PS5 or Series X!)
Please do a thirty second video on it!
Are you also really tiny IRL?
@@CODA96 Why yes I am how did you know? :)
@@Landjrin It was the first image popping up in my mind, some gnome holding an ITX System in his hands, which just looks normal sized for everyone else 🤣
@@CODA96XDD
I've always favored mid-tower cases. Big enough to grow and allow for good airflow, but not so big moving it is a chore.
This right here, not too big and not too small. Easy to work with and plenty big enough for good airflow. The Goldilocks of PC cases.
Agree! I can never understand why people choose huge full-tower cases when they barely have any thermal benefits over mid-towers.
@T.C. B Agreed. I went with an mATX case, specifically the thermaltake s100, because it is white and tempered glass and like you say; big enough to hold what I needed and fairly portable, it was also within my budget and fairly cheap actually.
Moving my 5000D Airflow is definitely a chore... Another build I did in a Compact mATX case was a breeze to transport though.
@@tars3249 I love how easy it is to move around the mATX cases.
My first build was in a mid, my second one in a full tower. But lately I fell in love with sff builds. It´s more challenging but also more practical. And it feels like a huge success when you managed to fit your custom loop in the tiny case and every cm is utilized.
I built my first computer when I was 13 in 1997, the only thing I didn't do that my dad did was install the CPU. My second computer in 2002 is the only desktop I have ever purchased that I didn't build myself. That was a Dell Dimension 8200 pentium 4, geforce 4 TI 4800, top of the line then lol. Besides a laptop, netbook, and tablet I have built all of my computers and a couple friends computers. Having wasted all that time, I am very interested in buying one of those tiny computers by beelink or NUC or something. It would never be my gaming rig, but man are they small with very impressive hardware and able to upgrade ram and storage.
"but also more practical"
How is a smaller case that is more challenging "more practical"? My view of practical / practicality involve convenience, usefulness and sensibility. Being limited on component choice, component placement and cooling when compared to other form factors, I don't see building in SFF as being practical. Fun, challenging, interesting, sure, but not practical.
@@racerex340 Practical is a very subjective word. Maybe they are living in a tighter space or maybe they travel and bring their machine with them. Yes, there is not much expandability but not everyone needs that.
@@i_am_macgyver84 I think I was being a little pedantic.
I get the appeal, but I'm all about dual chamber cube cases now. Just buy parts and put them in without concern of running out of space or future expandability. Also, I've always put my cases on the floor or on a low shelf under the desk. Also, also, the cube shape is easy to lug around and can chill riding in the passenger seat without much fuss.
I got a super large Phanteks 719 case that Phil's using because I love jamming a crap tonne of rads in my rig so I can run my fans at barely audible speed even under heavy impractical loads. Utilising even the mini-itx space at the bottom of the case for an additional radiator stack I managed to fit 2x 480, 1x 360, 1x 240 and 1x 120 rads plus a set of dual d5 serial pumps in there to keep flow rate up through so many components and travel distance. Ironically GPU coil whine became the loudest noise coming from my rig under load 🤣
Having three Corsair 1000D's I can safely say that you really don't need that many rads for a dead silent build. It sounds sick though!
I've always been too much of a chicken to build a custom loop...
My newest gaming rig case is the Corsair 5000D mid-tower. CPU is water cooled by an AIO but my RTX 3090 Strix is fan cooled, yet all I hear is the card whining.
I did change all fans except the GPU to run at ~800 RPM unless shit's getting toasty and I never really hear them. Even with a custom quite fan curve my i9-12900K stays cool enough during stress testing.
@@m4ster_root Yeah you're right the cooling is way overkill even for a silent build. But it's fun to design and build nonetheless. I have a 3090 with active backplate to watercool the back of pcb vram modules, plus a 5950x of a CPU, and the thermal paste is now the bottleneck in terms of cooling lol.
Yeah can't solve the coil whine. I limit fps when gaming to my monitor's max refresh rate so it doesn't always run at full power that seems to help just a little.
Edit: You might want to also keey an eye out on the VRAM temp if you run your GPU at low fan speed. RTX 3090 is notorious for having hot VRAM at the back of the PCB.
@@m4ster_root with regards to custom loops start with soft tubing. And old parts
I've got a Thermaltake View 71 with dual 420mm rad loops (1 loop for CPU, 1 loop for GPU). It's pretty quiet and even when the fans ramp it's just a gentle whooshing sound. It weighs a TONNE with all that glass and water, though.
I’m just sad that of nearly all the cases available nowadays, very few (if any, anymore) have at least one external bay for CD drives. Sure I might be old-school and everything is downloaded nowadays, but I still like having the option of being able to toss in a CD for music ripping of that brand new album you just picked up, or throwing in a movie that’s not got a streaming option, or even install an older disk-based game!
Another reason for the popularity of case review videos, from my perspective at least, is that they are an opportunity to showcase physical innovation. Compared with performance reviews of other components (CPUs and GPUs predominantly) there's something really interesting about cases and water-cooling builds/tutorials because they offer up something visual, physical and tactile in terms of new features and different ways of doing things, rather than just looking at comparative numbers.
Yeah, CPU and GPU innovations (at the layman's level) basically consist of "number go up".
Mini itx is definitely getting more popular. I even switched over. Something about powerful hardware in such a small package
I've long been a fan of mATX.
i'm running a 4000d airflow because it takes up the room i have for a pc on my desk while fitting my components and cooling them extremely well :)
i'm obsessed with airflow and fan setups so it was very important to me that i had a case that could accommodate what i had in mind in terms of cooling , and i got it for like 80 bucks too so it was the right price for me
I moved from a smaller mATX case (Antec NX200M) to a mid-tower (Corsair 4000D Airflow White) because I wanted more than 2 M.2 slots. It really changed how well my system runs. It is bigger and more bulky but the increased space and the ease of building is welcome!
Although the recently released ASUS AP201 case makes me wanna go back to mATX. 😓🤣😭
Antec NX200M is a amazing case!
I'm also getting the 4000d but I'm not sure if the 4070 ti will fit in the case with my z790
Buying things like a Case or PSU, just 'because'. The reasons? You can stock pile them until you are ready to complete the build. (unlike the Motherboard CPU and Graphics card over lrisk of losing warranty period) You can be reasonably sure the case you buy, wont become obsolete, sitting on the shelf.
Matx is my go to and im happy to see manufacturers make z690 versions since they got shafted during the previous generations.
Extremely helpful ! After two full tower (HAF) builds I thought about going to mid-tower, but after watching this I think now I will stay with full tower. Now just have to find what I feel is the best full tower that doesn't cost me $800 !
Have you found a good full tower?
Yes, I went with a Fractal Torrent. Awesome case !@@awesomeruben
I remember my first PC - where i installed windows 95 through a ton of floppy disks - was bigger than any of those cases. And i LOVED IT!! Took 15min to boot but I loved it.
Come 2022 and I only like mini ITX.
yea those super tall cases were called MAXI cases... and there were MIDI and MINI -= well that's how I was taught :)
Was it a Chieftec CS 901 by chance?
I have still its predecessor with three holes cnc-milled in the top. Yes, it was for a 360 rad. 😁
Nowadays I going towards sff-builds with good airflow.
3.5 disks were not called floppy disks. That name was reserved for the 5.25 disks. The 3.5 were called diskettes.
Hell I remember the old punch cards and 8 inch disks we had to use. Fun times indeed.
I hate having to buy new computer cases every time you upgrade because a new gpu or other component doesnt fit my old case. So one decade ago i decided to spend a little more and bought an ultra tower. Guess what? i never had to change case again! and probably never will! this shit is lit, you can even live inside it.
27 kg .... oh, I think I exaggerated with my old pc, it weighed 41 kg (no glass, CM HAF-X). Perhaps the reason was the 2x 560mmx80mm push / pull radiators that I placed on top of the case ^^ .....COOLEST pc im my town, project red scorpion
Last 3 builds I've done have gotten smaller and smaller. Most recent was Q58 with 11700 (w/ 240 Galahad AIO) and 3060 and temps have been great and it's very quiet.
I love my Thermaltake View 71 and there's a sense of pride when everyone I know says it's the biggest computer they've ever seen. All the space to come up with a variety of cooling/fan setups along with lighting themes is awesome. I can't go back to mid towers for my main build. I could see myself doing a small form factor or mid tower for a secondary PC to play with though.
Its easy to answer, based on Cost? If you're outside the US? *Mid tower*
Smaller doesn't = cheaper with Mini ITX. Since Mid Towers are basically the standard, all parts are mass produced. So what often ends up happening is the cheapest Mini ITX board is more expensive than ATX with less features. US prices don't apply anywhere but the US
Agreed. The ITX case options at reasonable prices has come a long way. SFX power supplies are at a bit of a premium, but got damned the boards are ridiculous. I'd love to build a simple little 12300k iGPU rig for a minecraft server but the cheaper board for it is basically still an enthusiast board and coast way more then the processor. Makes it impossible to justify
Build a PC they said. It'll be fun (it is). Already eyed the parts I need.
Now for the casing ... Holy hell! So many to choose from 😅😅😅😅
if you're still looking for a case i can't recommend the phanteks enthoo 719 enough. absolutely massive, high quality, slick as hell looking and for a gigantic case it's reasonably priced too
I had wanted an itx system since I got into pcs around 2014. At the time there weren't too many cases that appealed to me, but last year I got a SSUPD Meshlicious and a new system to go in it. I've loved it ever since, it's great to keep on my desk, and easy enough to take to my friend's house without too much hassle.
Nice, always have wanted a small case then new computer time comes and I buy some stupid large tower, small is cool.
I have a Silverstone RVZ01. I first built it in 2014. I liked it so I built in in again. Its not flashy, but I like that I can put it behind my monitor and it doesn't take up any more space on my desk. I feel like these days, unless you are going really high spec and plan to overclock etc., mini ITX is all you need.
Sorry it's an old comment. Is your itx water cooled or air?
@Ivan Nierez it's watercooled. I managed to fit a 280mm aio in it. Works pretty well
Tiny. Rebuilt my rig in a Cooler Master NR200P a while ago, overall really like that case. With a rear 92-mm fan as intake and tuning the voltage-frequency curve and max power of my 5800X the rig is crazy efficient and quiet.
Do you recommend that case? Because I just discovered them the other day and Amazon has a gorgeous Hot pink one and I'm in the process of building a PC and I have a Corsair carbide Delta mid tower which I'm sure will be nice when I actually get to installing everything (waiting for a GPU 🤦🏼♀️) but I saw those cases and I really liked the look and now I'm thinking about going to an itx build.
@@YouMadBr0Br0 In principle I do recommend it, yeah! It is relatively small compared to something like a Fractal Design Define Nano S, so it can be a little bit finnicky to build in, but in general it worked well for me. One thing I do remember was having a bit of trouble mounting my 2.5" SSD on the PSU bracket, but that wasn't major. Double-check your cooler height, though! I had to change my Noctua U12S for a L12s that I will be kitting with a NF-A12x25 for more air flow.
I have two 120-mm intake fans at the bottom blowing straight into the GPU, one (filtered) 92-mm rear intake with a RPM-reducer cable getting some extra air to the CPU and then two top exhausts. Also using the tempered glass sidepanel. I might recommend an SFX-L PSU because of their lower fan RPMs, if you care about noise.
"rear 92-mm fan as intake" this is mind blowing to me. I have 23 fans in my case not including CPU/GPU fans. 3 of which are 120mm, 20 are 140mm :D
I have an ultra super mega tower case (thermaltake core w200) and it's 2 PC's in 1 haha. Also it's near impossible to cable manage. Omfg it's hard. I need about a dozen cable extensions to cable manage properly and NO. I already spent as much on the case as I did fans and fan controllers. Bottom/front fans in, top/back fans out.
It's big enough to BE my desk.
@@taxa1569 Sounds like you need a separate PSU for just your fans 😂
@@taxa1569 I should perhaps clarify that I also have 2x120 mm as intake on the bottom and also as exhaust up top, it's just that I use the rear 92-mm spot for intake rather than exhaust, because otherwise the CPU would have to breathe GPU exhaust only.
Top priority for me in a case is cooling/airflow, then the build quality and features, finally aesthetics. Aesthetics includes how the components will "fit" in the case. If there is too much room left over or too little, that, for me is an aesthetic concern as well as a cooling concern. I have generally opted for mid-tower cases.
Thank you for covering this Topic Jay!
I work in Data Science and really needed to build a multi GPU machine that could work without watercooling
I wish this video existed when I was trying to find the right tower for my build
Phanteks cases !
If it your 1st PC, need the largest case. If you are PC Power User, look for a ITX case!😊
Full/Super towers are my jam. Mid are good too, but the large ones still invoke nostalgia to me from seeing the beige monsters sitting under desks or on a very sturdy desk/table from back in the day. Still niche use cases for the big ones just like mentioned in the video, plus those were AT and not ATX which means a lot more expansion cards for things that just weren't integrated into the motherboards yet, so you needed bigger cases to hold all of it. My biggest issue with modern cases is the fad of RGB and glass. I'd love to see more professional looking cases make a comeback even if it's black or white for the color vs silver, grey, and beige.
Same here,large and bulky cases rules!
Yes, I love the large in your face cases.
I always go with the big towers for several reasons:
1. It's much easier to reach everything when building your system and you'll never run into the problem of having to cram in parts / cables.
2. Airflow. More air means better cooling because the closer together various parts are, the more heat will build up inside the case.
3. Space for the 38 mm thick push / pull configuration 360 cooler. It just doesn't fit in a midi tower.
4. Space for 3 fans and still have space left over for a fan controller and a all in one media hub. I just like having a display for my temps and lots of I/O at the front.
5. It's just more impressive than a small case because of all the neat stuff you can cram in it, all the lights and the sheer size.
Do you have any recommendations for big towers?
@@geeker9545 The Xigmatek Elysium is my favorite for big hydro cooling builds because it can fit a double thick 420 mm CPU radiator with 6 fans and a 360 or 480 mm radiator for the GPU.
For my latest build I got a Fractal Pop Air XL with a 280 mm CPU cooler and that is a great case if you want something that's around the 100 dollar mark with good airflow that already has fans build into it, but it is limited to a 280 mm cooler.
GamersNexus has a lot of case reviews and a playlist for it so I would recommend looking at that if you want to see how much space there is inside a case and how easy it is to fit big coolers and graphic cards.
I've historically gone with full tower cases because I wanted to future proof as best as I could, and often had lots of 3.5" hard drives. My latest build is a mid tower (Corsair 570x crystal). I love that case but miss the extra space. Especially now that I just finished a CPU/GPU custom loop. Ditto for the cable management on the back. Not enough space.
Yep had the same problem went from Full Tower to Mid + Custom Loop and it wasnt enough space (IMO) to proberly hide and organize all the mess. Went for Full Tower again.
Recently I've been going for SFF builds as I like the small footprint. I also enjoy the challenge of building a decently powered gaming rig in them. My current build is a custom loop in a Meshlicious with a 5600x and a 6900 XT. It all manages to be kept cool with a Corsair XR5 280mm radiator with 2 x Noctua 140mm fans.
Maingear makes the best small pcs
all ive learned in my experience is...unless youre gaming in 4k....where a 12400 is a great NEW solution that is budget oriented towards affording a 4k capable gpu....Any other cpu...like a k series or zen3....will require a custom loop for ideal thermals and clocks...to actually get the most out of the GPU. Or else theres a fall off point. Where cost comes into play be it VIA custom loop or generally A good performing SFX psu like corsair. Where you wouldnt need that level of PSU/12v performance with a 100-150w gpu or a non OC heavy oc oriented cpu. The second i try to incorporate a 200w+ gpu or a high boosting cpu into the equation on a duel load...it gets troublesome/expensive to remedy. As fun as it is to build and benchmark.
My current case is 22 years old lol. I've had to cut out the case multiple times to fit new video cards and it's a 11 bay mid tower server case lol. I wonder if it's time to change out my 22 year old case? ;)
I've always been a mid tower fan, but for the Mame table top cabinet I'm building, the small case will work great.. And with Mame, the most basic hardware will do.
gotta love MAME. I'd like to build myself an arcade cabinet, but unfortunately don't have the room.
When I did my first build, I went with a super tower because I was worried about parts not fitting. Phantex P500A is a great airflow case though so it works.
I’m all about the small form factor cases now personally. Maybe I’d consider going up to mATX, but I love the little ITX motherboards and cases! You can pack so much into them!
Superior SFFPC!
I went the opposite direction. I started with a Raven 2 and now I have a mid-tower.
I've went with an ITX build myself, although I have limited desk space I felt like the extra volume in my Lian Li Lancool 2 mesh case would help with the the cooling and for future upgrading of components, would really love a mini ITX build but think I would only go down that route if it could be water cooled....and I win the lottery 🤣
My first build was a mid tower. Now I just completed a build in the A4-H2O, and I gotta day, it's nice being able to put it on my desk without wasting too much space, and I feel comfort knowing I've user all the space available to me without sacrificing thermals.
My new build is a Fractal Design Torrent with Corsair H170i Cappelix. Monstrous cooling performance!
It's cool to see that the OG glass tubing system is still around, I just built in that case this year after remembering that video. One of the few ITX cases that would fit my 280 and 240 AIO on my CPU and GPU.
Now I wanna see what's the biggest case you can put the smallest parts in, and what the performance issues would be. Given the space, a massive case with tiny parts and not fussed about a performance hit would make for some interesting themed interiors.
Hit nail on the head, like placing a fresh coat of paint on an older ok system.
Recently treated myself to an 011D Air Mini, had better airflow which was in itself an upgrade over my old black box.
Previously had an old Fractal Design with the sound dampening padding inside, found airflow was much worse that fans had to spin higher to over come it and made the panelling pointless. 🙂
Another important thing to think about is that there would be more ways that dust can get inside your tower if you chose a large case compared to medium or small. Be prepared to clean out dust more often with a large case.
filters out the wazoo, positive air flow, and place it in an easily accessible spot.
Might be worth to mention that SSF cases tend to get more expensive than regular and sometimes even large cases. In addition, if you want to try an ITX/SSF build, you have to plan your build ahead as cables will be your worst enemy.
sff
I went full compact, started out with an H500 but decided quickly it just was too big. Moved into a Sliger Console a couple years ago but I recently got an EVGA 3060 Ti so I can go even smaller. I just purchased a Densium 4+ about a week ago (they should start shipping next month). Having an R5 5600X and a 3060 Ti in a sub 5L case will be awesome for the LAN parties I still regularly go to.
i swear with each gen leap it amazes me how much YIELD they get out of that small of a PCB/power envelope.... my buddy has a 2 fan 3060 and i just blows me away that it accomplishes with 170w compared to the 150w 1070 they sold to upgrade. Hell even laptops with their 120-140w "big boi" gpus have proven how well these various newer gpus operate compared to previous gen.....right up to the desktop cards...talking sub power level operation like 50% or less..or scenarios where you add a frame cap to a game....watching how my 3070 strix runs vs the 2080ti strix it replaced(at a considerably less cost). With the same frame caps across various pve/single player titles....way less watts overall and insanely better thermals/noise. I bet youre pretty stoked on that 5L build its power and noise of operation too withthose frame yields. IT really is just amazing to benchmark on a system that small and quiet vs what a 2070 or 2070S would be like in ITX. As if the pcb would even be small enough.
Why are you so obsessed with going small on a desktop? Its not a laptop. It just stays under your desk for years and no one is going to regularly see your "cute and small" system.
@@angrysocialjusticewarrior true, why do you care? pls elaborate. if you have nothing to add other than blatant general knowledge Go post this on some SFF vids see if you gain anymore knowledge about something you have no interest in since its worth your time...OOOOOH Senpai my bad DID you want me to care back my bad G>.< so sorry youre BIG D pc is so Gangster g. Its under your desk and nobody looks at it and it goes bleep bloop the end
@@angrysocialjusticewarrior If you read what I said, I do regularly attend LAN parties, people do see my small build. I like that it's small enough to fit in a backpack.
I prefer a full tower, though when building me last PC the deciding factor was room for an optical drive
You still play older games on physical media, or what is that optical drive for?
@@MrShadow1617 games on physical media, music and video on physical media, and also burning a disc from time to time.
Mostly it's for nostalgia though.
@@matthewparker9276 I do it for archival purposes
I got a bluray drive, because I forgot that the Bluray Disc Association seems to think that just because you paid for the disc, and the reader, doesn't mean you're not some filthy pirate, so fork over for those aacs keys too, which makes playing brurays a pain in the arse.
@@TailsGuy72 yeah, having an optical backup of finished creations is a nice peace of mind option to have in storage.
I was glad to see the Nano S in your lineup. I did a Ryzen 3700x build in one a couple of years ago with a full size graphics card, air cooled, which I'm still using. I think the Nano S is the right compromise for my needs. I prefer it to my mid-tower build because it has as much muscle with far greater portability, yet no extreme limitations like some of the tiny ITX cases on the market.
Does anyone have an opinion on who builds the best case? I have used Fractal Designs, and so far I am very impressed -- but not an expert by any means. 😀
It really is as subjective as it gets. So long as it has enough space, some ability for cable management and enough ways to move air through. It doesn't matter that much and one is better picking based on aesthetics as depending on where you place it. You may be looking at it repeatedly for years to come.
I personally have started to gravitate more towards smaller systems that can still fit components like atx. So i'm probably going for a O11 mini like case, even if it would cause Jay to loudly sigh at another dual-chamber case build entering this world... ^^;
@@Foxhood Thanks for your reply. Have a great day!
As someone that modded the hell out of his mid tower one to fit more components that it should, I really get the use of a full tower or a super tower with shitloads of space. Im actually on a sunked cost situation because I already modded my chassis, but when the 4000 series gets launched, im 100% sure im going to use one of those phantek gargantuan 2 system chassis just for ease of cable management.
I have a Meshify S2, so a kinda between medium to small case. That's perfect for me right now, it fits full size ATX and 360mm aio without wasting too much space like a regular mid-size
I went full tower with my last build. I spent a lot of time looking at cases because I wanted future-proofing and the ability to add watercooling in the future. I had my last case for 12 years so I wanted another case that would last several years.
12 years is solid, dude. I'm with you: I pick out cases that I know will last a decade.
What full tower you picked?
I went Fractal Design R6 when I did my build at the end of 2018 as I wanted a case that allowed me to put an ATX board inside it while also keeping it within the height restriction I had for where my system would be at the time. I also liked how deep the case was as it has now proven it can fit a EVGA 3080 without interfering with any potential storage drives I might add plus it had a 5.25 bay so I could keep a disc drive for now.
ive got the same case curently but removed all the main HDD drives (using m.2 drives). opened up the case so much and allowed for much better airflow. granted i also have a front mounted 280mm corsair aio
Fractal Design Big tower here too, theyre fairly priced and you can fit anything in there
Just had delivered the HAF 700 EVO. I am going from an 8 year old HAF X. The X was big but the 700 is about a 1/3 bigger. I can't wait for the rest of the build.
I cant find the case that I want.
There are hundreds of cases and not one!
I dont want glass tempered -- or if it was put it on the other side to suit my table set up.
I dont want coloured fans and lights
I want some hard drive storeage and SSD as well
And I want front IO ports with USB-C
I ran a mid-tower for years until I switched to a full tower in 2016 and that's all I've used since. I went with a Coolermaster Storm Trooper-windowed case.
So much easier to build in with my extra large hands.
I have the same tower and also hate cramped building.
@@slaaneshgod HDD were my biggest PITA the ribbon of power connectors colored sata cables etc....just ruining the aesthetic/flow of the build...HDD cages/locations etc and plug access when trying to troubleshoot drives too....fkn nightmare. So glad i tore mine out and chose not to ever use a HDD again outside of external drives. Running an itx build got me used to it...then going back to fulll...and having to rip my cage out to fit a front mount arctic push pull 280. Had me happy i had rear panel 2.5" mounts tool less too...and a hinge back panel so i can access them with ease. Sometimes updates/bios/chipsets make certain programs run finicky which is nice having a duel boot system or a secondary drive i can just plug in to enable duel boot.
I don't have big hands and I only use full because it is just easier to work with. I had the coolnaster storm trooper window too.
I have always had a soft spot for the classic old "Big towers" although i do miss the 5.25" drivebays in the newer models..I still love the look of them and would always prefer a big tower over a medium tower...
Sadly there wasnt any affordable option for me to put my newest system in a big tower :(
Keep in touch with E-waste recyclers and landfills. You could probably save an older case with 5.25" bays before they get tossed into landfill.
@@bluephreakr the local "recycling street" has had my number for years :) they always contact me when they have some IT hardware that isnt obviously broken and/or in pieces :)
Would not be the first time I would be able to pick up a fully functioning system.. I have repaired and rebuild many rigs for people that would otherwise not have any options
@@Mr3ppozz The local council tip here won't give you anything, but that's a really good idea.
i was a big fan of the cm stacker and cosmos S.....and Yep the price was already out of my price range not to mention populating those fan slots.
Phanteks still makes some pretty great full towers with a mixture of new features and support for 5.25" bays. My rig is housed inside their Enthoo Pro, and I couldn't be happier with it!
I've always had mid-towers, but I really think I'm going to switch to a mini-ITX for my next build. I like the look of a lot of those cases (the NZXT H1 v2 looks really nice). I was always worried I wouldn't be able to keep a SFF build cool enough, but I just started water cooling with my current build and am comfortable with it now. Once AM5 comes out, I will see how it compares to 12th gen and figure out which way to go.
I've usually had the big towers. Right now I'm considering building a secondary computer in the NZXT H1 v2. It looks really, really good imo. My primary computer is in a Fractal Define 7 XL though.
@@illyont I recently built my wife a computer in the Thermaltake Tower 100. It's a very nice case, and while not as small as the H1 it was my first forray. I want to do something smaller next haha. Have fun with it!
It’s cool if you have a small form factor lifestyle. I found being home with such small computers causes more headaches than admiration of a console sized PC.
I have the H1 V1 with a new riser, fan mods and a mini screen mod, and it’s amazing! I’m running a full balls to wall build (5800X + 3080) and it can most certainly handle it with decent temps. Though the Revolt 3, meshlicious and NR200P max are also great options! They’re cooler by 5-7c but don’t look as cool :p
I like my H1 a lot but I am switching to a lian li mid tower this month. I like to tinker with my PCs and the H1 is kind of a build it and don`t touch it kind of PC.
Well I'm in love with Phanteks Enthoo luxe. Just an overall great case. Four dust filters, FOUR 140mm fans (already routed with a fancomtroller), awesome airflow, great cable management, MASSIV tempered glass window, support 6 Harddrives and 4 ssds right of the bat. Also since it's Phanteks, it includes basically every type of screw you'll need for your build, even for a water cooled setup since they include two mounting brackets for a pump..
Recommended for sure!
I have two build, an ITX and mid tower.
The ITX build is for playing VR in living room, so it make more sense to be blended in with the environment and be good-looking.
The mid tower build is for daily use and the thing with mid tower ATX is you can use all 6 SATA slot for extra storage.
I love ITX. Putting and managing the highest performance into a small factor is just a lot of fun for me.
For my "gaming rig" I use midtower (if you can call a define 7 a midtower), and for my fileserver I choose the Define 7 XL. Both choices are made for the reason that I have to have enough room for my hands down there, and they are a size 11/12 glove, and stiff after some 35 years as a scaffolder. The Define 7 XL could today have been a Define 7 with miniturasation of HDD's but at the time of the build, some 2½ years ago, I needed the space for HDD's, running stripped and mirror'ed disks, as I'm the storrer of family photos and videos and failure is not an option.
I'm the storage guy for my family too. Redundant storage is essential. I have at least 3 copies of my family photos and videos at any given time, not including cloud storage that adds two more copies for the photos.
I've been running the cougar conquer for about 2 years, i love the look and amazing temps being open chassis, i am running a custom loop and have been wanting to go back to a regular case, i'm leaning towards the 5000D just because of the similar components in your builds.
Think I saw a cougar case called a "darkblade" or something along those lines. I was thinking of getting it because it seemed like it'd be very great for air flow and cooling. Glad to see someone else is liking a case from the same brand
I was really attracted to mid tower cases when I built my first PC in 2018. I’m all about SFF now. You can fit a high end cpu and gpu into such a small space and provide adequate cooling. Takes less space off your desk and make your space look super clean. SFF is convenient too as it is easier to travel with versus mid tower/full tower builds.
Desk? Computer on floor! (apologies to Paul's Hardware)
As someone who is considering the modern era and building a system since my last in 2002 (I think?), I'm grateful for this video and others you have done.
I am quite happy that I went with a mid tower….the right balance between space and weight. Mine has a mesh so I’ve been able to keep the system cool with air flow too.
I love SFF builds for their minimalistic and clean look. Mid-tower cases are the best in terms of practicality and cost though
I got all my pc parts today and I want someone to help me figure out what case to get u mind helping ?, I got a tuf gaming 660-plus wifi motherboard with a c7 12700,kranken x53 Rgb cooling system and a rtx 3070 ti gigabyte
There's 2 cases I've truly loved over years, NZXT Vulcan - the side was all grill, great Micro-ATX case. The other was Coolermaster's 935/915 combo - you could take 2 of the 915's and side mount radiators on each, keeping all your airflow/heat away from the main rig in the 935. Would really -really- love to see a refresh of that design!
I just looked into this, The CoolerMaster 935/915 looks like an insane case. Very neat concept.
@@Tadders it just needs a modern take on it :) all that radiator support with current and next gen hardware would be a godsend.
I’ve been a big fan of ITX systems for some time (circa Shuttle XPCs) though I’ve had plenty of others too, but lately I’ve found a micro-ATX case that’s as small as many of the newer ITX cases, the Sama IM01 and it’s works well with micro-ATX or Mini-ITX boards, as well as ATX or SFX PSUs. Take a look at it.
Affordable too, but I might be spoiled for weight by my aluminum itx case, it feels so heavy to me.
I love my 4000D airflow. The 5000 wouldn't fit on my desk but the 4000 fits perfectly and fits all my components in with no issues.
I have a full tower for my main PC because I don't want to worry about whether something will fit or not
I’ve been using ITX for about two years now. I’m only using my computer for gaming so I don’t really have to worry about cooling high a watt CPU and my case (FormD T1) is open enough to cool any GPU I can put in it. I really just like the challenge of building in some ITX cases and the amount of engineering that goes into them.
My recent build reuses the Phanteks Enthoo Pro (Limited Edition) I bought 3 years ago.
This particular full tower had features I wanted.. namely lots of HDD/SSD bays, more than 1 ODD bay, removable filter screens for ease of cleaning, built-in cable management options behind the MB tray, and plenty of room for fans/air flow. It was also on sale at the time.
The reasons I usually buy full towers:
- I prefer internal storage rather than building a home server, and full/super towers tend to have more HDD bays. I also still use ODDs and prefer them to be internal as well.
- Having the room to keep things internal cuts down on the potential clutter of cables needing to be routed to external devices.
- As you showed in the video, full towers offer more room to fit rads & fans without interfering with MB connectors.
I have been hesitant about putting water anywhere near these expensive parts, but my 5950X doesn't seem happy with an air cooler so that may change.
- Having a full tower saves me from changing cases just because I change cooling methods.
- Desk space isn't an issue for me so I don't feel a need for a smaller form factor.
I will have to keep an eye open for that model... thanks ! I have a medium tower but my love will always be for Big/Super/full towers
This is why I went with the obsidian 1000D. I have 9 SSD's and 4 HDD's. I wanted a dual system capable tower so that I could host dedicated servers for what ever game my friends and I are playing at the time (ark, valheim, etc). Having 16 fans on the front all pulling in cool air means with that much airflow, the fans run at a lower RPM resulting in an almost silent obelisk beside my desk crammed to the gills with what ever I want to put in it.
I have the same case but the base (2014?) model and I bought it for the exact same reasons. I was shopping for features at the time and the Phanteks Enthoo Pro checkmarked every box.
Also I wanted to be sure that an NHD15 would fit no compromises. The case has great default airflow and the ambient temps are very nice. I remember some OEMs having ridiculous ambient temps and I wanted to avoid that at all costs.
The 200mm intake is just icing on the cake.
@@The_Man_In_Red My (correction: Special Edition) has the white interior and came with the Phanteks Halos RGB fan frames for the two 120mm fans in the front.
Like you, I wanted a case that was wide enough to comfortably fit today's larger air coolers. I had no problems accommodating the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4.
@@Mr3ppozz The model number is PH-ES614PTG_SWT (white interior) or there is the black interior version as well.
Using the fractal design meshify. It has great thermals, clean wire management, , room for upgrades, and it’s built sturdy! Fits the msi 1080ti well!
videos like this are still interesting as you usually pick up something you might have not thought about or have forgotten. 2 years old and still relevant.
I use a full tower as my main build (or at least what was considered a full like a decade ago, it's the Azza Solano that you can't find anymore) because A) I use air cooling and more space for airflow = better and B) so I wouldn't have to worry as much about what could or couldn't fit in there. Good thing too since it just barely has enough space to fit my 6700 XT after I removed a couple of the front grill sections and kicked a fan forward.
My backup/travel build is a mini-ITX that was specifically chosen because it fits in my backpack. It uses the Mastercase H100. Neat little piece of hardware.
I recently swapped to a new case and I wanted to go as with the smallest footprint I could where it was still ATX and could fit a 280mm radiator on top. Price and aesthetics were also a big consideration. I went with the 4000D Airflow because I like the boxy look of it but I was trying to avoid going to the slightly bigger 5000D.
The O11 air mini can fit ATX and a 280mm rad inside as I recently swapped to that from a 4000D
I made the same choice for the same reasons.
One thing I noticed about cases was how hard it was to find a decent one with an ODD slot. It's like they died a death.
That said, I've used a mid tower with an mATX board simply because it was a CPU-only system and running a larger chassis made for better airflow with less fans. Compared to a small form factor case - it runs a fair bit quieter.
For my new build, I fell in love with the Corsair 1000d right from the start when they showed it off at Computex. I knew that my next build had to be all or nothing kind of thing, so that's what I'm doing. The spec list is much too large to list here, but I'm very happy with the case. Now it's just a matter of having a funeral for my wallet.
holy crap, its 500 bucks? jfc!
@@ElfGreatTree yeah my build isn't for the weak willled😅
I agree, I want to be able to expand and change components through time.. just look how big the new 40 series gpu's are. What do you have for cpu, gpu and Mobo?
@@petergriffin383 I have a 5950x, X570 Godlike, and a 3090 so far.
Thinking about adopting ddr5, but not sure yet.
@@theonlyone38 Nice.. I'm still researching which components I want, this will be my first gaming pc and I don't want to buy a pre built
Hey thanks for the video! What I learned is full tower is better for space in any build, mid tower is just smaller for looks if that’s your personal preference great video thank you
I just built a old school full tower Thermaltake Core V71. Replaced the 200mm fans with Noctua's, it has removable storage bays, I removed all but 2. With 3 SSD's in bays, 1 in the back panel, 4 NVMe's on the motherboard I have ample storage for video editing. The huge fans and Noctua CPU cooler keep the rig cool and quiet at all times.
One of my favorite form factors now is mATX (with the right case). You get a lot of the benefits of ITX with less compromise to airflow for your GPU.
My favorite case for this is the Silverstone PS15.
Thats the case I got for my 12th gen build its pretty good.
A super tower is harder for a burglar to steal
My girl been asking that for years
Just finished my custom loop in a 5000x. ATX mobo, 3080, 240 reservoir, 2 360 rads, 10 fans plus rigid PETG tubing. It fits really well. Well enough that I went with an overcomplicated loop order for aesthetic (res>rad>gpu>rad>cpu>res). The case fits alot more than it looks like and it fills out really nicely. I had a 4000x with my components in it before while it was on air and comparison wise, the length between the both cases arent that different. The extra height gives alot more space than it looks!
your iFixit skit should be on TV because honestly you make a way more entertaining commercial interruption then 99.9 percent of all American and Canadian TV commercial providers
My AeroCool Xpredator cube was the smallest cube (with horizontal mobo) that I could buy and still easily fit all my components, footprint is large, airflow is only decent and the windows is relatively small and made out of cheap plastic (it's an old case) but is exactly what I needed, I tried a Zalman Z3 in the past with a more standard design and it was terrible.
prefer larger case for more modern builds and tend to favor airflow, been using corsair carbide 400r mid tower in past 3 builds but do really enjoy smaller cases for older/low heat output parts or anything that could be considered retro
exactly and in reality you still have to "set" yourself up for upgrade path if its ultimately the intent of the end user to have a"better" pc tomorrow. The best they can do to "SHAVE" costs towards those upgrades is a tower that has enough room for a bigger gpu/airflow.....buy a bigger/better psu outright instead of 2 down the road via gpu upgrade.....and a good mainboard that will subplant proper power/performance via vrm and said "better" psu once a larger core/power envelope or unlocked cpu is upgraded...then that eliminates having to buy a new board an potentially "faster" ram....once "upgrade" bridge is crossed....or else most ppl building "budget" oriented builds will have to buy a new cpu/psu/gpu/ram which really doesnt justify the "budget" build in the first place...im talking strictly ppl with intent of upgrading or upgrading once they generate a lil more income....Id suggest to them waiting 1-2m into purchasing in order to add those "FUNDS" towards a better mainboard/ram/psu. Bc at least even with a non k cpu...they can run xmp/oc ram, also tweak their turbo boost duration etc on intel up until upgrade time. If i have samaller or less....my gpu upgrade then becomes limited to pcb size....and cpu may need a custom loop to cool bc of upgrading...especially in the case of ITX/sff. There really isnt any money saved if some of these ppl that didnt plan their build right wind up having to buy double of half ther parts/builds bc of bottlenecks etc with a gpu upgrade. With added emphasis on PSU quality/performance and vrm/board quality.
I use mid towers in most of my small business system builds. My favorite cases are the Lian Li Lancool II and NZXT H440 in white. I build everything myself.
My main two systems are an R9-5950X, ASUS ROG X570, 128GB, RTX-3080 and an i7-6950X, ASUS ROG X99, 64GB, RTX-2060. There are various other systems of various ages.
Gosh, Jay, that IFixIt add is still so amazing. Please never change it. I love it
I'm a full tower guy. Just modified my Haf-x for modern watercooling. And a 480 rad. Worked great
As an owner of a 5000d and 27" monitor, I think we have different definitions of "Plenty of space". lol
Great case to build in though. The arctic liquid freezer 360 didn't fit because it hit the MOBO heatsinks. Pulled the top panel off to remove the dust filter, only to find passthroughs for the fan cables. I thought I was going to have to use the rad as an intake for a minute. That little detail was most excellent.
medium he says... lol
I also have the 5000D and I hated building in it.
3x front Fans, 3x side Fans, 280 liquid freezer in the top.
That AIO alone is a huge pain in the ass and there is no way to fit the rad fully inside the case.
And using the top 3 Fan slots + 3 side Fan slots is a huge fckup.
Nothing has proper space, there are no cable routing options and there is literally no way to comfortably get the front fans wired to the backside.
Also no space to work with.
The 5000D has some big flaws IMO
@@maxzett Why do you use the motherboard tray for 3 fans? Doesn't that create vortexes inside your case?
I thought you would always want a direct airflow from either bottom to top or front to top and backside.
@@gambino883 nope. I run them really slow.
You can actually check videos on the case to see their impact
@@maxzett Ah I see, yeah I guess that wouldn't impact direct airflow so much and provide decent cooling for the radiator. Going to look up some videos. I want to build in this 5000d airflow.
@@gambino883 be aware the panels take a disconcerting amount of force to open. Other clips also have..... strong retention.
Lots of cable straps. You almost have to put more effort into poor cable management it's that easy. Not tons of routing options but it's great in comparison to others in the price range. Corsair or lian li cases seem to be my favorite to build in
Years ago, when every feature that you wanted to add to a PC required an expansion card, ATX boards made sense. I'm talking about back when if you wanted your PC to be networkable, you had to add a network card. If you wanted it to have sound, you had to add a sound card. And of course if you wanted it to display anything, you had to add a graphics card. Oh, and with dial-up Internet, you had to add a modem as well.
Nowadays most of those features are already provided by the motherboard (graphics too, if you use a processor with integrated graphics). Also, with the availability of USB 3.0, the vast majority of peripherals connect via USB and don't require their own expansion card either. So, while I would have said "no" to ITX in the past because of the limited expansion options, I said "yes" to ITX for my last build, which used the same Define Nano S that Jay used back in 2016 (I would have gone with the Torrent Nano if that was available when I built it last year). The only issue with the ITX boards is if you manage to damage the PCIE slot, you don't have a spare one on the board to use, but how often does that happen? :-).
Mini ITX is just a trend. Upgrade, maintenance, cable management, airflow %90 of the time is limited. I don't even mention SFF.
My current build is in a mid-tower case. Next time I'm gona use something bigger.
Yeah, there are always compromises on cooling, price and expandability. Still the arrival of large M.2s and SSDs has made this form factor possible for the people who only need one pcie card. Its not for me though: I have multiple hard drives and SSDs, M-Disk drive, high airflow system with the capability to add in more stuff whenever I want. I do not need to consider space: if it is a PC component, it will fit.
I build an entire new pc purely because of sff. I had so much fun getting all the custom wires and making everything fit perfect all while being so simple.
I moved from a cougar panzer max to Cooler Master Master Case Master Block Master Q500L, simply, so I could carry my PC around as I have been using it at LANs. Just for ease of use and I'm exceptionally happy with that change.