This is a nitrile glove case, as opposed to a gardening glove one. Does not appear to require blood sacrifice, as many did throughout the cheap case decades.
Budget case manufacturers have learned all the lessons over the years, regarding room and cable management, that is definitely a decent case for the money.
Which is funny, because many full priced case manufacturers have still not learned certain lessons like Alienware still not offering case options with actual real airflow, and propriety cables, etc... It's the nice thing about the budget market, where the budget manufacturers that are smart are competitive with each other, offering more amenities and "quality of life" improvements.
I highly recomend you go for the ionz kz18 instead it looks like an exact copy of the aerocool cs105 but with the additon of a fan and acrylic side panel and can be bought for around the same price
@@RandomGaminginHD Ive used a good number of Aerocool Integrator 500w psus for budget gaming builds. Some of these have been going for between 5 and 10 years, none have failed to date.
Cheap case with barebones features and pricing. But, that is what a lot of us are looking for when putting together a home lab box, or building a compact value machine. I think computer cases are on a trend toward unreasonably higher price, with mostly cosmetic improvements. A manufacturer putting out a true barebones case is a welcome option.
ATX case standards have been around since the 90s. As demonstrated you can still take a new PC and stuff it in an old case without issue. I've also learned over a long period of time: the fancier someone's PC looks the worse they usually are at gaming.
Am I the only one who was more impressed with the scale than the case? Crazy to see a case on a kitchen style scale. Can't be mad at a cheap case for low budget banger builds.
I like that it has a cut-out for a floppy drive on the metal chassis, but nowhere for it to peek out on the outer case. It must be a really old chassis design inside a new case, as I can't recall the last time I seen a motherboard with a floppy controller. Must be almost 20 years now.
I'm honestly more impressed by the fact that the 980 is a decade old but is still a perfectly capable card. The GTX 900/10 series were really something special.
Around this price point i found the Antex GX200 is a fab case on a budget, more sturdy than aercool cases and has more front bay and drive options, as well as the CIT 7, popular for cheap RGB but it does work, this aerocool case does definitely bring me back to 2000s cheap cases when larger fans would start to be squeezed into small midtowers and it wasn't just a waste of space loud 80/92mm anymore, miss those times.
7:00 Depends on the model of drives used. Ive got a cd/dvd - player / burner that would Probably slide between the top of the PSU and tthe top of the case. Its all of maybe 5-6 CD's thickness, thick.
Something that not everybody realizes is that DVD players from the likes of Sony etc are no longer made so having a case that can accommodate one is always useful.
I just use an external drive. That way you're not limited on case choice as the laptop drives can be powered and connected solely by USB. They're cheap enough to buy as well and I actually have a blu-ray drive external and my Silverstone ML08 ITX PC even has a slimline slot loading blu-ray burner.
@@md_vandenberg Hah, same here. I went with a Fractal Pop Air Magenta for my personal built last year because it's one of the few modern cases that actually offers 5 1/4 drive bays and even two of those.
PC cases have a few features that you need. Airflow, space, basic safety, and existing. Then there are nice to haves like customization, expansion, specific I/O, etc. I've bought the "cheapest" case I could find twice in my life, and both times are honestly pretty interesting. First time it was a fairly standard Matx case. It had 2 120mm fan mounts on the side, one on the back, and one in the front, plus the PUS acting as an exhaust. Not a standard layout, but plenty of air volume, and some fed directly to the GPU. It did an excellent job of cooling the dell optiplex motherboard that was meta at the time, and the gtx 1070 I crammed in there with it. Even had a whole 3 5.25" bays in the front, so it would make a solid hobby box for retro systems too, or anything like it. Fast forward to today, I'm now flipping PCs as a (very minor) side hustle, and I find this absolute monstrosity of a crimped aluminum sheet metal case. Its Matx, but its footprint is so miniscule it almost looks more like an ITX case. Frankly, impressively compact. And despite its tiny size, I am able to fit a similar office PC motherboard into it. Now, this is remarkable because office PC motherboards are almost always extended versions of standard form factors. So this one is an E-M-atx, sortof. I manage to make it fit by taking side cutters to the fairly respectable (but very very cheap) dual 120mm intake fans, cutting down one side of 2 of their corners so I could get the motherboard power connector in. After this, there is still space for a fairly small GPU, something in the 1650-3060 single fan size range, as well as a sata SSD, and a full sized sata HDD, and of course any NVME devices that this system did (not) have. Oh, and I describe it as a monstrosity but honestly, the aesthetic was pretty good. It was clearly made cheaply, but it came out looking like a cross between industrial brutalism and tron-like futurism. That's good design for you. I adore my retro antec 900 case for my own personal system that I upgraded to after my personal cheap case got crumpled like a bumper in a car crash. But the cheapo case did a damn fine job. I put the thing in the checking luggage on an overseas move, it served its duty admirably and died an honorable death, with no internal components damaged. You can't beat the feature set of a case you specifically save for to check all your boxes. But these days, a case old enough that it will suffocate your components, or short your motherboard, is often *more* expensive than something cheap, mass produced, and serviceable.
I used to cheap out on cases through the years (50, 60 Euro) even though I knew how temps are important. My new case from Lian Li (140 Euro) dropped components temperatures by cca 25 degrees Celsius. Made hell of a difference. I consider it my best buy. Better buy than 6700xt 5700x 32gb ram and core reactor PSU I bought along side it.
Looks similar to mine, my two biggest problems with it is how some screw holes instantly stripped out, and the fact that I can’t seem to find any case worth upgrading to! It’s just a super space-efficient case, I like it.
This is the best case for this price I have ever seen. I had an AeroCool DS (Dead Silence) case years ago. It was pretty good, if bulky, micro-ATX case with horizontal motherboard placement. Its main disadvantage was the rubbery coating which after a couple of years became very sticky and unpleasant to touch and look at (since it was permanently covered in dust).
Seems decent. I usually don't like when they have a protruding panel for cable management but it is only one. This one is so cheap and still has simetric panels! My biggest problem with cheaper cases is the steel panels are so thin they bend. Then it is very hard to latch everything straight. This one seems nice and even has a cut out for MB backplate removal.
It's very similar to a Rosewill case that was, maybe still, sold here in the US. Not a bad case at all. You did a great job making a clean build in it.
It looks a lot better than the budget cases of yore, but it's still kinda small front-to-back (annoyingly common in budget cases, even to this day). I would strongly recommend hunting down a Rosewill LINE-M if you want to see what the absolute best budget case in my opinion. It's such a shame - Rosewill appears to be downsizing or pulling out of some markets entirely. I know some of their products had questionable reliability (one of their PSUs exploded on me) but many of their cases were great budget options, especially the LINE-M.
2:37 Fun fact: you could convert the Molex powered fan into 3-pin fan with that particular cable, I got mine setup as using voltage inside the BIOS, ideal for global fan control, in the cheapest way (of course don't drop the voltage too low or else the fan won't spin)
Side panel fan mounts are a very nice and often overlooked addition in any case (hah) what has them. 90% of which _'coincidentally'_ reside in the budget segment.
I've actually worked with Aerocool cases before and for the price point they are surprisingly well built. I used the Aerocool Atomic Lite V1 case on a cheaper build for a friend and for the price it's a really good case, the included fans where Molex, just like here and the RGB isn't adressable on them, so they are stuck in rainbow mode but the Airflow is decent and rather quiet, with the front fan being a 200mm Fan, which is massive for an mATX case and a 120mm Fan at the rear.
I've worked with worse. Newegg here in USA has a house brand that used to make PC cases. Seems like they are down to server cases or maybe they are even getting rid of that. With the cheapest coming as low as $10. I got a deal like that or it cost about $20 for a Micro ATX case. Difference here is that it wouldn't have accepted that GPU and I scraped my arm on the sharp edges but not quite cutting. Back in late 2008 I definitely was exposed to the finger cutting when I was trying to take out a cutout for a DVD drive for my IT class. Man, I remember my hand absolutely painting the interior of the case and my classmates or teacher had to clean that out because it was a PC build for a customer. I definitely don't miss those cheap cases.
The cheapest PC case I have, is an Aerocool "PGS-R" case that I once found, thrown away in the fields close to my city. It was still in quite good condition, and I have used it for several years. It did not have a front I/O panel, so I purchased a Lian Li one and used that to switch on the PC.
Some of us still use optical drives to rip and back up movies and tv shows from blu rays and dvds for Jellyfin, Plex, and other media servers. I bought a Fractal Pop Air because it has a slot for an optical drive
I have 2 a little larger Aerocool cases, one for my WinXP Retro PC and one has my son. I think they are perfectly fine for the price and as long as you don‘t change components frequently you won‘t feel any cheapness.
Aerocool and CiT make good budget cases, ideal for office machines, retro builds and SFF users. My home office Linux PC runs an i5-11400 in an Aerocool CS-101, and it's great for 65W processors and integrated graphics. Really pleased with it so far
The CS-104 here in Greece is at 33 euros. Their cheapest model is the CS-102 at 23 euros. The cheapest PC case I can find quickly is the Akyga AK939, at a bit under 15 euros. I will tell you one thing I like about these cheaper cases, they still have external drive bays. LOVE that.
I miss how they used to make them. My retro xp/linux rig is in a Cooler Master Elite 341 that I found new/old stock sealed in box. Best micro-ATX case ever made imo. 4x120mm fan mounts (one in front blowing across the drives, two on the side panel - one over the cpu and one over the expansion cards, and one in back), two 3.5" external bays that can be used to update the case's IO, two 5.25" external bays for adding literally anything, two sets of drive mounting tabs - not a drive cage - one set on the floor and one on the underside of the bottom of the lower 3.5" external bay for maximum airflow over them from the front fan, can mount full-size micro-atx boards without anything being blocked off. Brand new back then it was $40. Rosewill remade it with USB 3.0 instead of 2.0 and only one 3.5" external bay, but otherwise exactly the same. This case you reviewed in here is hot garbage.
that is my type of case. plain black with no rgb or glass nonsense. I just wish they would add some mesh on the front. computer parts are so power hungry nowadays it is hard to keep them cool in a old school case.
I've built a few systems for friends and family in cheaper aerocool cases and they always turn out great. No nonsense cases with decent airflow and for 20 or 30€ they're dirt cheap. Last one even included 3 120mm fans, 2 of them had red LEDs. Came out really nice
6:07 "the fan sit the other side of this mesh" No, not if you want decent airflow. Still love the videos though Steve, been watching for 6 years or more now. Keep up the great work.
I always buy Aerocool cases and fans. My case at the moment is the Aerocool Dryft Mini v2 Micro-ATX Case(fish tank style),that comes with 6 rgb fans(I swapped these over to Aerocool Duo fans) and a hub. All this for £55 from OCUK. The case before that was the Aerocool Atomic ARGB Mini with 120/200mm argb fans for £45 from Amazon(My daughter uses this now).
That actually does look like a solid case, personally I'd recommend looking for something that's maybe £10 more that has 3-4 fans included it'll make more sense in the long run. But if you're working on a seriously tight budget, maybe you're putting a PC together using your old part to sell on... I see no issues with using this case.
That is actually pretty fine. I'm sure I can still find bare metal finger grinders locally, but I really wouldn't have any issue putting together a cheap used or low power new build in this case.
I like to see you tackle the case market. Me, i went for a more triple digit case for once and I'm quite happy with it. But i can relate to cutting costs with the case as it's not going to affect the performance. It's just the amount of hassle or lack thereof, and the options for cable management. I do really enjoy having dust filters, front and top mesh, and a PSU basement to hide my cable crimes in. Oh, and built-in velcro straps to pretend I care about cable management, while i stuff things behind the motherboard.
Well, exactly. I'm just saying since I had saved up my hard earned money and lived in a 99 year old apartment (no joke) that I wanted a case with easily removable dust filters on top and in front. You wouldn't believe how much dust accumulates after 99 years. I bought a special case because this was my first PC building experience in 10 years and I wanted bells and whistles. I'm not saying anyone needs bells and whistles. I just saved up enough money for enough time to get every part I wanted, and even parts I didn't, like a stupid 2 year old GPU that cost more than my first PC I built in the 90's. I spent more money than I needed to, for the first time in my life, and I am aware of that fact. I'm not ashamed to admit that I built a special PC for myself to celebrate 365 days of sobriety after 10 years of addiction. I earned it, and I went overboard, just not to the extent where I thought a 4080 or a 4090 was a good deal. I'm not that dumb.
@@Boogie_the_cat I have some foam taped to the side of my PC to act as a dust filter. Soon I'll have to take off its winter coat. Temps are coming up a bit lately. It's about 95° Freedom right now. High would be 174° F
I would buy this case. Bought a Blu-ray drive a few months ago, to build up a library of my most favorite movies, without being dependent on streaming services for these. A side panel would be great, because I love looking at my Pc parts sometimes for checking, sometimes just to be proud of my first ever Pc.
A while ago I did a budget build for someone and got a TECWARE NEXUS AIR AM2 case for £35. These were pretty fantastic at that price and ended getting a second one, proper space for cable management. They've since gone up to £46 on Amazon which is a shame, but if you can find that at the original £35 it's definitely worth a look.
Honestly, despite the fact you do great reviews, I'm a little disappointed to hear you don't have DVD drive, even if only for checking stuff like the clearance! In this case (no pun intended) I think it would've really benefitted. They're useful to have as a utility, knowing the deluge of driver disks you can often end up with, with motherboards and pcie wifi cards. Like, would a DVD drive have fit with the 240mm AIO?
If I can be so bold as to make a suggestion for a video, aquire an old pc case such as the Thermaltake Xaser III and see how easy it is (or not) to build a modern pc into an old case. Try fitting an AIO, big graphics card, look at temperatures. Most of these old cases were designed to use 80mm fans rather than 120s. Some can be a bit narrow for todays graphics cards and cpu coolers. Also they tend to have lots of spaces for 3.5 drives which can conflict with graphics cards. I myself have a Thermaltake Level 10 (dating to about 2011) which has been quite successful with modern hardware, though I did have to make a few case `alterations` to fit a roof mounted 240mm AIO.
This does look better than my case I got in 2020, which was the cheapest case I could find. I believe it was $35, while this one seems to be about $25 if I convert it. Except mine does have the DVD cage I mentioned in another comment. I actually use it to house my hard drive and my extra power cables. (The hard drive is a lot quieter in the DVD bay than where it could fit on the board.) Still, yours looks nicer, has better options of cable management, has better airflow, and no sharp edges. It has one additional front USB port, even if it is USB2. (Mine has 2 USB3). I do wonder why top PSUs are cheaper. Both mine and yours have that. You'd think it's be easier to have them secure in on the bottom.
I have had AeroCool cases in the past, the case design was OK, but the material choices let them down; buttons and USB ports failed, ; which I worked around, but then the "soft touch" case covering started to decompose (went sticky). Button and USB port issues have cropped up on a lot of cheap cases - and some not so cheap; these days I have a Phanteks as my main case - and some ancient cases from the 90s that still have working buttons, and have 5 1/4 front slots where I can put USB expansion ports. These cases survived20 years of being bashed around by pre-schoolers at our nursery - they dont make stuff like they used to......
Old Cases are awesome. ATX has been around forever so everything should fit. Fan noise is more related to the fans than the case. A koolance liquid cooled case (if you can find one) is still as good as anything on the market (you'll obviously have to mod the CPU mount)
I bought a similar priced pc case once (from Zalman) to just build in for fun and I tore the standoffs for the motherboard straight out the sheet metal. I then had to buy a pack of standoffs with tiny washers and lock nuts to keep the mobo from wobbling.
I built a few budget computers using this case a few years back. I was able to sell them for £300 with a small profit with a gtx 1650. It was during the gpu shortage era so i like to think i managed to provide some people with some very rare value for money at the time.
i think i own this guys older brother. came with an 80 mm fan instead and the front was even more closed off. i chose it not just because its cheap but because it was one of the smalles matx cases which made it a great lan machine.
Having used cheap cases a lot for builds of office pc's I would say this looks pretty, though not having sharp corners is something even cheap cases did for at least a decade. Room for cables also same thing. Generally the only real problem is the fan on those cases can be pretty bad, especially if it's a larger one. Though some of the Zallman T3's I used are still running with stock fans and no issues.
I have the same steel box that I got with a PC from PC World with a 486dx, i've recycled the same case over the past 30 years, cut my fingers to shreds everytime i swap out the parts. But it still looks neat. As time has gone on though, the case has not kept up with cooling or I/O so I'm sadly gonna retire it. I think my point is a case will last a long long time, we all love a bargain but I would try to add some dollars to the budget. A mcdonalds meal for the family would probably be £30, which vastly increases what you'd get in terms of case design/quality.
My first PC I built was very low spec and I regret not waiting a bit longer to save up for better specs. Cause in my experience I was just playing catch up all the time. I finally saved up enough to get a high end rig, and it would last me for several GPU generations, and when it came to upgrade again, I again had saved up enough to get the latest hardware
G'day Random, Down here in the Land of OZ at PCCG we have the same body with a different front CS-109, whole front is Mesh for $35AUD (£19) or there is a TG version that includes a FRGB Fan $49AUD (£25.50), My current 2 favourite Low $$ Cases are Deepcool Smarter $45AUD (£23.50) Old School Style with ODD & Antec NX200M $55AUD (£29) for a more modern look with TG to add RGB
You can buy bunches of ''Ionz'' cases which are only £25-£30 are full atx and also include 3-4 rgb fans, tempered glass and loads if room for cable management, I recently bought 3 to complete some builds I'm going to sell.
I wonder if you could mount a 140mm fan on the side panel. It had what looked like a place to mount it. I bet it would lower the GPU temps a little. Cool case for sure.
here in asia the cheapest cases are around 10 USD when converted. they're like sff matx cases with good enough airflow as long as you dont put a powerful gpu in common name is Inplay Wind
I seen worse and cheeper, I used to work for a guy in a repair shop that used to pay £6 wholesale price for horrible cases, This actually looks usable.
Sadly, this case isn't available everywhere :( Here in Romania it's either sold out or scalped. Pity, it looks like a cute little case. Airflow looks great considering the size. Even better, for those don't have a lot of room in the house and/or move around a little it's a lifesaver. Doubly so if you have to go somewhere with no internet (Yes, places like that still exist). Suddenly, the DVD bay doesn't seem so redundant in such a scenario...
I've used a few Aerocool cases an they've always been fine. Same with the other budget cases from Gamemax and CIT. To be honest, I suspect they're all manufactured by the same OEM. The actual internal design is often exactly the same.
Personally I'm becoming a fan of the mesh front type cases and ones where the panels have hinges and pull tabs. I'm running a Kolink Observatory HF Mesh and its pretty good.
Might be worth considering if you have no trash cans atound the area 😅 Still a solid one. Theoretically you could be doing super-sleeper on a custom loop cooled, let's say, 12600/7600 and 4070/7800 as it should be okay with good pumped 240 rad...
I recently bought a fractal Core 1000, which came out about 11 years ago, for £40. I'm not sure if they still make this case or if it was never used. But it does the job just fine for an entry-level gaming/video editing Rigg.
yeah why not. I actually use the same case for I don't know how many years now. it is banged up, stripped threads everywhere, angle grinder made new holes for more fans ... and it was just 40€ back then, it carries me for hmm maybe 10 or so years. maybe longer.
I think it's worth looking for something a little better in the 30-40 range. Hellcracks have some reasonable cases for about £30-40, even if the build quality isn't great the airflow and design is good. I managed to pick up Phanteks P300A 2nd hand new for £33, and Thermaltake S100 second hand new for £20 in the last couple of weeks so there are deals to be had on the used market too. If I was buying new and had to get something as cheap as possible, I'd be tempted by any of these for the price: Thermaltake S100 mATX - £35 Scan (1x Black fan included) - Higher build quality with hinged TG door Aerocool CS-107 v2 mATX - £29 OCUK (3x RGB fans included) - Mesh front Hellcracks HCS225 ATX - - £34 direct via there website (6x RGB fans included) - ATX size and 6 fans.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
I’ve seen much worse cases going for far more new
Yeah me too actually haha
Facts
This is a nitrile glove case, as opposed to a gardening glove one. Does not appear to require blood sacrifice, as many did throughout the cheap case decades.
@@RandomGaminginHD That is not the cheapest case. Cheapest case is the cardboard box it came with 😁
I couldn't do without an Optical drive bay - I still have loads of CD and DVD media i use and boot discs, glad for the review
Budget case manufacturers have learned all the lessons over the years, regarding room and cable management, that is definitely a decent case for the money.
Which is funny, because many full priced case manufacturers have still not learned certain lessons like Alienware still not offering case options with actual real airflow, and propriety cables, etc...
It's the nice thing about the budget market, where the budget manufacturers that are smart are competitive with each other, offering more amenities and "quality of life" improvements.
More of the little buddy please! So adorable!
Haha he’s a bit camera shy sometimes
@@RandomGaminginHD That's ok! Whenever he's around, please include him in the video! No need for force haha
He deserves that attention.
for real
That case will go a looooong way for budget builders(me lol), nice vid!
Thanks, can’t go wrong for £20!
I highly recomend you go for the ionz kz18 instead it looks like an exact copy of the aerocool cs105 but with the additon of a fan and acrylic side panel and can be bought for around the same price
I will never excuse myself from giving that sweet pup attention.
Aerocool is a solid budget oriented manufacturer. I have used plenty of their stuff and they are always good, according to price ofcourse.
Yeah I’ve not checked out their PSUs though. Not sure how they’re rated
@@RandomGaminginHD mine's been running fine for 7 years, but the tier list doesn't think much to them.
@@RandomGaminginHD Ive used a good number of Aerocool Integrator 500w psus for budget gaming builds. Some of these have been going for between 5 and 10 years, none have failed to date.
Yea aerocool and other brand in the same bar which I forgor
AeroBronze 850 user here, a very solid PSU, has tanked outages like a champ
Cheap case with barebones features and pricing. But, that is what a lot of us are looking for when putting together a home lab box, or building a compact value machine. I think computer cases are on a trend toward unreasonably higher price, with mostly cosmetic improvements. A manufacturer putting out a true barebones case is a welcome option.
ATX case standards have been around since the 90s. As demonstrated you can still take a new PC and stuff it in an old case without issue.
I've also learned over a long period of time: the fancier someone's PC looks the worse they usually are at gaming.
Am I the only one who was more impressed with the scale than the case? Crazy to see a case on a kitchen style scale. Can't be mad at a cheap case for low budget banger builds.
Just got home from college, went on RUclips, saw your video recommended and am now watching it
Better leave a like or there will be consequences!
Oh, the most famous Aerocock grill, sounds epic!
I like that it has a cut-out for a floppy drive on the metal chassis, but nowhere for it to peek out on the outer case. It must be a really old chassis design inside a new case, as I can't recall the last time I seen a motherboard with a floppy controller. Must be almost 20 years now.
It had me sold at the instructions, you don’t see that in a super cheap case. I give em credit for sure
I'm honestly more impressed by the fact that the 980 is a decade old but is still a perfectly capable card. The GTX 900/10 series were really something special.
Around this price point i found the Antex GX200 is a fab case on a budget, more sturdy than aercool cases and has more front bay and drive options, as well as the CIT 7, popular for cheap RGB but it does work, this aerocool case does definitely bring me back to 2000s cheap cases when larger fans would start to be squeezed into small midtowers and it wasn't just a waste of space loud 80/92mm anymore, miss those times.
Your videos are always fun to watch. Love these sorts of videos
Awesome case, love the side intake!
Yup, as far as it fits all and has good airflow😊
7:00 Depends on the model of drives used. Ive got a cd/dvd - player / burner that would Probably slide between the top of the PSU and tthe top of the case. Its all of maybe 5-6 CD's thickness, thick.
This case gives me first pc build vibes
Yeah I know what you mean 😁
Something that not everybody realizes is that DVD players from the likes of Sony etc are no longer made so having a case that can accommodate one is always useful.
Which is why I bought a Fractal Pop Air.
I just use an external drive. That way you're not limited on case choice as the laptop drives can be powered and connected solely by USB.
They're cheap enough to buy as well and I actually have a blu-ray drive external and my Silverstone ML08 ITX PC even has a slimline slot loading blu-ray burner.
I use an usb drive
@@md_vandenberg Hah, same here. I went with a Fractal Pop Air Magenta for my personal built last year because it's one of the few modern cases that actually offers 5 1/4 drive bays and even two of those.
People have a PS5 or another console if they need to play DVDs I think.
Yep, Aerocool does have some great entry level cases, some even with 3 rgb fan included
I used an earlier version of this case for a build a few years ago, and it's still going strong. For the price, it's a good deal.
PC cases have a few features that you need. Airflow, space, basic safety, and existing. Then there are nice to haves like customization, expansion, specific I/O, etc.
I've bought the "cheapest" case I could find twice in my life, and both times are honestly pretty interesting.
First time it was a fairly standard Matx case. It had 2 120mm fan mounts on the side, one on the back, and one in the front, plus the PUS acting as an exhaust. Not a standard layout, but plenty of air volume, and some fed directly to the GPU. It did an excellent job of cooling the dell optiplex motherboard that was meta at the time, and the gtx 1070 I crammed in there with it. Even had a whole 3 5.25" bays in the front, so it would make a solid hobby box for retro systems too, or anything like it.
Fast forward to today, I'm now flipping PCs as a (very minor) side hustle, and I find this absolute monstrosity of a crimped aluminum sheet metal case. Its Matx, but its footprint is so miniscule it almost looks more like an ITX case. Frankly, impressively compact. And despite its tiny size, I am able to fit a similar office PC motherboard into it. Now, this is remarkable because office PC motherboards are almost always extended versions of standard form factors. So this one is an E-M-atx, sortof. I manage to make it fit by taking side cutters to the fairly respectable (but very very cheap) dual 120mm intake fans, cutting down one side of 2 of their corners so I could get the motherboard power connector in. After this, there is still space for a fairly small GPU, something in the 1650-3060 single fan size range, as well as a sata SSD, and a full sized sata HDD, and of course any NVME devices that this system did (not) have. Oh, and I describe it as a monstrosity but honestly, the aesthetic was pretty good. It was clearly made cheaply, but it came out looking like a cross between industrial brutalism and tron-like futurism. That's good design for you.
I adore my retro antec 900 case for my own personal system that I upgraded to after my personal cheap case got crumpled like a bumper in a car crash. But the cheapo case did a damn fine job. I put the thing in the checking luggage on an overseas move, it served its duty admirably and died an honorable death, with no internal components damaged. You can't beat the feature set of a case you specifically save for to check all your boxes. But these days, a case old enough that it will suffocate your components, or short your motherboard, is often *more* expensive than something cheap, mass produced, and serviceable.
I used to cheap out on cases through the years (50, 60 Euro) even though I knew how temps are important.
My new case from Lian Li (140 Euro) dropped components temperatures by cca 25 degrees Celsius.
Made hell of a difference.
I consider it my best buy. Better buy than 6700xt 5700x 32gb ram and core reactor PSU I bought along side it.
Looks similar to mine, my two biggest problems with it is how some screw holes instantly stripped out, and the fact that I can’t seem to find any case worth upgrading to! It’s just a super space-efficient case, I like it.
This is the best case for this price I have ever seen.
I had an AeroCool DS (Dead Silence) case years ago. It was pretty good, if bulky, micro-ATX case with horizontal motherboard placement. Its main disadvantage was the rubbery coating which after a couple of years became very sticky and unpleasant to touch and look at (since it was permanently covered in dust).
Seems decent. I usually don't like when they have a protruding panel for cable management but it is only one. This one is so cheap and still has simetric panels!
My biggest problem with cheaper cases is the steel panels are so thin they bend. Then it is very hard to latch everything straight. This one seems nice and even has a cut out for MB backplate removal.
It's very similar to a Rosewill case that was, maybe still, sold here in the US. Not a bad case at all. You did a great job making a clean build in it.
It looks a lot better than the budget cases of yore, but it's still kinda small front-to-back (annoyingly common in budget cases, even to this day). I would strongly recommend hunting down a Rosewill LINE-M if you want to see what the absolute best budget case in my opinion.
It's such a shame - Rosewill appears to be downsizing or pulling out of some markets entirely. I know some of their products had questionable reliability (one of their PSUs exploded on me) but many of their cases were great budget options, especially the LINE-M.
i like the new side text graphics! it’s like the motorweek of pc case videos :)
I bought the aerocool airhawk duo for £49 and it’s better than I was expecting. Decent brand and good pricing.
2:37
Fun fact: you could convert the Molex powered fan into 3-pin fan with that particular cable, I got mine setup as using voltage inside the BIOS, ideal for global fan control, in the cheapest way (of course don't drop the voltage too low or else the fan won't spin)
Side panel fan mounts are a very nice and often overlooked addition in any case (hah) what has them.
90% of which _'coincidentally'_ reside in the budget segment.
That's really great for only $20. I wish we had options this good at this price point back in the early 2000's.
Perfectly fine.
I've actually worked with Aerocool cases before and for the price point they are surprisingly well built. I used the Aerocool Atomic Lite V1 case on a cheaper build for a friend and for the price it's a really good case, the included fans where Molex, just like here and the RGB isn't adressable on them, so they are stuck in rainbow mode but the Airflow is decent and rather quiet, with the front fan being a 200mm Fan, which is massive for an mATX case and a 120mm Fan at the rear.
I've worked with worse. Newegg here in USA has a house brand that used to make PC cases. Seems like they are down to server cases or maybe they are even getting rid of that. With the cheapest coming as low as $10. I got a deal like that or it cost about $20 for a Micro ATX case. Difference here is that it wouldn't have accepted that GPU and I scraped my arm on the sharp edges but not quite cutting.
Back in late 2008 I definitely was exposed to the finger cutting when I was trying to take out a cutout for a DVD drive for my IT class. Man, I remember my hand absolutely painting the interior of the case and my classmates or teacher had to clean that out because it was a PC build for a customer. I definitely don't miss those cheap cases.
The cheapest PC case I have, is an Aerocool "PGS-R" case that I once found, thrown away in the fields close to my city.
It was still in quite good condition, and I have used it for several years.
It did not have a front I/O panel, so I purchased a Lian Li one and used that to switch on the PC.
Aerocool and Kolink are the VFM kings in pc Cases. I have used most of Aerocools cheap cases under 50 euros. For the money they are really good!
Seems like you could even cram a "push-pull" water cooler set up in there... but it seems like more of a "hyper 212" kind of case.
Some of us still use optical drives to rip and back up movies and tv shows from blu rays and dvds for Jellyfin, Plex, and other media servers. I bought a Fractal Pop Air because it has a slot for an optical drive
I have 2 a little larger Aerocool cases, one for my WinXP Retro PC and one has my son. I think they are perfectly fine for the price and as long as you don‘t change components frequently you won‘t feel any cheapness.
Aerocool and CiT make good budget cases, ideal for office machines, retro builds and SFF users. My home office Linux PC runs an i5-11400 in an Aerocool CS-101, and it's great for 65W processors and integrated graphics. Really pleased with it so far
The CS-104 here in Greece is at 33 euros. Their cheapest model is the CS-102 at 23 euros.
The cheapest PC case I can find quickly is the Akyga AK939, at a bit under 15 euros.
I will tell you one thing I like about these cheaper cases, they still have external drive bays. LOVE that.
I miss how they used to make them. My retro xp/linux rig is in a Cooler Master Elite 341 that I found new/old stock sealed in box. Best micro-ATX case ever made imo. 4x120mm fan mounts (one in front blowing across the drives, two on the side panel - one over the cpu and one over the expansion cards, and one in back), two 3.5" external bays that can be used to update the case's IO, two 5.25" external bays for adding literally anything, two sets of drive mounting tabs - not a drive cage - one set on the floor and one on the underside of the bottom of the lower 3.5" external bay for maximum airflow over them from the front fan, can mount full-size micro-atx boards without anything being blocked off. Brand new back then it was $40. Rosewill remade it with USB 3.0 instead of 2.0 and only one 3.5" external bay, but otherwise exactly the same.
This case you reviewed in here is hot garbage.
You didn't have to be so mean to a 23Euro case, lol.
that is my type of case. plain black with no rgb or glass nonsense. I just wish they would add some mesh on the front. computer parts are so power hungry nowadays it is hard to keep them cool in a old school case.
I've built a few systems for friends and family in cheaper aerocool cases and they always turn out great. No nonsense cases with decent airflow and for 20 or 30€ they're dirt cheap. Last one even included 3 120mm fans, 2 of them had red LEDs. Came out really nice
6:07 "the fan sit the other side of this mesh" No, not if you want decent airflow. Still love the videos though Steve, been watching for 6 years or more now. Keep up the great work.
I always buy Aerocool cases and fans. My case at the moment is the Aerocool Dryft Mini v2 Micro-ATX Case(fish tank style),that comes with 6 rgb fans(I swapped these over to Aerocool Duo fans) and a hub. All this for £55 from OCUK. The case before that was the Aerocool Atomic ARGB Mini with 120/200mm argb fans for £45 from Amazon(My daughter uses this now).
That actually does look like a solid case, personally I'd recommend looking for something that's maybe £10 more that has 3-4 fans included it'll make more sense in the long run. But if you're working on a seriously tight budget, maybe you're putting a PC together using your old part to sell on... I see no issues with using this case.
There's one with a mesh front panel, you should review that one!
It's functionally the same case but about three cents more, and likely a lot better.
I always find it funny how its the really cheap cases that still include disc drives. Also the dog is very adorable.
That is actually pretty fine. I'm sure I can still find bare metal finger grinders locally, but I really wouldn't have any issue putting together a cheap used or low power new build in this case.
I like to see you tackle the case market.
Me, i went for a more triple digit case for once and I'm quite happy with it.
But i can relate to cutting costs with the case as it's not going to affect the performance.
It's just the amount of hassle or lack thereof, and the options for cable management.
I do really enjoy having dust filters, front and top mesh, and a PSU basement to hide my cable crimes in. Oh, and built-in velcro straps to pretend I care about cable management, while i stuff things behind the motherboard.
A case just holds parts. It doesn't make your PC work any better. You could throw everything into a cardboard box and it'd run just the same.
Well, exactly. I'm just saying since I had saved up my hard earned money and lived in a 99 year old apartment (no joke) that I wanted a case with easily removable dust filters on top and in front. You wouldn't believe how much dust accumulates after 99 years.
I bought a special case because this was my first PC building experience in 10 years and I wanted bells and whistles. I'm not saying anyone needs bells and whistles. I just saved up enough money for enough time to get every part I wanted, and even parts I didn't, like a stupid 2 year old GPU that cost more than my first PC I built in the 90's. I spent more money than I needed to, for the first time in my life, and I am aware of that fact.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I built a special PC for myself to celebrate 365 days of sobriety after 10 years of addiction. I earned it, and I went overboard, just not to the extent where I thought a 4080 or a 4090 was a good deal. I'm not that dumb.
@@Boogie_the_cat I have some foam taped to the side of my PC to act as a dust filter. Soon I'll have to take off its winter coat. Temps are coming up a bit lately. It's about 95° Freedom right now. High would be 174° F
I would buy this case. Bought a Blu-ray drive a few months ago, to build up a library of my most favorite movies, without being dependent on streaming services for these. A side panel would be great, because I love looking at my Pc parts sometimes for checking, sometimes just to be proud of my first ever Pc.
Been doing the same for BluRays.
Temped to build a TV pc with the spare parts paying around, and getting a Blu-ray drive
Reminds me of the Thermaltake V100 I use for my main pc. Was cheap, works well, and all-in-all very plain and effective.
Just had a new cheap case to swap with the eyesore my old pc used to look like. It's a bit flimsy but for what it is, it's worth it
A while ago I did a budget build for someone and got a TECWARE NEXUS AIR AM2 case for £35. These were pretty fantastic at that price and ended getting a second one, proper space for cable management. They've since gone up to £46 on Amazon which is a shame, but if you can find that at the original £35 it's definitely worth a look.
Doggo is a good boi! Best part of this video 🙂
For $40, you can't go wrong with the Cooler Master Q300L. The case you show here is great for a sleeper build; I'd like to see a high end build in it.
Theres no way you built the pc on grass. Haha good stuff
Honestly, despite the fact you do great reviews, I'm a little disappointed to hear you don't have DVD drive, even if only for checking stuff like the clearance! In this case (no pun intended) I think it would've really benefitted. They're useful to have as a utility, knowing the deluge of driver disks you can often end up with, with motherboards and pcie wifi cards. Like, would a DVD drive have fit with the 240mm AIO?
If I can be so bold as to make a suggestion for a video, aquire an old pc case such as the Thermaltake Xaser III and see how easy it is (or not) to build a modern pc into an old case. Try fitting an AIO, big graphics card, look at temperatures.
Most of these old cases were designed to use 80mm fans rather than 120s. Some can be a bit narrow for todays graphics cards and cpu coolers. Also they tend to have lots of spaces for 3.5 drives which can conflict with graphics cards.
I myself have a Thermaltake Level 10 (dating to about 2011) which has been quite successful with modern hardware, though I did have to make a few case `alterations` to fit a roof mounted 240mm AIO.
This does look better than my case I got in 2020, which was the cheapest case I could find. I believe it was $35, while this one seems to be about $25 if I convert it.
Except mine does have the DVD cage I mentioned in another comment. I actually use it to house my hard drive and my extra power cables. (The hard drive is a lot quieter in the DVD bay than where it could fit on the board.)
Still, yours looks nicer, has better options of cable management, has better airflow, and no sharp edges. It has one additional front USB port, even if it is USB2. (Mine has 2 USB3).
I do wonder why top PSUs are cheaper. Both mine and yours have that. You'd think it's be easier to have them secure in on the bottom.
I have had AeroCool cases in the past, the case design was OK, but the material choices let them down; buttons and USB ports failed, ; which I worked around, but then the "soft touch" case covering started to decompose (went sticky).
Button and USB port issues have cropped up on a lot of cheap cases - and some not so cheap; these days I have a Phanteks as my main case - and some ancient cases from the 90s that still have working buttons, and have 5 1/4 front slots where I can put USB expansion ports. These cases survived20 years of being bashed around by pre-schoolers at our nursery - they dont make stuff like they used to......
I've done some cheap builds in a very similar case that was around $20 US. For the price it was perfectly fine for the components I was using.
Old Cases are awesome.
ATX has been around forever so everything should fit. Fan noise is more related to the fans than the case.
A koolance liquid cooled case (if you can find one) is still as good as anything on the market (you'll obviously have to mod the CPU mount)
Looks good for the price, especially since it includes a fan!
I bought a similar priced pc case once (from Zalman) to just build in for fun and I tore the standoffs for the motherboard straight out the sheet metal.
I then had to buy a pack of standoffs with tiny washers and lock nuts to keep the mobo from wobbling.
I built a few budget computers using this case a few years back. I was able to sell them for £300 with a small profit with a gtx 1650. It was during the gpu shortage era so i like to think i managed to provide some people with some very rare value for money at the time.
Doggy knows what makes a great video. 😂. I get a good case. I don’t scrimp on the part of the computer I see every day.
i think i own this guys older brother.
came with an 80 mm fan instead and the front was even more closed off. i chose it not just because its cheap but because it was one of the smalles matx cases which made it a great lan machine.
Having used cheap cases a lot for builds of office pc's I would say this looks pretty, though not having sharp corners is something even cheap cases did for at least a decade. Room for cables also same thing.
Generally the only real problem is the fan on those cases can be pretty bad, especially if it's a larger one.
Though some of the Zallman T3's I used are still running with stock fans and no issues.
0:59 Aerocool used to make some nice cases. I had a dream box rare as hens teeth. Sold it as a fully built PC and always regretted it 😢
I'd quite happily use it. Even if it was more expensive, it'd still be a decent shout.
I have the same steel box that I got with a PC from PC World with a 486dx, i've recycled the same case over the past 30 years, cut my fingers to shreds everytime i swap out the parts. But it still looks neat. As time has gone on though, the case has not kept up with cooling or I/O so I'm sadly gonna retire it. I think my point is a case will last a long long time, we all love a bargain but I would try to add some dollars to the budget. A mcdonalds meal for the family would probably be £30, which vastly increases what you'd get in terms of case design/quality.
Love it! No lights, no glass, no showiness. Why did you make a build with old stuff in it tho?
Hi Doggo!
Speaking of the case… I’ve seen these cases. Well similar, in office builds/office computers.
i've used their Lux 650watt psu, it has a low tier on many forums. But so far it's been a good psu for 2 years for me.
My first PC I built was very low spec and I regret not waiting a bit longer to save up for better specs. Cause in my experience I was just playing catch up all the time. I finally saved up enough to get a high end rig, and it would last me for several GPU generations, and when it came to upgrade again, I again had saved up enough to get the latest hardware
G'day Random,
Down here in the Land of OZ at PCCG we have the same body with a different front CS-109, whole front is Mesh for $35AUD (£19) or there is a TG version that includes a FRGB Fan $49AUD (£25.50),
My current 2 favourite Low $$ Cases are Deepcool Smarter $45AUD (£23.50) Old School Style with ODD & Antec NX200M $55AUD (£29) for a more modern look with TG to add RGB
Much better than most of the OEM shovelware PC cases
Cheap cases are usually fine, but I do remember almost severing limbs on the sharp edges in the past. That one actually looks almost safe.
You can buy bunches of ''Ionz'' cases which are only £25-£30 are full atx and also include 3-4 rgb fans, tempered glass and loads if room for cable management, I recently bought 3 to complete some builds I'm going to sell.
I got a CoolerMaster case off facebook market for £10 last year and it's been a great case
I wonder if you could mount a 140mm fan on the side panel. It had what looked like a place to mount it. I bet it would lower the GPU temps a little. Cool case for sure.
@6:02 which GPU is this ? old GTX with a backplate ?? never seen this before....
In my opinion, it would be best to go for an ATX case if possible, just incase you want to upgrade in the future atx motherboards are more common
Great video as always, but one suggestion, not video related, would be to change your utility blade.
here in asia the cheapest cases are around 10 USD when converted.
they're like sff matx cases with good enough airflow as long as you dont put a powerful gpu in
common name is Inplay Wind
I seen worse and cheeper, I used to work for a guy in a repair shop that used to pay £6 wholesale price for horrible cases, This actually looks usable.
Sadly, this case isn't available everywhere :( Here in Romania it's either sold out or scalped. Pity, it looks like a cute little case. Airflow looks great considering the size. Even better, for those don't have a lot of room in the house and/or move around a little it's a lifesaver. Doubly so if you have to go somewhere with no internet (Yes, places like that still exist). Suddenly, the DVD bay doesn't seem so redundant in such a scenario...
I've used a few Aerocool cases an they've always been fine. Same with the other budget cases from Gamemax and CIT. To be honest, I suspect they're all manufactured by the same OEM. The actual internal design is often exactly the same.
The USA version of that is the zalman z6. Picked one up from Newegg back in the day for $29.99 shipped. Thing was about as sturdy as aluminum foil lol
Personally I'm becoming a fan of the mesh front type cases and ones where the panels have hinges and pull tabs. I'm running a Kolink Observatory HF Mesh and its pretty good.
Might be worth considering if you have no trash cans atound the area 😅
Still a solid one. Theoretically you could be doing super-sleeper on a custom loop cooled, let's say, 12600/7600 and 4070/7800 as it should be okay with good pumped 240 rad...
I recently bought a fractal Core 1000, which came out about 11 years ago, for £40. I'm not sure if they still make this case or if it was never used. But it does the job just fine for an entry-level gaming/video editing Rigg.
you can actually get dvd drive slots which are actually usb c ports which plug into your pc via either pcie or the header
yeah why not. I actually use the same case for I don't know how many years now. it is banged up, stripped threads everywhere, angle grinder made new holes for more fans ... and it was just 40€ back then, it carries me for hmm maybe 10 or so years. maybe longer.
I think it's worth looking for something a little better in the 30-40 range. Hellcracks have some reasonable cases for about £30-40, even if the build quality isn't great the airflow and design is good. I managed to pick up Phanteks P300A 2nd hand new for £33, and Thermaltake S100 second hand new for £20 in the last couple of weeks so there are deals to be had on the used market too. If I was buying new and had to get something as cheap as possible, I'd be tempted by any of these for the price:
Thermaltake S100 mATX - £35 Scan (1x Black fan included) - Higher build quality with hinged TG door
Aerocool CS-107 v2 mATX - £29 OCUK (3x RGB fans included) - Mesh front
Hellcracks HCS225 ATX - - £34 direct via there website (6x RGB fans included) - ATX size and 6 fans.