Best PC Cases of 2022: 60 to 300 Airflow, Silence, & Budget Cases
video description
The Y60's necessity to vertical mount the GPU killed it for me. Using the Strix, I'm not even sure it fits period, or if it does it must be uncomfortably tight. Either way, I also chose the specific mobo (Strix X670E-A) around it not being black, so covering it up with a GPU was never an option. Of course, it's covered by the GPU, but not as bad as vertical mount.
Date: 2022-11-03
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Comments and reviews: 14
Torvaldsen
Still Rocking my Coolermaster HAF-X. Started with an FX8350 & R9 290X a decade ago. Now I have an Ryzen 5600x /w H150i platinum 360mm rad, and liquid cooled Toxic 6900xt. Disc drives and HDD are gone since original build, and have 4x 2tb samsung ssds as backup/storage using the hafx hotswap bays, and 2x 980evo's 1tb m.2 nvme ssds on the motherboard. The only thing original in my 10+ year old case is my coolermaster 850 silent pro power supply. It being a decade old however, i have it just powering the board and drives, and got a new 1600w evga platinum+ psu powering the gpu and various case fans and my coffee mug heating pad.
- I got the HAF-X a decade ago telling myself given its size and airflow, that the 200 price was worth it because its the last case ill need, and im sticking to it lol. It fits 2x big ass radiators, big ass gpu, and 2x psu's and still have load of room to work with even with 5-6inches of the right of the inside of the case being taken up top to bottom with drive bays.
- - One mod i did a long time ago given how much airflow this thing has, is get a roll of very fine mesh screen and cut out sections to go over the front and side panel intake screens as its a pain in the dick to clean all the screens inside of it. I got a bunch of small neodymium button magnets and with the mesh and case being steel, i could put the fine mesh screens on the outside of the case and have them held on by the magnets, with i had anodized flat black so you dont even see them. This way i can just slide the magnets to the side and clean the outer screens quick and easy vs taking the whole case and fans out/apart to clean the dust out. The outter screens reduced the dust buildup in the case by roughly 90% and with it being a HAFX case, there is still massive amounts of airflow even with the significantly more restrictive outer screens.
P.S. - funny
- - - Only thing i dislike is that a year ago i had my pc out in my workshop where i build muscle cars and firearms, and i had my pc case door leaning against the bench on the floor as i was going to clean that filter and replace that fan. But before doing that i was finishing up turning down a new 50bmg rifle barrel on my lathe. The acid i was using to etch the barrel surface to prep it for ceramic coating had spilled on the acrylic case panel window and now there is a permanent massive cock looking burn in the acrylic that ron jermey would be jealous of. The 7 shaped window now has a giant ghostly opaque dick looking mark on it, fully verticle and erect, curving to the left, covering about 80% of the window...rofl...
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Still Rocking my Coolermaster HAF-X. Started with an FX8350 & R9 290X a decade ago. Now I have an Ryzen 5600x /w H150i platinum 360mm rad, and liquid cooled Toxic 6900xt. Disc drives and HDD are gone since original build, and have 4x 2tb samsung ssds as backup/storage using the hafx hotswap bays, and 2x 980evo's 1tb m.2 nvme ssds on the motherboard. The only thing original in my 10+ year old case is my coolermaster 850 silent pro power supply. It being a decade old however, i have it just powering the board and drives, and got a new 1600w evga platinum+ psu powering the gpu and various case fans and my coffee mug heating pad.
- I got the HAF-X a decade ago telling myself given its size and airflow, that the 200 price was worth it because its the last case ill need, and im sticking to it lol. It fits 2x big ass radiators, big ass gpu, and 2x psu's and still have load of room to work with even with 5-6inches of the right of the inside of the case being taken up top to bottom with drive bays.
- - One mod i did a long time ago given how much airflow this thing has, is get a roll of very fine mesh screen and cut out sections to go over the front and side panel intake screens as its a pain in the dick to clean all the screens inside of it. I got a bunch of small neodymium button magnets and with the mesh and case being steel, i could put the fine mesh screens on the outside of the case and have them held on by the magnets, with i had anodized flat black so you dont even see them. This way i can just slide the magnets to the side and clean the outer screens quick and easy vs taking the whole case and fans out/apart to clean the dust out. The outter screens reduced the dust buildup in the case by roughly 90% and with it being a HAFX case, there is still massive amounts of airflow even with the significantly more restrictive outer screens.
P.S. - funny
- - - Only thing i dislike is that a year ago i had my pc out in my workshop where i build muscle cars and firearms, and i had my pc case door leaning against the bench on the floor as i was going to clean that filter and replace that fan. But before doing that i was finishing up turning down a new 50bmg rifle barrel on my lathe. The acid i was using to etch the barrel surface to prep it for ceramic coating had spilled on the acrylic case panel window and now there is a permanent massive cock looking burn in the acrylic that ron jermey would be jealous of. The 7 shaped window now has a giant ghostly opaque dick looking mark on it, fully verticle and erect, curving to the left, covering about 80% of the window...rofl...
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Tempest
Would love if you reviewed more budget cases even if they didn't launch this year, the same way you tackled lower cost air coolers. Prices naturally change over time (as you've acknowledged previously with the Thermalright cooler) but the Montech X3 Mesh 6pcs is now a whopping 75 on amazon from the default seller QuickDealStore and a shocking 90 from presumably the actual brand's seller, Montech PC - if 89.99 is the new MSRP, that's definitely no longer a budget case. When there are several different acceptable options, we can pick the one that is still lower in price.
If people pretending to be Arctic reps got you to finally review the Arctic Esports Duo, I'll hold my nose and pretend to be a Zalman shill and ask you to review the Zalman S2 - while the acrylic, inside tooling, lack of cable management space, and stand off installation reminds me more of 2014 rather than a modern case, it's cheap mesh front with 3 fans that as of today is in your budget range at 55. Additionally, thanks to Linus misdirecting everyone to get the closed front Zalman S3 instead in his holiday 2022 guide he released today, the S2 is mildly less likely to get the typical 'raise the prices because of induced techtuber demand'
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Would love if you reviewed more budget cases even if they didn't launch this year, the same way you tackled lower cost air coolers. Prices naturally change over time (as you've acknowledged previously with the Thermalright cooler) but the Montech X3 Mesh 6pcs is now a whopping 75 on amazon from the default seller QuickDealStore and a shocking 90 from presumably the actual brand's seller, Montech PC - if 89.99 is the new MSRP, that's definitely no longer a budget case. When there are several different acceptable options, we can pick the one that is still lower in price.
If people pretending to be Arctic reps got you to finally review the Arctic Esports Duo, I'll hold my nose and pretend to be a Zalman shill and ask you to review the Zalman S2 - while the acrylic, inside tooling, lack of cable management space, and stand off installation reminds me more of 2014 rather than a modern case, it's cheap mesh front with 3 fans that as of today is in your budget range at 55. Additionally, thanks to Linus misdirecting everyone to get the closed front Zalman S3 instead in his holiday 2022 guide he released today, the S2 is mildly less likely to get the typical 'raise the prices because of induced techtuber demand'
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Simon
GN's case reviews are simply the best. I bought the Lian Li LanCool II Mesh (RGB) in March of 2021 for my Ryzen 3900X system with stock fan (the 5900 simply wasn't available) because of GN rating it so highly (as a 2020 case).
Of-course I'd seen other good reviews of it, but GN is the most thorough, and Steve is a great advocate for consumer value, quality, and substance before style.
I found the LLLC II really easy to work in, great cable management, smart understated styling, as Steve so clearly demonstrated. I added 3 Corsair Halo fans for top and rear exhaust and a black Coolermaster Sickle Flow fan as a bottom intake to specifically cool my GPU. It's the first system I've ever had where the exhaust air is actually COOL. It's not working hard as a write this, but CPU/GPU/MOBO temps are currently 34/41/29 Centigrade.
I'll always look to GN first for their recommendations.
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GN's case reviews are simply the best. I bought the Lian Li LanCool II Mesh (RGB) in March of 2021 for my Ryzen 3900X system with stock fan (the 5900 simply wasn't available) because of GN rating it so highly (as a 2020 case).
Of-course I'd seen other good reviews of it, but GN is the most thorough, and Steve is a great advocate for consumer value, quality, and substance before style.
I found the LLLC II really easy to work in, great cable management, smart understated styling, as Steve so clearly demonstrated. I added 3 Corsair Halo fans for top and rear exhaust and a black Coolermaster Sickle Flow fan as a bottom intake to specifically cool my GPU. It's the first system I've ever had where the exhaust air is actually COOL. It's not working hard as a write this, but CPU/GPU/MOBO temps are currently 34/41/29 Centigrade.
I'll always look to GN first for their recommendations.
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00wheelie00
Perfect timing, as I'm planning my 3 yearly 3000 euro upgrade.
I loved the looks and performance of the torrent last year, and it's still at the top, so that will be a no brainer.
With the disappointing new intel and Amd cpus I'll save a lot of money, I managed to get my hands on a 5800x3d on sale! I can reuse my x470 board and memory!
Unexpectedly I'm now looking at a 2400 euro budget for a GPU and a pci gen 4 ssd to replace the SATA one. I feel extremely hesitant to buy the scummy priced RTX 4090, fingers crossed for Amd tomorrow. I might go for the top end RDNA 3 card if they don't take a page out of the nVidia 'how to screw your customers' handbook.
Otherwise I'll go with a 3090(Ti) and have a load of cash left, that's not such a bad problem to have. Maybe I will get a 32 ultra wide 1440p gaming monitor after all
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Perfect timing, as I'm planning my 3 yearly 3000 euro upgrade.
I loved the looks and performance of the torrent last year, and it's still at the top, so that will be a no brainer.
With the disappointing new intel and Amd cpus I'll save a lot of money, I managed to get my hands on a 5800x3d on sale! I can reuse my x470 board and memory!
Unexpectedly I'm now looking at a 2400 euro budget for a GPU and a pci gen 4 ssd to replace the SATA one. I feel extremely hesitant to buy the scummy priced RTX 4090, fingers crossed for Amd tomorrow. I might go for the top end RDNA 3 card if they don't take a page out of the nVidia 'how to screw your customers' handbook.
Otherwise I'll go with a 3090(Ti) and have a load of cash left, that's not such a bad problem to have. Maybe I will get a 32 ultra wide 1440p gaming monitor after all
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Swiftkitten88
im building a system this winter with a air cooled 4090/4080 and air cooled cpu while cooling is important im curious about noise, you did temps at 36 db, but most of the time i wont be maxing out my gpu or cpu and i want just want a quiet case, i dont like the look of the torrent really, and ii am considering some of the be quiet cases, but i do want a front usbc 3.1 port and ideally 2 front usb a 3.0 ports.. so i want a case with good sound/thermals when going high game loads as well, i dont care about glass panels i just what quiet case with low noise level decent thermals on minimal load and when max load 3d gaming. and low noise noise levls and decent thermals at max
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im building a system this winter with a air cooled 4090/4080 and air cooled cpu while cooling is important im curious about noise, you did temps at 36 db, but most of the time i wont be maxing out my gpu or cpu and i want just want a quiet case, i dont like the look of the torrent really, and ii am considering some of the be quiet cases, but i do want a front usbc 3.1 port and ideally 2 front usb a 3.0 ports.. so i want a case with good sound/thermals when going high game loads as well, i dont care about glass panels i just what quiet case with low noise level decent thermals on minimal load and when max load 3d gaming. and low noise noise levls and decent thermals at max
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Pyroteq
How are you giving best overall case to a mid tower case that blocks every other PCIe slot and can only fit a couple of HDD's?
Normally you guys are practical. A case that sacrifices all expandability for aesthetics is not practical in any way. Can't add a capture card, can't upgrade I/O, can't add a second graphics card for other applications and most importantly it can't even fit the most powerful GPU's. That is all way too much downsides when a normal ATX case has none of these issues.
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How are you giving best overall case to a mid tower case that blocks every other PCIe slot and can only fit a couple of HDD's?
Normally you guys are practical. A case that sacrifices all expandability for aesthetics is not practical in any way. Can't add a capture card, can't upgrade I/O, can't add a second graphics card for other applications and most importantly it can't even fit the most powerful GPU's. That is all way too much downsides when a normal ATX case has none of these issues.
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ElGoogKO
4:37 That is where the GPU should be mounted, especially the new 4090 ones.
Literally that is the place, not on the motherboards.
And the CPU to be mounted where we see the fan in the back. That is where the cpu fan should be mounted with the heatsink and cpu and motherboard attached.
And motherboards should be small to house on one side the cpu and on the back to have slots for the ram and connectors to plug in the GPU and other stuff.
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4:37 That is where the GPU should be mounted, especially the new 4090 ones.
Literally that is the place, not on the motherboards.
And the CPU to be mounted where we see the fan in the back. That is where the cpu fan should be mounted with the heatsink and cpu and motherboard attached.
And motherboards should be small to house on one side the cpu and on the back to have slots for the ram and connectors to plug in the GPU and other stuff.
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Ethical
Glad I watched the whole video before commenting lol. Looking forward to the Focus 2 review because it looks really compelling, and I saw the rgb version selling for 60 on newegg today. It looks like it can embarass the Montech X3 Mesh in terms of build quality and gpu compatability. The X3 supports up to 305mm gpus while the Focus 2 supports up to 405mm gpus! The 2 included 140mm front fans also look like they'll provide adequate cooling.
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Glad I watched the whole video before commenting lol. Looking forward to the Focus 2 review because it looks really compelling, and I saw the rgb version selling for 60 on newegg today. It looks like it can embarass the Montech X3 Mesh in terms of build quality and gpu compatability. The X3 supports up to 305mm gpus while the Focus 2 supports up to 405mm gpus! The 2 included 140mm front fans also look like they'll provide adequate cooling.
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magicalplaid
I bought the pop air a couple of months ago thanks to your review. I'm one of the 10 people left in the world that still wants to have an optical drive, so it was a perfect upgrade from my old case. The cover popping off as soon as you touch it wrong is real though lol. Thanks to the team for all your hard work! Also I finally paused to read through Snowflake's website in the squarespace ad and was not disappointed
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I bought the pop air a couple of months ago thanks to your review. I'm one of the 10 people left in the world that still wants to have an optical drive, so it was a perfect upgrade from my old case. The cover popping off as soon as you touch it wrong is real though lol. Thanks to the team for all your hard work! Also I finally paused to read through Snowflake's website in the squarespace ad and was not disappointed
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Jared
We could argue about price ranges and what qualifies as mid range all day long, but isn't 120 getting a bit on the high side when the budget category is 50-60?
I'm not sure if I speak for all mid-rangers here, but the reason I buy in this category is for the value proposition. I want a reasonable product without spending a ton of cash, while also not getting a sheet metal box. 120 is too high for this category.
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We could argue about price ranges and what qualifies as mid range all day long, but isn't 120 getting a bit on the high side when the budget category is 50-60?
I'm not sure if I speak for all mid-rangers here, but the reason I buy in this category is for the value proposition. I want a reasonable product without spending a ton of cash, while also not getting a sheet metal box. 120 is too high for this category.
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Foxxen
Definitely was not expecting to see the Y60 as best overall o.o
I watched so many reviews (often multiple times over) trying to decide between it and the Lancool III.
I eventually decided on the Y60 as it just kinda had my heart from the beginning anyway...despite being the less pragmatic choice for multiple reasons.
But this definitely helps me feel a little more validated about my choice! :D
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Definitely was not expecting to see the Y60 as best overall o.o
I watched so many reviews (often multiple times over) trying to decide between it and the Lancool III.
I eventually decided on the Y60 as it just kinda had my heart from the beginning anyway...despite being the less pragmatic choice for multiple reasons.
But this definitely helps me feel a little more validated about my choice! :D
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Petr
Thank you Steve for all the reviews and round up! Your reviews helped me upgrade my setup this year a lot! Tomorrow moving my 5800X3D 4090 build into 7000D with top mounted 420mm Arctic. I am not able to count how many times I saw your reviews for 7000D and Meshify 2 XL before pulling trigger. I wanted AX1600i to breathe fresh air and to top mount at least 360mm AIO without any compromises.
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Thank you Steve for all the reviews and round up! Your reviews helped me upgrade my setup this year a lot! Tomorrow moving my 5800X3D 4090 build into 7000D with top mounted 420mm Arctic. I am not able to count how many times I saw your reviews for 7000D and Meshify 2 XL before pulling trigger. I wanted AX1600i to breathe fresh air and to top mount at least 360mm AIO without any compromises.
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kdawg3484
I didn't know the Fractal Pop had a 5.25 bay. Since it's also a quality midrange case, that basically seals it as my new default case for all future builds I might do, especially for other people. Like the Cooler Master HAF 912 before it; I used those for everything. I was sad when I learned they weren't making the 912 anymore, so it's nice to finally have a replacement.
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I didn't know the Fractal Pop had a 5.25 bay. Since it's also a quality midrange case, that basically seals it as my new default case for all future builds I might do, especially for other people. Like the Cooler Master HAF 912 before it; I used those for everything. I was sad when I learned they weren't making the 912 anymore, so it's nice to finally have a replacement.
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analog56x
ever since i saw the Y60, ive wanted one. the only thing that stopped me and ultimately resulted in me buying the o11d evo was the fact that my computer sits on the left side of my desk. if i had a few hundred dollars burning a hole in my pocket, i would buy the Y60 and see how hard it would be to mod for upside down orientation... its an absolutely beautiful case.
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ever since i saw the Y60, ive wanted one. the only thing that stopped me and ultimately resulted in me buying the o11d evo was the fact that my computer sits on the left side of my desk. if i had a few hundred dollars burning a hole in my pocket, i would buy the Y60 and see how hard it would be to mod for upside down orientation... its an absolutely beautiful case.
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