11-18-2013, 05:32 PM
If you buy a car that comes with shitty tires, you can replace the tires.
If you buy a car that's poorly designed, has the instrument panel under the seat, requires you to remove the passenger side airbag to check the fuse box and makes you remove the hood every time you want to check the oil (and getting the hood back on is a pain in the ass) THEN it's a lot like buying a bad case.
Things I do not like about my NZXT case:
* Drive bays are too close to the spot where the video cards go in. There's literally no room between my nVidia 480 and the drive bays.
* The side panel doesn't slide off easily or go back on easily
* The side panel fan wire is connected to the regular wires so I have to disconnect the fan to really get the door out of the way.
* It wants you to load drives so that the plugs face to the back-panel. The back-panel comes off but there's so little room between it and the drives that you can end up knocking the drive plugs out trying to get the panel back on.
* The front-side USB plugs are on the bottom left of the case which might be cool if the tower was on my desk but being on the floor I'd rather have more top plugs.
Basically, I agree that $300+ does not necessarily equal "awesome case".
But you are wrong if you think all cases are the same and any ol' random case is sufficient.
I also conceptually agree with Vllad's statement that a case with more/better fans for better airflow should lead to longer component life. And cases that include small fans end up sounding like jet engines because the small fans have to turn so much faster to move the same amount of air.
I got my parents an Antex P280 case for like $110. That was "sufficient". Better than mine but still not my first choice. IIRC, it avoided the side-fan wire problem by just not having one.
If you buy a car that's poorly designed, has the instrument panel under the seat, requires you to remove the passenger side airbag to check the fuse box and makes you remove the hood every time you want to check the oil (and getting the hood back on is a pain in the ass) THEN it's a lot like buying a bad case.
Things I do not like about my NZXT case:
* Drive bays are too close to the spot where the video cards go in. There's literally no room between my nVidia 480 and the drive bays.
* The side panel doesn't slide off easily or go back on easily
* The side panel fan wire is connected to the regular wires so I have to disconnect the fan to really get the door out of the way.
* It wants you to load drives so that the plugs face to the back-panel. The back-panel comes off but there's so little room between it and the drives that you can end up knocking the drive plugs out trying to get the panel back on.
* The front-side USB plugs are on the bottom left of the case which might be cool if the tower was on my desk but being on the floor I'd rather have more top plugs.
Basically, I agree that $300+ does not necessarily equal "awesome case".
But you are wrong if you think all cases are the same and any ol' random case is sufficient.
I also conceptually agree with Vllad's statement that a case with more/better fans for better airflow should lead to longer component life. And cases that include small fans end up sounding like jet engines because the small fans have to turn so much faster to move the same amount of air.
I got my parents an Antex P280 case for like $110. That was "sufficient". Better than mine but still not my first choice. IIRC, it avoided the side-fan wire problem by just not having one.