For the Y60, remember that it's mostly meant for water cooling and now that all the new parts are such high power, it's a good time to get into water cooled builds for the high-end GPU + CPU combinations. For air cooling, you need a skinnier card (as we say in the video) and you should utilize the bottom intake! Links to all the cases and the reviews of each case are in the description above! You can get more detailed information on each case in its respective reviews in the links. PC Case Review Playlist: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-94l1c5dMRX8.html While you get ready for your next PC build, grab one of our anti-static, heavy-duty modmats for PC building on the GN Store! It helps support our work if you like it while also getting you something long-lasting and useful in return: store.gamersnexus.net/products/modmat-volt-large
You forgot to review the Asus Anime Case, for this you must stand trial before Goku, Naruto, Eren Jeager, Monkey D Luffy, and Lord Farquaad for crimes against The People Who Watch Anime On Their Expensive PCs Instead Of Playing Games. (TPWWAOTEPCIOPG for short).
I was hoping to see best case based on MB size. I was expecting some ITX evaluation to find out what's the best in class for that size, but no dice. I hope this could be something GN can add in the future.
I've been very impressed with the Fractal Torrent since building my new PC in it a week ago. It's got lots of space, good cable management, and that airflow is incredible even with an AIO in the mix. Swapped the 180mm fans to the bottom and mounted a 420mm AIO to the front in a push-pull config (2 push, 3 pull) and still had plenty of space to route the hoses even with the comically large Zotac 4090 AIRO installed. Fractal nailed that case design.
Purchased the Fractal Pop case (pink one) a few days ago. It's honestly pretty rare to find a nice modern looking case with pink accents and great air flow. Also, while being affordable.
I have the Torrent, best purchase I did. Plus with adding the Noctua D15. It's been really good. Glad it got the best thermals awards because in the end that's what really matters, to me at least.
Good to see them adding optical bays again to some cases, people erroneously believe only optical drives go there, forgetting about LCD screens for temp display, manual fan controls, card readers, etc... Great picks, I'm still using the Lancool II Mesh and still loving it ;)
I love 5.25" bays, but let's be real - most of what would fit there is now either obsolete for most consumers (optical drives, HDD bays), or replaced with software (fan/system monitoring), or moved to optional external attachments (readers, drives again) with no quality devices even produced as internals. And for the rest, there are now specific usecase-optimized solutions (like NAS cases).
I would like you to review for "utility" things like front IO, DVD support, SD and microSD in the front IO, are definitive things to consider in my case.
I have never found a quiet case again. My current no-name case is sound insulated and around 10 years old. That whole trend for flashy LED riddled cases and fans is beyond me.
The Hyte Y60 looks nice, and if I was building something very simple, then it's fine. The design of the back with PCIe and expansion slots is the massive deal killer for me. I need full size slots, and I need to be able to use expansion cards, so the case is completely worthless to me. A new revision might interest me, if they make a more practical version with more flexibility.
When I see the HYTE, the only thing that comes to mind is "Fish Tank". I like the setup (mostly) of the LANCOOL 3. I am, however, very satisfied with my 5000D. Though I do miss not having optical drives. However, anyone with one shouldn't feel their case suddenly sucks now.
Was thinking before watching, Well Steve from Gamer's Nexus has pretty much convinced me to go with a Fractal Torrent, but we'll see. Time to replace my old workhorse, the Corsair Obsidian 650D Black Mid Tower Case with SATA Dock - CC650DW-1, I'll miss that hot swap dock slot, but even though it has USB3, it's old. I'm running an EVGA (RIP) 3080Ti FTW3 and will upgrade my 8700k next year, the 7800X3D will be tough to beat, unless Intel releases a 13700k 10C/20T 0 eCore gaming variant. Then within first minute, Steve from Gamer's Nexus confirms my expectation, not really a big surprise, I've seen every case review since the Torrent. Now I'll go back to watch the rest.
Love the video, but was anyone else surprised that "best overall" went to a case that restricts you to a single PCIe slot and only water cooled GPU? That only really applies to very niche group.
I like that we're seeing some more cases take inspiration from the 011 dynamic, as I like the look of that case. But the Hyte Y60 just looks like a big chunk of plastic to me. I'm sure performance is fine, but it just looks cheap because of it. Best overall case for a case that can't support modern thick air cooled GPU's very well is not very good either imo.
Is it really best to put such emphasis on the cases' CPU cooling performance when it's the GPU that usually ends up the noisiest part in the system? The O11 air mini does comparatively badly in your charts for GPU temps yet you give it high praise for thermals. I'd bet in a final practical air-cooled build cases like the P500A or Lancool II Mesh would be the quietest.
Can you please do a best full case review I plan on building a new PC and I have a mid tower right now but with the direction PC components are going mid towers won't be able to fit everything
You guys should really also have tested Nanoxia Cases... been running the Nanoxia Deep Sllence 1 Rev. B for several years now, with an 8700K @ 4.9 GHz 1-3, 4.8 GHz 4-6 OC, RTX 4080 boosting up to 3 GHz thanks to Factory + Custom OC but still aircooled, Noctua NH-D15, and the system is so ridiculously silent thanks to its noise-absorbing padding. it's sitting right next to my right ear on the desk, and yes, of course it *is* audible when on, but so barely that even when just typing a text in Writer, the keyboard significantly owerpowers the noise level of the PC. It's a german brand making to my taste pretty amazing cases for fair price points.
@@Murlokck Idle (browsing, YT is what I class as "idle") we're looking at ~50° C CPU with perfectly silent PC (i.e. you don't even hear it's on when typing or with window opened), gaming with a full load, something like Cyberpunk 2077 with everything to Ultra/RT to Psycho, we're looking at CPU 65° C to 70° C max, then audible, but easily inaudible when sound system active. That's with current ambient temp of 26° C room temp, so cooling it actually pretty amazing, but also the sound proofing doubles as somewhat of a thermal isolator, so ambient temp doesn't affect this case as much as other cases with just thin metal or pvc walls.
Could you do a review on the Vetroo AL-MESH-7C Compact ATX case? I'm looking to build a new (low end mid range) desktop this year to replace the one I built, my first build, in 2015. Having had some experience now with how a case affects things, I am definite that this time I want better cable management and, most importantly, front facing USB, which the Vetroo has. It also has the PSU compartment in the front, which is a unique but questionable design choice that I think warrants some testing. Also considered was the Lian Li PC-O11DW, which however does not come with any fans. The Lian Li III highlighted in this video has definitely become another contender, the top USB panel can be put at the bottom.
I was originally thinking about getting that fish-tank case, the best overall one. But I have no desire to learn how to water cool, and while I don't have a 3x wide graphics card, I have a 2, and I jusat don't want to worry about any hiccups. Surprisingly, the Fractal Pop really caught my attention, so I'll be getting that one. It looks awesome. I wish it were white/teal though. But it still looks great, AND it has an optical drive bay, which is something I've lowkey wanted for a long time.
Looking forward to seeing the InWin Airforce build. I"m tired of the everyday cases and want something unique that still offers good cooling, cable management and doesn't break the bank :)
I really like the NZXT h7 flow and fractal. I know nothing about cases though and I'm trying to build a PC with an Intel arc a770 and Ryzen 7700x I bought. I don't even know whether they come with the RGB fans. They do look cool, but these all look so small. Id like to have the option of adding a second GPU and HDD. Would these fit? Is water cooling with it?
I would really like it if you added mATX and mITX cases. The Y60 is good but I would say it is too limited. It is an ATX case but you can only put one PCIe card in. So why use an ATX board? Why not an mATX or ITX-sized board. So it is not very good for air cooling and limits expansion all the while being far larger than needed. All for good looks. Sure for a show case it is really nice but it is such a niche case I would not give it the case of the year but that is just my opinon. I am sure a lot of people love it and will pick it.
not sure i like that at the end, you have the Be Quiet! case there which implies its not a good one.. I just bought that one for my sisters build based on another video as a good alternative to the Torrent (which last week was priced at $180). Did i make a mistake?
No 5.25" bays = no interest, I'll buy practical over pretty every time. Perhaps a video on useful expansion cards might reverse this trend of dumbing down cases?
lego pc case and the waifu front plate cases are hot. Steve is the only host that never gets boring after hundreds of hours and months of watch time(and still manages to crack good jokes)
what's the best FULL TOWER case out there? I am eying the Corsair 7000D in white, any other suggestions? (please don't suggest mid towers of any kind). And if there is a version in white, would be appreciated.
After last years Case review, I ended up buying a Fractal Torrent and have had amazing results since. I upgraded to a 3080 FE and it's almost like they were made for eachother. They are aesthetically similar and the cooling is incredibly efficient. I overclocked it to max with no undervolting and the card has never seen 80 C
You should add a new category for the "easiest to keep clean while not overly sacrificing performance" case. I love some of the new cases that have easily accessed and removable dust shields that can be cleaned without having to take the case apart to do so.
Yeah I specifically chose my case because it had dust filters on the front, top, and bottom. A lot of these cases don't have filters and it kinda irks me. I get that it affects airflow, but cleaning a filter is much easier than cleaning GPU and CPU coolers
@@manh2704 I think you underestimate how tired and lazy some of us out here are feeling, case dust filters are the best innovation I've seen in recent history
@@DarthDungus If you lick them with your tongue once in a while, one lick each time and if you do it 3 times a week for an entire year you never will have a dust problem.
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.
If you can find the older Fractal FocusG, it actually has two 5.25 bays, but lacks a sealed basement and uses plexi instead of tempered glass, but is prized at half that of the Fractal Pop.
@@ToddandRaquiForrest Fractal Pop places the bay in a spot where direct airflow isn't needed though. Focus G blocks placement of a fan blowing directly at CPU
Having three 5.25" bays is exactly why I'm never giving up my Phanteks MiniXL. It might forever be the only dual-system case with 5.25" bays for hotswapping SSDs between the two systems. Really boggles my mind that Phanteks doesn't think of this functionality with their new dual-system cases. Waiting for ethernet file transfer is one way to never get anything done.
@@Vinterloft For what it's worth, and in case you do need to upgrade cases in the future, a couple options to get around this are SAS to SATA adaptors which are capable of dual pathing (not sure how available single drive adaptors are, mind) and direct interconnect networking standards like Thunderbolt, high speed peer to peer Ethernet (both capping at 10GbE speeds in this use case, enough to outperform SATA), or even used 40Gbps server networking hardware which has relatively inexpensive options for direct interconnects.
Just a note, the HAF 500 has been hovering between as low as $85 - $112 the last week on Amazon. (This is roughly the price Steve said this case should be sold for, and it seems to do really well at that price class!)
Im pretty happy with my HAF 500. The GPU fan mount is arguable, but the rest of the case is solid and gets the job done. The addition of a type C USB front connector, a fan and RGB hub and a removable top pannel for easy AIO / fan mounting completes the deal imho. I just HAF to get this case!
HAF 500 is still the same price here as a Torrent Compact more or less. (the black non glass compact) I mean even Pop air plain black cost the same as any of the HAF 500's. Sweden. Heck even Pop air XL cost around the same price as the HAF 500's. There is almost nothing from CoolerMaster worth buying. And Torrent aint rainbows and sunshine either.
In this episode Steve gives us a case-by-case comparison so he can give you the best case scenario. And remember that if some of these looked unfamiliar on the inside he was showing you... in case... you forgot...
Definitely agreed, I have the HYTE Y60 (Hakos Baelz customized edition), and overall I'd say the review was fair in its criticisms while also rightly pointing out positives. It was by far the most spacious case I had ever built in, and it was really just a dream to work in.
I remembered she released it and it looked similar to this years best case, so I went to check it and it was actually a Hyde Y60. I really wanted to buy it now but then he said I need a GPU with liquid cooling which automatically disqualifies the case sadly
Have you considered adding a SFF case category to the list? Not everyone likes having giant mid tower cases taking up space, and I'd love to see your style of reviews with smaller cases.
We have, yeah. It's tough for time reasons. It takes an entirely different methodology and approach and we don't have time yet - but we want to get back to it.
@@GamersNexus It would be also cool to see the opposite, like very large ATX cube cases, where the mainboard is mounted horizontally and having multiple segmented compartments for different parts.
Good to see the 4000D airflow on the list. I built in this and despite narrow GPU clearance with a front mounted liquid freezer 2, it looks nice, is near silent and was pretty easy to build in. I didnt want anything much bigger because I would repeatedly bang my knee on the super wide 011 dynamic.
2 years ago I was still using a case from an old Athlon 64 from about 2004! I had a 7700k system in it but in 2020 I upgraded everything and got a 5600x system. I used a Corsair 4000D Airflow. It's luxury... also keeps the dust out. My old 2004 case was super dusty!
I run a pc repair shop and upgrade my case a lot... had a 4000d airlow for a year now and not had to clean my case out once. Honestly the best experience ive had except that there is the limitation of only being able to have a 360mm rad at the front if you mount with the tubes at the top otherwise its faultless and looks amazing.
Sometimes old cases are still good. I'm still using a Cooler Master HAF XB cube case and i don't have plans to replace it, because it's just a great and versatile high airflow case for aircooled builds. I also like horizontal designs more than towers, because it solves some of the tower-related problems, like GPU sag, cable managent and it's easier to install new hardware, because it can be opened from all sides. It has it's own problems too, like using a lot of space and that it must stand on a table.
I'm still using a whole 4 core Athlon 64 Extreme PC for backups on my network. Still does a great job and it's plenty fast for everyday computing, I upgraded to a used i5 system not all that much better just to get the Cooler Master HAF X case (~2010) it was in! Used it for a year and just recently transplanted the guts into a new Fractal Mesh C case which was quite tight, to make room for the new Ryzen 7 system I just built into the HAP X case! It still has room for like another system inside! It's a freaking beast of a case!
You should list the avg market price at the time of the video's recording for each of the cases, since prices always change in the future and it would make it easier to tell what's still a good deal.
I’m pretty sure cases stay relatively the same price unless there’s a V2 of a case. There are cases that are $60 that go to $30-45 on sale, I usually buy those for the prebuilds I make, or I buy a used brand one for like half or quarter of the price.
to me the best aging case winner is my Cooler Master HAF X, bought with usb 2.0 and e-sata outtakes but later upgraded with usb 3.1 outtakes as sparepart replacement prolonging life for a overall splendid case. We need a overall lifespan reward too for our planets sake, Steve and CO.
I can agree, still struggle to justify replacing my HAF X for a new build even though some newer cases are more aesthetically pleasing... Their price tags or gimmicks aren't.
In the noise normalized tests, I wonder if GN doesn't place a little too much emphasis on just the lowest CPU temp. Looking at their wonderful graph (truly an awesome testament to their longevity and thoroughness), you can see that while the CPU temps are lower, the GPU temps are considerably higher in some cases. The P500A and the Lian Li Lancool II Mesh are basically within a degree of one another for both CPU and GPU, which means that airflow is likely more optimized throughout these cases, versus some where we see a pretty significant difference. By example: the Lian Li 011 Air Mini has a +13C difference between the CPU and GPU temps during noise normalized testing, which likely means the air flow is optimized for the CPU vs GPU. Maybe not the best idea in a case if gaming/rendering is involved, since the GPU is going to be expected to work hard. All of the top cases are really pretty good, and all keep your CPU/GPU temps in the safe zone, even under load. So maybe it's just preference, but I kind of think you'd be better off with consistency throughout the case for temperature, rather than having significant variance in locations literally a few inches from each other. It also likely means that other nearby components are being cooled/heated in an uneven fashion. Add in some humidity and that's enough to maybe make some weather in there! :)
Thank you so much for this video -- I can't tell you how much I've looked at the 2021 version of the video. The refresh is greatly appreciated because you're a respected source with solid, consistent testing for a plethora of cases. A rarity in today's news feed, and something we cherish dearly 💙
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'
I'm looking for a case that can fit my 4HDD's,2 SSD's, optical disk drive and USB/card reader, it's crazy how there aren't any recent cases that support it
Struggling to decide between the Lian Li Lancool 3 and the NZXT H7 Flow! I'm going for a High End Build with a rtx 4090 and i9 13900k. I adore the NZXT H7 Elite look but it just isn't an option in terms of performance. So I do like the look of the H7 better but stats of the Lancool 3 are better.. What would you guys recommend me?
