Guild Wars 2

I’ve been thinking about downsizing my case recently. Although I love my 912, it’s really a bit big for what I need currently, especially given that I have an mATX mobo and a pretty small GPU.

I’ve been looking, and so far the two most attractive options have been the Fracral Design 1000 and the Rosewill Line-M:

Fractal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352032

Rosewill:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147166

I’m leaning towards the Fractal, since I prefer the cleaner front look, and the buttons on the front of the Rosewill aren’t exactly attractive from an aesthetic sense. I also like the full mesh front on the Fractal.

I’m looking at spending around $40, since this isn’t the case I plan on using permanently. Is there anything better/worth getting around that much? I looked at Newegg/Amazon, and most of the cases were either subpar from a looks standpoint, too tall, or too expensive, but I easily could have missed something.

The only other real restriction is that I only have 14.5" of vertical clearance, so the case can only be ~ that tall at the absolute most.

Well cases like keyboard/mouse is a personal preference.

The drawback with the Fractal is the lack of a rear fan and the mount is only a 92mm. Who doesn’t design cases where 120mm case fans are standard nowadays (other than HP)? Top mount PSU is also a throwback to older days. Also the dimensions are narrow, only 175mm or 6.9 inches. The case doesn’t have a lot of space above the MB which may be a problem if you go with a 3rd party CPU cooler.

But there simply isn’t a lot of cases to choose from around your price point.

Bitfenix Prodigy mAtx edition or Bitfenix Phenom mAtx

EDIT: on further inspection, the Prodigy is to tall for what u want, but the Phenom is fine and has the same insides as the Prodigy. The Prodigy handles and feet make up the extra height vs the Phenom.

SolarNova.1052:

Bitfenix Prodigy mAtx edition or Bitfenix Phenom mAtx

Another vote on the BitFenix Prodigy, beautiful case.

I’ve use tons of different cases over the past 5 years (built over 3 dozen workstations systems for our offices) and the best built cases (by far) for the money are currently Corsiar chassis. Cannot recommend them enough. Just my 2 cents.

Fermi.2409:

I’ve been thinking about downsizing my case recently. Although I love my 912, it’s really a bit big for what I need currently, especially given that I have an mATX mobo and a pretty small GPU.

I’ve been looking, and so far the two most attractive options have been the Fracral Design 1000 and the Rosewill Line-M:

Fractal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352032

Rosewill:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147166

I’m leaning towards the Fractal, since I prefer the cleaner front look, and the buttons on the front of the Rosewill aren’t exactly attractive from an aesthetic sense. I also like the full mesh front on the Fractal.

I’m looking at spending around $40, since this isn’t the case I plan on using permanently. Is there anything better/worth getting around that much? I looked at Newegg/Amazon, and most of the cases were either subpar from a looks standpoint, too tall, or too expensive, but I easily could have missed something.

The only other real restriction is that I only have 14.5" of vertical clearance, so the case can only be ~ that tall at the absolute most.

I have the Fractal Design Core 1000 on my second PC. Its not the best thing ever when it comes to its build(bottom has some flex into it) and cable management options but the aesthetics is pretty good IMO and you can’t go wrong with it for that price.

Also, I use a fairly tall aftermarket CPU cooler, there is no clearance to add the side panel fan after that, so that is something else to consider.

sobe.4157:

SolarNova.1052:

Bitfenix Prodigy mAtx edition or Bitfenix Phenom mAtx

Another vote on the BitFenix Prodigy, beautiful case.

Sadly, that’s a fair bit above what I’m looking to drop on a case. This is just something to use while I’m in a dorm, so I don’t need to deal with having quite such a large computer.

I’ll probably end up switching to a Corsair case once I’m out and can blow a good bit of money on my computer, but I’ll leave the expensive purchases until then.

Izaya.2906:

I have the Fractal Design Core 1000 on my second PC. Its not the best thing ever when it comes to its build(bottom has some flex into it) and cable management options but the aesthetics is pretty good IMO and you can’t go wrong with it for that price.

These are the main things that push me towards the Line-M, honestly. Even barring the cable management, it’ll be making a couple trips annually to school and back, and I may drag it to a friend’s house on occasion, since it’s not quite as large. Heatsink clearance is a nonissue, since I don’t plan on upgrading to anything that would really need an aftermarket heatsink any time soon. Even if I go for a Xeon E3-1230 V2 the stock one should do well enough.