Bigger, better Case under £100

chivs688 · 27 Jul 2011 at 16:28

I'm looking for a new case under £100.
My current Zalman Z9 Plus is just too small, too cramped, and collects up too much dust.
Also, I just bought a Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU cooler and it doesn't fit. Firstly because the width of the case is too small, and secondly the window behind the motherboard to allow you to attach things to the back of the motherboard isn't directly over the CPU, leaving the two side holes covered up, meaning you can't attach anything to it.

So I'm looking for a great performing case that is nice and big so that there is plenty of room in the case for air flow and is wide enough to fit my cooler, with also good performance.
Not really fussed about noise as use headphones for PC audio, so just performance.

My components are:
Intel Core i5-2500K & Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Motherboard Bundle
Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Far Cry 2
XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply
Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)
OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Thanks.

Jony27 · 27 Jul 2011 at 17:59

Lancool PC-K62
CM 690 II Lite/Adv
HAF Series
NZXT Phantom
Fractal Design XL
Corsair 600T

C64 · 27 Jul 2011 at 18:32

silverstone raven 3 £107

ins0mn1ac · 27 Jul 2011 at 19:36

chivs688 said:
I'm looking for a new case under £100.
My current Zalman Z9 Plus is just too small, too cramped, and collects up too much dust.
Also, I just bought a Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU cooler and it doesn't fit. Firstly because the width of the case is too small, and secondly the window behind the motherboard to allow you to attach things to the back of the motherboard isn't directly over the CPU, leaving the two side holes covered up, meaning you can't attach anything to it.

Hmm? I'm using a Zalman Z9 atm and I've just installed a cooler that I believe is bigger than the Silver Arrow and I had no problems with the slot in the MB tray, plenty of space to locate the brackets etc! the cooler also fits fine and I'm using 2 separate fans on it.

chivs688 · 27 Jul 2011 at 19:47

ins0mn1ac said:
Hmm? I'm using a Zalman Z9 atm and I've just installed a cooler that I believe is bigger than the Silver Arrow and I had no problems with the slot in the MB tray, plenty of space to locate the brackets etc! the cooler also fits fine and I'm using 2 separate fans on it.

With my motherboard, the P8P67, the CPU section is too far to the left, leaving just the top and bottom right holes accessible, while the other two on the left are covered by the metal.
I put it in just using the right screws as a test, and the cooler was just slightly too tall, so I couldn't get the side panel back on.

CyberCrow · 27 Jul 2011 at 19:48

CM 912 plus is a good buy

chivs688 · 27 Jul 2011 at 23:36

ins0mn1ac said:
Hmm? I'm using a Zalman Z9 atm and I've just installed a cooler that I believe is bigger than the Silver Arrow and I had no problems with the slot in the MB tray, plenty of space to locate the brackets etc! the cooler also fits fine and I'm using 2 separate fans on it.

I'm actually beginning to this that my Z9 was just poorly built, and that the holes that the motherboard attaches to are not in their correct places.

Not only are the holes on the motherboard concealed to the side, my USB and all of those sockets in the back of the PC don't even reach the end of the case and are quite far in, and also my graphics card does not quite fit properly onto the back of the case, and I had to bend the case slightly in order for it to attach, and it still makes the card not full connect in to the motherboard properly. :/