Choosing a case

d3moliti0n · 31 May 2009 at 15:45

Hi

I'm going to be buying a new case for my PC soon as my current one is a rubbish £15 no-brand thing. Basically I'm in two minds whether to go for a cheaper Cooler Master such as the Elite 330 or 335 or buy a more high-end/expensive case such as the Cooler Master Scout which I think looks awesome, but in the end the case just gets stuck under a desk really and doesn't affect performance in terms of how good the components are (apart from airflow/temps of components). I'm not really interested in the Antec 300 as apparently it has rubbish cable management and I don't like it much tbh.

Basically if I were to go for the cheaper case I could upgrade my CPU sooner, from a E2180 @ 3GHz to an E5200 or I could go for the more expensive case (the Scout or something else) but then it would be a while before I could upgrade the CPU.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what case to go for or if I should go for a cheaper/more expensive one?

Thanks for your help.

95thrifles · 31 May 2009 at 16:14

Id say go for the 335 and get the E5200 soner rather than later, as you say this will result in better actual system performance where as a nicer case wont

d3moliti0n · 31 May 2009 at 18:17

Well, if I get the Scout case now, along with a 4870 512MB and 4GB DDR2 memory I will be able to get the CPU in about 3 weeks or so. If I get a cheaper case now, such as the Elite 330 or 335 I can get the CPU not tomorrow but the following Monday. Is it worth the three week or so wait for the CPU to get the better case?

mjones1 · 31 May 2009 at 19:07

Save up for the better case instead of having to buy things twice over!

95thrifles · 31 May 2009 at 19:08

yeah if its just 3 weeks then go for it, was thinking you meant a few months or somat

d3moliti0n · 31 May 2009 at 19:11

mjones1 said:
Save up for the better case instead of having to buy things twice over!

I don't understand what you mean by that? Basically I can either buy a 4870, 4GB memory and the Scout and not be able to upgrade my CPU until next month or so, or I can go for the same GPU and memory and get a cheaper case and be able to a new CPU next week.

My current CPU being a Pentium Dual-Core E2180 @ 3GHz (overclocked, I'm going to try and bump it up to 3.2GHz soon)

The planned upgrade being a Pentium Dual-Core E5200 @ 2.5GHz (stock speed)