Good budget midi tower case?

Hatake · 31 Aug 2020 at 15:12

I'm looking to get rid of my old and recycled full tower case for something smaller, especially since my SSD drive is currently fixed to the chassis with electrical tape as I lost the mounting brackets long ago. I have a MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX Motherboard, Ryzen 3600, and a Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse so I'm looking for a midi tower case that can take a 260mm long gfx card (should be most of them I imagine). All stock air cooled.

Ideally I would like something with easily removable dust filters (front and PSU mainly). I'm not bothered about RGB lighting and such, a side window to see when it needs cleaning would be nice but not a deal breaker.

Currently looking at the below cases although none have an easily removable front filter (popping the front cover off isn't difficult but I'm always worried I'm going to break the clips when I do so). Kinda looking to do this as cheaply as possible without inviting potential overheating issues. Got a budget of up to £100, any one of those clearly better than the rest or ones I haven't considered?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Aerocool Aero 500 Midi-Tower Case - Black Window= £38.99
1 x Fractal Design Meshify C Blackout Midi Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass= £86.99
1 x be quiet! Pure Base 500 Midi Tower Case - Black= £69.95
1 x Phanteks Eclipse P300 Glass Midi Tower Case - Black= £54.95

Total: £284.42 (includes shipping: £33.54)

andy_mk3 · 31 Aug 2020 at 15:32

Recently done a build in the Fractal case, I have the bigger S2 myself also. Both of which are awesome build quality and a nice case to build into. Great airflow case too.

Shante · 1 Sep 2020 at 00:26

Between those four I would pick Fractal 1st and Phantek 2nd

MikeTimbers · 1 Sep 2020 at 13:13

I have a P300A and it's a very nice case to build in although not much space if you want to watercool.

Hatake · 1 Sep 2020 at 15:57

I have no intention of water cooling, my overclocking days are behind me. Too lazy to go through the hassle for a few extra Mhz that aren't all that noticeable day to day. Stock air cooling in a decent case will be more than sufficient I think.

The aerocool caught my eye because of the fan speed controller but I think it's a bit of a gimmick. I guess I'll go for the fractal since all the filters are easily removable and the mesh front will give better airflow. Thanks!

scorchedbee · 2 Sep 2020 at 17:26

i can vouch for the Bequiet 500DX - Lovely case!