How important is the case?

[Showboat]

I have an antec 200 with an i5 and 5850, the 5850 is tight but it fits in, also cable mangement is tough in there!
But i was the same as you, why spend money on something just for its looks!

 

[IamMed]

The Antec 902 is superior, the 900 with its poor cable management for routing cables and negligable gains in performance mean it for builds at least gets beaten by the far cheaper Elite 335 for our needs.

902 however is a different ball game, lot better case all round. but again you pay the price for this.

Personally I would have a K62-Dragonlord from Lancool over the Antec cases, lovely to build in and look the part just the same. Bit of a left wing choice mind.

I have both the 900 and the coolermaster, the antec airflow is much better than the coolermaster but.. the coolermaster is a fantastic case for the price, access is pretty good and with a front fan installed the airflow is reasonable and still quiet (well a lot quieter than my antec anyway).

As to the OP, as a gamer the case will require good airflow, most cases these days are fine so it becomes more of case of budget and anything else you require.

Personally if I were on a tight budget I'd go for the cheapy coolermaster or nxzt.

Higher budget I would look into the antec 902/1200 (900 is a pain to install into) for function as these are really hard to beat for airflow/features and build quality.

Lian Li is my favourite case manufacturor and I whole heartily recommend them too but they aren't as good value for money as the antec range.