Quality case with 5.25 bay

RandomMonkeH

RandomMonkeH

RandomMonkeH

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I’m looking for a new ATX case.
I would like something fairly subtle, smart and well-built, and as compact as possible.

Ideally it would have a glass window and it would be nice to have a fairly premium front (i.e. aluminium, or metal mesh) rather than cheap plastic

So far so good, tons of choice. However I also want at least one external 5.25 bay for an optical drive.

I understand that I’m in the minority, but I really do find it useful to still be able to pop in a CD or DVD on occasion. I don’t want an external drive (daft to have another case for a disc drive cluttering up the desk IMO)

As far as I can see this drastically narrows my choice.

So far the stand outs are the Fractal R5 and the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M, both of which have plastic fronts and are on the larger side – no idea on the quality. I’ve looked at a couple from Cooler master and Bequiet but they are either massive or look a bit tacky.

Is there anything else worth considering?
Hard to believe I'm alone in using optical media.
 
RandomMonkeH said:
So far the stand outs are the Fractal R5 and the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M, both of which have plastic fronts and are on the larger side – no idea on the quality.
Click to expand...

You really can't go wrong with Phanteks. The enthoo pro m is a decent case if you need a 5.25 bay.

RandomMonkeH said:
Hard to believe I'm alone in using optical media.
Click to expand...

You're not....I have to have a dvd drive in my computer (Phanteks Enthoo Pro) because my kids have a few dvds that they like to watch (I dual screen it so I can get some work done while they're watching them).
 
I know how you are feeling. When I upgraded a couple of years ago I wanted a high quality but relatively compact case with a 5.25 inch bay. Almost went for a Corsair 330R Titanium but ended up going for a Corsair 400Q and just use my internal Blu-Ray drive with some Startech adaptor cables as and when I need it. My need for an optical drive is only occasional though.
 
I'd not bother, i ditched the internal drive in favour of an external portable offering, it means that I can reduce case sizes of all the PC's in the house without losing the funcionallity of the Bluray players. One of the smarter decisions I've made lately, there's not been many :(:(:(
 
Get a USB one and chuck it in a drawer/cupboard when you don't need it. Otherwise you're severely limiting your choice of cases for something you've said you only occasionally use.
 
[rant ]
I don't really understand why it should even be necessary to choose one or the other.

Having spent hours trawling through case designs, it seems the majority could be easily made to accommodate a 5.25 bay (e.g. at the bottom in the PSU shroud), or a slim slot loader in the front or top panel with minimum effort and little impact on internal space. A modular design to allow it to be removed if you want to fit a radiator or extra fans would suit everybody, or even just a different sku with a different front panel.

Silverstone's FT05 is the only ATX case I've found so far that has tried a slim drive, although I have seen people mod their case to include a slot loader.

Call me cynical, but it seems to me more like a fashion fad that has driven everybody to convince themselves that they don't want/need a drive - or to put up with the inconvenience and cost of an external drive when you could have it neatly integrated into a well-designed case.


Dropping £150+ on a case that is essentially a glass box with 4 million fan positions and bugger all drive support is just madness to me, the entire point of PC building was it was supposed to be flexible.
[/rant]

Looks like the R5 is going to be difficult to get hold of, and the R6 is bigger still.

Silverstone do the PS14E which is a small case with a drive bay, but is a bit meh.
In Win do the 904 plus which is expensive and a bit silly.
 
I still use optical drives.

Lots of CD's basically. Not into mp3 or buying what I own twice.

My lad is 15, he also wanted an optic drive in his last build.

Sadly I cant find a case I want for my next build, but my lads old pc was in a Silverstone TJ08, and he wanted a new TJ08 so that went ok.

Tempted to buy a case with an optic drive just in case of future requirements, but no doubt the advice will be to buy a new external BR drive and chuck all the perfectly ok 5.25 drives out.
 
Don't have any advice regarding a case, but just thought I'd reply (much like a few others have) to say that I still very much find an optical drive useful, and still use it quite frequently. The trend to remove all front bays from most cases just seems a bit silly to me... maybe it makes sense for more compact builds where space is at a premium, but any full-size ATX case could easily accomodate at least one 5.25 bay on the front.

I still have my Lian Li PC-7 case, with four 5.25 and two 3.5 bays on the front. Was looking at selling it at one point, but thinking it might be wiser to just keep it! Especially given that most modern cases now tend to be 'gaming' cases covered in LEDs, something I just can't stomach personally.
 
I'm going to add my voice to the wanting-an-optical-drive-in-a-case movement. I have a BluRay RW drive which I'd like to keep. Unless there's some external adapter I could use?

Cases I've come across in my travels that look ok to me as part of the chic-not-LED-bling crowd too (dare I ask if this is an age thing...) and aren't going to ruin a bank balance are:

- Be Quiet Silent Base 600 (although on the windowed case, I would prefer a PSU shroud)
- Thermaltake Versa U21
- In-win 703
- Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Glass

I love the look of some of the NZXT cases but yeah, no ODD.

There are some others that look a bit blocky for my liking, e.g. Corsair Obsidian.
 
Seearbe said:
I'm going to add my voice to the wanting-an-optical-drive-in-a-case movement. I have a BluRay RW drive which I'd like to keep. Unless there's some external adapter I could use?
Click to expand...

There are SATA-USB3 adapters available on the rainforest, but make sure you get one that has a power adapter with it.
 
TheVoice said:
Get a USB one and chuck it in a drawer/cupboard when you don't need it. Otherwise you're severely limiting your choice of cases for something you've said you only occasionally use.
Click to expand...
And so does lack of 5.25" bays limit flexibility/versatility and future expanding seriously:
Besides optical drives 5.25" bays allow adding fan contrors, I/O panels for extra/newer ports etc. + of course HDD docks.

Most cases aren't even smaller for their serious lack of flexibility/versatility.
Case without 5.25" bays really shouldn't have any excuse for being much more than 40cm deep.

Marketing has just brainwashed people into believing that disposable design is better and that they should pay more for getting screwed to butt.
While 5.25" bays are getting very rare in expensive cases, in cheap and budget cases they're more common.
 
NMBlack said:
There are SATA-USB3 adapters available on the rainforest, but make sure you get one that has a power adapter with it.
Click to expand...

I assume there is no great issue in not using any kind of enclosure/caddy with the drive? Dropping £15-20 on an adapter might be sensible to open up the options on cases.

Cue stream of consciousness...

Of the very few cases that do have the 5.25" bay, a lot of them aren't massively stylish. The Define R6 is top of my list from a build and feature perspective but it's just a big block. The be quiet! Silent Base 600 is a close second but I think I'm erring towards a windowed case (I like the subtle RGB effect on the x570 mobos and GPUs etc) but without the PSU shroud, things could get quite messy, so it would be a hard case. Remove the need for an ODD and the NZXT cases and the rest of the be quiet! range opens up.

I like that a lot of the cases have the ability to hide a couple of mechanical HDDs in the PSU shroud (I have 2) and a couple of SSDs behind the motherboard (I also have 2).

I'm just slightly concerned that I wouldn't be the best at getting the inside of the case neat. I will run my 2 x 670s in SLI in the short term, until the RTX 3000 series comes out, and that's not going to be the neatest solution. Plus I have a small firewire card that I use and if that needs separate power to it, another cable to get up into the middle of the case.

Perhaps I need to step back from the shiny lights idea and just hide it all behind a solid panel. In which case, SB600 it is.

I just want something that looks classy and sort of does justice to the £1k+ worth of components inside.
 
I use two 5.25" bays on my enthoo primo for a fan controller and bluray writer. I wanted to move to a case with an inverted layout but can't as I can't find a case that has 5.25" bays and an inverted layout so I've stuck with the enthoo primo as it works well enough. It's a little annoying that the side window faces a cabinet so I have to pull the pc out to get access.
 
Kei said:
I use two 5.25" bays on my enthoo primo for a fan controller and bluray writer. I wanted to move to a case with an inverted layout but can't as I can't find a case that has 5.25" bays and an inverted layout so I've stuck with the enthoo primo as it works well enough. It's a little annoying that the side window faces a cabinet so I have to pull the pc out to get access.
Click to expand...

be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 will do this. But it is monies.
 
Seearbe said:
be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 will do this. But it is monies.
Click to expand...
One of the first I looked at along with the coolermaster cosmos. Sadly what I neglected to mention was that I need it to support two 360mm or larger radiators without sacrificing all the 3.5" and 5.25" bays. That appears to be a bigger sticking point than the inverted layout option.
 
Seearbe said:
The Define R6 is top of my list from a build and feature perspective but it's just a big block. The be quiet! Silent Base 600 is a close second but I think I'm erring towards a windowed case (I like the subtle RGB effect on the x570 mobos and GPUs etc) but without the PSU shroud, things could get quite messy, so it would be a hard case. Remove the need for an ODD and the NZXT cases and the rest of the be quiet! range opens up.
Click to expand...

Have you looked at the Pure Base 600 (Tempered Glass)?
It appears you can get a separate PSU shroud for it - horrendously expensive for a piece of bent tin, but still it may solve your issue.

Define R6 is the clear winner for me on quality, but it is just so big. If they made a Define C with a slimline drive I would be all over it.
Otherwise it looks like the Enthoo Pro M or be quiet! or perhaps the PS14E

There are some yt videos of people modding an NZXT 440 to mount a slimline in the top - neat idea but I can't see it would be easy to do on their current lineup.

We need to start a revolution, bring back the ODD.
 
RandomMonkeH said:
Have you looked at the Pure Base 600 (Tempered Glass)?
It appears you can get a separate PSU shroud for it - horrendously expensive for a piece of bent tin, but still it may solve your issue.

Define R6 is the clear winner for me on quality, but it is just so big. If they made a Define C with a slimline drive I would be all over it.
Otherwise it looks like the Enthoo Pro M or be quiet! or perhaps the PS14E

There are some yt videos of people modding an NZXT 440 to mount a slimline in the top - neat idea but I can't see it would be easy to do on their current lineup.

We need to start a revolution, bring back the ODD.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the thoughts.

SB600 and PB600 look very similar in style so think I would prefer the SB600 just to keep the drive behind a door. The separate shroud is indeed expensive!

The Silverstone is a nice case and much along the same lines as a lot of cases out there, only with the ODD drive. So definitely worth further investigations.

Size probably isn't too much of a concern for me. I've realised there's very little chance of getting the case on the desk so it's on the floor under it, in which case being a bit taller isn't a bad thing.
 
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