Recommended Matx cases, Lian Li A3 Wood is too 'boring' apparently!

Yes those non-argb fans are pretty keenly priced too.

The black argb fans back in the day were about the same price as the white fans but they've now gone up in price unfortunately
They're still ARGB just black rather than white fans as far as I can tell

"Thermalright TL-C12C-S X5 CPU Fan,Black Cooling Fan, PC Fan with 1550RPM Speed, 120mm Computer Case Cooler Fan,PWM Control Fan for Case and Liquid Cooler & CPU Cooling"​

if your getting a case like the tower 300, are you really not going to put RGB in it???
thats a £140 case and your putting £3.40 fans in... and TBF not the best cheap fans at that
I mean RGB isn't for everyone....
But in this case yes I do plan to go RGB, as mentioned they're ARGB fans just in black rather than white. Also I had heard of them before after watching the hardware canucks ARGB fan roundup so in theory they're pretty decent, at least for the price. Am open to spending a bit more but if you're spending £10 a fan suddenly you're looking at an effectively £170+ case or something!
 
sorry no the ThermalRight ones are fine, the SK120's make less noise but move lass air there about £7 each

the ThermalRight are cheap but £3.40 a fan is insane, obviously a budget fan but for £3.40 a very good fan
 
sorry when you said the 5 pack for £17 in black TBF i think both me and @tamzzy thought you was getting the none RGB ones
Yeah no worries I wasn't super clear.
sorry no the ThermalRight ones are fine, the SK120's make less noise but move lass air there about £7 each

the ThermalRight are cheap but £3.40 a fan is insane, obviously a budget fan but for £3.40 a very good fan
I mean I've currently got the system on an OBT just sat next to me, and the thermalright fans the phantom spirit come with are I think the same model but without the ARGB, and they're running very slowly so I'm hoping I won't need anything crazy performance wise, I was going to look at both the SK120 and M25 from phanteks though as I think I've seen them mentioned as decent fans on the low(er) end of the budget spectrum.

But yeah that price is difficult to ignore!
 
I was going to look at both the SK120 and M25 from phanteks though as I think I've seen them mentioned as decent fans on the low(er) end of the budget spectrum.
both are very good fans i personally love Phanteks RGB...

out of interest what system spec will it be cooling, and remember ever with the best air flow in the world everything gets hotter when it going into a case.
you have the CPU and GPU dumping air into the case unless you have insane fans at 100% you will never remove all the heat as fast as you need to.

phantom spirit
that said this is a very good cooler if you dont have a 400w cpu haha
 
They're still ARGB just black rather than white fans as far as I can tell

"Thermalright TL-C12C-S X5 CPU Fan,Black Cooling Fan, PC Fan with 1550RPM Speed, 120mm Computer Case Cooler Fan,PWM Control Fan for Case and Liquid Cooler & CPU Cooling"​

Ah yes found them. £17.29 for the 5-pack. Incredible.
(The non-argb 5-pack is £15.79 - those were the one I thought you meant lol)

the ThermalRight are cheap but £3.40 a fan is insane, obviously a budget fan but for £3.40 a very good fan
They're cheap fans but their performance is pretty good and not to be snuffed at.
 
both are very good fans i personally love Phanteks RGB...

out of interest what system spec will it be cooling, and remember ever with the best air flow in the world everything gets hotter when it going into a case.
you have the CPU and GPU dumping air into the case unless you have insane fans at 100% you will never remove all the heat as fast as you need to.

that said this is a very good cooler if you dont have a 400w cpu haha
My only experience of LED fans are some old (10+ years I'd guess) cooler master than had 4 red leds, one in each corner haha. All this ARGB stuff is totally new to me.
Ah yes the system will be a 7500f and a 4070s so nothing too crazy, and the cooler in theory deliberately over the top so it can be run quietly.
Ah yes found them. £17.29 for the 5-pack. Incredible.
(The non-argb 5-pack is £15.79 - those were the one I thought you meant lol)

They're cheap fans but their performance is pretty good and not to be snuffed at.
Yeah the price the performance ratio of them really is difficult to say no to.
 
My only experience of LED fans are some old (10+ years I'd guess) cooler master than had 4 red leds, one in each corner haha. All this ARGB stuff is totally new to me.
You've missed the worst of fragmented standards, thankfully they've now nearly fully standardised to the 5v 3-pin argb connector so hardware-wise not too bad.
Software-wise, still a PITA.
 
My only experience of LED fans are some old (10+ years I'd guess) cooler master than had 4 red leds, one in each corner haha. All this ARGB stuff is totally new to me.
go with the Thermalright you will be happy.
there is not much bad ARGB out there now days, if you take into account what you pay.

Software-wise, still a PITA.
yep its FUBAR

Ah yes the system will be a 7500f and a 4070s so nothing too crazy,
thats a good system, use curve optimizer on both the CPU and GPU and your would have a good cool running system
 
You've missed the worst of fragmented standards, thankfully they've now nearly fully standardised to the 5v 3-pin argb connector so hardware-wise not too bad.
Software-wise, still a PITA.
Ah glad to hear it, and yeah I'm hoping whatever software I'll need to use will at least be a single setup and leave forever, or at least leave for a while vs constantly wanting to change things around.
go with the Thermalright you will be happy.
there is not much bad ARGB out there now days, if you take into account what you pay.

yep its FUBAR

thats a good system, use curve optimizer on both the CPU and GPU and your would have a good cool running system
Yeah I think I will, not sure if I want to replace the fans on the cpu cooler as well, not sure how much general light they'll add as from looking straight at the motherboard they'll look the same as the non argb versions as they don't have colour on the frame at all I believe.
And yeah coming from a 9900k and 3060 so it's a nice overall bump, Ryzen is totally new to me but watched a couple of videos and have it set to +200 clock and -20 curve at the moment which seems to be working, will do more when it ends up in whatever case I commit to and I know temperatures etc.
 
Hi all,
I'm in the process of building a new PC, and have got everything setup other than a case, currently running it on an OBT which is fine to be honest but I think I'd still rather move it into a case, I had my eyes on the Lian Li A3 Wood version as I thought it was quite a nice understated look, wouldn't look out of place etc, but my wife said she thought it was rather boring and would just look like furniture, if I'm going to make a new PC why not get something a bit more exciting, which is not what I had expected!

I showed her the Thermaltake The Tower 300 in yellow which she thought was better, I'm personally not 100% sold on it, part of me really likes it but part of me less so, I also already have an air cooler (phantom spirit) and it appears that most people use an AIO in that case.

So thought I'd ask for some recommendations for an MATX case that is a bit more 'interesting' I guess, but has at least half decent airflow as I'm wanting a fairly quiet PC.

Thanks!

How about this case?

 
If I do go for the tower 300, I've realised most of (all of?) the mounts can support 140 vs 120mm fans, would it be worth going for those instead for in theory less noise for the same airflow?
The thermalright 140s don't seem to be as available/cheap though.
 
Yeah I did come across that and kind of liked how unusual it was!
However I also today happened across the xtio cases, either the itx or atx versions

Which I thought looked a bit (obviously) different and actually I quite like, I've currenetly got the system on an OBT and it's quiet and my wife actually quite liked the look of the xtio ones, especially at the atx which works for me as I'd have to sell my psu and board to swap to the itx version, even still I'd probably look to sell my phantom spirit and get an AIO if I were to get the atx version but still, a new choice, not something I'd really looked into that 'open frame' style, are there others like it worth looking at?

Also realised I hadn't showed her the Jonsbo TK-1 @WARburton linked earlier and she actually said she quite liked it, I think it was the slightly simpler and smaller look to it compared to a lot of others, and the example photo I showed was just a render with some argb fans in the bottom/top gicving it quite a simple and clean look but still with some colour:

Before I could commit I'll hjave to find somewhere it's actually available and what it'll cost etc, as I don't see any estimated delivery date from ocuk?
 
the Xproto cases look amazing but there open and if you have little finger in the house.... there open.
also i dont know about your situation i have my case desk mounted and i have one or twice nocked a drink over i don't like the thought of an open case next to that

Also realised I hadn't showed her the Jonsbo TK-1 @WARburton linked earlier and she actually said she quite liked it, I think it was the slightly simpler and smaller look to it compared to a lot of others, and the example photo I showed was just a render with some argb fans in the bottom/top gicving it quite a simple and clean look but still with some colour:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/N1gAAOSwaqxmOrUX/s-l1600.jpg
ive just seen the TK-2 im thinking about getting on, its the ATX model
 
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Yeah I did come across that and kind of liked how unusual it was!
However I also today happened across the xtio cases, either the itx or atx versions

Which I thought looked a bit (obviously) different and actually I quite like, I've currenetly got the system on an OBT and it's quiet and my wife actually quite liked the look of the xtio ones, especially at the atx which works for me as I'd have to sell my psu and board to swap to the itx version, even still I'd probably look to sell my phantom spirit and get an AIO if I were to get the atx version but still, a new choice, not something I'd really looked into that 'open frame' style, are there others like it worth looking at?

Also realised I hadn't showed her the Jonsbo TK-1 @WARburton linked earlier and she actually said she quite liked it, I think it was the slightly simpler and smaller look to it compared to a lot of others, and the example photo I showed was just a render with some argb fans in the bottom/top gicving it quite a simple and clean look but still with some colour:

Before I could commit I'll hjave to find somewhere it's actually available and what it'll cost etc, as I don't see any estimated delivery date from ocuk?

Yeah I did come across that and kind of liked how unusual it was!
However I also today happened across the xtio cases, either the itx or atx versions

Which I thought looked a bit (obviously) different and actually I quite like, I've currenetly got the system on an OBT and it's quiet and my wife actually quite liked the look of the xtio ones, especially at the atx which works for me as I'd have to sell my psu and board to swap to the itx version, even still I'd probably look to sell my phantom spirit and get an AIO if I were to get the atx version but still, a new choice, not something I'd really looked into that 'open frame' style, are there others like it worth looking at?

Also realised I hadn't showed her the Jonsbo TK-1 @WARburton linked earlier and she actually said she quite liked it, I think it was the slightly simpler and smaller look to it compared to a lot of others, and the example photo I showed was just a render with some argb fans in the bottom/top gicving it quite a simple and clean look but still with some colour:

Before I could commit I'll hjave to find somewhere it's actually available and what it'll cost etc, as I don't see any estimated delivery date from ocuk?
Some lovely cases , it’s a hard choice ..
 
If I do go for the tower 300, I've realised most of (all of?) the mounts can support 140 vs 120mm fans, would it be worth going for those instead for in theory less noise for the same airflow?
The thermalright 140s don't seem to be as available/cheap though.
They're available from china for £3.50 apiece inc vat and delivery . I have two in my meshify 2 nano :)

jx30dxM.jpeg
 
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the Xproto cases look amazing but there open and if you have little finger in the house.... there open.
also i dont know about your situation i have my case desk mounted and i have one or twice nocked a drink over i don't like the thought of an open case next to that


ive just seen the TK-2 im thinking about getting on, its the ATX model
Yeah, no small fingers at the moment and I did see both the TK2 and 3 but the bigger size puts them in the same kind of category as the O11 (I think?) style cases which is just a bit too big and straight away the wife said she didn't like the TK-2 due to it being too big vs the TK-1 so going to have a looksie, I see caseking have stock, and they're the same group as ocuk so maybe there's hope.
Some lovely cases , it’s a hard choice ..
I mean it's not the worst problem to have :D

They're available from china for £3.50 apiece inc vat and delivery . I have two in my meshify 2 nano :)
Aha nice good to know, depending what case I go for I may just be sticking with 120s so may not be a problem but good to have a solution!
 
Yeah, no small fingers at the moment and I did see both the TK2 and 3 but the bigger size puts them in the same kind of category as the O11 (I think?) style cases which is just a bit too big and straight away the wife said she didn't like the TK-2 due to it being too big vs the TK-1 so going to have a looksie, I see caseking have stock, and they're the same group as ocuk so maybe there's hope.

the TK-1 looks stunning but i already have ATX board and 360mm AIO. but yer right now i have the o11 vison and i do think the TK-2 is about the same size.
ive not see the TK-3 al be off to google that now hahah

if i was building a new system genuinely id grab a TK-1 just to see how it it, if it crap send it back. ive had a few jonsbo case and there nice my little girl as a UMX1 stunning case and i have a D41-LCD again very nice case.
 
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the TK-1 looks stunning but i already have ATX board and 360mm AIO. but yer right now i have the o11 vison and i do think the TK-2 is about the same size.
ive not see the TK-3 al be off to google that now hahah

if i was building a new system genuinely id grab a TK-1 just to see how it it, if it crap send it back. ive had a few jonsbo case and there nice my little girl as a UMX1 stunning case and i have a D41-LCD again very nice case.
Yeah not 100% sure of the differences between the TK2/3 as they look overall fairly similar, both being an ATX version of the TK1 to some degree.

Yeah I've never used a Jonsbo case before but it's the current front runner I think, haven't actually bought a case in years, still using a Fractal Define and Arc Mini, and then had a couple of parvum cases but since they've stopped being a thing for a while now!
 
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