Best £50-80 Case

[minicale]

I am planning on upgrading my case from a cm storm scout case to something else that :
Will be quieter
Collect less dust
Be either Black and White or Black and Red or just pure black
Have good cable management
Have 160mm+ CPU cooler clearance
Support an Matx board
Less then £80

I am currently looking at the h230, 330r, define r3 and the define r4 so you can kind of get an idea of the sort of look I want the case to have.

At the moment the r3 and r4 are the most tempted because they have good cpu clearance and I can order them asap.

Anyone have good recommendations or thoughts.

[AETAaAS]

I've mentioned in another thread that I'm a bit of a sucker for Fractal Design, and it probably isn't going to get much better than the Define R4. It ticks all the boxes with noise dampening, air filters, a clean aesthetic, pleanty of space behind the mobo tray for cables and the rubber pass thrus.

It is at the upper end of the budget but it's the case I would have.

[Bonebreaker777]

What about Fractal Design ARC MIDI R2? It does support mATX

Or I could suggest Silverstone Temjin TJ08B-E. You can fit quite a lot into such a small case! And both ticks all your requirements!

On the other hand I had a much easier job with the Fractal design cause I had so much more spare space.

[Pob255]

Are you looking for an mATX case? because pretty much every ATX case supports mATX, you just need to move a couple of stand-offs.

For actual mATX cases you've got the fractal design define mini and ARC mini R2, Also the Silverstone TJ08-E and Precision PS07 (these two are identical on the inside only difference is the front bezel)
The Corsair 350D would also be a good option but it's just outside the price range at £85ish or £95 with a window

There is also the old NZXT Vulcan but the mesh side make dust an issue for that.
And for cheap there's the new coolermaster N200 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_0792.html or the ACE ecco 250 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ace-e...oofing-w-o-psu

EDIT:That said the scout isn't a bad case nor is it mATX
Dust shouldn't be an issue nor cooler size, What I would advise is to get a couple of 120mm dust filters to put over the vent in the side panel as that is probably your biggest source of dust and remember to clean your front filter, it's a foam filter so not the easiest to clean, remove the bezel and go at it from the front with a vacuum cleaner, or carefully bend back the tabs that hold the mesh inplace to get the foam out and wash it (be careful not to tare the foam)
Granted cable management isn't the easiest but you can get it neat if you take the time.

[AETAaAS]

Are you looking for an mATX case? because pretty much every ATX case supports mATX, you just need to move a couple of stand-offs.

For actual mATX cases you've got the fractal design define mini and ARC mini R2, Also the Silverstone TJ08-E and Precision PS07 (these two are identical on the inside only difference is the front bezel)
The Corsair 350D would also be a good option but it's just outside the price range at £85ish or £95 with a window

There is also the old NZXT Vulcan but the mesh side make dust an issue for that.
And for cheap there's the new coolermaster N200 http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_0792.html or the ACE ecco 250 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ace-e...oofing-w-o-psu

I had a Vulcan and it was pretty good but there is evidence it is a case from the older ways of thinking. There are no 2.5 mounts, no dampening at all so it can get loud, it had very poor clearance for CPU tower coolers (I couldn't fit a normal 120mm tower (Thermaltake Frio) so I had to go down to a CNPS5x. There is little rad support (the top 240 is too close to the mobo tray to accommodate anything internally but the front 120mm is a possibility. The rear mount is a 92/80 so you aren't really gonna fit anything there. The space behind the mobo tray is one hell of a squeeze especially for the 24pin in typical braiding.

The upside, you could really pick it up by it's handle which came in useful for me, it can take GPUs long as you like and it felt really solid, truly a case you could beat a cow to death with.

[Pob255]

you can fit a single 120mm fan tower cooler in there you just have to have them pointing upwards not backwards.
But yes it wasn't quite wide enough.

Don't get me started on the total that is 2.5" mounts, they ONLY time you need a 2.5" mount is super small for factor when there is not enough space to put a normal 3.5" drive in.
You want to create a mount for an SSD inside your case? just buy some velcro tape and stick it down where you want it.

Sound damping foam is old, still very few cases have it and it's pointless in something with a big mesh panels.
Unless the fans or vibration inside your pc is hitting the resonant frequency of the panels adding foam doesn't do much, does some but not a lot.
A door will generally have a far greater audible effect as you are blocking the direct sound path from the front fans to your ear.
The drive rail system has bits of rubber on them for damping but it's pretty feeble and is pretty much common on all rail systems, one thing I di love about fractal design is their use of trays with thick rubber grommets it's one of the best anti vibration systems.

[AETAaAS]

Sadly the Thermaltake Frio's mounting system couldn't accomodate horizontal mounting.

I am going to catch some flak for what I'm about to say, but I tend to use 2.5' magnetic drives regardless of the space available. For a few reasons, they run cooler, they vibrate less, I sometimes swap between my laptop and desktops so the interchangability is nice, I can use eSATAp and USB 3.0 adaptors easily when I want to transfer or backup data and I don't need that much space internally (have external storage for that) and I get performance out of the paired SSD. So people like me like having proper 2.5 mounts. Yes there are adapters out there but it's nice when the case readily accommodates me.

[martober]

For silence you can't go wrong with the fractal design define r4 or mini. Corsair's carbide line are also very nice for building in but they're not as quiet.

[AJRDLawrence]

The Coolermaster HAF XB looks mighty fine to me, but each to their own!

You'd need to order a separate 200mm fan I guess to get the colour blend you desire but Coolermaster do them with both Red and Blue LEDs so take your pick, but the pair combined will take you to the upper end of your budget.

If your PC has to be mATX for size reasons then maybe the HAF XB is a little on the large size, but at least it is a relatively portable ATX case.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The R3 is £60 from Scan:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/fract...ng-noise-absor

The OP also gets free postage from Scan too.

[Pob255]

the haf xb is a very good cube case
dust could be an issue, the front filter is decent but it really needs filters on both the side panel vents.
Demci filter do a good kit for it but I cannot find it in the uk
http://www.demcifilter.com/p0335/HAF...ilter-Kit.aspx

[kyippee]

Also in the market for a case around this budget. Been looking at the Fractal R3 and Corsair Carbide 300R in particular, looking at various reviews to see the temp and noise performances, but can't quite figure out which is the 'better' case since the testing rigs differed in the reviews. Would love to hear from anyone with experience with either or both these cases.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Also in the market for a case around this budget. Been looking at the Fractal R3 and Corsair Carbide 300R in particular, looking at various reviews to see the temp and noise performances, but can't quite figure out which is the 'better' case since the testing rigs differed in the reviews. Would love to hear from anyone with experience with either or both these cases.

The 300R looks much cheaper at least from first glance. The R3 does reduce cooling performance slightly for lower noise and has sound proofing features.

[kyippee]

I've only seen the 300R in person and didn't look that bad. So have been basing my opinions of the R3 from reviews and videos on the net. Can get the 300R for about £5 cheaper as well so really not sure which to get.

[martober]

Generally the 300r prioritises airflow and cooling, while the r3 prioritises quiet operation (though it does have optional vents if you want to add more fans). They're both well made cases and easy to build in so which you get depends on how important those things are to you, price and which you prefer the look of.

Anandtech has a review of the define r4 (better than, but extremely similar to the r3) comparing it with the 300r in terms of cooling and acoustics.

[kyippee]

Thanks, completely missed that comparison on anandtech. Leaning towards the R3, the looks and the sound dampening are great. Going to most likely be running water cooling on my new rig so temp shouldn't be too much of a problem.