I will always have a place for an optical drive (bd drive) because I still buy blue rays and dvds but apart from that you are right of course, there really is no need for them.
Is it the case that the mass majority want boxy cases or is it just that, that's all that's on offer.
The Lian Li train is great. I wish they did bigger.
I take it on board what has been said about most builders hiding their cases under their desks but is that not the point of what is wrong with the manufacturers.
Spend thousands on a build then hide it. That's what I find insane.
It should be the centrepiece of a room, something you are proud of, not just something you hide. You after all have invested a lot of time and money on it.
I disagree, rather like cars I want an absolute beast of a machine under the hood but something discreet and tasteful externally. My PC sits concealed, with access to the external drive bays only. I prefer it that way. I don't need to see the thing to know what's inside, and I don't particularly care to have it taking up valuable desk space. And yes, before some wise guy points it out my spec is way out of date, but sometimes you have to roll with what you can (or in this case can't) afford.
It is the case that the real high-end enthusiasts don't want to waste money on fancy external aesthetics, when the money could be spent on a case that best does what a case fundamentally does - Things like decent space, airflow, fan mounting, filters, component housing with tool-free installation, sound dampening, vibration reduction, modular assembly, strength...
No point in buying a über-cool looking thing like the Asus Tytan G70 if it's a steaming pile of crap when it comes to actual build quality and performance. Pritty pritty lights don't make one damn bit of difference toward the performance of your build.
You could have the world's most amazing motherboard - I will still hate how it looks if the circuitry is exposed instead of hidden beneath shrouds/'armour' and you won't ever see it when I'm gaming as it's usually dark.
That assumes your build is something worth seeing...
My own is packed out with animated LEDs, displays, readouts, meters and all manner of gubbins, each of which serves an actual purpose rather than being purely cosmetic...
But it still looks like Darth Vader's bathroom and is only there for my own amusement, particularly as I swap things around and tinker with my build. Most people think it's an absolute monstrosity.
Plus all that stuff does still draw power away from the main system components. A friend of mine is one of the UK's top overclockers. Some records he has only beaten by a single point, but all that can make a difference.
What all this ultimately comes down to is what you get on your monitor screen.
That is what you're buying all this expensive crap for and that is the primary concern. Everything else is for secondary, tertiary, quaternary or even lower consideration.
I agree with both posts, yours and IK9000's. It is all about performance and I, just like anyone else certainly dont want to skimp on that
BUT,
Why does it have to be one or the other? Is that not the biggest con of all? That you cant have both. It seems to me manufacturers have gotten away with it for far too long.
Like my first post said, not everyone wants a Volvo. Some would much prefer Z4's.
You CAN have both.
You can have the EXACT design of high-end fancy case you specifically require... It will cost you £18,300 rather than the £120 you might expect, but a manufacturer will make that case for you...
Because it COSTS MONEY to make these and the vast majority of buyers do NOT want to drop a fortune on something just because it looks nice. You are in the extreme minority, so you will not generally be catered for. Too few people will buy what you're demanding and no sane manufacturer is going to cater to such a small market and certainly not at the price you are expecting, because they would LOSE money. It would cost many thousands to develop and manufacture even a small number of cases, but they would make a few hundred in response. Why should they do that - Just to please one person?
But that is not the truth...
YOU want a Z4.
Graham wants an Aston Martin Vantage.
Jim wants a 1992 C Class 250 Elegance.
Pete wants a Corsa 1.2 LS.
Dave wants a Honda Jazz.
Mary wants a Supra Mk III.
Susan wants a Supra Mk II.
Theresa wants an XR4i.
Nimalan wants a Countache.
Justin wants a TT.
That's just 10 different opinions. Now multiply that by the number of gamers buying high-end cases for high-end builds, each of whom will want something different.
Now factor in that I don't want any of those, but an FJ1200 instead.
Each and every single person, bar perhaps one, will have to settle for a case that is not EXACTLY what they want.
Manufacturers make cases that meet the overall requirements of each price bracket.
If you want something specific, you will have to either get it custom made, or go make it yourself, both of which cost more money than you are prepared to spend.
Therefore, your only option is to choose the compromise that best fist your highest priorities and learn to deal with it...
ik9000 (08-05-2015)
I'm looking forward to this when this comes out
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=533
I did a build a while back and used an air 540. Cooling was great and cable management was superb. It was very easy to build in. If I remember correctly I think there was enough space to put the nepton 280l in.
But its just so ugly.
The phantecs look really good to build with too and remind me of the cases from decades ago where you could take them all apart but again so so ugly and in this case old fashioned.
There is a demand for different styles otherwise the Thermaltake level 10 snow would never have been manufactured but like with most manufacturers they call them high spec but they only really cater for mid range parts.
I'll probably just end up with the NZXT 530 or 820. Its just that The design has been out so long its boring now.
Its not like I am asking for the world. All I want is something different that has great cooling and cable management with sound dampners but not too much that it impedes cooling.
I found it all that in the Bitfenix survivor. Looks good, portable, good ventilation etc. Downside, annoying back-panel bits that you have to unscrew before you can take the side off. Otherwise really good, and well worth the £90 I shelled out for it at yoyotech. (Miss that store). At one point they had dropped to £50!!! If you can still get one take a look.
Definitely have high hopes for this case, looks exactly like the internal layout of the RVZ01 and the new upcoming RVZ02 but solid metal finish instead of plastic. If it's anything like the RVZ01, can't imagine anything going wrong with it!
Currently I have a Silverstone TJ08-e but might need to start looking for components so I can eventually move into it. One thing that does suck is that I have a SuperFlower Golden Silent Fanless 500w PSU, and I am very very reluctant of giving it up for a compatible SFX PSU
"High spec", eh?
"Designed by gamers, for gamers", by any chance?
They are the high end for that manufacturer's chosen market range.
But you are ignoring the fact that a serious, proper high-end case will be custom designed, from scratch. It doesn't matter what it starts out looking like, because the enthusiast either doesn't care how it looks or will be modding the crap out of it anyway.
If there were such demand as you insist, manufacturers would have investigated this with their market research and either already started making such cases or disregarded the results as yielding demand well below profit.
As for high end parts... Dunno what you think is high end, but I can easily fit many of the highest spec components into the lowest spec of case...
I don't mean this in any trolly/flame type way, but the fact that that the thread title says 'good looking' means that this thread was always going to descend into subjective hell, so no point me adding anything on that front.
In terms of accomodating high spec equipment, most manufacturers have mid tower type products that will easily accomodate ATX mobos and generally have space for AIO coolers, but usually now in push OR pull, and with moveable drive bays so that you can fit that one single, long GPU.
Full towers are now getting more flexible on top/front mounts mounts and spacing before mobo heatsinks for push & pull AIO on at least the top and front intakes. I'm genuinely interested in what high end means in this context? If we are talking water cooling then yes there are restrictions on numbers of radiators, but there's usually room for a couple of 240s at least with some room between drive cages and mobo for reservoirs? GPUs have kind of reached their length max (hopefully) for those with multi GPU setups, then full towers tend to have enough clearance between the bottom of the mobo and top of PSU to enable airflow. What else is there?
Me personally, I'm still using my old Antec 300 which I modded the interior of so that I could fit long GPUs. Airflow to them is more constrained by mobo layout (as I'm still on 1366) but never sockets and mobos tend to be spaced better. Its served me well, but I recently picked up a second hand Corsair 750D and I think its amazing. To be it looks understated, but is built well enough for you to be flexible on what you want to do INSIDE the case. Possibly push pull on the top mounts, up to 360, 240 on the front etc etc. Outside, I think its just contemporary but smart.
Sorry for the ramble but just wondering about the high spec part of the thread, as that got me a bit confused.
JP
I think you would have a problem with cooling, especially your bigger closed loop water coolers like the nepton 280l.
High end is what it has always been, i.e. the best cpu on the market heavily overclocked, a gaming motherboard which can house at least 3 gpu's and a top end psu (usually seasonic) which will cope with your system and then last but not least, either your own built watercooling system or a couple of closed loop ones.
Sorry its took so long for replies but I haven't had much time recently. I ended up with the stryker btw.
Yeah, I haven't really explained that very well. Gamers usually want maximum performance for their parts and many overclock heavily. High spec gamers buy the latest chips etc and overclock them to max as well.
This of course needs great cooling. The last thing you want is the temps being so high that you have to reduce your overclock so you bung in a couple of top end coolers. Your main one (for the cpu) should if at all possible be in push pull.
In my case I found it extremely difficult to find a case which could have the nepton 280l in a push pull config and that looked good to me, i.e. not just like a box.
I opted for the stryker and basically had to settle. It doesn't have the space for push pull unless I modify the handle and I am not sure I want to go down that route as I do move it around quite a bit.
So in my eyes my system is underperforming because I could get more out of the chip if I had it in push pull.
Now I am going to do an i7k build and no doubt will run into the exact same problems ha ha
If cooling is THAT much of a factor, you won't be using something as poxy as that Nepton... and likely no other AIO cooler, either!!
Aside from the multiple GPUs, I pretty much have that. There isn't a single game out there I cannot run with ease and pretty much maxed out on the settings.
Unless of course, you think High End just means the maximum number of the most expensive items, ie an Intel i9-9990K overclocked to 8.2Ghz, with 64GB of DDR4, a quad of Titan XXXes in SLI and a 3000w PSU... ie totally overpowered for any game even in 4K res and only useful if you're planning to run the entirety of Star Citizen from that one machine.
Once you go above a certain point, diminishing returns kick in. Games only make use of a certain number of cores, a certain amount of RAM and some won't even run on SLI/Xfire...
That's pretty much the CM Trooper, isn't it?
Thought you wanted high end? Something like the Corsair 900D (which has space to put everything in push-pull) or maybe a Caselabs build, where you'd have every feature you could possibly want...
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