New and Indecisive

Hello SFF.net! Huge fan, long time lurker and first time poster yadda yadda yadda.


I need your help!

With so many amazing cases to choose from and so many variables to consider, I'm absolutely stuck!

• Dancase
  • Pros: compatibility, known quality, pretty small
  • Cons: Pricey, not always available, looks good
• Ncase M1
  • Pros: superior quality, lots of room for future upgrades, looks good
  • Cons: pricey, unavailable even for preorder, pretty big
• P-ATX
  • Pros: very slim, huge support for mobo, lots of room for upgrades, looks good
  • Cons: pricey, metal panels apparently bend, so may not be safe for backpacks?
• SG13
  • Pros: cheap, lots of space
  • Cons: doesn't look the best, I've heard of airflow issues without an AIO
• Sidearm T1
  • Pros: looks good, lots of room for upgrades
  • Cons: not even available for preorder, pricey
• CG7 Cravo
  • Pros: looks great, small
  • Cons: pricey (but not terrible), limited compatibility
• Ghost s1
  • Pros: huge upgrade path, looks good, good quality, can buy directly from amazon
  • Cons: most expensive by far

I am planning on running a

• 1660 super
• Ryzen 5 3600
• At least one NVME SSD

I'll pick PSU, mobo, fans and additional storage after I finally decide on a case (though I have a few ideas in mind). I'm trying to stay under 1000 for my entire build and pick up a monitor and keyboard to match for not much more. Also, I don't know what's worth investing in now for upgrades down the road. Specifically, I want to be able to slot in more m.2 drives, but the more affordable B450s don't have more than one NVME slot.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[treezoob]

Opinions on the Mk2 are also welcomed and appreciated!

 

[threestripevida]

Personally i would go for the Sidearm T1 in your scenario. It’ll be the same cost at the Ncase and Dan case and lets you be able to expand to a 3 slot gpu in the future if you want. A 120mm aio would be enough for most major CPU’s (except really hot ones like the 9900k OC’d to 5ghz. Optimum Tech should it was possible though!) Second choice would be the Ncase M1 because it offers the best options for upgrade path in the future. Sliger is also coming out with console style cases as well and a possible Cerberus Mini. I would check out their console style cases as well. I hope this helps somewhat. I would personally stay away from cases that only offer 2 slot GPU sizes. Especially if you’re interested in higher end cards in the future as they seem to get bigger now to help with cooling.

https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...-level-2-slot-and-3-slot-console-cases.11539/

 

[Odd_Fox]

Hi! I want to offer an alternate perspective on case choice: that it's something that should come after chosen resolution and refresh rate, or workload. That's because these define the bottlenecks in a system, which in turn define where you want to spend the bulk of your money, thermal headroom, and physical space. If we use gaming for our use-cases let's say you're a twitchy competitive fps gamer. This use case demands refresh rate above all else, so you'll likely be running a 240Hz 1080p setup with a mid-range gpu and something like the i7 9700k for your cpu (your bottleneck). That dictates that you'll be looking for a case with 2-slot gpu compatibility and a minimum of 120 mm of aio compatibility, with a preference for 240 mm, or a minimum of 125 mm of cpu cooler height for something like the NH-U9S in order to cool your overclocked cpu. Here an Ncase M1 would allow you the clearance to stick with less expensive air cooling for the cpu, while providing ample thermal headroom for an air-cooled mid-range gpu.

Lets say, however, that you're more of a single-player, immersion focused kind of gamer. Here preferences tend toward higher resolutions, even ultrawide, with refresh rate being secondary. Case choices here really open up as your cpu is significantly less important: 120 mm for an EVGA hybrid card, or 3-slot gpu compatibility, and as little as 37mm of clearance for an i5-8400 with an NH-L9. As mentioned above the Sidearmd T1 would be a great choice here as it allows you that 3-slot gpu compatibility in a sub-10 L form factor.

Your mileage may vary in that you could be someone who makes a living editing video and that's what dictates your build instead of gaming, and there is obviously overlap between all use cases. But tbh there's a glut of builds centered around innovations in manufacturing processes or compelling aesthetic that could benefit instead from considering what the use-case is and where money would be best spent to get the most efficient result.

/rant over I guess.

 

[Arboreal]

Comments from an owner of 2 the cases listed.

The SG13 is OK, it's cheap and mass produced, but not great for airflow, as has been pointed out. I had my last ITX gamer in it, as I liked (and still own) the older SG05 and SG06 models.

I'm now running a slightly more powerful rig in an NCase M1 that I picked up used. Although it's volumetrically bigger, I prefer the narrower footprint, and it's build / cooling abilities are way better than the SG13. You'd hope so for the price! The material quality is in a different league, the alu panels are lovely.
Mine was a bit tatty, so I had the steel chassis resprayed metallic graphite, and that goes really well with the silver panels. A couple are scratched and scraped, which is a shame, but it does mean I don't worry when I take it to the weekly LAN night.

 

[treezoob]

Hi! I want to offer an alternate perspective on case choice: that it's something that should come after chosen resolution and refresh rate, or workload. That's because these define the bottlenecks in a system, which in turn define where you want to spend the bulk of your money, thermal headroom, and physical space. If we use gaming for our use-cases let's say you're a twitchy competitive fps gamer. This use case demands refresh rate above all else, so you'll likely be running a 240Hz 1080p setup with a mid-range gpu and something like the i7 9700k for your cpu (your bottleneck). That dictates that you'll be looking for a case with 2-slot gpu compatibility and a minimum of 120 mm of aio compatibility, with a preference for 240 mm, or a minimum of 125 mm of cpu cooler height for something like the NH-U9S in order to cool your overclocked cpu. Here an Ncase M1 would allow you the clearance to stick with less expensive air cooling for the cpu, while providing ample thermal headroom for an air-cooled mid-range gpu.

Lets say, however, that you're more of a single-player, immersion focused kind of gamer. Here preferences tend toward higher resolutions, even ultrawide, with refresh rate being secondary. Case choices here really open up as your cpu is significantly less important: 120 mm for an EVGA hybrid card, or 3-slot gpu compatibility, and as little as 37mm of clearance for an i5-8400 with an NH-L9. As mentioned above the Sidearmd T1 would be a great choice here as it allows you that 3-slot gpu compatibility in a sub-10 L form factor.

Your mileage may vary in that you could be someone who makes a living editing video and that's what dictates your build instead of gaming, and there is obviously overlap between all use cases. But tbh there's a glut of builds centered around innovations in manufacturing processes or compelling aesthetic that could benefit instead from considering what the use-case is and where money would be best spent to get the most efficient result.

/rant over I guess.

I really appreciate your in depth response! I'm aiming for 1080p at <60FPS for the time being, but I love the aesthetics and upgradeability of these cases. As far as I know, I have no plans to go into video editing.

 

[ignsvn]

If you plan to stay under 1000, I'd say SG13 is a good choice, since the custom cases are usually >= $150.

SG13 is a proven design - yes sometimes there's issue with airflow, but if you only aim for 1080p/1440p <= 60 fps games (and I assume no hardcore works like HPC, grid computing etc), SG13 should be OK. I mean, the GPU is located on the side, directly to the perforated panel. Also, you can always use AIO or undervolt your CPU when required.

IMO, it looks good.

(Pic stolen from reddit)

Edit: and should be quite easy to build with a lot of build logs to learn from.

Source: I used to own SG08. Not exactly the same, I know. But it's a good case.