TR Forums

I need to get a couple of bargain cases for my office, and was wondering what you guys think about Rosewill's Redbone, Line Glow, etc... Budget cases. Also, other suggestions welcome for Cases around or under the $30 Mark. Thanks.

I cannot say enough good things about my Cooler Master HAF 922 mid tower case. For under $100 It comes with a front red or blue led 200mm fan that has a switch to turn the led on or off...Very important. A top black 200mm fan that can be moved to the side panel "wich I did to help cool graphics cards and motherboard VM's and other components. It also comes with another very quiet 120mm rear IO panel exhaust fan. It also can hole 2 x 120mm fans in the top or sides along with a bottom 120mm fan in front of the bottom mounted PSU. All the fans are very quiet.

It has plenty of space for HDD's /SSD's. There is plenty of space behind the right side panel to hide long ungainly wires for a nice clean look. It also has a large cutout for the CPU socket for aftermarket cooler installation. But I still recommend installing a heatsink before installing the motherboard.

The only Con I have for this case it the lack of air filters. So the inside can get very dusty. I have 2 great danes and smoke so I cleaned mine every 3 months.

Some people do not like the look of the case but I think it looks great. I have a Sentry 5 Fan controller in mine to keep the noise down. Since I have 7 fans in my case. No stagnant air in my case that is for sure.

Just lately I moved the case into a cooled closet so I am wondering how clean it is going to stay since I have a HVAC Air filter on the 8" intake duct fan.

WOW my bad I did not read the $30 price....more coffee please

mATX or ATX?

Here are a few $35 - $40 cases to look at. The extra $10 (from $30) is well spent.
The NZXT Source 210 is a highly popular and highly rated case.
The Cooler Master Elite 361 is the absolute smallest ATX case you'll find. I've built a system with the Elite 360 (predecessor) and it turned out nice. Both the Source 210 and Elite 361 are subtle enough for an office setting.
The Cougar case is mATX, but it adds USB3.0 support for a great price. I can't wait to build a system in one of these.

IMO, $30 and cheaper cases can vary wildly in build quality. Some don't even come with any fans. That may or may not be a good thing since the fans in some cheap cases are horribly loud (see below). Newegg review scores are your best friend in this budget range. That said, this DIYPC case for $32 after shipping looks like a pretty nice package to me (USB3.0 and 2 included fans). Would be better if you could get it with free shipping. I'd probably remove that 80mm fan unless you're putting a high powered system inside. 80mm fans (especially budget ones) are almost always loud. 120mm fans have a better chance of being somewhat quiet.