Looking for Quality + Power User Case Recommendations (lots of drives & liquid cooling)

[JAB Creations]

I'm a power user. I do everything with my PC and I don't want external dongles or other junk hanging off the side. My current case is a higher-end Fractal Design which I consider easily a top of the line brand. Unfortunately they only have one external 5.25 bay (I require two). I'm not familiar with other a lot of other brands so I'm looking for suggestions please.

• Will be taking a full ATX X570 motherboard.
• Must have at least six 3.5 inch internal bays. I'm knocking my SATA count from 10 down to 8 as I'm merging two RAID 1s with a couple of 12TB drives to make this more realistic. For the curious I'm replacing the current 1TB SSDs with 2TB NVMe SSDs in a few months. Hidden drive mounts (e.g. behind/near behind the CPU is not something I consider useful as I like easy access to drives).
• Must have at least two external 5.25 bays. I like having access to a Blu-ray drive and I have an adapter that takes a 2.5, 3.5 and two USB 3.0 ports at once so I basically treat hard drives like floppy disks.
• Must have some form of dust control. I've had to clean out my liquid cooling twice because of dust and this case is actually really good (the places I've resided are just really dust-oriented but I'm moving on soon).
• Internal drive bays should ideally be removable. Thankfully I pay attention and haven't had a drive die for almost two decades (running seven drives right now so I'd call that a good track record) though I do occasionally need to remove drives (e.g. a drive decides it doesn't need to stay in RAID 1 and I have to figure out which one is the problem child).
• Drive bays should face one of the side panels thereby keeping the cables out of the way of the airflow.
• RGB lighting is (wait for it) optional but if it exists I absolutely must be able to turn it off very easily (...and see that demonstrated in a video). My bedroom is always my office and I find it easier to lose consciousness if my case isn't producing more of a light show than the local circus during Christmas.
• Side panel window, I have pride in my work and I enjoy letting people see it if they're interested.
• Good cable management is a must!
• Ability for me to have at least two front intake fans and two separate places to mount radiators for CPU and GPU liquid cooling.
• The case should be reasonably aesthetically pleasing, I'm not 12, I'm in my 30s and I like clean minimal design.
• The case must be at least decent at cooling.
• Price isn't too important though I'm not interested in dropping $800 on a case, if it's around or below $250 I'm okay with that.

I've been poking around on Newegg and I'm not feeling anything too strong. I did come across the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Silver rev. 2 which seems to fit all the specifications I'm looking for and it's not too much of a stretch on the price. Looks like you can reverse the side the motherboard mounts so you can put the $23 motherboard from your parent's 10 year old proprietary system where the board is mounted on the wrong side in this lol...

Any way I'm open to recommendations and the build quality is important, I'm willing to spend a moderate amount extra on something quality but nothing insane.

 

[sam_86314]

The Phanteks Enthoo Pro has six 3.5" bays, three 5.25" bays, a top vent for a radiator, and a decent amount of space it looks like. It also has dust filters for the intakes.

I have the Enthoo Pro M which only has one 5.25" bay and two 3.5" bays. If this case is anything to go by, the build quality is decent. It isn't as sturdy as some other cases, but it's fine. It has a decent amount of space around back for cable management.

 

[Hyderz]

corsair 1000D?

 

[JAB Creations]

corsair 1000D?

$580?! Don't get me wrong, that is a very aesthetically pleasing case but past a point I'd just be throwing money in to a burning pit of oil.

The Phanteks Enthoo Pro has six 3.5" bays, three 5.25" bays, a top vent for a radiator, and a decent amount of space it looks like. It also has dust filters for the intakes.

Is this what you're talking about? Not as aesthetically pleasing as the be Quiet! case though more reasonable on the budget. I really like the drive SATA connectors plugging in on the left side instead of the right.

 

[silkstone]

Thermaltake Level 20 XT

 

[Ahhzz]

Thermaltake Level 20 XT

View attachment 137917

I don't think that one has external drive bays. nice price tho

 

[erixx]

COSMOS II 25th Anniversary Edition | Cooler Master

www.coolermaster.com

5.25" Drive Bays : 3
3.5" Drive Bays : 13 (2 from X-dock with key locks, 5 HDDs in the middle cage, 6 HDDs in the bottom cage)

I myself have the original Cosmos 2 as my server with lots of hdd's (modded)

 

[silkstone]

I don't think that one has external drive bays. nice price tho

No, but it fits all the other requirements and is a good price. I was really tempted to get this myself, but I figured my setup would just be dwarfed by the case.

There must be some sort of external way to mount 5.25" drives that might be worth considering.

 

[Vayra86]

Quadstellar? Yes, pricy... though if these are in mint condition... I think its a very cool case to build in.

Amazon.com: DEEP COOL QUADSTELLAR Smart PC Case, Four Cabin Design, Auto-Open Front Panels, Smart Mobile Device APP Control, Customizable RGB Lighting System, E-ATX MB Supported, 3-Year Warranty : Electronics

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www.amazon.com

Also, this

 

[Toothless]

The Nanoxia DeepSilence 6 might be fitting. I know this thing has nearly everything you're asking for.

 

[bonehead123]

Thermaltake Level 20 XT

View attachment 137917

I recently built my son a gaming rig with this case and it was great in almost every aspect, however, in order to hide as many cables as possible, I had to use several really long extension cables for the fans & lighting controls and clipped them to & tucked them inside the frame members. Otherwise they would have been hanging/running around every which way, because I put a 240mm AIO in the top, 2x 140mm in the front & on both sides by removing all of the drive trays (we used both nvme drive slots on the Z390 mobo and a 4TB external storage drive)

But OTOH, you obvioously can't get to the drives without removing the side panel, and there is no place to put a optical drive either, so that would not meet some of the OP's requirements...

 

[kapone32]

If you can find one the Thermaltake Core X9 would satisfy your itch completely. It is the predecessor to the Level 20XT and as such has everything including 3 5.25 bays. It comes with an acrylic side window but you can order a tempered glass panel too.

 

[JAB Creations]

The Nanoxia DeepSilence 6 might be fitting. I know this thing has nearly everything you're asking for.

I looked it up and nice! I really like how I can use the dual-radiator for the CPU mounted against the hard drive cage in the front and then use a triple radiator for my GPU on the top. I don't need 13 hard drive bays (ha!) but it's always better to have more than not enough. I'm not wild about the cheapish plastic look though it certain has the functionality covered. I'm curious how the rear tube access works with liquid cooling though they're already making extremely good use of space here. I like the six (2 2.0 / 4 3.0) USB plugs (no C though?). Some questions for you:

• Do they sell side panels with windows by chance?
• No pictures with the right side panel off, does this come with a fan controller?

This case easily has functionality covered, thank you for the suggestion!

Quadstellar? Yes, pricy... though if these are in mint condition... I think its a very cool case to build in.

Amazon.com: DEEP COOL QUADSTELLAR Smart PC Case, Four Cabin Design, Auto-Open Front Panels, Smart Mobile Device APP Control, Customizable RGB Lighting System, E-ATX MB Supported, 3-Year Warranty : Electronics

Buy DEEP COOL QUADSTELLAR Smart PC Case, Four Cabin Design, Auto-Open Front Panels, Smart Mobile Device APP Control, Customizable RGB Lighting System, E-ATX MB Supported, 3-Year Warranty: Computer Cases - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

A little bit over the top though interesting. Unfortunately sometimes space is a bit of a premium though I like the creativity.

 

[Toothless]

I looked it up and nice! I really like how I can use the dual-radiator for the CPU mounted against the hard drive cage in the front and then use a triple radiator for my GPU on the top. I don't need 13 hard drive bays (ha!) but it's always better to have more than not enough. I'm not wild about the cheapish plastic look though it certain has the functionality covered. I'm curious how the rear tube access works with liquid cooling though they're already making extremely good use of space here. I like the six (2 2.0 / 4 3.0) USB plugs (no C though?). Some questions for you:

• Do they sell side panels with windows by chance?
• No pictures with the right side panel off, does this come with a fan controller?

This case easily has functionality covered, thank you for the suggestion!

View attachment 137997

View attachment 137996



A little bit over the top though interesting. Unfortunately sometimes space is a bit of a premium though I like the creativity.

Two fans can be controlled (top front panel, very top)

No extra side panels as far as I know, but that might be that there is foam on both panels to keep noise down and boy does it do a good job of that. The only downsides I have of this case was the sheer size and weight of it.

Actually had temps drop going into this thing from my Phanteks Enthoo Pro.

 

[jaw shwaa]

Antec Nine Hundred Black Computer Case Gaming - Newegg.com

Buy Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

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just throwing this out there

 

[Hockster]

If you can sill find one the Corsair 750D is a very good case. Especially the Airflow edition.

Obsidian Series™ 750D Full Tower ATX Case

If you’re building a high-performance full tower PC system, Obsidian Series™ 750D is a great start. It combines generous expansion flexibility, room for advanced cooling options, and an interior optimized for fast and easy builds and upgrades. The exterior is built from solid steel and brushed...

www.corsair.com

You can get extra 3.5 cages as well. here's one I had a couple years ago:

 

[John Naylor]

Since 2014, Phanteks has taken a "Case of the Year award home from Computex in every year but one. Fortunately for users ... every innovation they've spawned has been followed by upgraded models from the competition. While everything you list is available today from several manufacturers, Phanteks did it in 2013 .. and won the Case oif the year award. They were the 1st to do integrated case RGB and with an off switch.


Enthoo Primo - My personal test case.

Spoiler

I can supply CAD drawings of this case for watercooling options ... I used a 420 c 45,, on top and a 280mm x 60 mm on bottom.


Enthoo Luxe - When this 1st came out id was one of the most innovative cases we'd seen to that point. Another Case of the Year Winner it was the model that introduces Built-In RGB and in a manner that is understated... serving as a highlight, rather than drawing your attention away form the builder's skill.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQOPK-OgvnM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkRJsjuvQVY

The new version Luxe 2 (now the 719) is a more modern design and doesn't have the external drives you want .

They come with "best on market" case fans and Fan PCBs to eliminate splitters and messy cabling... also can use PWM control on cheaper DCV fans. My Promo build has:

CPU Header ==> Pump No. 1
CPU_OPT Header ==>Pump No. 2
CHA_1 Header ==> Fan PCB No. 1 ==> (6) 1250 rpm fans on 420 rad
CHA_2 Header ==> Fan PCB No. 2 ==> (4) 1250 rpm fans on 280 rad
CHA_3 Header ==> Fan PCB No. 1 ==> (6) 1250 rpm case fans

Have (2) SSDs and (2) SSHDs in box along w/ twin GFX cards ... tubing is rigid acrylic w/ CPU Block / MoBo Block. (2) GPU Blocks, (2) flow meters (6) temp sensors (6) chanel digital temp display in of of the extrerior drive bays.

I started with the SSDs in RAID 0 and SSHDs in RAID 1 ... disabled both after 3 moinths and performance improved ... not in benchmarks of course, buy application performance was actually better. RAID 1 was problematic ... broke array, used 1 SSHD as data server, mirrored the other one with free software. i do a RAID build about every 3 years for the ;last 3 years ... have not found anything positive... other than bragging rights for benchmark performance.

 

[jSON]

I'd have to say the DG8 from ~2016 or so. EVGA is clearing out inventory now as of a few weeks ago it seems. I have the 85 version. You may have to contact them to order any extra drive bays though.
-Currently $149 + $10 shipping in the US-

EVGA DG-85 Full Tower, K-Boost, w/Window, Gaming Case 100-E1-1000-K0

Introducing the EVGA DG-8 line of full-tower cases. These cases are built for the enthusiast with an optimized airflow path that gives you dedicated cooling fans for your graphics cards, a K-Boost button that automatically boosts fanspeed and CPU/GPU, a built in fan controller and much more...

www.evga.com

 

[erixx]

love ^^

Cases should be totally different if designed for table or floor use. (p.e. usb ports and power/reset buttons, dust filters...) I cannot reach mine (wall mounted P5 Core) but that's another story

 

[JAB Creations]

I appreciate everyone's recommendations. I ordered everything on the evening of December 18th, ordered an AMD 3800X and the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Silver rev. 2 I originally mentioned. Unfortunately the ASRock motherboard I ordered was used and defective; ASRock knowingly shipped a board that would not post until a solid minute after turning the machine on. I've been without my rebuild since and the package (thanks to Christmas) is supposedly arriving at Newegg's return center today. If they inspect it today and ship by tomorrow I might get my replacement by Wednesday, maybe. In short: I'd have taken a picture by now to share though until later this week it'll be pointless. I'll keep this tab open.

I actually plan on eventually going to a case designer and designing my own Power User case. My business will allow me to do so. Custom building PCs is niche relative to the market as a whole and cases for power users are, well the options are limited. The videos for my case are all obsessed with changing the motherboard's mounting side/position which leaves a lot to be desired for instructions on normal installation. That being said the attention details are reasonably high. I'm still to see a computer chassis manual that is sufficient for a high end case though.