The market
was flooded...with a lot of cases that look the same, bearing the same aggressive styling that was (historically) epitomized by Raidmax and Apevia.
However, I think there is presently a lot of diversity coming from major manufacturers in the case market, and it is a good thing. If we take a look at some of the major manufacturers:
Corsair: traditionally solid, more conventional looking cases. They went through a lull with the 750D/450D era where they didn't release much in the way of innovation and relied on profits supposedly brought in by the 750D/350D. But as we can see from Corsair's newest cases (400Q) they seem to be picking up a bit of momentum again with some designs that can really turn heads. In 2014/2015 I think that many will agree with me that their new budget cases were something of a me-too as they sought to implement "novel" features that others like CM had already brought to the table in cases like the N200.
Cooler Master: I think CM might have expected a bit more fanfare to go along with its new Mastercase lineup, but it's something new, for a change. Much of the approval for CM cases comes from the success of (forgive me if I am incorrect) the Storm Stryker, Storm Scout, and 690 series. They have also released some very solid budget products such as the N200, N400 and N600 (Windowed, especially) that have excellent quality at a low price point.
NZXT: prior to the Phantom and (much later) the H440, I highly doubt that many people paid attention to NZXT's products. The H630 was meant to be something of a turning point in their attitudes towards case design. The H440 and S340, however, did make the PSU shroud something that the mainstream builders could also enjoy and opted for a much cleaner aesthetic. I think that despite the success of the Phantom family, NZXT itself has represented something of turning point in modern case design that favors clean lines and colors over flashy edges and LEDs.
Fractal Design: for a long time, people who wanted sound-proofed cases yet couldn't afford/find the likes of Nanoxia would have to opt for FD's cases, and for good reason since they were quite solidly built. However, being an Arc Mini owner myself, I didn't see much potential for Fractal Design beyond the legacy of the Define series, since the Arc Mini seemed like quite the disappointment in terms of FD's traditionally silence-oriented commitment (I know that Arc was an airflow-optimized lineup but it didn't do that very well either). The Node cases make great HTPC/SFF cases, but the Core cases haven't been stellar in the past, and in the present they seem like nothing more than cheapened versions of the already quite affordable Nodes.
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The smaller case manufacturers might seem to be contributing to the "flood" of cases but they each bring something that I think is quite unique to the table.
Lian Li: although Lian Li cases are lacking in cable management, they make up for it in consistently good build quality all around. LL has also made some unconventional designs around mATX and mITX such as the tall mITX with a horizontal motherboard orientation and short GPU support (PC-Q33) and the longer PSU-over-motherboard designs that could make good NASes with their drive capacity (PC-Q25). The PC-Q12 seems a bit "inspired" in its layout but it is quite unique in its aesthetics and choice of materials, so I'd say that Lian Li still has quite the role to fill in the modern case market. Young new builders might scratch their heads thinking "why does Lian Li, with its unpainted interiors and lack of cable management, still exist?", but LL's influence should not be underestimated.
In Win: I think that it wouldn't be a controversial statement to brand In Win the champion of tempered glass and responsible for bringing tempered glass cases to the relative mainstream. Others like the S-Frame and D-Frame seem perfectly suited to housing show builds, but not so practical in other applications. The 707 seems like an attempt to bring a solid aluminum front to the mid-range/budget market, but I haven't read any reviews so I cannot comment on the feasibility of that feature.
Silverstone: I might be personally biased towards SS, because their cases (SG05 and SG08) have found a great niche in the art of carry-on PCs that fit in the Pelican 1510 (search PCPartPicker or OCN for examples, or heck my own). However, I have yet to see another manufacturer make cases with
solid, _mm thick aluminum front panels like SS does. The prime example of this is the SG08 (10mm) and this other HTPC case that I cannot find for the life of me, probably due to my lack of recent amateur research in the case market. Although they seem to have faded a bit compared to the good ol' days (pre-2010 for them), I applaud them for not attempting to expand into other parts of the market with "me-too designs", and instead sticking to their proven guns. SS proved that the thick front aluminum panel is perfect for HTPC applications where you only get to see the gorgeous front of the case, so as long as it is sturdy enough, it doesn't matter that the rest of the mostly-invisible case is made from regular SECC steel. Cases like the TJ08 are also unconventional and unique on the market, and you would be hard-pressed to find a very similar alternative.
Limited edition runs such as the
Compact Splash and
Ncase M1: I think that this is what the market is going towards in recent years. Small companies and individuals feel more confident in bringing their designs forward, which are in turn well-received as being unique and high-quality. It's too bad that both of these examples are currently out of production, their 5 minutes of fame being over, but others such as the DAN A4 are yet to come, proving that small cases from small companies in small production runs are not just a 2014 thing.
Caselabs: as much as the big manufacturers tout their supposedly better "quality", there's really nothing that can rival Caselabs. And as some have shown, as long as you have the requisite $$$$$$$$$$ for a CL case, you can use it for air-cooled builds that are just as effective and gorgeous. And while Caselabs is extremely niche due to the sheer sizes and prices of its cases, there's no denying that it "inspired" the horizontal ITX motherboard fad last year (I'll refrain from calling TT any rude names). It was sad that they decided to discontinue the S3 as it was undoubtedly the more reasonably sized of the Mercury lineup, but the X2M taking its place is quite the looker as well.
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I saved TT for last because I think TT's rather subpar past behaviour has something to do with the issue at hand. I don't have an issue with TT presently, because I think they know now that any such behaviour will be frowned on, and social media means that they might not exactly be able to keep it under wraps like they might wish to in such a situation.
Thermaltake: TT has brought a lot of great products in just about every branch of the PC market from air cooling to keyboards and mice to cases. However, some of you might be familiar with TT's row with Caselabs over the "stealing" (Fractal Design was involved too). It was due to the extraordinary influence that the Mercury S8 had on the case market with its rather innovative motherboard placement (something that really wasn't that new, considering that test benches in such orientation had been around for a long time), which resulted in TT's rather similar case design. While I don't agree that CL should be so up in arms about the influence that its cases have, I did see the issue as a classic "big company makes small company back down and be humiliated" as it was
CL that had to
apologize to
TT for accusing Thermaltake of "stealing". I think that the inspiration is plain to see, and there was no reason for Thermaltake to pretend that it was not inspired by equally successful and innovative fellow companies in the market. FD was involved because the Suppressor series of cases are very very similar to the Define cases that Fractal Design makes. Along with a dozen other designs including the Apogee XL from Swiftech, these designs raised some controversy.
But the point I'm trying to make is that all this "me-too"ing over case designs might appear to give us more choice, but partially is responsible for this "flood" of cases. There was nothing CL or any of us could have done, or rather,
should have done about the ensuing success of TT's Core lineup, quite obviously and blatantly inspired by the Mercury series of cases. After all, hardly anyone can afford an S5 or S8, but their Core equivalent is much more affordable, albeit at the tradeoff of a lot of build quality. But cases like the Suppressor lineup have clearly not made much of a splash with respect to the initial introduction and legacy of the Define lineup, because they do little else to set themselves apart from FD's offering, making themselves something of a "me-too" product line. The Define Rx cases are not unaffordable like the Mercury S8. TT has shown in the past that they are clearly capable of coming up with great designs (I mean, try finding a competitor to the little TT mascots that peche has
), so they should stick to innovating as it benefits us all in the end. By that former logic, Silverstone should have copied all of Lian Li's designs and made their relatively "little-known" designs more well-known during SS's expansion years. Instead, they both have proven to have unique things on offer and they now serve different market niches.
I'd also like to point to the Corsair HG10 and NZXT G10 as an example. The G10 came first, and the HG10 came next, and they are both GPU water-cooling brackets; however, the HG10 offered something that the G10 couldn't: the ability to mount a stock blower fan onto the bracket to help with VRM cooling. Of course, this didn't work well with the VRMs burning themselves up under the HG10, but the whole process was a good idea of "inspiration" rather than "imitation". Now, EVGA has been coming out with its own take on GPU watercooling with its watercooled editions of the 980 Ti for example, and it could even be argued that AMD harnessed the idea for its Fiji family. Copying? I think not, TT.
But fortunately I feel like that time is largely behind us. It still remains to be seen, obviously, with this year's offerings, whether these companies have truly cast aside the copycat game in favor of unique innovation, but I think that this is a great time to be building, simply because all these different companies, big and small, all have something different to offer to the builder at the end of the day.