First post, by JonnyGators
When I started building machines, I put my budget into the parts, and then would throw in the cheapest darn case I could find to complete the purchase. What I would give for these types of cases to still be readily available.
For example - my first build used this case - https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811156113?Item … N82E16811156113.
I still have this case to this day. Great case, would never part with it. Cheap. Functional. Even came with a power supply, checking off 2 of the needed parts on my parts list. The power supply didn't last, but the case is still going strong.
At some point I bought another case for a new build....but I ended up using this case instead and using the new case for the secondary build I did with extra/leftover parts. Because, this case was big enough to hold a big ass heat sink.
The 2nd case I bought was this one - https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811154109?Item … N82E16811154109
Simple. Functional. Cheap. Only $24. And it wasn't all that long ago, 2013, when I bought this case.
So then a few years ago I needed another case - so that I can take the first case I link, and rebuild the first build into it, and rebuild the current machine into another case. I went looking for cheap, functional, and large like the first case to hold the full heat sink, and came up empty handed. I did buy this ugly thing - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QH3HFNQ/ … e?ie=UTF8&psc=1
At $45, it's the most expensive case I've bought, and the cheapest I could find at the time. And it's ugly. And it still wasn't big enough to hold my heat sink. My dad had a few old computers kicking around he gave me, and one of them is a big, beautiful beige tower that held a server. Plenty of room for a heat sink. He also gave me 2 other recently outdated towers - emachines and hp - of the era that came with Windows 7.
Problem with these cases are - the power and led wires are connected to 1 proprietary connector meant for the mobos within the cases, and they both have no reset switches. The big beige beauty has a reset button....but the proprietary cable has we a bit stuck there as well, I'm currently shorting out pins with a big screw in the morning to turn on my main machine, but we're getting off topic there. I did try to attach some connectors - it didn't work out well - I may revisit that.
So, I have the ugly $45 case available. So I did my latest Pentium 4 build into there. Problem is, I need the build to have a DVD drive and a 3.5 floppy drive. The front of the case is rather misleading - 2 5.25 panels come off of the front. So I figured, great, I'll get an adapter to put a 3.5" drive into a 5.25" bay, and be all set. Only, I took off the 2nd panel only to find - METAL CASING BLOCKING THE BAY. And not something that can be removed, or popped out, or relocated.....no, there's no room there, there's no way to make room there. From looking at the inside caging, it looks like the metal cage is built to hold 2 5.25" drives.....but the top bay is blocked by the card reader/reset button section of the case.
What the heck kind of designing is this? Damn....raidmax went from making my favorite cheap case that I still have, to making ugly overpriced poorly designed crap!
Ok....lets review what I have. So I pulled out the spare emachines and hp cases I have, and between the lack of reset buttons, and the proprietary wiring that would need to be modified, I'm not really seeing those as good options.
If I could just buy another one of those plain, black, functional cases for $24, that would solve all my problems. Why is no one making simple cheap cases anymore? Why is it all ugly overpriced crap that isn't functional? What the hell happened to cases? Is there something I'm missing? What are you all doing for cheap cases for your builds?
I tried checking newegg again today, and there are some cheap options....but lots of cases with plan fronts, no bays to add on anything. Best I could find is this - https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811353150
But, it's ugly. The front of the case looks like it has 3 5.25" bays, I only need 2. But looking at the pictures that show the inside, I don't see proper mounting to use those bays.
Where are the simple cheap functional cases at these days?
And what in the hell happened to raidmax.....they suck!