The BEST Computer Case Under $35!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,823 words · ~9 min read
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in case you missed them we've done a few
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best bang for the buck roundups for the super budget conscious lately and today
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that dollar menu gravy train keeps on flowing baby you've got your cheap
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gaming peripherals all which means now it's time to start building your cheap
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gaming pc so we teamed up with newegg to
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test seven of the best rated cases on
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their site for under 35 bucks before
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sale or rebate pricing zotac's magnus en 1070 mini gaming pc
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comes vr and aaa game ready check it out now at the
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link below
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we'll be judging the cases in order of their popularity on newegg.com based on
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three main metrics one compatibility how much can we
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comfortably stuff inside are there any component size limitations to take into
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account two performance does the case have airflow
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issues how many fans can you mount can you mount a radiator and three injury
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factor are there any sharp edges i'm like gotten sliced open is it awkwardly
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top heavy oh and actually for a 10 bonus
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extras and aesthetics these aren't necessities at this kind of a price but
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they're certainly nice to have so first up is the
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micro atx zion
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x310bk it's the most popular case in our
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roundup and it's certainly the cheapest at just 23. but
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that may be its only selling point it's
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pretty sharp looking it includes a usb 3 port it's sturdy enough and it's
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extremely lightweight but installing anything but a mini-sized graphics card
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is a carnival of frustration and sadness
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and oh yeah there's this thing the screw retaining it is on the inside
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and it just swings out of place to install a card also while the box claims
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that it has five and a quarter inch bays
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they're mia but the rails are there
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making usable space so tight that it's
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almost impossible to mount the power supply and cable management was even
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worse the cables just kind of hang out at the bottom of the case and
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there's no top or side ventilation thermal performance is utter balls
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there's nowhere for the heat or even air to go
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not recommended we'd actually prefer a milk crate off ebay and some zip ties
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instead next up is the full atx logisus
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cs350bk which is both solidly built and
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thoughtfully laid out for a design from 2003. to its credit it
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comes with a power supply but the claim that it can handle
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330 watts of total continuous load
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is probably this thing won't be powering anything
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north of a gtx 1050 ti and even for that
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i wouldn't recommend it now the cases rolled edges help with preventing injury
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but they aren't totally pinched off and there's also these break off pci slot
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covers and a rear i o shield to contend
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with otherwise there is plenty of space in
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here which is good but there's nowhere to throw cables so
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managing them is a chore the aesthetics of the case other than
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the glossy plastic are fairly inoffensive so that also is good but
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with only a single intake fan for cooling this case pulled off some of the
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worst thermals in this group and that is
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saying a lot not recommended our third most popular
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case is the micro atx xalman t3 it's a
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little cramped to work in but it's also the first in our roundup so far with a
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semi-reasonable modern layout the edges
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are pretty smooth and the overall fit and finish is okay
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the reset button's mushy and this is starting to look like a pattern here
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actually there is only one usb 3 port on
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the front panel again rather than the two supported by the motherboard header
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i mean i guess copper prices are going up but geez you guys
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building in it though was mostly painless the hard drives can only be
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accessed by removing the front panel for some reason but the two and a half inch
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SSD mounts are easily accessible and there's actually quite a nice amount of
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cable management room behind the back panel
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there's no included radiator mount but up top you will actually find cutouts
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for use with an external radiator an old
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feature that dates the core design here a little bit it's a touch gamery looking
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but overall this case has pretty excellent thermals mesh covered fan
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mounts and clean cable management recommended
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on to the compucase voyager
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where is the voyager going somewhere far away i hope this is a
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midi computer case that i would rate a meh d
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out of 10 on its looks alone the front panel is adorned with brightly colored
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headphone and mic jack straight out of 2005 the power button kind of looks like
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a cigarette lighter and when your pc freezes you can call team rocket with
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this button right here inside isn't much to write home about
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either it's a very early 2000s style with a top mounted power supply taste
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the rainbow style front panel cables and very little room for cable management to
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hide them there aren't really any sharp edges but with these breakaway pci slot
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covers and its thin metal construction you'll be creating your own soon enough
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drive bays line the entire front of the chassis which means that you will need a
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dremel for a large high performance graphics card not that you should be
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putting any decent gear in here anyway our CPU got super toasty without a fresh
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supply of cool air not recommended
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in the number five spot is the apex sk3 and you know what who
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cares it doesn't matter i'm calling this one the disappointment not only does it
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look like a 2005 piece of steel junk
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it's got so many sharp edges that i had to dish out hazard pay to the unlucky
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sod who built the system in it and anyway there is nowhere for cables to
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hide so have fun with that the pci slot
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covers are tear off without a tab to wedge a screwdriver into so you'll be
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using your hands and while there's a 120 mil fan mount in the front of the case
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and an 80-92 mount in the rear
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both of them are unoccupied by default
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so out of the box the power supply acts as the main exhaust this thing's an oven
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not recommended wow
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most of these suck so far next up
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is the diy pc jax 12 bk which uh
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huh actually doesn't look too bad it's got a
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nice clean aesthetic as long as you're into pandas a single usb 3 port on the
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front panel with a twin usb 2.0 to boot
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and on the inside it's even got a shroud to hide the power supply and three and a
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half inch bays and you can see them through a nice wide acrylic window
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the full atx layout is as open as you could want with SSD mounts to the right
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of the motherboard and i mean really all we're missing here is a radiator mount
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and some topside ventilation both of which can be remedied with a dremel and
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some time the construction is sturdy though with rolled and smoothed edges
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throughout and we've also got a huge area in the rear for hiding all of the
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junk in the trunk it's not an ideal config the breakaway
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slot covers are a good example of this as is the minimal clearance above the
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motherboard but it is leagues better than everything else we've seen so far
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and perhaps unsurprisingly then it's thermal performance is pretty good too
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with 120ml fans on the front and rear complementing its wide open interior
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highly recommended finally we've got the cougar
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the cougar mg 110 another micro atx case
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we've got single usb 3 and usb 2 ports on the front and on the rear we've got
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those blasted breakaway pci brackets on
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the interior though we've got smooth edges all around and it looks like that
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five and a quarter inch bay is tool-less too with a nice little handle labeled
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gaming we've got a 120mm case fan pre-installed
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on the rear and we even get space on this one for a 2 by 120mm radiator on
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the top if you remove the yes removable
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optical drive mount there's also a removable three and a half inch hard
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drive tray and a decently sized area in the rear panel for cable management
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complete with management points and two and a half inch SSD mounts thermal
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performance was actually stellar too owing to the clean interior and decent
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placement of the exhaust fan and copious ventilation holes recommended again so
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overall then what we learned today is that the one with the most votes
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might not actually be the best choice in all cases
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the cougar mg110 was the best case overall and our pick for an matx build
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with the jax 12 over here creaming the rest of the competition if you've got a
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full-sized atx board the zalman t3 then
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gets an honorable mention for sucking a lot less than the rest of them and as
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for the rest of them
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the sennheiser 58x from mass drop uses
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sennheiser's new 150 ohm drivers making these headphones
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easier to power from devices like your cell phone than their predecessors the
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emphasis of this particular set is on clean extended bass with a smooth but
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clear upper range they've got soft velour ear pads with elliptical ear cups
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that i know it's crazy follow the anatomy of
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the ear round on an ear i don't know where that
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idea ever came from but not with these they come with a handy detachable cable
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and they're available now on mass drop for 159.99 us with free shipping to the
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usa so check it out at the link below
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so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video you can hit that button but if you liked it hit like get
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subscribed maybe consider checking out the link to where to buy the stuff we
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featured though to be clear i only mean this one this one and then
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maybe this one if for whatever reason you don't like the looks of this one in
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the video description also linked in the description is our merch storage has
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