Page 97 - PCWorld (September 2019)

Sometimes you’ll see “mini-tower” cases, ROG Strix. That’s solid for the price. We’ll
which slot between mini-ITX and mid-tower talk about more recommendations toward

in size to accommodate micro-ATX mother- the end of the article.
boards. They’re rarer than the others. Things open up in the $50 to $150-ish

price range, which has seen a lot of
PRICE CONSIDERATIONS advancement over the past few years. You’ll

FOR PC CASES find a lot of variance in both design and

Once you’ve decided how big of a PC case you construction in the midrange. As always, be
need, the next step is figuring out your budget. sure to check measurements to ensure your
If you’re spending $50 or less, you’re desired PC case can fit all your hardware, and

probably going to wind up with a bare- you’ll also want to keep an eye on extra
bones, nondescript case with few extra features. They’re a lot more common in this
features. Try to pick one that has two fans, price range, especially as you move up in cost.

one in the front of the case and another in Features purely come down to personal
the rear, for maximized air-flow, which helps preference or specifics needed for your

cooling. You won’t always find the option in build. Some cases are built with more fans
this price range, though. for higher performance; others focus on
One of the best budget PC cases I’ve silent design. Some—most notably much of

built in is
Deepcool’s

Tesseract ($50 on
Newegg [go.
pcworld.com/

dpcl]). This
affordable mid-

tower has decent
elbow room, the
aforementioned

duo of case fans,
and plenty of drive

bays—though it
won’t fit extra-long
graphics cards like
The lack of 5.25-inch drive bays let you cram a lot of powerful hardware inside
the beastly Asus the Corsair Carbide 400C.

SEPTEMBER 2019 PCWorld 95