I have been building computers for as long as I can remember. There was a time when I could actually make quite a bit of profit, and still stay well below what other major pc manufacturers were charging. That is not the case anymore, however the experience is still with me.
When someone would ask me to build them a computer, I would generally assess what they could do without and skimp on that. Most business users (in fact most users in general) do not need a good video card. Nor do they need that much hard drive space. I would go for the cheapest price when it came down to these componenents.
The computer chassis was the same thing. I would pay the extra money to get an ATX case, since they were far superior to old AT style cases, but still I would only spend about $30 on it. (Looking back on it, it was no wonder I cut myself so many times on jagged sheet metal found in cheap cases).
I recently discovered why
Antec and other major case manufacturers charge upwards of $100 for their cases. I purchased the Antec P160 from Microcenter for $108.00 - $40 MIR = $68. Not bad, considering
NewEgg had it for $115. Soon after I found that CompUSA had it for $60, but oh well. Who shops there anyway? Anyway, I'm getting side tracked. Here's a picture of the case:
Sure it looks nice from the outside, but is it worth $100 just from the front? Absolutely not. Sure the asthetics are nice, and the Power button / usb ports are cleverly positioned at the top of the case, but I can find an equally pleasing case for $40 or so from
DealSonic. What's inside is even greater than the exterior.
First thing I noticed: When they say aluminum... they mean it. The whole thing is made of 2mm rolled aluminum. Most aluminum cases I had dealt with before had aluminum side panels or something. This is way better quality.
The hard drive cage is rotated perpendicular to the case, to allow easier access to the drives. You can see this in the next picture:
This is very clever. Though I have heard people have space issues when it comes to connecting SATA hard drives, but I don't have any of these. Not to mention you could easily stick SATA hard drives in the 3.5" slot below the floppy. The drive cage has rails for these sliding frames that you attach to the hard drives. Then you just slide the drive it and it clicks and locks. Easy!
The 5.25" drive bays have the same rail system. Man, I'm starting to love this case! In front of the hard-drive cage (which is detachable, by the way) is space for a fan. Hrmm, how can I get a fan in there, I wonder. I unscrew the thumbscrew on the panel seen in the picture and the piece slides out! The fan can screw into this metal frame and slide right into place. The thumb screw even stays attached to the piece so you won't lose it.
As for the fan on the back, it is attached by 4 rubber screws that you just pull through until they fan out, then you cut of the excess rubber hanging out the back. This gives you a fan that doesn't actually touch the chassis. They advertise that this is a quiet fan, but I have yet to ascertain that fact. I know that the rubber screws will definitely help.
The motherboard tray comes out to make installation easy. It includes 2 temperature sensors that you can place where you like, and the front panel houses a washable dust filter. 2 of the 5.25" drive bays have fake bezels to make your drives look uniform. I like this idea, but I have seen some crappy ones in the past, so I hope these function like they should.
The only thing I could ask for would be to replace the thumb screws on the PCI panel and replace them with the pci clamps. I saw those on a couple
Thermaltake cases. (The Tsunami dream was my 2nd choice, but I really didn't want a door in front of my optical drives.)
So, I finally realized, after more than a decade of building computers, that the case is the same as just about any other component in a computer: you get what you pay for. Sadly I feel that I am not surprising anyone here. I just thought I would share my excitement with my new case.