Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Components > Cooling > 15 Case Power Tower Round-Up

15 Case Power Tower Round-Up

07:00 - Monday 7 June 2004 by Siggy Moersch

1. Cucumber Salad Or Band-Aid?
2. Ouch! The Pain Of Razor-Sharp Edges
3. The Cases: Up Close And Personal
4. Simple Motherboard Installation
5. Hard-Drive Trays
6. Fresh Air With 120 mm Fans
7. Rails For 5.25" Drives
8. Perfect Construction
9. Casetek C1020: Enter The Dragon
10. Easy Installation Of Motherboards, Graphic Boards And Hard Drives
11. The Hazards Of Installing 5.25" Drives
12. Pros
13. Chieftec BX-01: Plenty Of Room For Hard Drives
14. A Glimpse Inside The Case
15. 90-Degree Carriage Rotation Simplifies Hard-Drive Installation
16. Safe Installation Of 5.25" Drives
17. Pros
18. Coolermaster Wavemaster: All Metal With Sharp Edges
19. Coolermaster Wavemaster, Continued
20. Installing The Motherboard Outside
21. Hard Drives Screwed Directly On The Case
22. Pros
23. Inter-Tech Sportcar Design: Typical Engine Sound With 6 Fans
24. Roomy Interior
25. Up To 11 Drives Fit In The Case
26. Razor-Sharp Edges And Corners
27. Pros
28. InWin IW-J568G: With Fan Speed Controller And Card Reader
29. Motherboard Installation A Hassle
30. Old-Fashioned Card Holders
31. Waste Of Space
32. Pros
33. Lian Li PC-V1000: Innovative Interior
34. Ingenious Innards
35. The PSU Down Under
36. Room Enough For Six Hard Drives

37. Screws Into Threads Not Into The Case
38. Front Bevel Included
39. Gotcha: Two Minor Weaknesses
40. Pros
41. NZXT Guardian: Zylon From Battlestar Galactica
42. No Sharp Edges Inside
43. Complicated Rail System For Drives
44. No Dust Filters Inside The Case
45. Revoltec Midi Tower: Chieftec With A New Design
46. Traditional Hardware Installation
47. Rails For 5.25" Drives
48. Special Carriages For Hard Drives
49. Pros
50. Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ02: Struggle With Drive Rails
51. Rails Secure Drives Firmly
52. Pros
53. Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ03S: Pricy XXL Format
54. Spacious Interior
55. Screws And Expansion Cards
56. Complicated Front-Port Cabling
57. Superflower X-Mask SF-462: Spider Design
58. Roomy Interior For Many Hard Drives
59. Card Installation With Brute Force
60. Are These Designers Crazy?
61. Thermaltake XaserV V5000A: Full Metal Jacket
62. Problems With Graphics-Card Installation
63. Pros
64. Yeong Yang YY-5603: No Major Flaws
65. Tidy Accessories
66. Anti-Vibration Rails For Drives
67. Break-Away Face Plates
68. Jet-Computer Last Samurai: Shades Of Darth Vader
69. Testing Procedure
70. Ratings
71. Features Chart
72. Features, Continued
73. Features, Continued

Price is certainly a big consideration when buying a new midi tower. But what do you really get for your money? How well built is the case? What hardware can you install and, most importantly, how do you install it? We tested 15 different cases to see how they measured up.

We also tested how safe the cases for hardware installation. We did this by using a cucumber to test the sharpness of all the edges and drive bays that you have to watch out for when installing hardware. So don't laugh - it's better to have a bowl full of cucumber salad than a pile of gauze and band-aids.