Looking for a budget mid-tower to put my old 3770k into, can't find one that fits.

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Jan 3, 2009
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Looking for a mid-tower that has at least one 5.25 external bay, at least one intake and exhaust fan, and it would be a BIG plus if it had more than 1 USB 3.0 and/or 2.0 port. Ideally if it had 2 of each, and it would be really nice if it had at least 4 internal bays for 3.5 drives. Also, I currently have a Noctua NH-D14 cooler attached to said Z77 motherboard, so I would need a case that is compatible with that. Was hoping for under $100, preferably $50-60, but seems like the only case I can find that has what I want is around $120-130.

I am rebuilding/replacing my current 3770k with a new z490 motherboard/cpu/ram/psu in place of the existing case/hardware.

However, I am not 100% sure if it was my old z77 motherboard that was what was causing the issues, or my old PSU. And since the RAM and CPU itself are fine according to stress tests, I don't really have a place to store them after taking them out of the case, and selling them won't get me much, I figured I could get a budget mid-tower case to put them in and replace the part that is broken so I could have a decent backup system.

And since I am currently keeping all the old case, gpu, other cards, drives, etc from my existing z77 build, but will slowly upgrade them when I have the money since they will be rather mis-matched for a 10700k, I can also move those parts into the z77's case as I replace them.

But I am having a hard time finding an affordable case that is both good, has the features I want, and the biggest issue..... is actually still being sold.

Originally I was looking at this article: https://techguided.com/best-budget-pc-cases-under-50/

That Fractal Design Focus G seemed good at first, but looking into it. It doesn't have an exhaust fan, and is lacking in USB ports. And with the cost of buying more fans and putting in a USB front bay, I might as well buy a more expensive case..... plus it seems to be sold out everywhere.

I considered the other one that was listed by Cougar (never heard of that brand) but it lacks an intake fan..... and according to Noctua's site the case is too small to fit most of their coolers, including the D14 I have.

I tried https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-pc-cases,4183.html but they were not really budget cases, except for one.... which had no 5.25 bays, only one fan, and/or were out of stock everywhere.

The last last of cases I attempted to look up was https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3604-best-gaming-pc-cases-for-airflow-in-2020-right-now and the only option there seemed to be the Cooler Master NR600, but the version that has 5.25 bays doesn't seem to be sold anywhere, I can only find the one without any.

So I gave up on those and tried setting my preferences in PcPartPicker. About 99% of them after I filtered them were sold out, but the one that would come up the most, over and over, was the Fractal Design Define R4.... but it has apparently been discontinued and out of stock long ago. Second one that came up the most was the Corsair 200R.

It looked like that was about to be my go-to.... but then I saw this review: https://www.anandtech.com/show/6515/corsair-carbide-200r-case-review-how-low-can-you-go/5

The main thing they complained about was the SSD cage, and when they tested it's temps I can see why, SSDs were considerably hotter than most other cases tested. Considering I have a spare Samsung 850 Pro I am going to put in it, SSD heat is a concern.

After all this, the only case I could find that seems to fit (I am still looking up good reviews though) is the Fractal Design Define R5. It seems to have everything I want. Intake and exhaust fan, two usb 2.0 and 3.0 ports, a 5.25 bay, and has more than 4 3.5 internal bays. The only issue..... it's $120-130, a bit more than what I wanted ot pay.... but this so far seems like the only case that has everything I want AND is in stock.

Is this my only option if these are my limits for what I am looking for in a case? Does anyone has any other cases they can recommend that have all these features I am looking for and are actually still being sold?
 
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Coolermaser N400 has 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, 7x 3.5" bays, 2x 5.25 bays and is pretty cheap.

New cases are dropping 3.5" bays, USB 2.0, and 5.25" bays so look for older case designs that have been on the market for a long time.
 
Hmmm, not sure how I missed that Cooler Master. Could have sworn I looked at it before, no idea why I may have ignored it. Has everything I am looking for, the only thing it's really lacking is front USB 2.0 ports (and with only one 5.25 bay which will be taken up by an optical drive, I can't add more) but that's not a huge issue, and it's both cheap and in stock too. Will have to look up reviews for that.

One thing that confuses me about the Cooler Master N400 though. Can you mount all four 3.5 drives in the same location? Or Do you need to split them between the top and bottom of the case? It's not really clear if the whole 4x bay can be mounted either on the top or bottom, or if you can't mount all 4 drives in one location. I might have to eventually move an older RAID5 array that uses four HDDs to it, and the SAS to x4SATA cable won't reach if the drives are split across the top and bottom of the case.
 
Oh, whoops, I was looking at the Cooler Master NR600.

Yeah, the N400 looks a lot more in line with exactly what I am looking for.
 
https://cougargaming.com/products/cases2/mx330/

Cougar MX330
1 5.25" bays
2 3.5" bays
2 2.5" mounting points
5 120mm fan locations (2 front, 2 top, 1 rear, 1 side(solid side panel only)
4 front USB (2 usb 3, 2 usb 2)

I grabbed one for $40 a couple months ago. It's cheap in areas (thin metal) but it's still rigid (PSU shroud probably). Plenty of space with standard size components (I have ATX, R9 290x, 150mm deep power supply, 2 3.5" and 1 2.5").
 
phantek's enthoo pro m might work for you but youll need an extra 3.5 tray...
 
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