25 of the best cases for your next PC build

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Written by Kevin Lee.

Written by Kevin Lee. Updated November 20, 2015 by Tom Marks.

Picking the right computer case is a monumental decision. Perhaps even more important than choosing the motherboard. The frame you choose decides what components will actually fit inside. It affects how easy your system will be to build, how air will flow across your components, and how your computer will fit into your gaming setup. PC chassis come in a variety of sizes, from miniscule Mini-ITX systems meant to sit on your desk, to massive full towers designed for maximum expandability.

With this in mind, we’re going to look at 25 of the best computer cases to start with for your next system build, spanning a spectrum of sizes, shapes, and price points.

These aren’t just cases that look pretty. Some are our personal favorites, cases we've built our own rigs with. Others come highly recommended by do-it-yourselfers and professional reviewers. We’ve dug through buyer feedback and reviews to find cases that are as cleverly designed and reliable as they are attractive.

A note on affiliates: some of our stories, like this one, include affiliate links to stores like Amazon. These online stores share a small amount of revenue with us if you buy something through one of these links, which helps support our work evaluating PC components.

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Corsair Graphite 760T

Price: $190 (£157) on Amazon
Form factor: Full tower

Big side windows have risen in popularity over the last few years and the Corsair Graphite 760Trepresents the inevitable evolution of this trend. Rather than having a traditional side panel made of metal or plastic, the 760T’s flanks are made almost entirely out of transparent polycarbonate. Looks aside, its a huge full tower case with nine expansion slots for quadruple SLI or three cards taking up three slot with plenty of room to spare for water cooling.

Anandtechalso had some equally great things to say about the case. “The Graphite 760T offers a great variety of options and combinations, allowing each end user to find their desired balance between thermal performance, acoustics, and cost,” Anandtech’s E. Fylladitakis wrote. “It is aesthetically attractive without being too aggressive, offers good stock thermal performance without being too noisy, and is very versatile without being too expensive.”

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Silverstone Raven RVZ01

Price: $80 (£77) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini-ITX

Here’s a case that’s just a bit smaller than an Xbox One, but can take a full-length graphics card. The Silverstone Raven RVZ01was designed to be a discrete media PC, but it can just as easily be used to build a small gaming PC for a home theater setup.

Bi-Tech’s Antony Leather had this to sayabout the Silverstone Raven RVZ01:

“It's very different from pretty much any other mini-ITX case we've tested but somehow, amazingly, it all comes together cooling-wise and beats the Fractal Design Node 304 at GPU cooling and matches the Silverstone Sugo SG08's godlike CPU cooling. It's compact, has an optical drive mount, space for hefty GPUs and despite being limited to a low profile cooler, coupled even with a modest one like ours, there's enough cooling here to cope with a 4.5GHz Core i7-4770K with ease.”

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Phanteks Enthoo Pro

Price: $100 (£87) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full Tower

With most budget cases costing around $100 you don’t expect a lot of luxuries, but the Phanteks Enthoo Procomes with a surprising number of bells and whistles including rubber grommets, dust filters for every intake, and even a power supply cover to neatly hide all your cables.

The Enthoo Pro is a very affordable and surprisingly fully featured full tower case that will also show off your internals with two side windows.

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Fractal Design Define R4

Price: $110 (£120) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

Silence is golden and the Fractal Design R4comes with sound dampening material to drone out the sound of spinning fans and any bleeps or bloops emanating from the motherboard. Sporting a plain but all steel exterior, this is also a good choice if you don’t want a PC that screams that it was built for gaming.

Just in case you want a newer version of Fractal Design’s silent case, the company also just announced the Define R5, which features a slightly retooled “ModuVent” system for airflow in and out of the top of the case, velcro cable management straps, as well as a few other improvements.

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Cooler Master HAF X

Price: $168 (£136) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full tower

Liquid cooling is nice and efficient, but if you want a simple air cooled computer look no further than Cooler Master’s HAF Xcase. You can fit some massive fans inside the HAF X including one 230mm fan on the front as well as two 200mm fans up on top and another one on the side. Larger fans can help push more air without needing to wind up to full speed and produce more noise. The HAF X is also a very beefy full tower case with nine expansion slots and tons of room for storage including two hotswap bays.

And, of course, you can still install a closed-loop liquid cooling system if you fancy. The HAF X isn't the sleekest case around, but it's an old standby: rugged, versatile, and spacious. It has a 5 star review average on Newegg with over 1300 reviews for good reason.

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Cougar QBX

Price: $72 (£49) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini-ITX

We first saw the Cougar QBXat Computexand it immediately impressed us. Now that we've gotten our hands on it and built a rig inside of it, we can confidently say that it's one of the best mini-ITX cases around. It's got a sleek exterior, a great price, and an incredibly compact design for how much you can fit inside of it—with enough room for an ATX power supply and full length Graphics cards.

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Corsair Vengeance C70

Price: $110 (£97) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

This is a personal pick because we actually use a Corsair Vengeance C70case for one of our own gaming rigs. It’s an olive green, fully metal case that’s very reminiscent of an ammo box. The the side panels are secured by snapping latches. This military motif also extends to the reset button which is hidden behind a sort of missile launch cover.

Aesthetics aside, the C70 is a very practical case with lots of room for a big ATX motherboard build. Even with the system fully loaded there’s still headroom to install a liquid cooling system with push-pull fans. Corsair call this chassis a mid-tower but it definitely errs towards being a full-size computer tower.

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Fractal Design Node 804

Price: $116 (£157) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini ATX Cube Case

Going with a small case does not mean settling for a lower-powered system. Take the Fractal Design Node 804, for instance; thanks to a dual chamber setup you can fit Micro ATX board with a full-size GPU and long power supply. All the while, there’s no need to worry about cramped conditions as Tweaktown’s Chad Sebringexplains, “things look a bit cramped when first looking at this, but once we start installing the gear, we find quite a bit of room is available in this design.”

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EVGA Hadron Air

Price: $127 (£144) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini-ITX

The EVGA Hadron Airis an even smaller, and very unique, mini-ITX chassis. It comes with a hefty $179 price tag, which is largely thanks to its built-in 500-watt U1 style power supply (which is normally used to power servers). The most notable feature of this case is its compact design that still allows users to pack in a powerful components like the Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan.

Hilbert Hagedoorn of Guru3Dspoke highly of the cutest and most tiny chassis from EVGA:

“Yeah, you can build a PC that is massive in performance whilst being small in size. Combine that with decent enough airflow and the sheer looks then I have to say that EVGA's Hadron is a nice first Mini-ITX chassis release, it offers a massive amount of features for what is the smallest form factor. It is tiny and cute and if you do things right, it'll be grand in performance.”

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NZXT Phantom 410

Price: $100 (£74) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

NZXT makes some very solid cases and the Phantom 410is a very good, feature-packed mid-tower chassis. The frame, like many of NZXT’s cases, is very reminiscent of Alienware, with a bit of the company’s own personal flair making the design unmistakable even from afar.

The Phantom 410 is an affordable $99 mid-tower that comes with an adjustable rear fan set on slits rather screw holes, integrated fan controller, rubber grommets, and an almost completely tool-less design; altogether this makes the 410 an accessible case for first time builders. At the same time, experienced builders can take advantage of the ample clearance for a 240mm top radiator.

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NZXT Phantom 820

Price: $210 (£196) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full tower

The NZXT Phantom 820is essentially the Phantom 410’s bigger, full tower brother. Everything about the 820 is bumped up with more hard drive caddies, expansions slots—and just overall, a ton more room. Liquid cooling aficionados will also especially like this case because it supports a top 360mm radiator as well as a bottom 280mm radiator. For even more cooling the case can also be equipped with an additional 140mm rear fan and three 200mm fans.

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Silverstone Raven RV03

Price: $160 (£117) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full tower

Silverstone is best known for producing computer cases that exhaust heat upwards, which goes with fact that hot air rises. The company is up to the fifth version of its Raven tower, but the best one Silverstone has arguably made is the RV03. Building in this case is a little different as the motherboard tray is rotated 90-degrees so that all the I/O ports face upwards. Otherwise, the RV03 is a solid platform with room for plenty of expandability.

Here’s what some Raven RV03 owners on Newegg have to say about the case:

“Incredible design. I'm not sure why more case manufacturers have adopted this model. The 90 degree rotation makes for an incredibly efficient cooling design. The result is amazing temps, with low fan speeds, and a cleaner case as a result of the lower airflow in combination with the filters." ~ Matthew M.

“Stunningly good looking. I bought the case for a combination of aesthetics and performance, and it delivers superbly on both fronts. The window allows for full view of everything you want to show off (mobo, CPU, cards), and nothing you don't (drive and their bays).” ~ Wesley H.

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Thermaltake Level 10 GT

Price: $177 (£160) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full tower

A few years ago Thermaltake came out with a revolutionary Level 10 case that separated every component into its own compartment to individually cool parts. The Level 10 GTis a consumer-oriented, slightly less insanely priced, extension of the original Level 10’s philosophy. The unique design isn’t just for looks, as it also affords some very good heat management while making it quieter to boot.

“The Level 10 GT incorporates all the enthusiast wants; hot swap, large fans with removable dust filters, maximum cable routing, and a sleek black paint job inside and out,” TechPowerUp’s mlee49 wrote. Lee goes on to praise Thermaltake Level 10 GT for getting all the details right with black cabling, the fan power connector built into the side panel hinge, a hidden door release.

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Corsair Obsidian Series 900D

Price: $280 (£270) on Amazon
Form Factor: Super tower

Speaking of top-of-the-line builds, the Corsair Obsidian Series 900Dis a giant PC case ready to house the biggest of builds. Standing in at just a little over two feet, this “super tower” features an extra compartment at its base for a massive water cooling block, dual PSUs, or 12 additional storage drives. Users can also pack in an absurd number of liquid cooling reservoirs with room for a 360mm block on the front and top of this frame.

In HardOCP’s 900D review, Steve Lynch listed his many likes of the case including its “solid construction, bold looks, and sleek styling combined with a strong focus on functionality.”

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Cooler Master Cosmos II

Price: $327 (£311) on Amazon
Form Factor: Ultra Tower

As a direct competitor to Corsair’s Obsidian Series 900D, the Cosmosis a massive ultra tower that weighs in at 47.3-pounds—and that’s just the weight of the case by itself. Like the 900D, this case also features a separate bottom compartment in which users can fit the longest of power supplies as well as six additional storage drives. The main compartment will take practically anything you throw at it with room for a XL-ATX motherboard and 11 expansion slots, which is more than enough for a quad Nvidia SLI or AMD Crossfire setup.

Former Maximum PCeditor Nathan Edwards called the Cosmos II “a thoroughly modern product with massive cooling potential, strong cable-management chops, and wide-open spaces.”

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BitFenix Ronin

Price: $50 (£165) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid Tower

The BitFenix Roninis another affordable and well equipped computer chassis. There isn’t much to complain about as it comes with tool-less sleds for both HDDs and SSDs, and dust filters all around. BitFenix also designed it to handle easy swapping of CPU coolers, if you like to mix up your build by testing air coolers versus liquid. It can handle a 240mm liquid cooling radiator, and is a big enough mid tower to hold a couple graphics cards.

There’s even a neat stealth cover to hide the storage bays and cables tucked along the base.

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Fractal Design Arc Mini

Price: $102 (£74) on Amazon
Form Factor: Micro ATX

Here’s a precious little case. The Fractal Design Arc Miniis about the closest thing you can get to a chibi computer—a miniature mid-tower, basically. Aside from the adorable aspect of this chassis, we can personally vouch for it as a great platform to build a small computer in. It’s solidly built with all the trimmings including dust filters and room for big graphics.

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Rosewill Thor V2

Price: $130 on Amazon
Form Factor: Full Tower

Rosewill, Newegg's house hardware brand, is better known for producing keyboards and computer peripherals, but it also makes a bang up full tower called the Thor V2. The case is largely made of metal and up top there are also chevron shaped vents, which users can close to stop dust from settling inside the frame.

It’s not a show-topper of a PC chassis like the Corsair 900D or Cooler Master HAF X, but the Thor V2 is a fully featured full tower case for an affordable price. And it has a really, really big fan on its side panel.

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Antec 900

Price: $110 (£83) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid Tower

It’s an oldie but a goodie. The Antec 900is another excellent full tower choice. There isn’t anything too noteworthy about the case today, but it's highly recommended amongst the gaming PC community for its good air flow thanks to multiple large fans as well as its excellent build quality. This is the old faithful of custom PC building.

Here’s what a few users from Newegg had to say about the case:

“I have owned this case for 4 years now and I still am incredibly impressed with it. The overall design and construction are superb, I have hauled this thing back and forth between houses and it sure has taken a beating like a champ.” ~ Michael R.

“Fan overkill! Literally, I don't need any fans besides the stock ones to cool my system and I'm overclocking everything I can. All components have been running at healthy temperatures and are stable.” ~ Alexander N.

“I bought two of these in 2007 and they are STILL my main cases. I've added and removed tons of hardware with ease. The fans are still as quiet as the day I bought it. If I do ever get a new case, I'll throw away ALL of my other ones before this one. I don't think I have ever kept a case past the first motherboard swap because the PSU or fans are choking or a bunch of cheap plastic bits have broken or the case has just become ugly with fading and discoloration. Not the 900. This is the gold standard in cases and I can only hope that the Lanboys will be as sweet.” ~ Anonymous

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NZXT H440

Price: $130 (£100) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

If you’re looking for a perfect mid tower, this is it. The NZXT H440mixes together a nice blend of conservative styling, useful features, and great build quality. One of the H440’s most notable features is a shroud at the bottom of the case, which pairs perfectly with the large side window to create a very clean look. Even better, it comes with four fans pre-installed, which is more than enough cooling for a system build—although there’s always room for liquid cooling.

The H440 makes it easy to achieve a professional-looking build,” Steven Walton wrote in his TechSpot review. “it runs cool with four 140mm fans from the factory, and it supports huge gear like 360mm radiators or up to 11 HDDs via mod. What's not to love?”

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BitFenix Prodigy

Price: $85 (£63) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini-ATX/Micro-ITX

Another case we use in one of our personal rigs, the BitFenix Prodigyhas a short and stout shape. It’s only 14” tall and has plastic handles on both the type and bottom, though they are a bit flimsier than they look. The handles and small form factor allow your rig to be a very portable machine, but, as is the problem with most mini-ITX cases, leaves you less room for cable management. There are vents with removable filters on the top and bottom of the case, and the bottom set of handles keeps your PSU fan from resting directly on a surface.

The Prodigy also comes in six different colors, though some of the brighter ones are becoming increasingly rare. We went for the bright “half-life” orange, but the standard black or white cases tend to be on the cheaper side. The inside of the case has removable drive trays, leaving space for at least eight drives if needed.

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Corsair Carbide 200R

Price: $51 (£50) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

Currently the best selling case on Amazon, the Corsair Carbide 200Ris just a good standard case. It’s reasonably priced, won’t take up a huge amount of space on or under your deck, and doesn’t look too bad either. It definitely has a few problems, namely its drive cage's quality and placement, but it's a good choice on a budget.

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Rosewill Dual Fan Mini Tower

Price: $30 on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini tower

Speaking of budget cases, the Rosewill Dual Fan Mini Toweris just that. It’s a small, well made case for only $30. That’s an appealing thought right off the bat, and though it’s surely not without problems at that price point, it also has great reviews on Amazon to back that up.

C. B. Smith says: “I've put together three systems for family members using this case, and I don't think you can beat it for the cost. This is a very clean looking case with no bling so it doesn't looks cheap. As others have noted the case material is light weight but once the side panels are installed the case is solid.”

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Corsair Carbide Air 540

Price: $119 (£109) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

Recommended to us in the comments below by reader jom jim. A case all about good airflow, the aptly named Corsair Carbide Air 540has two separate chambers to separate your graphics card and CPU from things like drives and your PSU. This lets cool air hit the parts that need it the most.

It’s essentially a large cube instead of the traditional tower case we think of, but the space is used well and it allows for a unique layout inside. Additionally, the larger area inside would make for an easier working area if this is one of your first builds

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Antec 1900

Price: $180 (£136) on Amazon
Form Factor: Super tower

A tall, slick looking tower, the Antec 1900has more drivebays than I think anyone could possibly use. That’s just me, maybe you have a reason to use its huge amount of space. The 1900 comes in a couple of different colors, and its large inside means you’ll always have room to swap out and upgrade over time.

An unfortunate misstep on Antec’s part is that this massive case doesn’t have much support for higher-end cooling systems, but for $200 it is on the cheaper end as huge cases go. The Antec 1900 might fall into a weird twilight category of “high-end budget,” which I’m sure someone has a need for.

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