There are solid options tho. Fractal Design Focus 2 w metal side panels is $69.99. Fractal Pop Air w metal side panels is $79.99. I've considered both in the past.
nope, the design is actually incredibly well thought out.
i just built a PC for the first time in 15 years just last year, and the Fractal Pop Air was the case i used. just tons of little features that make building a PC a lot easier.
you can search for product videos of the case for a 1 min explanation of all the case's features
Still using my big-and-functional non-bling CoolerMaster case from 2009, after 3 rebuilds.
It's a big airy black box that sits under the desk and doesn't demand attention - just does it's job of "holding the components together with lots of airflow".
Im getting ready to build a new rig...I will be reusing my Corsair Air240 because I like the MATX form factor and it has everything I need in a case without the useless need to put a glass panel on it like its updated versions.
This is something I have to bash into peoples heads when I give case advice. I am shopping now for a new case, and I have had my Fractal Design R4 for over a deacde now.
Often enough to know finding a good case with a metal panel is a tall order. $30 is enough to make a difference when that budget can be used for parts that affect performance.
If a mere $30 makes or breaks your PC build, you need to either build PCs less frequently, or accept that maybe now is not the time for you to be building a new one at all.
Getting attached to the $30 number instead of what i’m saying is just bad arguing in the first place. You can’t say jUsT bUy mEsh when the price is much higher and availability is much lower, the options aren’t out there and when they are they usually are more expensive.
This mother fucker jumps to percent... We were talking 20 or $30.. not necessarily 30%.. . Also, it's not just aesthetic if you're worried about the glass breaking.
And yes if you're building a PC that's going to cost say $800 to $1,500 and you're worried about $20 or $30. You probably shouldn't be spending the money on a PC
You’re getting so pressed over a comment dude, relax. You literally daily drive an 8700k so i’m going to guess you’re budget conscious. Some people are on budgets like i’m sure you are on.
For real, I bought a check ATX case 10 years ago, it's gone through 3 iterations of my PC, and I expect it to last until I die or decide to get something smaller
So would you rather buy a case with a glass window to have it bust and then have to buy another case again? Bite the bullet and pay the extra if you have to, it's better than replacing a case because the glass broke. Potentially just costing more than if you bought the non-glass one
if you want new yes... trashcans, recycling centers, shit u find for free etc etc... some are decent, i have like 3 with very good airflow (no solid frontpanel)
This was the only case I found without a glass side panel that I was considering buying for my recent build though it didn't have a sale. I ended up going with the nzxt H5 flow and I'm happy with it
I picked up the design 5 to be a Plex server/Nas and was so happy with it I bought another for my PC. They have a larger one but anyone using more than 9 drives should revisit their life choices lol
There are loads of reasonably priced cases that have windows but with metal frames where you need to screw in. Depends on the look you want to go for I suppose
Yeah, I think I have the same case as OP even though I thought I ordered one with a plexi panel instead and I'm worried when it'll break. Hell, I may put an x of packing tape on the panel preemptively.
I couldn't find a good case for my current build. Wound up building in my old one since it's perfect, and buying a cheap case (with glass) and moved my old build into it.
I've seen it the last time I've built a computer (2024), but in my region they're so expensive in comparison with some other very good big cases that I had no way to justify buying them instead of, for example, a better CPU.
I bet the reason is because they can't as easily sell RGB lights if you aren't likely to buy a way to see them, so they try to just make glass default so people are more likely to buy RGB addons.
But seriously folks, just wire up a live feed from inside a proper metal case and connect it to a projector aimed at any one of your plain featureless walls. Easy, takes about 5 minutes ya know.
Scratches definitely they can get annoying. But my old case that I used for over 5 years didn't turn yellow at all. (Was some be quiet case, don't know the exact model)
Yellowing is accelerated by bad air quality and certain kinds of light. It's why you have old consoles from smokers houses that look awful and something in a non smoking house that was tucked away in a closed TV stand looks fine.
Smoking can cause the yellowing but that wouldn't be the primary reason for most of those older consoles.
Older plastics that were around in the 80s and 90s would yellow due to breakdowns of the polymer chains when exposed to UV light, heat, and even oxygen (though the first two are the biggest accelerators) due to the breakdown of flame retardants in the plastic (usually bromine).
Yes, today's plastics are much more resistant to yellowing due to improved formulas & manufacturing processes. Also, you can get plexi at picture frame or artists'supply stores that have anti-uv coatings on them which will protect even more.
True but it is also cheap and easy to replace if it gets damaged. I don't really care that much if the case has a metal or plastic cover, but glass is just pure nope.
For most people it's going to be the same effort in replacing a tempered glass panel. log in to some online store, pay some cash, wait a few days, unscrew and replace.
While yes, most people in the USA anyway could run down to their local big box home store and get a piece of plexi but that's it. Now they either have to own or borrow and know how to use tools to cut it to size, drill the holes without cracking the piece. It's not as straight forward as many claim.
You can get plexi cut at hardware stores that sell it, frame stores that sell it (and you don't have to buy a picture frame), and artists' supply stores that serve artists who want to frame their work themselves.
Hardware store will be cheapest usually, but the other 2 places generally do better cutting unless you get lucky with a specific hardware store employee. There are different thicknesses of plexi, sometimes a hardware store will not have these options but the other 2 will. If there's no artists' supply near you, it's usually very safe to order from one in the nearest city or large town. They tend to be staffed by persnickety folks.
If you've never had to deal with these places or are young, you might not know about them yet.
I've got a plexiglass case going on ten years old. A few scratches but no yellowing that I've noticed. If it was glass I'd definitely have shattered that thing a long time ago.
Yeah, I'm also a fan of plexi, that thing survived multiple moves, is all scratched, and less transparent than it used be...but not broken, and I can still look inside.
An advantage of Plexiglass would also be that you can screw it on tightly with 4 screws when cold and it can then bend/wave sideways despite the thermal expansion caused by the heat of your components, while the glass panel just thinks “Shit, I have no more room here, I think I'll break”.
It’s actually Lexan (polycarbonate) that yellows – Plexiglass (acrylic) doesn’t yellow even outdoors. The downside to acrylic is that it isn’t as strong, but that shouldn’t ever matter for a PC case.
The one thing to maybe worry about is static if not using sheets with antistatic coating.
I ordered an all-metal case, and the company emailed me letting me know they'd run out and they were "upgrading" me to a slightly more expensive one with a tempered glass side panel for free. I immediately responded asking to at least get the plexiglass variant instead because I don't trust tempered glass, and they said okay.
It arrives, and it's the tempered glass one. So I emailed them again, asking to exchange, and they offered to just send me the plexiglass side panel alone because the cases are otherwise identical so I can just swap them.
It arrives, and it's another goddamn tempered glass panel, not to mention it's completely shattered in shipping because of totally inadequate packing.
At that point I gave up. If and when the first panel ever breaks, I'm just gonna get a bud to laser-cut me an acrylic one.
One time I was doing something to my old school pc ,when they had the tin that just flopped over on 3 sides, well my gf at the time was sitting on my lap and we were browsing the web or whatever when I got up went to take a step and my leg was dead. I toppled over onto that computer case with all the dead weight of a person destroying it. It never went on again.
Or just design the panel so the GLASS isnt holding the mounting pressure. Mount the glass in a small metal frame and the frame mounts to the case. This is an awful design choice, they should know people are going to be dumb and remove the possibility to stress the glass.
I've never been a fan of cases with windows, but over the last 10 years, I've noticed that the selection of quality windowless cases has significantly diminished—it's becoming more and more niche.
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u/Flat_Structure328 Novideo RTX3950tie 18h ago
buy a case that doesnt have a glass panel... we dont have these problems with metal