AND THE WINNER IS...
A slate of worthy contenders makes it tough to
choose a victorThe fi ve competitors in this roundup are some of the newest, hottest, most talked-
about cases from vendors new and old, and there isn’t a case in the bunch that we
wouldn’t recommend to somebody. As always, it just depends on what your priorities
are. If you want a light, well-constructed case and don’t care about cost or running a
Radeon 5970, go for the Lian Li. If you like a more novel, modular look and want a lot
of airfl ow, we recommend the Antec LanBoy Air. The BitFenix Survivor is great for
carting around to LANs, and the Corsair 600T is great to build into.
If we have to pick a winner—and we do—we’re going with the NZXT Phantom,
with the Corsair running a close second. Both have great looks, superb build quality,
and attention to detail on the inside. Neither are perfect—the lack of front-panel USB
3.0 and a front fan hurts the Phantom, while the Corsair could use a side-panel fan to
keep GPU temperatures down. But you won’t go wrong with either of them—or any
case in this roundup.
LIAN LI PC-8FI ANTEC LANBOY AIR BITFENIX SURVIVOR NZXT PHANTOM CORSAIR 600T
CPU Temp @ 100% burn (C) 47.5 46.5 52.5 49 47.75
CPU Temp @ idle (C) 33.25 30 35.25 31.75 32
GPU Temp (C) 60 54 59 54 62
System Temp (C) 32 32 36 33 35
Best scores are bolded. For our case testing, we use an EVGA 680SLI motherboard, stock-clocked Q6700 with a Thermaltake Contac29 cooler, an Nvidia 8800 GTX (with a Radeon 5970 for size testing), and a Corsair AX850 power supply. We use the case’s stock complement of
fans on their highest settings.BENCHMARKShttp://www.maximumpc.com | JAN 2011 | MAXIMUMPC | 43
PROGNOSTICATIONBack in April 2009,
we rounded up fi ve
full-tower chassis,
from budget to lush.
At the end, we posted
a wish-list of features
we thought should
be standard in every
case: 2.5-inch drive
bays (for the growing
SSD market), mid-
case air ducts, SATA backplanes, intake dust
fi lters, variable-speed fan controllers, cable-
routing mechanisms, toolless PCI slots, and
quality thumbscrews. So, how did we do?
Every case in this roundup had mounts
for at least two 2.5-inch drives, and most
included trays that accommodate 2.5- or 3.5-
inch drives. We didn’t see mid-case air ducts,
but the cases with side intake fans showed
lower system and GPU temps than their
competitors. SATA backplanes were notice-
ably absent, but other cases feature them.
Every case in the roundup had cable-routing
options, and some featured toolless PCI slots
and variable fan controllers. Most had decent
thumbscrews.
There were some features we didn’t
mention then that have now become
standard. Every case we tested this month
featured a large cutout in the motherboard
tray to accommodate CPU coolers with back-
plates, and all but the Phantom had USB 3.0
front-panel connectors. None had unfi nished
interiors, and toolless drive bays have also
become the norm.
The bottom line: Case design has come a
long way in the past 20 months, and it’s only
getting better from here.Look How Far
We've Come
NATHAN EDWARDS
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
EDITOR