CASES
TOTAL
£175
ADVANCED
£60 is a fair amount of cash when
building a budget rig. We usually
recommend you try to save as much
money as you can on parts – apart from
your PSU, CPU, GPU, and RAM. After
all, you won’t gain much from a case
upgrade compared to amping up those
four essential components.
But if you’re looking for a cheeky
cheap upgrade, nothing’s more
satisfying than upgrading that old hunk
of metal in which you house your
precious hardware. Corsair’s Carbide
270R hits that mark perfectly. With a
simple, elegant design, the 270R would
look as at home in a bedroom as in a
game developer’s studio. With support
for up to three 120mm fans in the front,
two 140mm ones in the roof, and four
hard drives, it’s not that different from
the more expensive Fractal Design
Meshify design and provides plenty of
room for cooling and further expansion.
It’s not perfect, but for the cash, you’d
be hard pushed to find better than
Corsair’s aggressively priced, budget-
busting box.
ASUS PA329Q
Recommending
a display is
tricky because
there are so
many subjective
variables. What
may be perfect
for one may not
work for you.
Gamers, for instance, want
to prioritise the high refresh
rates and low latency of a TN
panel over IPS’s colour accuracy and
viewing angles, while video editors may prefer the higher
contrast ratios of VA panels.
Most of us want the best of all worlds—which tends to
mean IPS panels, although newer tech is blurring these
lines. Add in screen sizes, native resolutions, FreeSync/
G-Sync, high dynamic ranges (HDR), and more, and
it’s clear that recommending a screen is difficult. We’re
still searching for the “perfect” panel at a price we’re
comfortable with – the Asus PA329Q is great, but at
£1,410, it’s not for everyone.DISPLAYS
http://www.asus.com £1,410Feature
TODAY’S BEST UPGRADES
PHANTEKS
ENTHOO EVOLV TG
http://www.phanteks.com
Cases are inevitably a very personal
thing for many people. After all, a big
factor is aesthetics. Whether you care
can dictate how much you’re willing to
spend. Looking for a super-slick, clean
build? Then it’s likely you’re hunting for
a svelte, aluminum, tempered glass
solution. Couldn’t give a damn? A
square tin can sans window will do the
job just fine.
That said, if you’re building a
premium system, you can’t go wrong
with a premium chassis. Ease of
building, materials, paint finish, and
internal cable routing options all
contribute to a happier enthusiast.
For us, all this is epitomised by
Phanteks—the Dutch company has a
knack for making the premium
affordable, and nowhere is this more
apparent than the Phanteks Enthoo
Elite TG. Featuring 4mm thick
aluminum, tempered glass, and a
sandblasted finish, combined with
extensive cooling and storage support,
it’s definitely one of the best chassis out
there for any custom system.FRACTAL DESIGN
MESHIFY
http://www.fractal-design.comFractal provides a plethora of more
exotic styled, cooling-heavy cases. The
Meshify is a perfect example: a small,
stylish, mid-tower design, developed
with maximum airflow in mind. The
polygon-esque 3D diamond mesh front
panel lends itself to up to 360mm
radiators, and although liquid cooling
isn’t the best solution, it’s perfect for
AIOs and smaller form factor
builds. Despite its low
price, it supports up to
three 2.5-inch SSDs on
the rear of the
motherboard tray, two
3.5-inch hard drives
below the PSU cover, and
a full-sized ATX PSU.
Couple that with the
inclusion of fan filters,
solid cable management,
and a smoked glass side
panel, and you start to
wonder where the corners
were cut when designing
this beauty. We’ll let you
know—if we find them.CORSAIR CARBIDE 270R
http://www.corsair.comTOTAL
£60
BUDGET
TOTAL
£90
MID_RANGE