We checked out Fractal Design's Define Mini a couple of months back, and now we have another of its minimalist designs sitting on the test bench. The Core 3000 is the first in a new range of budget cases from the award-winning Swedish manufacturer.

This series of chassis have been designed to offer Fractal Design's usual design features, cooling performance and build quality, but at a lower price point than its other enclosure line-ups.

Like most of Fractal Design's cases, the Core 3000 doesn't shout about its presence. Its clean, almost basic looking design is easily overlooked as just another standard, boring box. That's until you look at the rear of the case, where the sober black finish is broken by the white expansion plates and blades of the rear fan.

Once you open it up and get inside, the build quality, design features and attention to detail prove that this no basic budget case.

Value added

Despite carrying that value tag, the Core 3000 still retains many of the usual Fractal Design features. Most obviously the tool-free design, removable drive cages and plenty of cooling fan mounts. The cable management isn't as good as that of the Define Mini or any other of the more expensive cases.

For storage purposes there are two 5.25-inch drive bays and six 3.5-inch bays, with the latter being split between two drive cages. The top cage is removable, which is handy because it allows you to use longer graphics cards in your system – we're looking at you AMD. The trays don't need any tools to secure them into the case, but you do have to use screws to attach any drive to the tray. Said trays not only come with rubber mounts to cut down on noise from mechanical drive vibration, they're also pre-drilled to support 2.5-inch SSDs.

There are plenty of cooling options too. The case comes with three fans already fitted (along with a fan controller), two 140mm (one in the roof of the case, the other behind the front bezel) and a 120mm unit fitted to the rear panel. There are also mounts for four more, two of which (side panel and roof) can be fitted with either 120 or 140mm fans. The remaining two mounts are 120mm only and are to be found behind the front bezel and in the floor of the case.

The top I/O panel includes four USB 2.0 and two audio ports, but sadly it lacks eSATA support and USB 3.0 ports. Although Fractal has pinned a 'value' tag on the Core 3000, for the most part you would never guess. It has the build quality we've come to expect, and the attention to detail is first rate for the most part.

There are a couple of areas where Fractal has been forced to make compromises to keep the price down. There are no USB 3.0 ports and the cable management, which is a high point of the other cases in Fractal's product line, is poorly implemented here.

That said, it still has the build quality that's become the hallmark of Fractal Design chassis, and for the most part you'd hardly know it was a budget model.

The gaming offshoot of Cooler Master, CM Storm, has been making a bit of a name for itself over the past year in gaming circles. With a range of mice, keyboards, headsets and chassis, we're seeing some great new products.

The older, smaller brother of this Trooper case, the Sniper, was a favourite of ours. I've got one encasing my home rig as I type. This Trooper chassis is a proper full size version of the Sniper, but with some serious, modern extras thrown in for good measure.

The most intriguing of these features is the fan control system laid into the top panel of the case along with the LEDs, power/reset buttons, and USB 2.0, 3.0 and eSATA ports. There's a fair amount of granularity in the fan speed adjustments, with the buttons allowing for six levels of spinning goodness.

Sadly there's no opportunity to set the fan speed levels yourself or have individual fans configured differently, but as a simple solution for a hot day or a toasty LAN party, it gives you some semblance of control.

Twist and shout

The Trooper's innards offer a little more configuration. The front 3.5-inch drive bays have two 120mm fans, which are side-mounted out of the box. With the twist of a few thumb screws you can alter the alignment to draw air in from the front, switch to 5.25-inch bays, take half the rack out or remove it completely if you've got one of those freakish long graphics cards.

The chassis has a simple, functional style, with more than a little of the HAF or classic Antec cases about it. Weirdly, it's still got the Sniper's carry handle, though the case is rather heavy even when empty. When filled with the componenty goodness of your PC, it's not going to be the sort of machine you'd lug round to a mate's house for an afternoon.

As is so often the case though, the real issue is the price. For a nigh-on £150 chassis, it simply lacks the wow factor. It's stylish in a matte black kind of way, and there is a fair amount of configurability, but there's nothing about it that could make us forget about the cheaper and more beautiful Corsair 600T White.

Overview

Corsair has become known for some brilliant PC cases recently, and the Corsair Carbide Series 500R White is aiming to become another one.

We've tried connecting up components and trying to run them without a case, but it only makes the carpet smell funny. That burning component smell really gets the back of your throat, so what luck there are literally trillions of cuboid metal homes for your gear that'll keep them safe!

Corsair's Carbide Series 500R White is just one such case, and you should care because a) Corsair makes high-quality cases, and b) this one's fairly cheap.

Styled after the Corsair Graphite Series 600T chassis with a bit of the Obsidian 700D's angular form thrown in, this Carbide Series 500R includes four fans, six drive bays, a backplate with cable management and holes and rear CPU cooler access, and a sturdy steel build.

It appears legit, but are you in danger of being jipped by purchasing this sub-£100 case?

Verdict

We found no corners cut, no shoddy build quality (other than the usual slightly flimsy plastic drive bays, but what are those drives going to be doing in there, greco-roman wrestling?) and no missing features you'd expect from a mid-price case.

There's plenty of space to build inside and there's easy access to the back.

To fit in a monstrously long graphics card like an AMD HD 6990 you'll likely need to remove a drive bay though, which is a bit of a kafuffle.

We've seen a good few mid-range cases that sport just one fan, so it's a good sign to find a 200 mm fan on the 500R's side, and three 120 mm fans at the front and rear, with dust filters to boot - that's really good cooling capability for the price.

Now features and build quality are one thing, but every tech enthusiast is a sucker for aesthetics.

This 500R isn't about to offend anyone with it's design, but it plays things a little safer than we're used to from the current Corsair roster.

It's the Audi A4 to the 600T's Audi TT, basically.

You do get a lovely white led to play with via a toggle switch, but a certain corner of the enthusiast market won't find this anywhere near garish enough, and probably demand much more jutty-out bits and grilles.

Can't please all the people all the time, we suppose.

But this is a great value package from Corsair. It offers all the features of its rivals like CM Storm's Enforcer, but adds an unexpected level of cooling capability and above-average build quality.

If nits are to be picked, we'd like it even more if it was long enough to accommodate gert big GPUs more conveniently, and the area that the 600T sports a fan controller, the 500R has only a sad little black panel that does nothing.

The real issue is that there's so little (£30 at time of writing) in monetary terms between this and the excellent 600T (the cheaper black version, that is).

What's £30? In this case, it's the difference between a good case and a great case.

We liked:

Although a little more conservative than the lovely Graphite Series 600T, the Corsair Carbide Series 500R White is still a very pleasing chassis to look at.

It's also got a decent feature set, missing nothing you might expect from a mid-range, sub-£100 case.

We disliked:

There really isn't a lot to dislike about this great value chassis, just a few minor niggles.

The only real problem is the price is just so damn close to the price of the black edition of the excellent Graphite 600T case.

Final word:

Matches, and even exceeds, expectations for a mid-range case, but it's awfully near the Corsair Graphite 600T's price.

Fractal Design Define Mini: Overview

The perfect home for your mATX or mini-ITX mobo could well be the Fractal Design Define Mini. It's a lot of case in a small form factor.

With the rising popularity mATX, and more especially the mini-ITX format motherboards, the demand for the smaller PC case has risen sharply and there are far more available now than ever before.

This is thanks in a large part to Intel's release of its Sandy Bridge CPUs and tiny, full featured mini-ITX motherboards like the Zotac Z68-ITX WiFi.

AMD has also jumped on the small form factor ride with its Llano processors, like the A8-3850, and A75 chipset, again with Zotac pioneering away with its Zotac A75-ITX WiFi.

You could be forgiven though for not knowing the name Fractal Design as it has only been around since 2007.

But despite being a new kid on the block compared to most of its competitors, the Swedish company has been making some serious waves in the PC enclosure market with its simple, no frills case designs.

They may look a touch uninspiring from the outside but internally it's a whole different ball game, with some excellent design features and great build quality.

The Define Mini is a slightly shrunken down version of the companies popular and award winning Define R2/R3 case, but the only thing that has been reduced is the size.

The Define Mini still manages to retain some of the award winning features of its larger sibling.

Fractal Design Define Mini: Verdict

If you are looking for a case with LEDs and other paraphernalia to make it look pretty then pass on by - there's nothing for you here.

If, however, you are looking for a well built, well designed case to build a compact PC in, then the Fractal Design Define Mini might just catch your eye.

Although the case carries the mini name, it's not that much smaller (210 x 395 x 490mm) than the Define R2/R3. That means despite it supporting the small format motherboards there's enough space internally to offer a good deal of storage space.

You get two 5.25in drive bays and six 3.5in drive bays, split between two drive cages. Each of the bays has a white finished tool free tray (just like is bigger sibling) which has rubber drive mounts and is also drilled to take 2.5in SSD's.

The uppermost drive cage is rotatable or, should you want to fit a long graphics card (up to around 400mm), is completely removable.

For cooling Fractal Design has preinstalled two eleven bladed120mm fans, one in the front bezel and one in the rear panel. But should you require more cooling then there are mounts for four more; two 120mm mounts in the front and bottom of the case and two 120/140mm mounts, one in the roof and one in the side panel.

There's also a fan controller included which supports three fans.

The top I/O panel includes a single USB 3.0 port along with two USB 2.0 and two audio ports but sadly there isn't any eSATA support.

We liked:

The one thing that strikes you about any Fractal Design case is the attention to details, and the Define Mini is no different.

For example the PSU mounts have rubber on them to reduce noise from vibration and the wiring holes on the motherboard backplate all have rubber grommets to protect the wiring.

Then there is the pre-installed noise absorbing material on the side panels which for the access door even has a separate panel built into the material you can remove to fit a 120 or 140mm cooling fan.

We disliked:

The only thing that springs to mind is the price tag, which for a case supporting the small format motherboards may seem high.

Bbut then again it's not every day you'll come across a case as well designed and built as the Define Mini.

Final word:

The Fractal Design Define Mini may seem expensive for a smaller case but it's a seriously impressive little chassis

Antec has a strong pedigree in low to mid-range, no-nonsense cases, and the Solo II we have got our mitts on here shows Antec can also throw their hat in the higher end case market as well.

However, as price tags increase in the case market, competition gets fierce. CoolerMaster, Corsair, Lian Li et al offer all kinds of fanciful cases brimming with extras and lurid gaming trim to the enthusiast with a hundred quid or more in their eager hand.

That's not to say cases like Antec's LAN Boy Air don't cut it with other high-end cases, it's just that traditionally its speciality lies with quiet home PC, workstation or entry level gaming cases.

The Solo II jumps through all these hoops: it is indeed quiet, visually sombre enough to stick in an office and capacious enough to fit a meaty gaming graphics card. But hold on… £95?

It looks like a £50 case, to be brutally honest. The front panel is a little wobbly, the PSU mounting's at the top of the case, and there's just one 120mm rear case fan. You know – like in 2005.

Those wouldn't be major criticisms if the price wasn't as high as it is, but at the £100 mark, it's miles behind others such as Corsair's 600T and CoolerMaster's HAF X.

Admittedly, the ground it loses is mostly in gaming and heat management terms. But these are the attributes that expensive cases justify their price tags by.

The Solo II's big enough to build a really high-spec PC inside and comes with a hole in the backplate for quickly swapping coolers, but that's where the enthusiast stuff ends. What's more, a beefy GTX 580 or the like is noisy enough to negate the sound dampening, so why would you choose this case over a thoroughbred gaming chassis? You wouldn't.

And if you wanted a workstation or basic home PC case, you'd get one that didn't cost nearly a hundred quid and did all the same things as this.

Overview

The Thermaltake Armor A30 is a small PC case. While huge PC chassis – such as the Cooler Master CM Storm Enforcer – have a lot going for them, smaller cases also have many good points too.

The Thermaltake Armor A30 is a small chassis that's been designed to house some of the best gaming components money can buy, while maintaining a size that is small enough to carry around to LAN parties.

Even if you're not into professional gaming, the Thermaltake Armor A30, as well as other small chassis such as the CyberPower Game Cube can be a compelling buy, because they take up far less room than some of the behemoths we've seen.

The small stature doesn't mean compromises have to be made either – Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards can hold most of the latest technology without a problem.

Sure, multiple GPU arrays are out of the question. There's also no denying that cramming the components in an upgrading isn't as simple as with the Thermaltake Armor A30's more spacious siblings, such as the Armor A90.

But when a compact gaming chassis gets it right, it can be an excellent addition to your gaming arsenal, and a great choice for housing your rig. But does the Thermaltake Armor A30 succeed where others have failed?

Verdict

Straight away we could tell that the Thermaltake Armor A30 is a PC chassis that has been designed to be as visually striking as possible.

As soon as you get it out of box you understand the "Armor" part of the name. It might be short and stocky compared to cases such as the Corsair 600T White Special Edition, but it's still been designed to intimidate other gamers with perhaps just a touch of short man syndrome.

The looks have been designed to appeal to gamers, but they'll probably put other users off. Put simply, the Thermaltake Armor A30 is going to look out of place as a media centre or office PC.

If you can get past the divisive looks, you'll find a small chassis that packs a lot of punch. To begin with, its length enabled us to fit a full-length graphics card.

Considering the power of new Mini-ITX motherboards that are capable of handling Core i7 processors, such as the Gigabyte H55N-USB3, there really aren't that many compromises to make if you choose the Thermaltake Armor A30 to build a gaming PC.

While space is still at a premium – no surprise for a case sized just 267 x 292 x 457mm (10.5 x 11.5 x 18.0inch) – building and upgrading inside it is made much easier due to the modular design of the case. This enables you to take out parts of the case, such as the hard drive enclosure, so you can install components in their housings outside of the case – avoiding some potentially infuriating fiddly installations.

Installation takes a bit more time than with bigger cases, but the Thermaltake Armor A30 avoids a lot of pitfalls that come with small form factor chassis.

We liked

Even though the Thermaltake Armor A30 case is very small, we were still able to fit some good components in. Input and output ports such as USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and SATA are conveniently placed at the front of the case for easy access. And the modular design makes installation and upgrading easier than trying to work in the small space.

We disliked

There's no getting away from the fact that installing a motherboard and components takes longer with the Thermaltake Armor A30 than with a larger cases, with the modular design requiring more screwing and unscrewing than usual. The distinctive look might not be to everyone's tastes either.

Final verdict

The Thermaltake Armor A30 is a decent small-size gaming chassis that's clearly aimed at gamers, if that's what you're after.

Overview

Including features normally associated with expensive chassis on sub-£150 cases is Corsair's goal with the Carbide series. The newly launched Corsair Carbide 400R is the little brother of the more expensive Corsair Carbide 500R, released at the same time.

Although Corsair is a company usually associated with memory and PSUs, since branching out to PC cases it had built a solid reputation – one it hopes to build upon with the Corsair Carbide 400R.

This mid-sized tower is aimed at PC enthusiasts who are keen on installing the best hardware money can buy, but is priced at an affordable level, unlike the more expensive Corsair Obsidian 700D chassis.

Price is the big selling point of the Carbide 400R, and Corsair promises a lot for just £80. But does the company deliver on its promises, or have too many corners been cut when designing the Corsair Carbide 400R in pursuit of an attractive price point?

Unlike some of its more ostentatious rivals, the Corsair Carbide 400R sports a relatively straight-laced design. Next to more expensive models it might look rather plain, but there are options to 'pimp out' the chassis if understated isn't your style, such as a lighting toggle switch at the top of the case for lighting kits.

But what's really important is what's inside the case – or, we should say, what can be inside the case.

Verdict

As we mentioned earlier, the Corsair Carbide 400R is aimed primarily at enthusiasts who want to build and upgrade their own PC.

As soon as we opened the case using the thumb screws – no tools are needed to open the Corsair Carbide 400R – it was clear that Corsair is serious about attracting PC builders and enthusiasts with this case. There's plenty of space inside the case for building a PC.

Because of the size of the tower, you don't need to take it apart to fit in components like you did with the ThermalTake Armor A30. As well as easy installation, the size of the chassis also accommodates plenty of components.

There are four 5.25-inch bays and six 3.5-inch hard drive bays that can be quickly and easily converted into 2.5-inch bays for SSDs. There are eight expansion slots, 10 fan mounts (with two front-mounted 120mm fans and one rear 120mm fan included) and support for graphics cards up to 316mm in length. If you're a serious gamer or overclocker, then there's support for the Hydro Series H100 Liquid CPU Cooler and other watercooling systems.

We liked

The Corsair Carbide 400R is a decent and well-made case that offers plenty of space for building a very powerful PC. The tool-free design of this chassis makes installing and replacing components really quick and easy.

The Corsair Carbide 400R keeps things simple but still manages to pack a lot in for a great price.

We disliked

There's not much to dislike at this price. If you're after a case with features such as removable drive bays and fan controls then you're going to have to go for a more expensive case.

The materials used to build the case aren't the best, but they do the job.

Final verdict

While it might lack a few of the features of more expensive cases, the Corsair Carbide 400R offers fantastic value for money and is a great choice for gamers.

As its name suggests, Cooler Master's Silencio 550 is all about minimising noise.

The inner panel walls are foam padded. The front panel gets some sound-proofing treatment too. And the dust filter for the two 120mm front fans mutes internal whirring further still.

As a concession towards the 'near silent operation' promised, these two front fans are the only ones in the case. PSU, CPU and GPU fans in any system will augment that headcount, but the omission of any top case fans is notable.

Building a system inside the Silencio 550 is easy enough. It's not the biggest case, measuring 210 x 415 x 505mm, but there's plenty of room for large graphics cards and motherboards.

The removable storage bay's handy, and the side mounts for hard drives are a nice alternative to the flimsy cages found in most cases.

We like its understated visual design too. The big problem is that it's hard to feed cables through to the backplate, with just two small holes cut into the chassis. When this domino's knocked over, fixing the rear panel back on becomes a problem too. There is a revision on its way that's meant to fix this issue though.

It's not as quiet as we were expecting either, and temps suffer as a result of minimal internal fans. Cooler Master's own CM 690 offers much better cooling and isn't much louder.

We first saw Cooler Master's impressively-sized original HAF chassis way back in late 2008. It came housing the first Core i7 machine we'd seen, the £4,000 Fi7epower MLK1610 from YOYOtech.

At the time it was a record-breaking machine and with its rugged, industrial lines, the HAF was perfect for no-nonsense machine it surrounded.

Since then there have been many other versions, including a couple of more reasonably sized iterations in the HAF 912 and HAF 922, and more recently the HAF X. Now this full-height tower is getting an update.

So what's new?

Well, either disappointingly or thankfully little, depending on your point of view. In terms of styling it's still that tall, capacious tower with the imposing, industrial lines on the outside, but now it's got a full black interior. That brings the 932 in line with the more modern, lower-end HAFs on the market.

It's also now got USB 3.0 support, though that hasn't actually been incorporated in the build of the chassis itself. Instead Cooler Master has simply taken away one of the 5.25-inch bays and dropped in a dual-socket USB 3.0 module in the slot. That does, though, mean that you've still got the full complement of four USB 2.0 ports on the front panel.

Aside from those minor enhancements it's the same monolithic HAF 932 we've been cladding our high-end PCs in for years. It's still got the same reliance on huge 230mm fans – front, side and top – really hitting the 'High Air Flow' moniker the HAF name stands for.

There's still the, now-standard, tool-free installation, a huge amount of space for cable routing and pretty much rock-solid build quality.

So it's still a great case for the high-end system-builders and thankfully this 'Advanced' version isn't putting any price premiums on top of the HAF 932's £100 price tag.

Not too long ago Micro-ATX cases, and the budget motherboards housed within them, were mainly found in offices and schools. Micro-ATX motherboards were considered a low-priced option for making compact, cheap and reliable computers. Back then a micro-ATX motherboard would rarely – if ever – be considered for making a powerful gaming rig.

As the Silverstone Fortress FT03 proves, things have changed. Motherboard manufacturers are fully embracing the micro-ATX form to create brilliant gaming motherboards, such as Asus with its Republic of Gamers Rampage III Gene.

A powerful micro-ATX motherboard, filled with the latest components overclocked until their pips squeak, won't do well in a standard micro-ATX case, however. As motherboard manufacturers have changed their approach to the small form factor, so have case makers.

This is where the Silverstone Fortress FT03 micro-ATX gaming case comes in. While it takes the smaller form motherboard, it's no slouch in terms of size and space. These are essential considerations for powerful PCs that need plenty of airflow and cooling, as well as space for upgrading.

As soon as you lay your eyes on the Silverstone Fortress FT03 you realise where it gets its name. This is an impressive monolith that eschews the more over-the-top, and some would say tacky, extravagance of its rivals such as the CoolerMaster HAF 912+ for a more quietly intimidating aesthetic.

To access the motherboard, soundcard and graphic card's I/O plate, however, you remove a disappointingly cheap-feeling plastic grille.

Having these accessible from above is a novel approach, and certainly makes accessing the I/O ports much easier, as you're not having to root around the back of the case to plug in a monitor. It does mean the cables connecting a PC to external devices tend to overflow from the top of this case, although whether or not this odd look is a problem will be down to personal taste.

As far as opening up and installing components inside the Silverstone Fortress FT03 goes, it's thankfully not as impenetrable as its name implies. The left-hand panel slots off without any need for tools, and there is plenty of room to manoeuvre inside the case for installing components.

Although it's not as large as Silversone's PS03 chassis, installing the motherboard is perfectly easy. Because it's a smaller case, care has to be taken when arranging cables, especially as you begin to fill the case up with more and more components.

Some of the awkwardness you will experience from adding components is more likely to be down to the size of the micro-ATX motherboard, rather than any fault of the case.

The Silverstone Fortress FT03's cooling capabilities are also impressive. The case comes with two 120mm intake fans located towards the lower half of the case, and angled towards where the graphics card and CPU are to be installed. The PSU is installed at the bottom of the case, where vents expel heat.

We liked

Its vertical design is not only unusual, but it makes the Silverstone Fortress FT03 a towering presence.

It's certainly a love it or hate it design, but there's no denying that it is striking. It's a great case if you are building a powerful PC or gaming rig around a micro-ATX board and a lot of thought has been put into cooling features and installation.

We disliked

With such a striking design, it's a shame that some odd choices have been made to incorporate it. The top access of the I/O ports, for instance, can end up looking out of place. Also, although it is large for a micro-ATX case, it's still not as roomy as chassis designed for full-size motherboards.