Older PC Cases that are Still Awesome Today!

Peter Donnell / 5 years ago

The PC case market moves as fast as any other technology these days. However, with almost 10 years of case reviews under my belt, and several hundred having passed through my fingers, I thought I would take a look back at some of the big hitters from my earlier eTeknix years. If any of you still rock these cases in your own builds, you KNOW we wanna see pictures!

Admittedly, we could wind back the clock further, but go too far, and we’re in the late 90’s and early 00’s where PC building was often a garish mess. That’s a time we’re all better off pretending never happened. However, given we were breaking out from decades of beige, it wasn’t so bad, was it?

Lian Li PC-TU100

No one does mini-ITX quite so stylish as Lian Li… Well, perhaps Silverstone. Their TU100 was and still is one of my all-time favourite cases. Brushed aluminium design and room for a mini-ITX gaming build inside. Not only that, but it had a freaking handle on the top. You’ll be happy to know, they’re making a new one later this year too!

Check out our review here.

NZXT Phantom Series

Where do I even begin? Just 6-7 years ago, if you had the Phantom, you were a total boss when it came to PC gaming. With its futuristic design, it was always a looker. Sure, the dust filters were awkward to clean. The HDD bays limited the GPU size, the angular top made it impossible to put things on the case. Plus, all the plastic scratched up, attracted dust. Oh, and it was a simpler time when acrylic windows were cool. That doesn’t change the fact it still looks dope though.

Check out our review here.

Aerocool Xpredator Evil Black Edition

While Aerocool still makes some very nice PC cases, but back in the day, they made many completely bonkers ones. They were the neon green running shoes in a crowd of shiny black boots. They had enormous fan mounts on the side, bright filters, and a stunning aggressive angular opening roof. Lamborghini took their design ideas from the Xpredator, or perhaps it was the other way around. Honourable mention to the stunning DS 200 series too.

Check out our review here.

Cooler Master Scout II Advanced

Cooler Master cases are super sleek and modern these days. However, back in the day, they were a little more “gamer” in their designs. Big handles, big airflow, and truly unique designs. OK, they still are making cases like that, but the Scout 2 really set a trend when it was released, allowing to “easily” carry your ATX rig to LAN… Unlike the Cosmos II, which was too big for home, let alone anywhere else. Although we loved that one too. Or the HAF Stacker… possibly the tallest PC case ever made.

Check out our review here.

Corsair C70 (Ammo Can)

This is one PC case that Corsair needs to bring up to 2019 standards. All metal front panel, aggressive ammo can design, army jeep style side panel locks. This thing had it all. Of course, anything with a start button that looks like it launches missiles is fine by me. If they make it a little wider and move the HDD bays, this could be my favourite PC case again, since I actually kept the one we reviewed for about 18 months! The 230T was neat too… and the 900D.

Check out our review here.

Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow

The BMW Designed Level 10 was nuts, and ludicrously expensive. However, some of that design made it into the strange looking GT Snow edition. The compartment design is something Thermaltake still uses in their 2019 editions of this case, but 8 years ago when it launched, it was unlike anything else on the market. I’m still quite fond of their A31 too, would be nice to see it with tempered glass!

Check out our review here.

Fractal Design

Remember when big scale HTPC builds were all the rage? I certainly do, although they never quite captured the market as many brands hoped they would. What with Android boxes and the sort. However, as far at HTPC cases go, the Node 605 from Fractal was the absolute business.

Check out our review here.

What Would You Add?

I know I’ll have missed dozens that you all love. So, head to our social links or comments section below and sound off!

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