Performance relevance of old high-performance cases

[Stuen4y]

I have been a happy owner of a Fractal Design Arc Midi (R1) since 2013 and it was the best bang for performance and water cooling options case to have 8 years ago. I've updated the fans with 6 Akasa Viper 140mm fans so the airflow of the case is really strong with the fans ramping up based on CPU temperature due to my archaic motherboard. I've also equipped the optional side panel from the R2 and removed the foam at the top (might nuke the one in the front too but it's a bit fiddlier and might be destructive too).
The case industry went through the whole RGB+tempered glass period which actually meant that performance didn't improve dramatically and probably even became worse until several years ago when the mesh fronts started returning again and cases like Phanteks P400A, P500A, Fractal Meshify, CM H500, and Lian Li Lancool II Mesh became kings of the performance charts for noise normalised performance due to their very open fine mesh fronts with no foam air filters impeding the airflow.
I have been trying to get some real performance comparisons between older generation cases, say before 2015 (Fractal Define R4/R5, Arc Midi/R2, the Corsairs and NZXTs of the time) and anything that came after 2018 (the mesh revolution). Any help on determining the performance levels are welcome. I am itchy for new hardware upgrade while waiting for Zen 3 + Ampere/Navi 2 and my wife's PC would happily take the upgrade from it's current £27 NZXT Source 210 case which is horrible in so many ways but has served me proudly since 2012. At the same time, I don't really care for the looks of the case and my current one is practical enough for what I'm doing so even after a full component upgrade I would not mind putting all the hardware in the same case if there is only marginal performance difference with newer chassis options. I'm sure there are tons of people in the same situation as me but couldn't really find any meaningful information about it anywhere. I respect Steve from GamersNexus a lot and their case review methodology is great but they don't have data for old cases and articles like https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3604-best-gaming-pc-cases-for-airflow-in-2020-right-now are great if you're buying a case right now without considerations of owning something already. I hate e-waste and don't want to contribute to it unnecessarily (see my ancient CPU for reference )
Thanks in advance for the participation in the discussion.

 

[Tetras]

I'm not a case enthusiast, but I don't think much has changed really. Like you said, glass panels, meshes, RGB, USB type-c, with space for radiators and SSDs. The biggest change for airflow is inside the case, with the removal of HDD and optical bays and M.2 slots killing the cable clutter. None of this makes much difference to a well-designed old chassis with good fans.

Disclaimer: my games pc is housed in an akasa mirage from 2008

 

[Peter Soares]

I'm always watching case reviews from Gamers Nexus, trying to find a worthy replacement for my budget-friendly Corsair 100R when I finally decide to upgrade from my Ryzen 7 1700 / RX 580 combo. The case suits me well for the moment (2x optical drive bay and 4x 3.5 HDD bays), to the point that I've cut off a big chunk of the front panel in order to improve airflow. I covered it with mesh and it doesn't look awful! Then I just figured out that, instead of worrying too much about the cooling performance of the case, I'll just invest in a motherboard with a more robust VRM solution and it should be fine, despite the case I'm using it isn't Steve's chart topper. Now I'm finding very difficult to let go of my Gigabyte B350 Gaming 3... It's a never ending battle, am I right???

 

[Stuen4y]

I'm mostly concerned about the resistance the badly designed foam filter has to the airflow. I was looking at magnetic filters covering the front panel so I can remove the foam keeping dust outside but it's almost better to buy a whole new case. At the same time newer chassis have muche better clearance in the front of the case allowing for unrestricted fresh air. I got more than 5 degrees down when I removed the top exhaust foam of my case so I am wondering how much performance especially for the graphics card is left on the table.

 

[PieEater]

I had the original Arc Midi and paid ~£70 for it, it never was a high end case, at best it was a decent budget case with plenty of cooling options once you drilled out the unneceasry bottom HDD cage and upgraded from the stock fans. It was definately a cheaply made pressed steel case with plastic feet that broke easily and paint that scratched even more easily. I now have the R6 which is in a different league in terms of build quality although the focus is more noise than temperature control. You have two choices either do the best with what you have - doyll has done a huge amount of work with case cooling I'm sure there was a better single article but check out this series of FAQ's, or your second choice is to upgrade your case, seriously cases have come a long way since the Arc Midi and if you are willing to pay slightly extra for better quality construction you will notice it and the case should last you a lot longer, the Phanteks P500A does seem like a decent upgrade if your focus is on performance.

 

[Stuen4y]

I know that Arc Midi was not high end in terms of build quality (it's cheap ugly plastic after all) but at the time cooling performance was quite good with only £200+ cases being ahead and not in a significant way. I strongly believe that the way to achieve quiet operation is via well ventilated case with fewer and slower spining fans rather than noise dampening. Did you observe any significant temperature drops when upgrading from Arc midi to R6?

 

[PieEater]

I know that Arc Midi was not high end in terms of build quality (it's cheap ugly plastic after all) but at the time cooling performance was quite good with only £200+ cases being ahead and not in a significant way. I strongly believe that the way to achieve quiet operation is via well ventilated case with fewer and slower spining fans rather than noise dampening. Did you observe any significant temperature drops when upgrading from Arc midi to R6?

In all honesty no, I didn't notice any 'significant' changes to temps moving from the Arc Midi, but it had become a bit of a Frankenstiens monster with externally mounted fans and the lower fan cage drilled out in order to acheive the best cooling I could. I would reccomend the R6 more on a compromise between noise & performance and am more than happy with it, I can only hear my fans when gaming or under CPU intensive tasks the rest of the time it is just at ambient noise levels which is great. The R6 is so much better put together you would hardly beleive they are from the same company and in terms of ownership I am much happier with it.

 

[Stuen4y]

In all honesty no, I didn't notice any 'significant' changes to temps moving from the Arc Midi, but it had become a bit of a Frankenstiens monster with externally mounted fans and the lower fan cage drilled out in order to acheive the best cooling I could. I would reccomend the R6 more on a compromise between noise & performance and am more than happy with it, I can only hear my fans when gaming or under CPU intensive tasks the rest of the time it is just at ambient noise levels which is great. The R6 is so much better put together you would hardly beleive they are from the same company and in terms of ownership I am much happier with it.

That's good to know. I had that type of a gut feeling. Would be good if there are any other data points abou that type of comparisons.

 

[doyll]

Lots of good info.

I've upgraded to newer cases from old extremely modified cases like old Define R-2 not just because I have access to new cases, but mostly to have newer/updated I/0 sockets. Second reason is ease of cleaning filters. I'm very partial to cases with easy access filters that can be removed and hoovered without moving case. While I like some Lian-Li, SilverstoneTek, be quiet! and Fractal Design cases more than half of my builds have been in Phanteks cases. Big part of reason is they generally come with enough good fans out of box, so no additional expense setting up case for good airflow. Most other cases come with such low pressure rated fans they are worthless / near worthless, so must be replaced increasing cost by £20-60. I just move all exhaust fans to front (maybe one in bottom), block any openings not covered by intake fans in front half of case so the air intake fans push into case flows back thru case and out back thru rear vent and open PCIe slots. Removing unused PCIe slot covers increases rear vent area, so better front to back airflow, so less heated exhaust from GPU mixing wiht cool airflow to components, so lower fan speeds, so lower noise levels. I know, so, so, so on and on.

I haven't really nocticed much difference in old vs new filter resistance. Decent pressure rated case intake fans easily overcome resistance of most any decent filter, so changes based on filters a non-issue. Case having good front to back airflow is way more important to me, because if case doesn't have enough front vent and fan mounting area (& maybe a bottom intake vent)

I tried noise dampened cases and found most of the noise was either HDD vibration which tranferred into room as much from them as non-dampened cases. And to get good airflow in them required higher fan speeds than in cases without sound baffling panels in front of intake fans, so ended up being as loud or louder, often with higher component temps.

Wife is using a white Entho Luxe, I have Evolv mATX and still need a newer HTPC more because front I/O (USB) have worn out and to have new/updated front I/O (at least USB3) than any other reason.

 

[Stuen4y]

I saw quite the impact of removing the top exhaust foam filter from my Arc Midi , especially on the GPU temps (5+ degrees down with same fan speeds) so would assume the impact on the intake would also be quite dramatic. My PCs front I/O is not used at all as I have powered USB hubs on the desks so that is not a consideration. I don't really care about design either, just expansion airflow, expansion options for storage, and ease of build in that order. I thought I'll build a water cooled setup when I bought my current case 7 years ago but I haven't yet so I guess that's not a priority either.

 

[doyll]

How much difference has a lot to do with what fans are in play. The lower the static pressure rating of fans, the more likely difference will be greater. I'm guessing 5c lower GPU temps were the result of heated air being trapped arround it. It' much of the reason I remove PCIe back slot covers for more rear venting around GPU. I'm loading / unloading USB sticks all the time so having easily accesable fast transfer rate sockets is important. Only reason I built Enthoo Primo was lots of HDD storage area. Great case but huge. Too tall to fit under desk.

 

[Stuen4y]

Yeah, Vega 56 is a bit of a monster when it comes to heat so I presume it had to do with trapped heat in a weird way with the air not properly circulating around the GPU. The fans I have installed have very high static pressure and very high airflow so it's not the fans for sure. That's one of the nastiest things with cases, very few people are experts in fluid dynamics so each system is sadly unique.

 

[Stuen4y]

I've decided to do some modding as I've never done anything complex. I'll remove the HDD cage riveted to the bottom and mount my 4 SSDs in the 5.25" bays. I'll also remove the front foam and replace it with some fine mesh on magnetic strips. Might also play with fans position as I might have done turbulence next to the CPU cooler.

 

[Akagi]

A good case from 10 years ago will be as good as a good new one. People mastered airflow a long time ago. Its not like other PC components which are constantly getting better.

 

[Stuen4y]

The new cases have much less airflow obstruction with the death of HDDs and optical drives providing the ability to mount 2.5" SSDs anywhere. This makes the front of the cases empty greatly aiding airflow. That's the main difference in my opinion. I'll report the changes in temperatures after I've emptied the front of my Arc Midi.

 

[Akagi]

There are plenty of 10 year old cases where you can just move/remove drive cages and things though.

My case is 10 years old, a Corsair Graphite 600T. It has a 200MM fan in the front and nothing between the fan and the centre of the case.

https://www.corsair.com/corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/CC600T-600T_02.png

Drive bays and the plinth all come out with thumbscrews, 200MM intake, room for either a 200MM, 2x 140MM, or 2x 120MM at the top, or a 240/280MM radiator and 2x fans, or a 240/280MM radiator and 4x fans if they clear your RAM etc, and a 120MM exhaust, PSU can be mounted either way up so it can draw cool air in from the bottom, etc.

It isn't the best case by todays standards, but you can buy brand new cases which are considerably worse than this old one.

 

[Stuen4y]

Yeah 600T was the gold standard, I remember there were few that were better and not absolutely ginormous.

 

[Stuen4y]

Just a small update after I did the mod. I did remove the HDD cage of the Fractal Arc Midi and saw great results. Here are some graphs showing a typical game scenario (in this case Project Cars 2 as I don't need to play it but it offers a repeatable high load scenario) that pushes both the GPU (at 100%) and CPU (at 30-40%). Data was recorder with HWInfo and plotted with PowerBI when it comes to the performance of the case before and after the HDD cage was removed. I had removed all the drives and brackets from the bottom cage prior to this and my 2.5" SSDs sit snugly in the 5.25" bay (which actually resulted in a 2-3 degrees drop by itself but I am not sure if I recorded the full set of sensors when I did that). Both tests were performed with an ambient temperature of 20.5 degrees C given by my cheap room therometer so I'd say +/- 1 degree at least.


With the same voltage for the GPU and CPU set in the BIOS and Radeon Adrenaline (and oddly slightly higher CPU freq but my mobo is not very stable on BCLK) I got almost 6% lower GPU temps, 2% lower CPU temps, lower voltage and power for the GPU (due to the lower temps) and slightly higher GPU clocks. All of that with the added benefit of 13% lower fans for the GPU and 7% for the rest of the system fans (I'm using 6 Akasa Viper 140mm 1800RPM fans for the case and 1 for the CPU cooler and they are all tied to the same PWM header so have synchronised fan speeds). I definitely can hear the fan speed difference but due to the old MB I have, I cannot finely control the fans so I will not be able to exactly reproduce the first test in a controlled environment. I stopped the second test before it hit 1 hour because temps had stabilised and I saw no point of running it any further. Actually GPU temps were perfectly stable throughout the no HDD cage test. The other interesting bit was that after I removed the HDD cage the pressure of the airflow switched from negative to positive (tested with three incense sticks for smoke generation) with very serious airflow coming out from the PCI slots below the GPU which was getting nice fresh air from the front and bottom. This means that the HDD cage was such a great obstruction that the bottom front fan was extremely suffocated and was not working near its pressure and airflow potential.
In summary, the HDD cages at the front definitely make a difference and I recommend to every owner of an old case that still works okay for them to consider removing the 4-8 (6 in my case) rivets with a drill and a 3mm bit, it took me probably about 15-20 minutes with disassembly, drilling, and cleaning. I have purchased a 5.25" to 2.5" bay (which is on the way from China) that should safely hold up to 6 SSDs so that is absolutely fine for me. Once I upgrade and move towards M.2 drives I might remove the 5.25" cage as well but I see less point in doing so due to lack of fan holes there. I will also not be upgrading the case as I think it still has very decent performance and I will not get much more from a newer case apart from build quality and aesthetics. I think from the moment I started tweaking the case airflow I've dropped about 10 degrees of the GPU temps which are definitely the biggest contributor to the heat in the system being over 250W with the CPU definitely below 80W and running cold due to being with Liquid metal between the die and the IHS.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

In terms of what things look like inside the case an old modular case from which the user has removed all drive bays and cages will look very similar to a modern-style compact case, just a perhaps a couple of centimetres or even inches longer in the front section than a case that had never been supposed to contain any drive bays to begin with. There will consequently be more distance for air to travel before it reaches the mobo coming in through front intakes.

Next, this is speculation, but on the basis of tinkering with just my Phanteks Enthoo Pro, from which I removed the last cages and bays a fortnight ago, I think old cases may be somewhat structurally weak or at least flimsy and not rigid when not having all those cages and panels to support the roof, going from the bottom up. It's kind of like a barn with internal cross beams and support pillars removed — it's probably not gonna be as good as a barn that was designed never to need any cross beams or vertical posts.

Thus, I'm pretty sure that a large vibrating fan could make the emptied PEP act differently than an ex-factory PEP.

Very old cases will tend to have smaller holes, with plenty of 80mm, 92mm, etc., rarely going above 120mm, while newer ones will favour the 140mm size, and even newer ones will also be less inclined to employ the 200+mm fans that were en vogue a couple of years ago but have of course become deemphasized since then due to not really fulfilling the expectations.

Another thing to consider is the cost/value segment. Where there isn't much tech progress pushing the limits of performance, companies will tend to invest in lowering their production costs, some of which savings will be passed on to the customers, if only because of competition. This will sometimes make formerly high-end solutions more affordable within a couple of years, making older high-ends more comparable to modern middle shelves.