$68 Case with 4 Fans: SilverStone 515XR & $100 514X Case Reviews
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Date: 2024-10-08
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Comments and reviews: 20
GGigabiteM
I miss cases with drive bays, I hate all of these modern minimalist cases and them charging exorbitant amounts of money for 6 sheets of stamped and riveted metal and/or glass with eyesore RGB fans. There used to be dozens, if not hundreds of different cases you could choose from with all matter of drive bay configurations. Now there's like 12 of them with enough drive bays to do anything with. Now everything is just a fishbowl with colored lights.
We had rainbow vomit RGB 25 years ago, the only difference is it was usually CCFLs instead of LEDs. It wasn't good then, and it is way worse now. That stuff used to be a premium, now economies of scale have made it to finding unlit fans and parts are often more expensive than RGB crap.
I'm glad I hung on to a pile of Chieftec Dragons from the early 2000s. Back when cases were made of real metal, not foil that you could punch a hole in with your thumb.
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I miss cases with drive bays, I hate all of these modern minimalist cases and them charging exorbitant amounts of money for 6 sheets of stamped and riveted metal and/or glass with eyesore RGB fans. There used to be dozens, if not hundreds of different cases you could choose from with all matter of drive bay configurations. Now there's like 12 of them with enough drive bays to do anything with. Now everything is just a fishbowl with colored lights.
We had rainbow vomit RGB 25 years ago, the only difference is it was usually CCFLs instead of LEDs. It wasn't good then, and it is way worse now. That stuff used to be a premium, now economies of scale have made it to finding unlit fans and parts are often more expensive than RGB crap.
I'm glad I hung on to a pile of Chieftec Dragons from the early 2000s. Back when cases were made of real metal, not foil that you could punch a hole in with your thumb.
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Ace_ggwpeveryday
Got to say the bloodbath is not just about cases, but also CPU heatsink(including AIO) , fans, keyboards and mouse(mice) as China companies are selling very cheap PC components. They might be cheap but their quality are usually more than acceptable by comparing the price. Some of them are too good though, they cracked the balance of market price. Other companies outside China can't cut too much cost but if they want their products sell, they will need to follow the trend anyway. That's how the bloodbath started.
Sure cheaper products with high quality definitly benefit all consumers but they also destroy the products potential value and worse, good companies suffer from income problems. Indeed good companies might find a way out but still I don't think this whole bloodbath , in long term, is a good thing. (Especially I don't buy China brands for political reasons haha)
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Got to say the bloodbath is not just about cases, but also CPU heatsink(including AIO) , fans, keyboards and mouse(mice) as China companies are selling very cheap PC components. They might be cheap but their quality are usually more than acceptable by comparing the price. Some of them are too good though, they cracked the balance of market price. Other companies outside China can't cut too much cost but if they want their products sell, they will need to follow the trend anyway. That's how the bloodbath started.
Sure cheaper products with high quality definitly benefit all consumers but they also destroy the products potential value and worse, good companies suffer from income problems. Indeed good companies might find a way out but still I don't think this whole bloodbath , in long term, is a good thing. (Especially I don't buy China brands for political reasons haha)
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Oceanborn712
Honestly, I would really like to see some shorter cases in the market. Every time someone posts a picture of their new system with a non brick-sized graphics card, it looks so incredibly empty. I am not the target audience for those cards but hell if I was I'd so hate having a half-empty gigantic case wasting space and looking empty.
I'm surprised, though... SilverStone never was a small affordable case company to me. I don't know if it's because I'm in Europe or maybe I'm just generally ignorant about them but all SilverStone cases I know are the special ones intended for servers or HTPCs. I've used a CS380 housing my Unraid server for years now and was considering other SilverStone cases over the years but they always weren't available anymore. That CS380 cost a small fortune for a case at least.
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Honestly, I would really like to see some shorter cases in the market. Every time someone posts a picture of their new system with a non brick-sized graphics card, it looks so incredibly empty. I am not the target audience for those cards but hell if I was I'd so hate having a half-empty gigantic case wasting space and looking empty.
I'm surprised, though... SilverStone never was a small affordable case company to me. I don't know if it's because I'm in Europe or maybe I'm just generally ignorant about them but all SilverStone cases I know are the special ones intended for servers or HTPCs. I've used a CS380 housing my Unraid server for years now and was considering other SilverStone cases over the years but they always weren't available anymore. That CS380 cost a small fortune for a case at least.
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SenileOtaku
I really don't like the current options in case design for MY needs. InWin stopped making the Q500 case many years back (probably 20 years ago), and nothing made now quite matches up to it.
Which has made me start thinking about how to home-build my OWN case. It would be a whole lot easier if I had access to metalworking/metal bending equipment, but maybe the trick for the tray (for the motherboard mounting) and the card slots is to take them from some existing case. Maybe do the same thing for the optical/external drive bays.
Or an alternative could be to find some basic case that has plenty of external and internal drive bays, and if it needs higher-end cooling to devise some liquid cooling system that would use an EXTERNAL radiator chassis.
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I really don't like the current options in case design for MY needs. InWin stopped making the Q500 case many years back (probably 20 years ago), and nothing made now quite matches up to it.
Which has made me start thinking about how to home-build my OWN case. It would be a whole lot easier if I had access to metalworking/metal bending equipment, but maybe the trick for the tray (for the motherboard mounting) and the card slots is to take them from some existing case. Maybe do the same thing for the optical/external drive bays.
Or an alternative could be to find some basic case that has plenty of external and internal drive bays, and if it needs higher-end cooling to devise some liquid cooling system that would use an EXTERNAL radiator chassis.
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TomBaito
I'm actually currently rocking a Silverstone Fara H1M and I've been using it for almost two years now. Bought it back then for 40 dollars. I just needed to add two Arctic P14 fans on it (20 dollars) since it only came with a rear exhaust, but you can also buy it with three RGB fans pre-installed (I didn't because RGB and I also wanted 140mm fans). For 60 dollars overall, it's been such a solid MATX case with not even much compromise on build quality which surprised me. It has done a great job keeping my components cool despite living in the tropics. I'm glad Silverstone is back again competing on the budget market and I hope to see more of their budget cases in the future!
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I'm actually currently rocking a Silverstone Fara H1M and I've been using it for almost two years now. Bought it back then for 40 dollars. I just needed to add two Arctic P14 fans on it (20 dollars) since it only came with a rear exhaust, but you can also buy it with three RGB fans pre-installed (I didn't because RGB and I also wanted 140mm fans). For 60 dollars overall, it's been such a solid MATX case with not even much compromise on build quality which surprised me. It has done a great job keeping my components cool despite living in the tropics. I'm glad Silverstone is back again competing on the budget market and I hope to see more of their budget cases in the future!
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dylanlange1401
Love the cheaper case reviews, please keep them coming! I also had a question maybe someone in the community can help me with; A few months ago Steve made note of a cheaper case that was slated to launch in September/October, I'm having a hard time finding the exact video but I was curious to know if these are those cases or if those are still going to be reviewed later (or the special 3rd option, they've already been reviewed and I missed them!) thank you in advance for any help and thank you GN for all the work you do!
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Love the cheaper case reviews, please keep them coming! I also had a question maybe someone in the community can help me with; A few months ago Steve made note of a cheaper case that was slated to launch in September/October, I'm having a hard time finding the exact video but I was curious to know if these are those cases or if those are still going to be reviewed later (or the special 3rd option, they've already been reviewed and I missed them!) thank you in advance for any help and thank you GN for all the work you do!
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Stevo_1998
I know RGB sells, but if you're trying to make a case that's both decent and cheap, you can actually just drop the LED's inside of everything and just give people cheap fans that do a decent job at airflow
Like, I can't imagine someone with not a lot of money (or not wanting to spend a lot) would be looking _only_ at the RGB lights-galore PC parts (that usually cost like 25% more than non-RGB equivalents) and would rather save some money by not getting a case with a bunch of lights all over the place
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I know RGB sells, but if you're trying to make a case that's both decent and cheap, you can actually just drop the LED's inside of everything and just give people cheap fans that do a decent job at airflow
Like, I can't imagine someone with not a lot of money (or not wanting to spend a lot) would be looking _only_ at the RGB lights-galore PC parts (that usually cost like 25% more than non-RGB equivalents) and would rather save some money by not getting a case with a bunch of lights all over the place
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stevencharette7918
when Don the Con trump slapped tariffs on China it doesn't hurt anyone but American's why because we pay the costs of those tariffs remember folks 1913 America was hi jacked by foreign powers, they are here disguised as American's in our government playing us against each other using republicans and democrats its WWE traitors they're all traitors dont forget to vote though remember the government would never ever lie to you they love us so much
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when Don the Con trump slapped tariffs on China it doesn't hurt anyone but American's why because we pay the costs of those tariffs remember folks 1913 America was hi jacked by foreign powers, they are here disguised as American's in our government playing us against each other using republicans and democrats its WWE traitors they're all traitors dont forget to vote though remember the government would never ever lie to you they love us so much
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kenabi
yeah, sadly, white paint and plastics tend to have more solids in them to get the desired result, while blacks usually need far less, which will be measurable when you get above a certain surface coverage level. a lot of time you can also get away with a single coat of black, but will need 2-3 in white, depending. and maybe primer, while the black can be put on by itself most of the time.
things you don't usually think about when looking at pc cases.
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yeah, sadly, white paint and plastics tend to have more solids in them to get the desired result, while blacks usually need far less, which will be measurable when you get above a certain surface coverage level. a lot of time you can also get away with a single coat of black, but will need 2-3 in white, depending. and maybe primer, while the black can be put on by itself most of the time.
things you don't usually think about when looking at pc cases.
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mithikx
That 514X seems rather ehh for $100, like they say the case market is just so saturated for choices. Meanwhile the rainbow fans on the 515XR are nearly comedic in 2024 for the western market.
I own a Antec P20C, a case that's $90 for the RGB version and quite good bang for your buck IMHO (I'd take it over a Corsair 4000D or 5000D airflow TBH).
You can go sub $70 and get offerings from Montech, Raidmax or GAMDIAS which come with ARGB fans
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That 514X seems rather ehh for $100, like they say the case market is just so saturated for choices. Meanwhile the rainbow fans on the 515XR are nearly comedic in 2024 for the western market.
I own a Antec P20C, a case that's $90 for the RGB version and quite good bang for your buck IMHO (I'd take it over a Corsair 4000D or 5000D airflow TBH).
You can go sub $70 and get offerings from Montech, Raidmax or GAMDIAS which come with ARGB fans
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aserta
I think a solid case should be one that doesn't have bling, but has the option for bling. Like ditch all the illumination nonsense and put a solid bottom and backbone to the chassis. Make space for proper ventilation. Why are the corners in the front cut That's not a cheap way to make a panel. Get a die with rounded edges and focus the design into color and hole patterns. Etc. I feel the 90's have taught NOTHING to new box designers.
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I think a solid case should be one that doesn't have bling, but has the option for bling. Like ditch all the illumination nonsense and put a solid bottom and backbone to the chassis. Make space for proper ventilation. Why are the corners in the front cut That's not a cheap way to make a panel. Get a die with rounded edges and focus the design into color and hole patterns. Etc. I feel the 90's have taught NOTHING to new box designers.
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luiseatoll6368
In Asia, there are several vendors who sell a case for 2.5 drives that converts it to 3.5 . They're very cheap but compared to what's cheaper and commonly sold, the move to make the drive bay exclusive to 3.5 drives is very common. You would be surprised at how many systems here still operate with a 256g gen4 nvme and play games on a 1TB 3.5 . Many of these drives are refurbished or used so the market has more 3.5 than 2.5 .
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In Asia, there are several vendors who sell a case for 2.5 drives that converts it to 3.5 . They're very cheap but compared to what's cheaper and commonly sold, the move to make the drive bay exclusive to 3.5 drives is very common. You would be surprised at how many systems here still operate with a 256g gen4 nvme and play games on a 1TB 3.5 . Many of these drives are refurbished or used so the market has more 3.5 than 2.5 .
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Lady_Eleven
Even if I have no intention of buying something (I just finished my build not too long ago, certainly don't need replacement parts yet) watching the reviews is still fun and informative. Especially with cases because honestly wrapping my head around everything that affects thermals is... a lot even after watching explainers, and seeing how it works out on a (sorry about the pun) case-by-case basis makes it easier.
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Even if I have no intention of buying something (I just finished my build not too long ago, certainly don't need replacement parts yet) watching the reviews is still fun and informative. Especially with cases because honestly wrapping my head around everything that affects thermals is... a lot even after watching explainers, and seeing how it works out on a (sorry about the pun) case-by-case basis makes it easier.
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ffnbbq
The 515XR reminds me of the various MSI and Antec short ATX and mATX cases that in recent years have engulfed the low cost case market. They're very popular with the bargain basement SIs in Australia: shove a base model 4080 and a 7800x3D into one of these cases with a barebones motherboard that can barely support the CPU, with a DRAM-less NVME SSD, then make a profit by overcharging on RAM upgrades.
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The 515XR reminds me of the various MSI and Antec short ATX and mATX cases that in recent years have engulfed the low cost case market. They're very popular with the bargain basement SIs in Australia: shove a base model 4080 and a 7800x3D into one of these cases with a barebones motherboard that can barely support the CPU, with a DRAM-less NVME SSD, then make a profit by overcharging on RAM upgrades.
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bilditup1
I’m kind of into this style. It flows nicely and doesn’t feel like information overload
Silverstone I usually associate with relatively boutique stuff (HTPC, NAS, and ITX cases) so it’s interesting to see their take on a mid-range, unassuming ATX case. Seems like if they make some minor changes here, they’ll be able to be competitive, but it’s also not really the company’s focus.
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I’m kind of into this style. It flows nicely and doesn’t feel like information overload
Silverstone I usually associate with relatively boutique stuff (HTPC, NAS, and ITX cases) so it’s interesting to see their take on a mid-range, unassuming ATX case. Seems like if they make some minor changes here, they’ll be able to be competitive, but it’s also not really the company’s focus.
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ejomatic7480
I've got one of their horizontal 'entertainment center' cases and it was pretty simple and sturdy. I don't do anything high end so no idea how the airflow is, but their build quality has seemed decent.
I wanted a retro 'on the desk with a monitor on top' flair to my set up lol. Certainly makes cleaning easier: move monitor over, open top, hose out with air, reverse steps.
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I've got one of their horizontal 'entertainment center' cases and it was pretty simple and sturdy. I don't do anything high end so no idea how the airflow is, but their build quality has seemed decent.
I wanted a retro 'on the desk with a monitor on top' flair to my set up lol. Certainly makes cleaning easier: move monitor over, open top, hose out with air, reverse steps.
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mytech6779
For me a case exists to hold some range of standard components while facilitating efficient quiet cooling above all else. Any focus on aesthetics in the budget category is an immediate disqualifier for me because that design cost should have gone into functional improvements.
The model T came in black because it sped up production (faster drying with the tech of that era)
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For me a case exists to hold some range of standard components while facilitating efficient quiet cooling above all else. Any focus on aesthetics in the budget category is an immediate disqualifier for me because that design cost should have gone into functional improvements.
The model T came in black because it sped up production (faster drying with the tech of that era)
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Erelyes
Great reviews. Really don't like either case. The 'rainbow' thing screams cheap tat; they've cut corners in all the QOL stuff that actually makes a case nice to work with; and I would much rather have a cheaper case with less fans, so that I can populate my own (the case fans on a $68 case are going to be cheap and nasty anyway, so may as well use the ones I have lying around)
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Great reviews. Really don't like either case. The 'rainbow' thing screams cheap tat; they've cut corners in all the QOL stuff that actually makes a case nice to work with; and I would much rather have a cheaper case with less fans, so that I can populate my own (the case fans on a $68 case are going to be cheap and nasty anyway, so may as well use the ones I have lying around)
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paweadamski5137
lol, the new cases are so poor and out of touch. At 100$ there is be quiet! Pure Base 500DX with 3x 140mm fans, Fractal Pop Air RGB is another good option under 100$. Silver Stone cases are in general thrash quality compared to any normal brand. The metal sheet is thin and soft, do mounting any screw more than once is impossible, you will simply destroy the thread.
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lol, the new cases are so poor and out of touch. At 100$ there is be quiet! Pure Base 500DX with 3x 140mm fans, Fractal Pop Air RGB is another good option under 100$. Silver Stone cases are in general thrash quality compared to any normal brand. The metal sheet is thin and soft, do mounting any screw more than once is impossible, you will simply destroy the thread.
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endlosschleife
I think Sharkoon used to fill that cheap but ok gap in the EU market but with cases like the DAN A3-mATX and the ones reviewed here air's going to get thinner. I own a 70 Sharkoon case and it's got all the specs on paper but in reality there's so many small things that annoy me. Now there are affordable cases in that price range without many of these down sides.
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I think Sharkoon used to fill that cheap but ok gap in the EU market but with cases like the DAN A3-mATX and the ones reviewed here air's going to get thinner. I own a 70 Sharkoon case and it's got all the specs on paper but in reality there's so many small things that annoy me. Now there are affordable cases in that price range without many of these down sides.
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