I want to rebuild my computer this spring..., but I just ordered another hard drive and, looking at my case, just realized that this will fill it up. Not only that, but I have no idea where my spare rails went! The downfall of tool-less cases..if you lose the clippy-rail-things, you are SOL!

SO. Nice quiet case with lots of 3.5 bays. I'm using three 5.25" bays now, but that could easily be knocked down to two or even one (I have a card reader in one, but it sucks and I'd like a better one).

WHAT SAY YE?

So far, I'm looking at these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811124133
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

I've always bought cheap cases, so I'm tempted to splurge and get a really nice one...so I will keep looking.

I personally like Antec cases a lot. The case I have now is an Antec full-ATX, and it's survived multiple builds. I have 4 drives in it and plenty of space to spare (thats why i get full ATX though.)

anyway, that's my input. Go with Antec.

The Antec 300 is 50 bucks at Fry's. Hrm. http://www.frys.com/product/5520150

The 300 is a very nice case, especially at that price.

The only issue is I really don't like my 5.25" card reader, and the only good ones I seem to find are 3.5". Blah! Hmm.

300's good as long as you're not putting any massive cards in it. Mine's a little cramped with my 5870 in it.

Hmm. I have a 4890 now, which will likely be replaced with a 5870 or 5890 down the line..by a little cramped do you mean a little cramped, or remove-other-stuff-so-video-card-can-fit cramped?

Antec 300 on sale for 51.99 at newegg with free shipping, use promo code: EMCYZNT57 (from their email sale thing they send out every other day) Promo codes expire 02/01/2010 (does sharing a promo code work?)

Not sure how large the 5870 is, but my Sapphire 4870 fits in my Antec 300 without having to remove anything. It is pretty snug though.

It should work for newsletter subscribers. Hrmm...

Cramped as in like you can't really have a hard drive and the video card sitting on the same level. The end of the card is about an inch or so away from touching the edge of the drive bay area. If there's a drive in the bay on that level, it would stick out far enough to block the card I think. Not a problem if you only have a couple drives in there and one video card, but if you had 2 cards and/or a lot of drives it wouldn't fit at all.

On the Antec 300, a 5870 will stick into the drive bay area, obstucting the use of 1 or 2 (3.5) drives.

As long as you don't have like 4 HDDs that your putting in, the 300 is a great case. Its what I currently have. If you have a big video card (or will have in your case) and multiple hard drives things can start to get cramped, though you can still fit them.

Seeing as how you can get 2TB for less than $150 right now, no one should have, or need 4 hard drives in their new personal machine.

And don't put a PCI-E 1x wireless card in the slot above the video card there. It will fit, but it will overheat and shut itself off.

I have 1Tb and 1.5Tb installed with another 1Tb on the way. I'm a little leery of 2Tb drives..that's a lot of stuff on one drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129061

i have this case, which is fantastic. only problem is with my big 4870 in there 1 out of 6 drive bays is unusable. (whoops. big typo on the video card there. :P)

but yeah its super quiet, even with the thre 120mm fans in it because it is constructed with soundproofing material on the front flap and the two sides.

also, it is a pleasure to work on. biggest drawback is that its heavy, even without components in it.

I have the mATX version of Ford's case (P180 mini) and it is ****ing awesome. Built like a rock.

My other option would be to build/buy a NAS or server of some type, and then just run one or two HD's and maybe even go mATX on my next build.

I do have a spare copy of XP Pro, 2k8 server and 2k8 server r2..and Win7 HP. Hmm.

My system now is a jack of all trades - Windows 7 homegroup server, gaming, HTPC, print server, general use, etc. If I had a dedicated server, I could strip it down to just a gaming system..would only need one optical drive and probably one HD.

Careful of the 300s sidepanel, I ****ed mine up good.