Upgrade gear

Think all PC cases are boring? We found three unconventional models that may change your mind: Thermaltake's imposing Level 10 GT, Lian Li's seashell-inspired PC-U6 and Antec's aptly named Skeleton. However, there's more to PC case than its looks. They have to be practical, too. How do these crazy cases actually stack up?

We really wanted to love at least one of the crazy cases we’ve looked here and given the amount of hardware we go through, by rights it should be this one: Antec’s glorified test bench. Rather than a protective enclosure, this is essentially a couple of slide-out pedestals for your PC components positioned under a giant fan. Theoretically, that allows easy access to your computer’s bits if you’re a frequent upgrader, overclocker or hardware exhibitionist, plus great airflow and (obviously) novelty. There are negatives, of course.

Frankly, we’re a little unsettled by this seashell-inspired case, if only because of a vague concern that there’s a fiction/reality crossover going on with Uzumaki (Japanese artist Junji Ito’s mind-bending manga stories about killer spirals) which led us to worry that each time we worked late in PC User Labs, we were running the risk of nodding off and waking up to Lian Li’s oddball enclosure stuffing us into its belly. But maybe that’s just us. To those not inclined to unjustified panic, this unique mini-tower is like nothing else we’ve seen, and that’s both good and not so great.

The Thermaltake Level 10 GT looks every part the premium case: it’s black, anodised and modular; there are large, low-rpm fans and the drive bays are hot-swap or bust. But for a case that trades on luxury it seems to lack build quality and attention to detail. The imposing, heavy design suggests ruggedness, but the Level 10 GT feels flimsy, with low-gauge aluminum and plastic parts, and we found its useability was compromised by small oversights.

We raved about this miditower case’s previous itineration — the R2 — in our August 2010 magazine and all of our praise is still applicable to this new Fractal Define R3. It's a very well-built, stylish and supremely flexible chassis at a surprisingly low price. Indeed, very little has changed over the past five months: the R3 still has an impressive eight 3.5in internal hard drive bays, all of which can accept conversion brackets to hold smaller 2.5in drives, and still offers an excellent choice between noise dampening and cooling efficacy.