I'ma do my first pc build and I'm considering these kind of cases. A friend of mine says they are ugly and look like pre-assembled pcs. I just think I won't need a broken glass counter. What do you think? Ps: my friend's glass front panel is broken.
I'ma do my first pc build and I'm considering these kind of cases. A friend of mine says they are ugly and look like pre-assembled pcs. I just think I won't need a broken glass counter. What do you think? Ps: my friend's glass front panel is broken.
40 Comments
Whatever you think works best for you
It’s your case, your money. Do *you* like it is the question? I think it sometimes gives a cleaner look. My gaming build is in a windowed case but it’s plexi. Susceptible to scratches, but breakage not so much. Another pc mostly for work tasks is in a define r5, solid panel case and looks nice and understated. Glass sounds nice on paper, resistance to scratches and looks nice. Looks less nice all over the floor. No busted glass shenanigans here.
Glass free benefits:
– No fingerprints.
– No glass directly in front of a fan making that fan useless.
– No need to spend $300 on RGB stuff that does nothing for performance.
– No need to pick components that cost an extra $300 so you can have color matched parts.
– less effort because cable management doesn’t matter as much when you can’t see it.
– Zero risk of 2000 shards of broken glass.
– You won’t have RGB that is visible from space causing the ISS to crash
Downsides of no glass:
– idk, can’t think of any
Case is preferential, if you like it then you like it. Personally, I don’t mind a case without a side panel.
If you like it, why do you care what other people think? Besides, if it is your first build, your cable management probably won’t be the best either so you can just hide it from everyone. Plus you can save some money since you don’t have to color match everything and RGB everything to make it look good. I have a Fractal Design Define C and it has been treating me well.
Glass side panels do break, but I find it less of an issue compared to back then. Still a non zero chance though.
I think that no aesthetic is also an aesthetic.
I also think: Getting a case you think is cool is more important than the minimal chance of breaking glass.
Metal is superior, no shatter possible, can glue sound damping sheet inside as well.
each to their own, i myself can go either way in terms of aesthetic
I love them. I won’t buy a case if it has any glass or plexi panels
It’s much better, don’t have to look at 6 tonnes of dust inside there all day, and no risk of the glass shattering and you finding shards in your everything for the next 6 months.
I’ve got the Fractal Pop XL SIlent, owned it a few years.**,** and am happy with it
(I hate fragile glass and tacky RGB crap)
I always buy glass free cases, I don’t feel the need to see the insides of my PC all the time, and it’s more sturdy.
I have built/upgraded 3 PCs in the past 1.5 years.
One in a Pop Air solid, one in a Pop Air TG with a teal interior, and another in a Fractal North Mesh. I used the tempered glass side panel case for a build outside the family, because I asked the friend which one she liked better. It definitely added to the WOW-factor of the build, even though we only had very basic RGB (basically just the case fans and the graphics card had RGB).
I prefer the solid and mesh panels for functionality and durability – in a home with kids or pets tempered glass is kind of an accident waiting to happen
i wish there was more. i hate glass and rgb everywhere.
I like cases with plastic glass window in them, which is craved into metal sidepannel. But they start to become rare sadly and I don’t like tempered glass.
I really don’t like the looks of a lot of glass cases, particularly the fish tanks. The fish tanks are just huge. I also prefer as silent a PC as I can get and I find the ones with sound damping or billed as silent tend to not have glass. Wish there were more no glass options out there. Seems like they are all stuck about 10 years ago design wise.
wont shatter if you drop the sides on the floor
It’s aesthetics, so up to you, but I would worry about glass durability.
If your PC is a feature piece of the room then yeah. Otherwise it doesn’t matter. Mines stuff in a corner under the table.
Glass breaking is just people being careless. However if you don’t care about looks that much it does just make more sense to go glass free
In 20 years of building my own gaming rigs, not once have I had a glass case. Stealth mode all the way.
I honestly don’t care. I almost never see that part.
That’s the only type of cases I ever buy. Glass is for silly youth.
It all comes to preference. And personally I absolutely love seeing all the components together in my PC. Sometimes I just look at it and think ” I built that, I paid for that, I spent 10 hours trying to fix simple problems in that” and I love to see it all
I can understand why some people want the RBG disco and their components to be visible. I had that period in my life, and now I want it to be silent. I also don’t have room for it on my desk or below my desk, so it’s put away behind the sofa with a shelf over between the sofa and the wall (case under). It’s quite, surprisingly good temps as well
I like seeing my fans, so it’s not for me.
Consider where you want the PC. will it be on your desk or on the floor? Do you care about the footprint of the case? If you prefer an itx case, you’ll see significantly lower temps with a mesh panel. Larger cases where the airflow isn’t as restricted don’t have that issue.
As for the glass breaking, thats a very rare occurrence and in my opinion only relevant if you have to move or open the case alot.
Do cases with a glass panel look better? thats for you to decide. But do keep in mind that they also expose everything thats unsightly. In a standard case with mesh panels you dont have to worry about pretty cable management and LED fans or matching colors etc. which can save you a lot of money too.
Ultimately, the question is this: do you value showing off your computer or not?
If your PC case doubles as room decoration, then having a see-through panel (be it glass or otherwise) can be useful.
If your PC case is just the thing that holds your PC parts, then an unassuming black box is hard to beat.
When building my actual PC i thought the same, go with a normal case after years of havin fnacy lighted cases with led fans and so on. After i bought myself a 4k monitor i had to switch graphic cards and got one that looks like a tank and as i wanted to look at it, i had to switch to a glas case 😀
But i also dont know anyone who had a glass shatter in like 20 years of pc usage, go with what you like, but i dont think anyone is happy with a plain black case, take a look at the fractal north, best looking closed case and you can at least have some fancy led fance behind the wood front cover 😀
I change cases like once every 10 years. It really does not matter to me at all. It is hidden away under my desk where I cannot see it or hear it. As long as it is well ventilated and quite I give no shits.
I have this case and it is great. I keep my computer on the left so I wouldn’t be able to see in anyways. I used to do all the rgb stuff but I like to have the lights in the room off or dimmed and found that rgb can be very distracting. If I decide to do some rgb, some front fans to shine through the front mesh would be very tasteful.
My main PC has glass. It sits on my desk in view, though I have over time moved toward specifically non-rgb parts or disabling it when I can, so I did strongly consider non-TG version of fractal design north (but decided to not do a case upgrade yet). My simracing PC is solid side panels because it sits behind the monitors and I can’t see it anyways.
I have that exact case. It is well made, easy to build on, and very good looking. It has no bling and I love it.
Void PCs are the best 😎
My next will be all air, no liquid, and no glass.
Welcome to the office
I’ve started liking no rgb. No glass is really appealing.
The “it looks like preassembled pcs” part made me laugh. As if 99% of preassembled builds don’t use glass/plastic and LEDs nowadays lmao. Use what you want and like. As long as the parts work and airflow is ok, the computer won’t care if it has glass or not.
less cringe
No risk of posting a tempered glass photo here, so that’s only a plus.