Final Thoughts

When it comes to value-priced cases, what features really matter and what can we do without? Tool- less features are almost always left out of a $20 chassis because, for one, they cost too much to implement, which would increase the selling price. Also, many who buy these budget cases do not really do much swapping of hardware and are mostly home users who just want something that they can put their system rigs in.

Only one of the cases has a tool-less feature and that is the Codegen 6209 with its sliding clips for the expansion slots. The 6209 also has a CPU air duct, which allows the system to take in cool air directly from the outside to the CPU, isolating it from the warmer ambient air inside the case.

The Codegen model, however, isn't the only one with good cooling features. Linkworld's 3131G can hold up to seven 80mm fans, which will greatly help cool any system, whether it be just an average setup or any high end equipment. This does come at a cost, though, since adding more fans will increase the sound output of the case overall.

Since most of the cases came with one case fan, we decided to swap out the factory-installed fan(s) with two of our own 80mm fans to benchmark each case and be able to compare them with the same hardware. We found that Codegen's 6209 performed the best in our thermal tests, since its side panels were basically large vents that helped to passively cool the system.

On the expansion side, Linkworld's 3131G had the most options to add more drives with eight total 3-1/2"; drive bays, two of them exposed.

In the end, only two of the model's held our attention as they had the features and performance results that we were looking for.

We hand our Editor's Choice award over to Codegen's 6209 for its top performance in our thermal benchmarks, a solid construction, as well as features such as a CPU air duct, tool-less expansion slots, and a full set of auxiliary ports. With a price of $32, it is not much more expensive than the others and is well worth the money with the combination of features and performance it provides.