5 Ideas to Improve and Bring New Life into Your Old PC Case

If your PC case is several years onetime, you may feel that it no longer cuts it. It may not have USB-C, or even USB three.0. It may not offer enough airflow for your current hardware, or enough space for all of your internal drives. Some of its front connectors may non even work anymore. But when you look at today's nigh pop cases, you realize that none of them is correct for you, or just they're not worth the expense. Perchance, y'all still love your erstwhile case but feel like yous could employ a new characteristic or 2 you lot currently don't have.

For many years now, a side panel of tempered glass has been a standard feature in virtually cases. That marked the end of side vents, simply when 1000.2 drives that could benefit from them started condign popular. That's also limited the number of external drives (commonly to zero) and internal three.v" drives, both for aesthetic reasons and because filling the forepart of the case with drives when it has no side vents would destroy its thermal adequacy.

Perhaps you don't want a tempered glass panel because y'all frequently deport your PC around. Maybe you all the same utilize CDs and don't desire to clutter your desk with an external drive. Peradventure yous need several hard drives for an affordable RAID setup. Also, replacing a instance is about the same corporeality of work as building a new PC from scratch. You lot may not take the fourth dimension or conviction to supplant it yourself. If any of the above is truthful for you lot, upgrading your current case in ways that can't be washed with nigh new cases may be but what you need. So, where do you start?

New front connectors

The lack of modern and functional front connectors on a case is certainly non a reason to replace it. For but $19, you can get a 5.25" bay with two USB three.0 connectors, 2 USB 2.0 connectors, and headphone & mic jacks. The best part is, the USB 3.0 connectors connect directly to your motherboard, with no intermediate point of failure. The USB 2.0 and audio ports exercise use a circuit lath, simply like the one built into your case.

You may also meet the demand for a connectivity hub for a unlike reason: if your case has them around the middle or near the bottom, mayhap considering y'all thought your tower case would rest on top of your desk, but now it's on the floor.

If you have an external iii.5" bay and actually want USB iii.0 in the centre of the case's front panel, where those bays typically are, Tek Republic'south two-USB three.0 connector is just $12, and Excelity's is $one more. C-Zone has a similar product with audio connectors for $xvi.

If your motherboard has an internal USB-C connector, Hima has a very similar product to USEC'southward with an boosted USB-C connector for $29. In one case again, the USB-C connector connects directly to the motherboard.

Moving the fans around

If y'all are considering replacing your instance for its thermal functioning, you may want to bank check other options outset. For instance, Corsair's Carbide 200R was among the most popular cases in the first half of the last decade. Information technology was praised for its tool-less design, but criticized for its thermals, at least when it came to graphics cards and storage drives.

Equally long as y'all accept the non-windowed version, though, the problem is not with the example itself but with the default fan configuration. The 200R's front panel greatly restricts airflow, and with vents all over the place, about of the air goes into and out of the case without always reaching the graphics bill of fare.

In that instance, the solution may be simpler than you remember: move the front fan to the bottom side vent, only in front of the graphics carte. If you are afraid that connecting the example's left panel to the motherboard will make information technology harder for you to open the case, y'all can buy a 12" 4-pin extension cablevision for less than $5, or a 5-pack for $7.

You may also want to add together a filter for the side intake. Amazon has many options, with prices reflecting quality, size, shape and whether the frame is magnetic and/or painted. Merely make certain that the filter is made of an bodily net and not just a pierced piece of metallic that blocks air as much every bit it blocks dust. With virtually of the air entering the case through a filtered intake, very little air will be able to get into the example through not-filtered vents and holes.

Since 2022, AMD has made top-down CPU coolers popular once more with its mostly decent Wraith series. If you have a acme-downwards cooler, you may want to motion the case's rear fan to the side as well. Y'all can buy an extension cablevision for that fan, simply a more than elegant solution would be using a iv-pin splitter ($6 for a 2-pack).

With the switch toward 1000.2 storage drives, typically placed near the graphics carte du jour, the non-windowed 200R may really be a ameliorate case than it was in 2022.

A drawer for your USB devices

Some other reason not to replace your old case is the ability to utilise one of its 5.25" trophy for a drawer. After all, what's a better place to go along your USB devices than right most your computer's USB ports?

The cheapest detail of that kind is currently Cosmos', priced at $9. Information technology may be only a small plastic device, but it's cheaper than "essential" RGB strips. If you want a higher-quality product, with a metallic enclosure, Enlabs has 1 for $20.

A physical fan controller

If your fans are continued to your motherboard with four-pin connectors, you can control spinning speed via software. The problem is, it'southward normally during gaming that you realize that your PC is uncomfortably loud due to the graphics card'south fans spinning at well-nigh total throttle. Your PC will be quieter with larger case fans spinning slightly faster to provide the graphics menu with cooler air.

If you lot accept an external three.five" bay to spare, KKmoon's 4-channel controller with physical buttons is a good option at $fifteen, and Kingwin sells a possibly identical product for $1 more than. If you lot only have 5.25" external bays, Vantec's adapter is $7. If you prefer a touchscreen, Kingwin has a relevant 5-channel model for $32.

Well-ventilated bulldoze bays

If you need more 3.5" storage drives than your case supports, you tin can plow any 5.25" bay into a three.v" for $5. As long every bit your case's 5.25" bay covers are vented information technology's swell, merely if they aren't, you may non want to squeeze several difficult drives into a potential hot spot.

If yous want to add together several hard disks, or just want the ones yous have to get more air, and then Evercool has the solution for you. The Armor cage turns two 5.25" bays into three 3.5" bays with their own 80mm fan and filter for $25.

If you accept 3 available 5.25" bays and want to max out on your space, Icydock'southward Black Vortex supports 4 drives and comes with a 120mm fan. Because of the placement of 5.25" bays, that fan tin can also help CPU cooling, especially if you lot take a tower cooler. At $60, it costs about equally much as a decent example, but it's not meant to exist bought alongside a new case. Rather, it'south meant to salvage y'all the need to switch to a different case, or buy a NAS.

Bonus

If your job involves recovering data from SATA drives, Kingwin's $18 subclass can plough a 5.25" bay into a hot-swap bay for 3.5" and ii.5" drives.
If you lot need to copy data between 2.v" drives, IcyDock has some interesting options: for less than $35 y'all tin become a hot-swap bay for 2 2.5" devices and a 3.5" bracket, where y'all can actually add the iii.5" version of the device ($24).
For $60, you lot can purchase a iv-ii.5" drive bay with its ain tiny fan. A six-ii.five" drive bay with two fans is $71.