Company Web Site: http://www.3dcool.com

Availability: Now

When assembling a new PC, most of us put a lot of thought into the CPU, motherboard, 3D card, soundcard, hard drive and just about every component on our shopping list. I say "just about" because PC cases are one of the most overlooked PC components and are usually purchased quickly and without much thought. Case design may seem to be ubiquitous, but the difference between a quality and budget case has the potential of making your home installation either a pleasure or a nightmare.

I once purchased a cheap case and later found that installing components took on a whole new life. The backboard screw-holes didn't line up properly to many ATX motherboards, it was difficult to insert AGP and PCI cards due to the cramped card slots and cooling was about as bad as it could get, with the power supply positioned directly above the CPU. Needless to say this was an instance of being penny smart-pound stupid and the case still sits in the corner, an eternal testament to the dangers of buying cheap components.

Quality PC cases usually come in two basic flavours, 1) the standard, name-brand cases sold by Inwin, GlobalWin, AOpen and many other companies, and 2) the specialized cooling cases with extra fans and other cooling amenities. When 3DCOOL.COM's Tornado 1000 case came in the door, I was surprised to find that it was actually a combination of the two. The Tornado 1000 bears a striking resemblance to the Globalwin YCC-802, a very high quality case in its own right, even without any extra cooling. While the designs are very similar, the case itself is not from GlobalWin, but is instead produced by a company that GlobalWin imports from.