The Trouble With A Cheap Case

Many people are tempted, when building their own computer, to dedicate the majority of their budget to get the best performing components they can afford. This leads to parts like the case which are deemed as unimportant to get very little of the budget. You may be tempted to go to your local computer shop and see a whole bunch of cases around the $120 mark but see one no-name brand case which looks pretty cool and is only $80. STOP!

Before buying this case, have a look at it. What does it feel like? Do the parts seem cheap? Do the different panels fit on properly? Some cheap cases can be an absolute bargain, getting good quality at a low price but there are some fancy cheap cases which may come with LCD screens and cool LEDs but there are areas where there have been cut backs. For example, if the case comes with a fan, this could be the cheapest and noisiest fan available. Sure you could always invest in a better fan, but what if you end up with a more serious problem than that?

An issue you will probably not even consider is the wiring inside the case. The wire which connects the power switches to the motherboard and the card reader to the USB slot. Recently, a firend wanted me to build him a computer. He decided to buy the parts himself and asked me to assemble it. The parts he bought were quite good but he decided get a cheaper case. Once the computer was built, we tested it out and checked everything was working. It was working okay but we could smell something coming from the computer. It got worse when the computer stayed on for longer. We searched around but couldn't see any smoke. Eventually after about half an hour, we took of the front panel and saw that the wire leading from the power switch to the motherboard was smoking. The casing had melted and the nearby wires were also getting affected.

The reason for the smoke was dodgy wiring. The case manufacturer had tried to combine two wires into one and they ended up shorting. This is a problem which you would not expect in a case and if left unnoticed, could cause a fire and ruin the computer and potentially burn down a house. The fact is that with well known manufacturers, you can trust their products and you know there is a degree of quality to them. Cheaper cases often don't have the same quality and this can lead to big problems down the track.

So next time you are building a computer for yourself or someone else and think of skimping on the case, think again.