Looking to buy a decent airflow case that supports at least one DVD drive so i can add some cool IcyDock things like the hotswap SSD/U.2 Drives in the front to make my life easier but cant seem to find any damn cases in 2022 that have modern features with USB C headers on front, Room for PCIe Expansion and Looks like its not out of the 90s/2000s, anyone got any ideas? otherwise tempted to design/build my own out of Wood and Aluminum and have it kinda like a S76 Thelio.
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cough dremel…
I’ve seen a few kinda geared towards servers in an ATXish style vertical case but yeah, getting rare. That and I can’t remember what they were. One MIGHT have been a SilverStone but very foggy on that. Even just cases with room for drives is rare now. I’ve got old cases with 12 3.5" bays in the front…now you’re lucky if you get 2 never mind card reader or CD/DVD/BR up front.
I know it’s ghetto AF but I have almost all my drives outside my cases (because cases these days suck). Ye old dremel a hole, slot, whatever for your power and sata and plop that SOB on top…or below if you’re on racks or something.
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I just happened to see Pauls Hardwares latest vid re a budget-mid build.
He used a Fractal Focus G. It has 2 front fans and 2 front bays.
Was looking at the Focus G but idk, it looks cheap and old, would love something like the Fractal Torrent with the Glass + a Drive Bay or Two and something that would look nice in my office
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I hung onto my fractal define r5 for such an occasion if the need in the future ever arrises.
GL
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Define 7 and it’s XL is also an option but XL is too big and unwieldy, I hate everytime I have to flush it’s loop
Phanteks Enthoo Pro
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Attacked!
Server Racks usually have the option for one. Ive recently checked out Server racks from Sliger that has a front bay for optical drives. It is expensive and you are forced to have a “landscape” layout for the cabinet.
IIRC Silverstone definitely has one. Not sure if its a phased out model or in active circulation.
These days for server towers, all they have is either mesh or glass upfront. I can still see CD/DVD drive bays in the wild but these are really old and really cheap chinese cases. Speaking of, maybe try Aliexpress?
Be Quiet cases have both modern front IO as well as 5.25" slots on some of their cases. You give up space for front fans/radiators when using these slots. And airflow-focussed cases are in fashion now, so towers dump these slots in favor of larger fan/radiator options. The Dark Base 900 is modular, so you can choose whether to use 5.25" or more fans.
I personally have an eye on the 600 series for my next Workstation/PC, although the 5.25" slots are fixed. But they also have the 601 with modern full-fan frontal layout.
Fractal Design Focus G and Focus G Mini might also tick that box for ya.
Also has that ancient technology of “side panel vents” to keep the GPU cool 
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