The Case of the Perfect Case

Don’t you love it when you make a plan and then it all falls apart?

What was supposed to be a simple build turned sour when Newegg informed me that my preferred case (iStarUSA D-1101-ITX) was out of stock, and they canceled my order. My needs aren’t too radical, so I shouldn’t have too much of an issue finding a new case, right?

Enter PlinkUSA. They have three chassis that will work. One of them has the expansion slot and 5.25 bay, but it’s only 9.84” deep. They have a 11.8” and a 12.6” chassis, but neither have any front bays, a pretty major dealbreaker. So I keep looking.

When I say I’ve spent 40 hours searching for a case, that’s probably not an exaggeration. I know the manufacturers now, I even know some of the factories. What drives me insane is most of the sales for stuff like this is in bulk, through (for lack of a better word) front companies. These companies have very similar websites, with lots of stock art, and somehow, everything is in stock. I was almost ready to give my money to a site that didn’t appear too shady, and allowed for PayPal purchasing, when I figured I’d give them a call, just to double check their availability. Yeah, that little icon that said “in-stock”? Not so much.

New rule. Verbal (or maybe email) confirmation from a sales representative before purchasing.

I’ve found the same lineup of cases on no less than five supplier websites. All of them, when I actually dig down, don’t have the product in stock. I finally get a sales rep on the phone who calls iStarUSA, and it turns out they just had someone buy all their 1U 11” chassis, and they don’t know when they’ll have more. Whoever you are, I hope you’re happy. Not having any luck finding a case, maybe I just need to make my own?

Enter Protocase. A few quick clicks, and I’ve got my quote details. Starting at $426. Looks like I’ll keep looking for a prebuilt, thank you very much.

Next, I stumble across a mini ITX site in England. They’re dedicated to the small PC enthusiast, and have several Travla cases that meet all the criteria. In fact, they even have a 1.5U option, the T9110, that might be even better! It has a separate slim drive and a 3.5” hot swap, even better! Oh wait. With shipping, it costs $576.84. That’s a no for me.

Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have a happy ending. I ended up finding the 9.84” PlinkUSA chassis on eBay for half price, so I bought that, in the hopes that I’ll be able to somehow finagle a 5.25 bay and an expansion card behind it. Until next time…