When you're choosing components for a build, what gets the lowest priority? Most users' answer would be the PC case. Despite housing every other component, the case is often treated as an afterthought, allocated the lowest portion of the budget. This is what I used to do on each of my previous builds — only on my latest PC did I realize my mistakes. After decades of using bargain-basement cases, I finally woke up to the important role the case plays in a build. I'm using the Lian Li Lancool II Mesh right now, and going forward, I plan to build my PCs using the case as the centerpiece.

I used to buy the cheapest case possible

Budgets were tight, and the case wasn't a priority

When I started building PCs around 20 years ago, having a generous budget was a dream. Most of the funds came from my parents, so the freedom to choose whatever components I wanted was limited. The case bore the brunt of this every time, as you might see in the images above. The CPU, graphics card, and motherboard were the top priorities. In fact, the first time any of my cases had a tempered glass side panel was in 2017, a whole decade after I built my first PC.

Component compatibility or future upgradability never crossed my mind, but I was fortunate to never come across something that didn't fit inside the case. GPUs never used to be that big anyway, and I only started using liquid cooling in 2022. As PC hardware became more power-hungry, the need for proper airflow grew, and features like cable management became more than a novelty. Cheaping out on the case didn't "break" any of my builds, but it easily could have.

I never cared about the airflow or looks

Endlessly admiring my PC wasn't a thing

The kind of cases I used for my past builds can make you shudder. Most of them were solid black boxes with little room for air intake or exhaust. Cable management features were non-existent, and I was lucky to get a PSU shroud. Even the esthetics of my previous cases were terrible — the black towers weren't of the classy kind. They had half-baked designs, needlessly aggressive angles, and poor build quality.

Thinking about optimizing airflow wasn't on my mind when I was using Core 2 Duo or FX-6300 systems. I'm guessing my CPUs would have been dangerously close to thermal throttling when I was enjoying Dead Space 2 or Crysis 2 on sunny afternoons. Today, however, I value both functionality and looks, and I always look for front and side intakes, additional fan mounts, radiator compatibility, and high internal volume.

The case is now one of the first things I finalize

It decides the theme of the build

I've learned the hard way not to treat the case as just a box to hold everything together. If I were building a new PC today, I would finalize the case first, picking the form factor, features, design, and color before anything else. The case is the first thing someone notices when they look at the PC, and it needs to be good-looking. Forget others — you deserve to look at a case that enhances the visuals of your PC and the hardware inside it.

Whether you like an all-white mid-tower, a sleek black mini-tower, or something with natural materials, choosing the case first allows you to make the right choices for the rest of the components. Not only do you get clarity on the visual palette of the build, but also on the size and style of components to include. The kind of parts you'll pick for an SFF PC will differ vastly from those gracing a mid-tower or full-tower. Similarly, a dual-chamber case gives your PC a totally different feel from that of a compact mini-ITX case.

Cheaping out on the PC case is dumb

The case is too important a component to skimp on. Plus, it doesn't cost much to buy a decent mid-range case today. Even the budget cases have come a long way in terms of features, build quality, and design. A great case can last you for many builds, effectively earning its worth many times over. So, the next time you're building a PC, try to start with the PC case instead of leaving the choice for the end.