When you think of PC cases, chances are you are not really thinking of them from a review standpoint. Lucky for us we have Tom’s Harware to set us straight on cases that are worth it and those that leave something to thought twice about.

Front panel fan, temperature and other control displays are growing in popularity for monitoring and protecting the components inside a PC case. Depending on the manufacturer, the utility control displays range from useful to superfluous. Practical functions of these displays allow for fan regulation, which in turn can make PCs run quieter, of course. Sensors measure temperatures and trigger an alarm if the condition becomes critical, or boost the built-in fan to higher rpms. However, our tests of these eight miditower cases show that control displays do not always live up to their promise.