I know there’s a while to go yet, but I’m beginning to think about Christmas – and, specifically, what I’m going to do about my ailing PC over the holiday period.

It’s in bad shape. The chassis is an decrepit Cooler Master model that has no screws holding the sides on and, since I rescued it from the PC Pro Labs, not all of the components inside are actually secured properly: the two hard disks lie uncomfortably in their drive bays, and the optical drive isn’t attached to the 5.25in bay, either; instead, it merely balances between the bay and the front of the chassis and  has to be physically pulled towards the front of the system to be used.

Obviously, this brings numerous disadvantages, with the rattling and reverberating of the hard disks and optical drive meaning that my system isn’t exactly quiet. The lack of cable-tidying means that it’s an ugly PC to look at and difficult to work inside, too, which has made life tricky when I’ve upgraded components in the past.

The lack of cooling in my chassis, which only has one rear fan and nothing at the front to maintain consistent airflow, also wreaks havoc with my PC’s performance. It’s not too bad initially but, after a long gaming session, the parts inside get warmer and fans get louder. I often can’t hear myself think, let alone play any games without my speakers turned up to eleven.

It’s obvious that I need a new case in order to get the most out of my PC, which is currently built around an AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor and ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card, neither of which I’m keen to get rid of just yet.

Any new chassis that I’m likely to buy has to be quiet, sturdy and versatile. I’d like it to look nice, too, but aesthetics take a definite backseat to practicality – bear in mind, though, that I’m not going to resort to anything that looks as outlandish as the Eye T Warrior that I used for The £250 Challenge, seeing as I’m actually going to be using my PC every day.

I’ve picked out a few early contenders that I’ve gleaned from some of the best systems we’ve had in the Labs over recent months.

The Antec Nine Hundred Two, for instance, is sturdy, has plenty of room inside and looks great – but previous experience suggests that it’s pretty loud, with two out of the three noisiest computers in this month’s Windows 7 PC Labs using this chassis. The only option here, I reckon, would be to replace all of the case’s fans with low-noise models.

I know that the NZXT Hush is far quieter thanks to its reliance on sound-absorbing foam and numerous other noise-cancelling features, but it’s smaller and snugger than the Antec and I’d worry about airflow – it may have a fan at the front, but half of it is cut off by the slanted door.

Finally, a couple of contenders from Cooler Master. The Elite 310 and 335 look plain but are sure to be an improvement over my current chassis, and the Sileo looks to be a superb option for noise-reduction. Like the Hush, though, I’d worry about airflow and the accumulation of heat if my CPU and GPU are working hard for hours at a time.

It seems silly to make this decision on my own, though, when I know that there’s an awful lot of knowledge lurking amongst PC Pro’s readership. So, this one’s on you – if you have any previous experience with these cases, or know of any better, then I’d like to hear it. The future of my PC depends on it.