Decided to pick one of these up, primarily for that side bar cooler thing for GPU's as mine get TOASTY!
Just wondering if was worth putting a build log together for it? Think someone might find it useful?
Is only with an MATX mobo currently with the specs in my sig.
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Review:
After seeing the box upon returning home, I hoped that there would be a hell of a lot of padding and packaging, and that the case would be substantially smaller.
Unfortunately not (not to say it's badly packaged), and the case is absolutely massive! Comes with a nice cloth cover too
It's certainly the largest midi tower I have ever owned in my life.
It absolutely dwarfs my old matx cooler master case - I still miss the smaller size a bit, even after a week.
So first impressions would be, the build quality is not bad, but nothing special. Its solid enough all round, but there is a lot of plastic, and some of that can be flimsy, especially the underside of the case.
The back - nothing special.
Opened up. There is loads and loads and loads of space in here.
From when I looked at pictures before buying, the pictures made it look smaller than it really is.
Accessories come in the form of spare SATA power and data connectors (for using to connect to the top panel external connector) and a little "toolbox", which contains a little screw driver, backing plate, screws and a very handy cloth for wiper this finger print magnet down
Here you can see the bottom has grills for power supply and another 120/140mm fan. TIP - If you want to put a fan here, do this first. The base comes off, as pictured below, but one of the screws is located under the PSU!
Hard drive cage is a bit flimsy, but doesn't rattle, so all's good I guess. It can be completely removed should you so wish. The trays include holes for screwing in a 2.5" drive - however, as they sit forward in the tray, connecting the power and data cables can be a pain.
One reason I got this is because I thought the dual 80mm fan mounting across the gpu's would help keep my crossfired 6950 toxics a bit cooler.
Do they help? Yes, I think they do, but there is only so much you can do for the top card when they are sandwiched together like they are on my current matx case.
One problem though is the connectors for getting power to the things. After a week (ok, I have been taking things in and out of this case a lot over that week) one of the connectors (third pic down) has all but broken, and I have resorted to connecting the fans to my front fan controller.
The top connector panel has a sliding cover. Mine stays open pretty much all the time though due to using my headphones a lot lately.
So getting things in, plenty of space down there for thermaltake toughpower 875 PSU. I imagine if you went for a really long psu, you may not be able to squeeze in a 140mm fan, though should still manage a 120 - unless the PSU really is huge. Either way, there will always be room for PSU.
And my current matx board looks diminutive in here.
One thing though, should you have either a full atx board you use the onboard for, or a sound card located near the bottom, you may fine the audio cable short. I was only just able to connect the front panel audio connector.
And with everything in, plenty of room still to spare. This should swallow any graphics card manufactured to date I think.
And things are kept fearly neat on the rear.
And finally, getting it up and running...
So how would I rate the case overall? I'd give it 7/10.
I think at less than £70, its a fairly decent buy.
The included fans do not run at very high speeds, so the case is pretty quiet in standard form. The down-side of that is that airflow isn't particularly high.
I need to mention here that in my case, I have only one 5.25 drive, and am using one of the 5.25 bays for my fan controller. The grills on the front of the remaining 5.25 bays have grills which are screwed on, and whether intentionally or not, the holes are the perfect size for attaching another 120mm fan.
Once you chuck in a couple of extra fans, you get yet more aiflow.
By spacing the fans away from the grills, you can turn the fans up high to redunce noise from fan being directly against the grill.
For my bottom mounted 140mm fan I have a 120 to 140 adapter, which moves the fan about 10mm away from the grill, and for the 120mm I mounted in the 5.25 bays, I have the remains of a 120mm fan which I cut the actual fan out of between the actuall fan and the grill.
Oh, and with regards to external 3.5", there is no bracket for mounting an external 3.5" device - luckily I had some 3.5 to 5.25 adapters lying around.
Could I have looked at more cases in the flesh, I might have found something of better build quality for about the same, but that other case may have fallen short in a few areas, such as room.
Overall, the only problem I have is sheer size, but that's also it's positive I guess. Just so used to an matx case now...
Just wondering if was worth putting a build log together for it? Think someone might find it useful?
Is only with an MATX mobo currently with the specs in my sig.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Review:
After seeing the box upon returning home, I hoped that there would be a hell of a lot of padding and packaging, and that the case would be substantially smaller.
Unfortunately not (not to say it's badly packaged), and the case is absolutely massive! Comes with a nice cloth cover too
It's certainly the largest midi tower I have ever owned in my life.
It absolutely dwarfs my old matx cooler master case - I still miss the smaller size a bit, even after a week.
So first impressions would be, the build quality is not bad, but nothing special. Its solid enough all round, but there is a lot of plastic, and some of that can be flimsy, especially the underside of the case.
The back - nothing special.
Opened up. There is loads and loads and loads of space in here.
From when I looked at pictures before buying, the pictures made it look smaller than it really is.
Accessories come in the form of spare SATA power and data connectors (for using to connect to the top panel external connector) and a little "toolbox", which contains a little screw driver, backing plate, screws and a very handy cloth for wiper this finger print magnet down
Here you can see the bottom has grills for power supply and another 120/140mm fan. TIP - If you want to put a fan here, do this first. The base comes off, as pictured below, but one of the screws is located under the PSU!
Hard drive cage is a bit flimsy, but doesn't rattle, so all's good I guess. It can be completely removed should you so wish. The trays include holes for screwing in a 2.5" drive - however, as they sit forward in the tray, connecting the power and data cables can be a pain.
One reason I got this is because I thought the dual 80mm fan mounting across the gpu's would help keep my crossfired 6950 toxics a bit cooler.
Do they help? Yes, I think they do, but there is only so much you can do for the top card when they are sandwiched together like they are on my current matx case.
One problem though is the connectors for getting power to the things. After a week (ok, I have been taking things in and out of this case a lot over that week) one of the connectors (third pic down) has all but broken, and I have resorted to connecting the fans to my front fan controller.
The top connector panel has a sliding cover. Mine stays open pretty much all the time though due to using my headphones a lot lately.
So getting things in, plenty of space down there for thermaltake toughpower 875 PSU. I imagine if you went for a really long psu, you may not be able to squeeze in a 140mm fan, though should still manage a 120 - unless the PSU really is huge. Either way, there will always be room for PSU.
And my current matx board looks diminutive in here.
One thing though, should you have either a full atx board you use the onboard for, or a sound card located near the bottom, you may fine the audio cable short. I was only just able to connect the front panel audio connector.
And with everything in, plenty of room still to spare. This should swallow any graphics card manufactured to date I think.
And things are kept fearly neat on the rear.
And finally, getting it up and running...
So how would I rate the case overall? I'd give it 7/10.
I think at less than £70, its a fairly decent buy.
The included fans do not run at very high speeds, so the case is pretty quiet in standard form. The down-side of that is that airflow isn't particularly high.
I need to mention here that in my case, I have only one 5.25 drive, and am using one of the 5.25 bays for my fan controller. The grills on the front of the remaining 5.25 bays have grills which are screwed on, and whether intentionally or not, the holes are the perfect size for attaching another 120mm fan.
Once you chuck in a couple of extra fans, you get yet more aiflow.
By spacing the fans away from the grills, you can turn the fans up high to redunce noise from fan being directly against the grill.
For my bottom mounted 140mm fan I have a 120 to 140 adapter, which moves the fan about 10mm away from the grill, and for the 120mm I mounted in the 5.25 bays, I have the remains of a 120mm fan which I cut the actual fan out of between the actuall fan and the grill.
Oh, and with regards to external 3.5", there is no bracket for mounting an external 3.5" device - luckily I had some 3.5 to 5.25 adapters lying around.
Could I have looked at more cases in the flesh, I might have found something of better build quality for about the same, but that other case may have fallen short in a few areas, such as room.
Overall, the only problem I have is sheer size, but that's also it's positive I guess. Just so used to an matx case now...
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should've gone for a cm 690ii basic and an antec spotcool fan imo
