Hi
I have ordered a BitFenix Colosus mITX case as soon as they were out and not waiting for any reviews - as I should have. Now I have to write one myself
I won't be posting any pics as there are plenty here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-160-BX
Exterior:
It looks nice and solid, despite some comments on 'cheap plastic'.
Led strip is very nice, I have mine set up in green - the red and blue is to bright, especially if you have the case siting on the desk next to the screen like I do.
Interior:
HDD cages. There is a lot of them, all are 3.5" tho. I was hoping for some 2.5". I was prepared anyway, I had few 3.5 to 2.5 adapters from Akasa, however that's where problems started. Akasa adapters (these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-019-AK&groupid=701&catid=2104 ) are incompatible with mounting system in this case.
I had to play a bit with a drill (3mm) to make them work.
PSU cage. I have a 180mm PSU and it was already to long, by around 5-10mm, however PSU backplate that comes with the case saved the day and I managed to secure the PSU in place. I had to use my own M3 long screws tho (from a radiator), longest supplied screws were to short.
5.25" Bay. I have no idea how to instal anything in there. I wanted to put my Lamptron fan controller, eventually after almost half an hour I gave up and connected all fans to motherboard.
Thumbscrews. Despite the name, you will need a small cross screwdriver, don't even try doing anything without it or you will loose skin on your fingers.
GPU mounting system. The thumbscrews are very tight and it took me several attempts to attach the graphics card in place.
Cable management. Despite the small size, there is some space on each side of PSU to store your cables.
I want to add one thing, a short instruction how you should start installing everything in this case as it is not so simple. My neighbors learned few new words in polish, thanks to me having to redo cables, curse about hdd cages etc
1. Start with removing all HDD cages.
2. Install PSU.
3. Install only front and rear fans (the 2 pre-installed are of good quality), leave the top for later (if you want to instal anything there).
4. Install your motherboard, with heatsink, ram and cables attached already.
If you're connecting cables after, you may have to remove the motherboard and start over.
5. Leave GPU for the end, however before connecting it into PCI-E slot attach the power cables to it. Reason behind it is, the 5.25" bay makes it almost impossible to connect them - I gave up after 10 minutes.
One major problem is if you have large PSU like mine, you wont be able to use any of the HDD cages. Your only choice would be to have an adapter 5.25 to 4 x 2.5. I made a sort of a 'sandwich' out of my 3 SSD's and some foam between them, then taped them together and used some small m3 screws to attach the bottom one to the case (you don't need to drill any holes, there are some designed for this purpose).
To be honest, I was expecting more from this case.
Because of longer PSU, I couldn't use lower HDD cage - because of that I couldn't use the top one either.
The instruction shows a position to attach the 2.5" which is impossible, because it would cover all power cables on the PSU. Maybe it would be possible with a small PSU, maybe 150mm but nothing bigger.
So after 3 hours of swearing I managed to fix everything in place.
I was planning to mod this case a bit, but I think I'll pass or at least wait until my blood stops boiling.
If I was to rate it, I'd give it probably around 3.5 / 5, mostly for the looks, materials and cooling options.
It is a good case, but requires some patience and work to be done with it, before it can be used properly.
I hope this small review helps
Cheers
I have ordered a BitFenix Colosus mITX case as soon as they were out and not waiting for any reviews - as I should have. Now I have to write one myself
I won't be posting any pics as there are plenty here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-160-BX
Exterior:
It looks nice and solid, despite some comments on 'cheap plastic'.
Led strip is very nice, I have mine set up in green - the red and blue is to bright, especially if you have the case siting on the desk next to the screen like I do.
Interior:
HDD cages. There is a lot of them, all are 3.5" tho. I was hoping for some 2.5". I was prepared anyway, I had few 3.5 to 2.5 adapters from Akasa, however that's where problems started. Akasa adapters (these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-019-AK&groupid=701&catid=2104 ) are incompatible with mounting system in this case.
I had to play a bit with a drill (3mm) to make them work.
PSU cage. I have a 180mm PSU and it was already to long, by around 5-10mm, however PSU backplate that comes with the case saved the day and I managed to secure the PSU in place. I had to use my own M3 long screws tho (from a radiator), longest supplied screws were to short.
5.25" Bay. I have no idea how to instal anything in there. I wanted to put my Lamptron fan controller, eventually after almost half an hour I gave up and connected all fans to motherboard.
Thumbscrews. Despite the name, you will need a small cross screwdriver, don't even try doing anything without it or you will loose skin on your fingers.
GPU mounting system. The thumbscrews are very tight and it took me several attempts to attach the graphics card in place.
Cable management. Despite the small size, there is some space on each side of PSU to store your cables.
I want to add one thing, a short instruction how you should start installing everything in this case as it is not so simple. My neighbors learned few new words in polish, thanks to me having to redo cables, curse about hdd cages etc
1. Start with removing all HDD cages.
2. Install PSU.
3. Install only front and rear fans (the 2 pre-installed are of good quality), leave the top for later (if you want to instal anything there).
4. Install your motherboard, with heatsink, ram and cables attached already.
If you're connecting cables after, you may have to remove the motherboard and start over.
5. Leave GPU for the end, however before connecting it into PCI-E slot attach the power cables to it. Reason behind it is, the 5.25" bay makes it almost impossible to connect them - I gave up after 10 minutes.
One major problem is if you have large PSU like mine, you wont be able to use any of the HDD cages. Your only choice would be to have an adapter 5.25 to 4 x 2.5. I made a sort of a 'sandwich' out of my 3 SSD's and some foam between them, then taped them together and used some small m3 screws to attach the bottom one to the case (you don't need to drill any holes, there are some designed for this purpose).
To be honest, I was expecting more from this case.
Because of longer PSU, I couldn't use lower HDD cage - because of that I couldn't use the top one either.
The instruction shows a position to attach the 2.5" which is impossible, because it would cover all power cables on the PSU. Maybe it would be possible with a small PSU, maybe 150mm but nothing bigger.
So after 3 hours of swearing I managed to fix everything in place.
I was planning to mod this case a bit, but I think I'll pass or at least wait until my blood stops boiling.
If I was to rate it, I'd give it probably around 3.5 / 5, mostly for the looks, materials and cooling options.
It is a good case, but requires some patience and work to be done with it, before it can be used properly.
I hope this small review helps
Cheers