AnnoyedGrunt
Senior member
Just got my new case (although I'm waiting a bit before I go to a new computer), so here is a little review.
First of all, I ordered the Kingwin 424-S (silver version) from Newegg. Their current pictures show the case with a black mesh grille on the front, (which is what I was hoping for) but mine arrived with a blue grille. I know the picutures used to show a blue grille, so I'm not sure what the deal is with the swith. Well, it's nothing a little black spray paint can't fix. Other than that minor problem, the case looks very nice.
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=11-170-015&depa=1
I also bought an NEC 3500 DVDRW and an Atech Flash Pro 8 card reader (both black), so I installed those along with the rest of my current system (AXP 1800+ with Zalman 7000, Soyo Dragon Plus, IBM 40GB HDD, ATI 9700pro, Seasonic Super Tornado 400).
The installation went fairly well, although I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of the pull out Mobo tray. It does help installing the mobo a little bit, but at the same time it really makes the case quite a bit weaker, and I noticed some creaking and popping of the case when I'd move it around.
The DVD and Card Reader installed easily (a sliding lock is used on the case so you don't need screws), but the HDD was a pain. The case has grommets to isolate the drive vibration, but there are no ledges to rest the drive on while installing the screws. It was a bit of a pain to hold the drive in position while trying to line up the screws and tighten them down. I would like to see some rests for the drive, maybe spaced 0.04" down from the correct postition, so the drive wouldn't touch them when you tighten the screws, but at least they'd make it easier to line up the holes. Other than the special HDD shoulder screws and the standard Mobo screws, everything else was held on by Thumbscrews. However, the thumbscrews use a different thread than is used on most other cases, so you need to be careful and be sure to use the correct screw.
The front panel USB connector has individual pins, which is good if your mobo doesn't use the standard USB pinout, but is bad if it does because trying to get all the connectors attached is a pain. The Firewire uses a pass through cable instead of a header, and is pretty thick, so it clutters things up a bit (since I currently don't have any firewire on my mobo or on a separate card). A header would be better IMO, since so many new Mobo's have internal 1394 ports these days.
The power, reset, HDD LED's, etc. are all connected to the front panel through a single connector, to help make it easier to remove the mobo tray, but since the USB connectors aren't part of that, it's kinda pointless. They should have done the Firewire and USB with the intermediate connector as well, although there could potentially be some signal integrity issues with that.
The airflow is OK, and the case comes with an 80mm exhast fan in back and two 80mm intakes in front. The two intakes are controlled by a variable speed control hidden under the bezel, and all three fans use 3 pin headers. The speed controller uses a 4 pin Molex to get the power for both front fans. There is a pass through on the 4pin, so you don't loose any PSU connections. There is also a removeable filter on the intakes, so all the air entering the case must go through the filter. It's a pretty nice setup, with one big problem: The stock fans are CRAPPY (at least mine were). They are sleeve bearing fans that spin @ 2600 or so RPM and one of my front fans was making a slight chirping sound (almost as if there were crickets outside the window of the computer room). So, even with the front speed control turned down the fans made quite a bit of noise.
Therefore, I bought 3 panaflow low speed fans from SVC (1900 RPM with hydro-wave bearings), and replaced the 3 case fans. I also turned the front fans down to the lowest setting so they are probably turning around 1200 RPM or so. With these new fans, the case is pretty quiet, although I can still hear the rear fan @ 1900 RPM. It's much better than stock though.
It's a bit of a pain to remove the front fans since they are held on by little expanding plugs. I found that by sticking a knife (or a fingernail if you are lucky) under the head of the plugs I could pop them out pretty easily. Then it was a matter of snaking the fans out thru the non-removable HDD cage. It wasn't too bad, even with one HDD mounted in the case already. The rear fan also uses the expanding plugs, but it much easier to reach since it is wide open. They easily could have put a 92mm fan back there though, so that would be a good improvement on future cases or maybe a mod at some point in the future.
Anyway, that's about it.
To sum up - I'm very happy with the case now that I've got it together and intalled the new fans. I don't think the slide out Mobo tray is worth much, since the case is so roomy anyway, and I do like the HDD grommets even though it makes it difficult to intall the drives. The documentation isn't great (no good pin labels on power, reset, or HDD LED plugs), but I think all the connectors had the colored wire on pin one, so I guessed that the colored wire was + and that seemed to work. I wish the 1394 connector used a header instaed of a pass through, and I would have liked to see all three fans on the speed controller (and a 92mm fan in back, which there was plenty of room for). I'm a bit disappointed that I'll have to paint the mesh in front, but it's not that big a deal. It just would have been nice to know what I was getting before hand.
Oh yeah, Kill Bill Vol 1 worked great on the DVD player too.
Now I just need to hold off for those NF4 Mobos before populating the case with all new stuff.
-D'oh!
First of all, I ordered the Kingwin 424-S (silver version) from Newegg. Their current pictures show the case with a black mesh grille on the front, (which is what I was hoping for) but mine arrived with a blue grille. I know the picutures used to show a blue grille, so I'm not sure what the deal is with the swith. Well, it's nothing a little black spray paint can't fix. Other than that minor problem, the case looks very nice.
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=11-170-015&depa=1
I also bought an NEC 3500 DVDRW and an Atech Flash Pro 8 card reader (both black), so I installed those along with the rest of my current system (AXP 1800+ with Zalman 7000, Soyo Dragon Plus, IBM 40GB HDD, ATI 9700pro, Seasonic Super Tornado 400).
The installation went fairly well, although I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of the pull out Mobo tray. It does help installing the mobo a little bit, but at the same time it really makes the case quite a bit weaker, and I noticed some creaking and popping of the case when I'd move it around.
The DVD and Card Reader installed easily (a sliding lock is used on the case so you don't need screws), but the HDD was a pain. The case has grommets to isolate the drive vibration, but there are no ledges to rest the drive on while installing the screws. It was a bit of a pain to hold the drive in position while trying to line up the screws and tighten them down. I would like to see some rests for the drive, maybe spaced 0.04" down from the correct postition, so the drive wouldn't touch them when you tighten the screws, but at least they'd make it easier to line up the holes. Other than the special HDD shoulder screws and the standard Mobo screws, everything else was held on by Thumbscrews. However, the thumbscrews use a different thread than is used on most other cases, so you need to be careful and be sure to use the correct screw.
The front panel USB connector has individual pins, which is good if your mobo doesn't use the standard USB pinout, but is bad if it does because trying to get all the connectors attached is a pain. The Firewire uses a pass through cable instead of a header, and is pretty thick, so it clutters things up a bit (since I currently don't have any firewire on my mobo or on a separate card). A header would be better IMO, since so many new Mobo's have internal 1394 ports these days.
The power, reset, HDD LED's, etc. are all connected to the front panel through a single connector, to help make it easier to remove the mobo tray, but since the USB connectors aren't part of that, it's kinda pointless. They should have done the Firewire and USB with the intermediate connector as well, although there could potentially be some signal integrity issues with that.
The airflow is OK, and the case comes with an 80mm exhast fan in back and two 80mm intakes in front. The two intakes are controlled by a variable speed control hidden under the bezel, and all three fans use 3 pin headers. The speed controller uses a 4 pin Molex to get the power for both front fans. There is a pass through on the 4pin, so you don't loose any PSU connections. There is also a removeable filter on the intakes, so all the air entering the case must go through the filter. It's a pretty nice setup, with one big problem: The stock fans are CRAPPY (at least mine were). They are sleeve bearing fans that spin @ 2600 or so RPM and one of my front fans was making a slight chirping sound (almost as if there were crickets outside the window of the computer room). So, even with the front speed control turned down the fans made quite a bit of noise.
Therefore, I bought 3 panaflow low speed fans from SVC (1900 RPM with hydro-wave bearings), and replaced the 3 case fans. I also turned the front fans down to the lowest setting so they are probably turning around 1200 RPM or so. With these new fans, the case is pretty quiet, although I can still hear the rear fan @ 1900 RPM. It's much better than stock though.
It's a bit of a pain to remove the front fans since they are held on by little expanding plugs. I found that by sticking a knife (or a fingernail if you are lucky) under the head of the plugs I could pop them out pretty easily. Then it was a matter of snaking the fans out thru the non-removable HDD cage. It wasn't too bad, even with one HDD mounted in the case already. The rear fan also uses the expanding plugs, but it much easier to reach since it is wide open. They easily could have put a 92mm fan back there though, so that would be a good improvement on future cases or maybe a mod at some point in the future.
Anyway, that's about it.
To sum up - I'm very happy with the case now that I've got it together and intalled the new fans. I don't think the slide out Mobo tray is worth much, since the case is so roomy anyway, and I do like the HDD grommets even though it makes it difficult to intall the drives. The documentation isn't great (no good pin labels on power, reset, or HDD LED plugs), but I think all the connectors had the colored wire on pin one, so I guessed that the colored wire was + and that seemed to work. I wish the 1394 connector used a header instaed of a pass through, and I would have liked to see all three fans on the speed controller (and a 92mm fan in back, which there was plenty of room for). I'm a bit disappointed that I'll have to paint the mesh in front, but it's not that big a deal. It just would have been nice to know what I was getting before hand.
Oh yeah, Kill Bill Vol 1 worked great on the DVD player too.
Now I just need to hold off for those NF4 Mobos before populating the case with all new stuff.
-D'oh!
