- Sep 26, 2011
- 9,272
- 5,326
- 136
What is it? MicroATX case with mounts for two 120mm fans and one 80mm fan on the side panel (more on that later).
Price - $30
How it arrived -
Came double boxed with the case held by two styrofoam end caps.
Had a small dent at the top by the PSU (more on that later)
It came with all the required screws, important since everything is held together by screws.
All included cables were of decent enough quality and long enough to reach 90% of the motherboard.
Distance from rear of case to hard drive cage area - 9 1/2 inches
The included Rosewill 120mm fan is LOUD and moves a lot of air.
There is room for a 120\80 fan up front. If you leave the rear fan at 12v and add an additional Rosewill fan at 12v, this lightweight slightly pliable case will just need a set of wings to fly about the room.
Undervolt fan(s) to 5v and it is relatively quiet though you reduce its abilty to fly about the room.
The side panel comes with a funnel that points to the cpu "area". With the stock intel heat sink, you can actually attach an 80mm fan to the sidepanel and attach the funnel to the fan directing air at the VRM and the CPU. If you want to intall an aftermarket tower heatsink then the funnel obviously gets chucked. Low profile heatsinks may or may not fit (funnel is adjustable to a degree and the end piece does come off.
The slots out back has some issues with some add in cards. Its not that deep so you may have to trim some metal off the backplate of whatever gpu\soundcard\wireless to get it sit properly. They have this retention bracket that pretend to keep your cards secured but you are better off just screwing them in the old fashioned way.
The front panel has doors for the top two 5.25 bays.
Lets establish the idea that doors suck. You have to make sure you have a drive whose button lines up with the plastic piece and you have to sit there for 10 minutes making sure the drive is position properly.
Note: The Rosewill - R101 is pretty much the same case but uses traditional popouts.
The case I received had the dent but due to the cases weak metal I was able to bend everything back and squeeze the PSU in there.
The hard drive cage area becomes useless with most matx boards once you have a fan out front. There are two bays available above the fan and below the 5.25 area but the holes would not line up properly with the hard drives (fortunately I had 5.25-3.5 brackets lying around so hard drives went up there.
There is wee bit of space for cable management by the front fan next to the hard drive cage.
The motherboard mounts to the case using integrated raise mounts. You dont have any choice here.
No issue with cables.
I didn't experience any sharp edges.
Included front panel usb port shorted caused a short.
That pissed me off.
Disconnected that real quick. I don't really need it.
Asrock z68m/usb3
i3-2100 (stock heatsink)
hd4830
Antec Earthwatts 380
Idle temps with 2 undervolted 120mm rosewill fans (bought a 4 pack for $9) and one near silent low airflow 80mm fan.
Temps are mid 30c's for all components idle
system loads at 41c
cpu loads in the high 40-low 50's range
Room temperature is low to mid 20's (celcius)
Verdict - If its on sale for $20 its a good deal. Good airflow with an overall "meh" score
Price - $30
How it arrived -
Came double boxed with the case held by two styrofoam end caps.
Had a small dent at the top by the PSU (more on that later)
It came with all the required screws, important since everything is held together by screws.
All included cables were of decent enough quality and long enough to reach 90% of the motherboard.
Distance from rear of case to hard drive cage area - 9 1/2 inches
The included Rosewill 120mm fan is LOUD and moves a lot of air.
There is room for a 120\80 fan up front. If you leave the rear fan at 12v and add an additional Rosewill fan at 12v, this lightweight slightly pliable case will just need a set of wings to fly about the room.
Undervolt fan(s) to 5v and it is relatively quiet though you reduce its abilty to fly about the room.
The side panel comes with a funnel that points to the cpu "area". With the stock intel heat sink, you can actually attach an 80mm fan to the sidepanel and attach the funnel to the fan directing air at the VRM and the CPU. If you want to intall an aftermarket tower heatsink then the funnel obviously gets chucked. Low profile heatsinks may or may not fit (funnel is adjustable to a degree and the end piece does come off.
The slots out back has some issues with some add in cards. Its not that deep so you may have to trim some metal off the backplate of whatever gpu\soundcard\wireless to get it sit properly. They have this retention bracket that pretend to keep your cards secured but you are better off just screwing them in the old fashioned way.
The front panel has doors for the top two 5.25 bays.
Lets establish the idea that doors suck. You have to make sure you have a drive whose button lines up with the plastic piece and you have to sit there for 10 minutes making sure the drive is position properly.
Note: The Rosewill - R101 is pretty much the same case but uses traditional popouts.
The case I received had the dent but due to the cases weak metal I was able to bend everything back and squeeze the PSU in there.
The hard drive cage area becomes useless with most matx boards once you have a fan out front. There are two bays available above the fan and below the 5.25 area but the holes would not line up properly with the hard drives (fortunately I had 5.25-3.5 brackets lying around so hard drives went up there.
There is wee bit of space for cable management by the front fan next to the hard drive cage.
The motherboard mounts to the case using integrated raise mounts. You dont have any choice here.
No issue with cables.
I didn't experience any sharp edges.
Included front panel usb port shorted caused a short.
That pissed me off.
Disconnected that real quick. I don't really need it.
Asrock z68m/usb3
i3-2100 (stock heatsink)
hd4830
Antec Earthwatts 380
Idle temps with 2 undervolted 120mm rosewill fans (bought a 4 pack for $9) and one near silent low airflow 80mm fan.
Temps are mid 30c's for all components idle
system loads at 41c
cpu loads in the high 40-low 50's range
Room temperature is low to mid 20's (celcius)
Verdict - If its on sale for $20 its a good deal. Good airflow with an overall "meh" score
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