Value Case Roundup: A Look at the Affordable
by Purav Sanghani on February 1, 2005 12:35 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Raidmax ATX-268WSP
Our first contender, the 268WSP from Raidmax, is based on the design of Raidmax's Astro 268 PC case. Raidmax has a decent number of products under their belt and has a very strong position in the industry. Their products range from gaming chassis, power supplies and accessories as most case companies do, as well as budget-priced cases like the 268WSP that we have in our hands today.
External Design
At first glance, we would not have thought the 268WSP to be a value priced chassis. Raidmax has taken a simple metal case and covered it with a silver shell with a clear acrylic on top to give it a sleek look. Our sample is silver in color with chrome accents (i.e. drive bay covers and power and reset buttons).
The front bezel consists of four 5-1/4"; and two 3-1/2"; exposed drive bays, which we see on most mid-tower cases today. The bottom half of the bezel holds the power and reset buttons as well as the power and HDD activity LEDs, which are lined up vertically down the center of the case.
At the bottom of the bezel, Raidmax has implemented a fold down door to hide the dual USB ports as well as cutouts to install audio in/out and two FireWire ports. Being a value-priced case, we don't expect the manufacturer to add in all of the little features, but making a case with all of the auxiliary ports included would bring it a few points in the end.
The right side panel has nothing interesting to look at, but the left side panel has a rectangular window to show off the rig, as well as 80mm fan vents at the bottom of the panel. They seem to be placed in some efficient spots to exhaust air from certain components. Taking the side panels off may be slightly difficult, since there is no indentation to get a good grip and slide it back.
Internal Design
As we take the left side panel off of the 268WSP, we notice that the side mounted fans are indeed exhaust fans, which will most certainly help move out warm air created by the graphics card and hard disk drives to improve temperature conditions.
At the front of the case, we see that the 268WSP has room for up to four HDDs and two more 3-1/2"; drives such as floppy drives or memory card readers. Above the 3-1/2"; drive bays are four 5-1/4"; drive bays. Neither set of bays is tool-less, which we weren't expecting anyway.
We also noticed that the slots on the sides of the 5-1/4"; drive bays are a bit wide for the normal mounting screws provided with cases. We tested these out and though they do not pose a significant threat, we wondered why they were cut out this way. The 3-1/2"; drive bays have the standard holes with the top two having standard width slots in which to mount devices.
The motherboard tray is somewhat flexible in that it accepts ATX form factor motherboards up to 12"; x 10.5";. To mount in a board, we use the supplied screw-in stand-offs. There are plenty of holes provided to support a variety of motherboards from various companies.
The expansion slots are kept simple. To use the slots, we need to punch out the factory covers. From there, we use screws to mount the add-in cards in place, which proves to be secure enough for typical applications.
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johnsonx - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
First, thank you for this article. Yes, for our own personal rigs a nicer case is best, but many of us build relatively generic office computers as part of our jobs. Mostly I build Micro-ATX boxes using the InWin L545 micro-tower chassis, and some with the newer InWin BT-series desktop/tower convertable, but I do often need to build something more full sized.My request, like one or more others said:
Please, at least a few words about the power supply included with each case.
If I have to buy a $25 case and then add a $40 power supply, I might as well have just bought one of the low-end Antec cases for $60 that includes an Antec 350 watt power supply. At least then I know I've got a good power supply. Sure, most of the Antec cases aren't exactly attractive, but they don't offend either.
Also, it might be nice if your features table also listed the steel thickness of each case. Nothing says cheap like flimsy steel.
LX - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
My info is a bit outdated.The last case+PSU that appealed to me was the Sonata.
Is there something better (quieter, cooler, better PSU, whatever) now at the same price range?
Thanks.
tokath - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Some of those cases ie the linkworld have horrible power supplies in them. A company I used to work for sold them, we had a ton of them back and most of those systems were low level athlon and celeron systems. Heh even with raidmax and powmax we didnt have as huge of a failure rate and thats not saying much :)Pollock - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
I hear you, #9. However, at this point, I think it's safe to say that article has been canned.Glassmaster - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
#11, 13: Every single one of those PSUs included in those cases in on my list of PSUs you shouldn't use (for an Athlon 64 system, don't know about any other platforms). I have compiled the list based on PSUs that I have seen found to be underpowerd/unreliable during 6 months of troubleshooting Athlon 64 systems in the offical AMD forums. A PSU was included if replacing the PSU solved the POSTing/Booting/Stability issues, or if the PSU was clearly overrated. I would not trust even $500 of hardware to any of these PSUs.The article should come with a disclaimer warning not to use any of these PSUs in a Athlon 64 and also probably a P4 or some of the earlier systems that others have suggested. Cheap PSUs, like these, are much more likely damage a user's system when they are over stressed and fail, than are quality units. It's not worth having even a few people have their hardware ruined (as we have seen many times on the AMD Athlon 64 board), just trying to save $20-30.
I would also like to see a PSU roundup.
Glassmaster.
Bonesdad - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
"Personally I find most of these cases more aesthetically pleasing then the gaudy and flashy hyped up "gamer" cases typically reviewd by AnandTech. " - from #30Gotta agree here...why does this site continue to review that silly looking crap? There are plenty of professional, excellent cases out there that deserve to be reviewed in a professional way, like AT does. I hope never to see another gaudy, childish PC case on this site again.
Do more case reviews AT, just not "gamer" cases.
flexy - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page2.htmlevercase 4252 mentioned and reviewed there, also, they used this case for their "StealthPC" mod.
For everyone on a budget and wanting a GOOD case i seriously recommend looking at this case.
flexy - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
i cant believe that you left out the Evercase 4252 which is only $32 and got excellent reviews at many places. Overclockers.com and everyone raves about this case and it has *excellent* airflow and i saw it even listed on http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/e...as "thermally advanced".,
The evercase 4252 also has a 120mm fan in the back which provides excellent airflow.
I cannot understand that you gave the award to a case with only a measly 80mm fan...the next case i will get for sure will have a 120mm fan in the back to provide sufficient airflow if needed.
Also...some people's argument: "If you buy a $30 case then you probably put in cr*p compnents"
I just can laugh...i especially laugh at people who buy $300 cases and then a $160 video card and a $100 CPU as main components in their systems :)
The last case i had (an Enlight 7252) did a great job for almost 4 years now...including the PSU which was included...and the case incl. a decent CPU (for the XP1900 i had w/ 9800Pro) was only $52.
My next build will have ALL high-end components (XP850XT PE, A64 3500+, Enermax PSU, OCZ Ram, XP-120)...and since i am saving the money and dont spend on unnecessary "gadgets" i am still reusing my old Enlight case..knowing it might not be optimal.
If i feel like it (maybe in a few months) i might get the Evercase 4252 w. a nice variable 120mm in back, and this case is also only $30 as said before.
I recommend you doing research first before laughing at people who spend $30 or so on a case...its only a freakin' case...but as said also in the budget section there are GOOD ones !
Rand - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Personally I find most of these cases more aesthetically pleasing then the gaudy and flashy hyped up "gamer" cases typically reviewd by AnandTech.The Raidmax case looks quite nice IMHO, in terms of pure aesthetics it's an excellent design. Asia Pro model isn't bad for someone that wants something a bit more flashy. The Foxconn model looks halfway decent aesthetically.
Even the CodeGen and Powmax cases don't look too bad even though I don't care for them myself.
Linkworld 3210 looks like a fine option for those that want an easily portable case, that looks a bit more showoffish then the RaidMax case.
For the price these cases sell at, as long as they don't have too many sharp edges and the case/PSU holding isn't overly flimsy I'd be perfectly willing to use a few of them.
These cheaper models may not be toolless, but IMHO that's not particularly a big loss.
Using a few screws isn't particularly stressful, given the cost savings.
I'm also not sure I agree with other posters that anyone looking at a budget case should be buying Dell.
Dell's cases aren't typically any more aesthetically pleasing as these are, and at least going DIY even with a budget case you can buy whatever components you wish with no worries of any proprietary hardware, or a motherboard that's pretty much limited to what's already installed.
A handful of these cases seem perfectly acceptable budget offerings that I wouldn't feel at all disadvantaged by using in my own systems.
Maybe not as nice as something like the Antec Sonata, but given the cost savings their quite decent.
My only real complaint about this review is that a few of these cases come stock with a PSU... yet that's not even mentioned let alone tested.
Granted the stock PSU's are likely to be pretty crappy generic models, but if someone wants to build a cheap PC from some older PIII era hardware they have lying around it might be adequate.
It's not altogether impossible for a low end case to come with a half way decent PSU suitable for low to midrange hardware either, while it's rare I have seen budget cases that come stock with some an older 300W Fortron PSU, whose budget PSU's are usually quite decent.
epiv - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
I built many computers for family members and friends. I would never use very cheap stuffs for computers I built. I do not think it is worth my time to built crap.If someone just want a cheap computer. I would just order a Dell for them. I ordered a few Dell systems without OS for less than $300 for people need cheap computers.