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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DAPUNISHER - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...Has side and top fans included and goes for $31. Also has room for 1 intake and 2 exhaust and good conservative styling.
DaveA - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
oh and the athenatech a602 goes for $48.50 on newegg. i recommend it over any of the cases reviewed here.DaveA - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
how come you didnt include the athenatech a602? you recommended it in your recent budget guide. it has 120mm fan slots in the front and rear of the case, a 92mm cpu duct on the side of the case which can take a 92mm fan. it has 2 usb 2.0 ports on the front along with microphone and speaker ports. its almost completely tooless as well. has a removable hard drive cage and no sharp edges.Spacecomber - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
I don't think that I can see making use of any but a couple of these cases reviewed, even for an inexpensive system. I mean there's inexpensive and then there's cheap, and most of these cases exude cheapness. For instance, I can't believe that a few drilled out holes in sheet metal can provide a proper fan vent; it looks more like what you would use for straining your spaghetti noodles.I guess that I'm also not of the school that screwless is better. I mean operating a screwdriver is pretty simple; often more so than trying to figure out how all the various clips and latches are suppose to work. I usually end up feeling like a system that uses screws, instead of these various clips, is really assembled and not just hung together.
So far, I haven't found a case and power supply (bought seperately or together) that is as good as and less expensive than the Antec 1650, which is my choice for entry level and basic systems. $55 for a case that includes 120mm fan, Antec SL-350 power supply, and side CPU air guide.
Antec just needs to start upgrading their power supplies to more models with 24 pin main power cables and 6 pin PCI-E video card connectors, but I'm talking about their cases and power supplies aimed at higher end systems, now.
Anyway, that's just my 2 cents worth. I always enjoy looking at any review that tries to focus on practical hardware such as this review does.
Space
sdfg - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Actually, the Chenming case looks very similar to the Antec Lanboy, only steel and sans power supply.LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
The power supplies of these review units are horrible, and do not in any way represent good additional value, IMO. Every enthusiast forum I know of rates RaidMax and Powmax PSU's as utter crap. I noticed that at least one of them only delivered 12 amps on the 12v rail, not even close to what Barton core Athlon XP systems need for reasonable stability. I'm not sure I even trust the ratings on the stickers though, as cheap power supplies tend to list overly optimistic specs.For not much more than this, you can buy an Antec SX630II or SX635II case that may not be flashy, but is built more solidly, won't cut you, and has an Antec power supply. If you're serious about making a good system though, buy your power supply separately from the case. With cases, you really do get what you pay for, and the Chenming was the only case I saw in this review that I didn't think was crap.
MrEMan - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
What is it these days with all the cases being mini/mid/full size towers? Unless you put the tower under the desk, it takes up more desktop real estate than putting the monitor on top of a desktop case (which also raises the monitor to eye level, which is preferred, unless the user has bi-focals).I don't want a tower and I don't want an XPC.
I want a standard desktop case with multiple bay options which can hold either a 19" monitor or a flat panel (neither of which an XPC will do apart from a balancing act).
Besides, since heat rises, vertical orientated expansion slots are better than the heat accumulating horizontal orientated slots in all tower cases.
avijay - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Good review. Its sad to note though for cases with a PSU, the PSU doesn't get much coverage despite requests everytime a case review is published. No indication of the reliability of the PSU that comes along with the case. Usually everyone who goes looking for a case would like to buy one with a PSU if available and it would be good to know the pros and cons of PSUs and also how they perform. Everyone knows a good PSU is as important for a stable system as any of the components. I'd really like to see how these PSUs (and for that matter some of the other well known PSUs) perform when put to the test.Possible to do a PSU roundup? If PSUs cant be covered in case reviews, please cover them separately.
Dranzerk - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
I would rather buy one of these than all the stupid expensive voltron looking "gamer" cases on the market. I saw a case that looked like someone puked up crayons they ate all over it..it was $90! lolNice article.
eetnoyer - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Still waiting on the "affordable" memory review.