Kingwin KT-436-WM Case: The Mod Dream

Features

The 436 is simply loaded with features, some of which, Kingwin hardly makes an effort to market at all.  The case relies heavily on thumbscrews. Side panels, the drive bay, all PCI expansion slots and the acrylic front bezel can be removed without any tools.  It certainly was enjoyable to plug a new SoundBlaster Audigy in the case and not have to look for a screwdriver.  Again, this was another excellent feature found for this case.

Cooling was provided by 2 ball bearing 80mm Intake fans in the front of the case, and 2 ball bearing 80mm exhaust fans in the rear. Like we mentioned before, these fans are located directly in front of the hard drive bay.  Unfortunately, we could not find product specifications on these fans anywhere.  From equipment in the lab, we were able to rate the fans at around 2000RPM.  While not exactly Vantec Stealth fans, they are fairly quiet, and should be able to provide at least 30 cubic feet per minute of airflow.  Another neat feature of this case was the foam filter over the front grate on the intake.  Removing the cover reveals this foam which can be removed and cleaned if necessary.  An unusual and unexpected bonus was the LED fan on the top of the case, which we will talk more about later.

While still on the subject of fans, we also have to commend the 436 for minimizing its wiring by daisy-chaining both of the paired fans together.  This could be a problem if you eventually plan on upgrading your fans, but the solid performance and low noise doesn’t immediately give us any reason to replace the fans.

In today’s case market, it has become a real sin to not have a removable motherboard tray. Our previously review ThermalTake A6000B, which was based on the Chenming tower design, did not have a removable tray.  However, the A6000B is an enormous case, with lots of room to work with.  Most other cases are not as roomy.  Taking a page from Lian Li’s cases, the 436’s motherboard tray pulls out the rear of the case with all the components still attached to the motherboard.  Anyone who has ever worked on a Mac G3/G4 knows what a nice feature this is!

A trend we are seeing in the high end case market is the lack of an included power supply unit.  Rather than locking the potential buyer into a particular power supply, case resellers have been leaving them out and letting buyers decide for themselves.  The 436 takes this approach to case configuration, shipping without any power supply.