For as long as I have lived the cases I have built my computers with have always been oblong cases, big or small.
Vertically or horizontally they were always very oblong and back in 2003 I now look back onto them as antiquated plasticky cases but at least they weren’t beige when I built with them even the budget options weren’t beige
Of course the point here is that case design wasn’t that ingenious up until a few years back they remained pretty much the same internally.
They had the same 2x 80mm rear fans or god forbid, 2x 60mm rear fans and a single 80mm LED fan up front that made it look like a very cheap and poor Lian Li clone and that is how I describe the case I had back in 2003.
It was badly designed had rough edges everywhere and had very poor cooling even for a Pentium 3 800MHz.
Fast forward a few years and CoolerMaster*made really whacking cases, they weren’t plasticky looked just nice and had great cooling
Thank god a few years down the road case designers got a little bit more creative and came up with cuboid cases that were capable of great cooling and fantastic versatility and one of the first ones is this :
It was brilliant but it had a few flaws, first was it wasn’t light (no really it wasn’t but it made a great chair on the move) secondly it was quite large (almost as large as the “lesser” brother the HAF912) and actually quite a squeeze inside but the airflow was quite excellent if you put 120mm fans on the ceiling (if you have the non windowed version) and not the garbage 200mm fan CM loves to include in their cases.
I’m not going to start a history lesson on all cuboid cases as Lian Li had many before but they were out of reach to most of us due to their staggering price in those days and I’m going to start the whole point of this review is about a new cuboid case from Deepcool, the Steam Castle.
The idea is not new and it’s pretty much the same internally but the Steam Castle is a lot more spacious in the motherboard area which is something the HAF XB lacked whether the bottom or the top.
This case’s design is not new either as it’s actually the same case as the Aerocool DS Cube and the Xigmatek Aquila
Beginning with the front it is just a grille with Steampunk elements, much less than I hoped for actually.
Turning to the rear we find a 120mm or 140mm fan slot which is the same as the other two aforementioned cases and 2 water cooling grommets (Does anyone still use them?).
We also get a standard ATX PSU bay and an ingenious arrangement toolless PCIE bay
The real problems start here. Turns out it’s really just a grille and it doesn’t even have a filter for pete’s sake. Plus you’re either stuck with a 200mm fan or a 140mm fan or a 120mm fan and the intake vents are pitifully for the lack of definition.
There’s one 5.25″ external bay and a 3.5″ external bay but the 3.5″ external bay hasn’t got a cutout on the exterior and the case mould comes with ridiculously old fashioned “pop open with screwdriver” panels
It’s the semi-glossy side panels that attracts fingerprints like there’s no tomorrow and the audio jacks that you can’t tell apart*and then*there’s the flushed reset button that takes a bit of work to find and press it. I quite like the knob which is actually the controller for the LEDs up top and the fans as well as the smoked side window.
*****
The top panel doesn’t fare any better though as the 2x 120mm fan slots have basically only that small grille at the top to exhaust/intake and it’s frankly, love or hate and in our case we think it’s hideous. The connections to the LEDs are done with a single cable though and that is great. If they were 80mm fan slots as well then they’d be more useful but alas, no.
Lastly there’s the PSU filter which is actually a nice fine filter not a coarse plastic mesh that many companies use for low-end cases. Even Deepcool included.
The internals have a raised roof so you can install fans without obstructing anything or remove the top drive bay and install a 240 AIO. Interestingly the Captain series of AIOs from Deepcool have design elements from the Steam Castle but the issue with installing it in this case is that you wouldn’t be able to see it because it will just be blocked by the GPU that you’ll most likely install if you bought a Intel motherboard and CPU because their integrated graphics*definitely won’t have enough grunt for a gaming machine. Not even close and then there’s the issue of video quality with Intel graphics
But we have another problem boys, the right side panel is just a cluster of cables. JUST a cluster of cables waiting to be a problem in cable management
The problem with this case is the build quality … When I took it out of the box 2 rivets were loose and fell off not long after. It could only be my case that’s plagued with this problem but it’s not a good sign.
The front 200mm fan is 25mm thick. That’s honestly too thin for a 200mm fan for any useful static pressure! Even a Silverstone 180mm fan is 32mm thick.
That said there are no specs on the fans from Deepcool and that is a big shame. But I would say the rear fan is about 1000rpm if it’s anything like the rear fans on the Tesseract.
2x 3.5″ HDD bays, 2x 2.5″ HDD bays flank the bottom along with an accessory box which is shipped with attached to one of the 3.5″ HDD bays to prevent it from jumping around in the case.
If anything the cable cutouts are pathetic for the graphics side and one of them is ABOVE the 3.5″ HDD *bays along with a cutout below the socket that is absolutely useless.
What I do like about it though are the HDD mounting mechanisms
The 2.5″ bay is done with installing four rubber mounts with screws and sliding the HDD/SSD into the bay. But a SSD can be placed anywhere so it’s mainly for HDDs only.
The 3.5″ bay is even better, I’ve seen this on a Phanteks case but nowhere else. None of those horrible 2 clip arrangement or the flexible HDD tray which is very hard to take HDDs out of and they are bad at mechanically isolating the HDD from the case
The accessories box turns out to be underwhelming with screws that look almost exactly the same and not even categorized.
And installing any GPU longer than 260mm in the first or second PCIe slots requires removal of the 3.5″ external bay but you can install it back provided the GPU isn’t any taller than the standard GPUs.
On the left is a fully installed system and it is a a bit packed and hard to navigate through as you have to plan the installation really well as the cables for the I/O panel is just long enough to reach the other end of the case with just a bit of slack with the right side panel closed.
The motherboard used here is a ASUS A88XM-A which has the USB3.0 header on the bottom end of the motherboard making installation quite a bit harder. This isn’t a fault of the case it’s ASUS’s design flaw of the motherboard
And oh, the side panel allows you to see the mess of cables underneath. Bummer.
Conclusion
The design is a bit hate or love and a bit quirky plus it has flaws but the biggest problem is the price … at 159$ I would have bought the Aerocool DS Cube in the first place which is at a more sensible 125$ and it is the same case to begin with. For around the same price of the Steam Castle I can buy the Phanteks Enthoo Pro (which is what I am using)
It also has the standard horizontal cube issues with installation as the bottom partition is impossible to get at if your power supply is any longer than 140mm.
While I do like the thought put into this case unfortunately it isn’t a good case but*the compact dimensions on the outside but great layout on the inside means you may be able to get a whacking LC setup with a bit of modding inside this without issues.
Cooling is excellent plus the case is really quiet when it comes to performance for a small case.
Would I buy one though? No. I wouldn’t buy either of the 3 cases. I would rather buy a Cooler Master N200 but that thing hardly has any cable management space except in the bottom and actually I like the 3 sibling cases more than any Bitfenix mini cases
So the best recommended case for mATX in my opinion is the Cooler Master N200
Read More: http://ift.tt/1r6A5Y2
Vertically or horizontally they were always very oblong and back in 2003 I now look back onto them as antiquated plasticky cases but at least they weren’t beige when I built with them even the budget options weren’t beige
Of course the point here is that case design wasn’t that ingenious up until a few years back they remained pretty much the same internally.
They had the same 2x 80mm rear fans or god forbid, 2x 60mm rear fans and a single 80mm LED fan up front that made it look like a very cheap and poor Lian Li clone and that is how I describe the case I had back in 2003.
It was badly designed had rough edges everywhere and had very poor cooling even for a Pentium 3 800MHz.
Fast forward a few years and CoolerMaster*made really whacking cases, they weren’t plasticky looked just nice and had great cooling
Thank god a few years down the road case designers got a little bit more creative and came up with cuboid cases that were capable of great cooling and fantastic versatility and one of the first ones is this :
It was brilliant but it had a few flaws, first was it wasn’t light (no really it wasn’t but it made a great chair on the move) secondly it was quite large (almost as large as the “lesser” brother the HAF912) and actually quite a squeeze inside but the airflow was quite excellent if you put 120mm fans on the ceiling (if you have the non windowed version) and not the garbage 200mm fan CM loves to include in their cases.
I’m not going to start a history lesson on all cuboid cases as Lian Li had many before but they were out of reach to most of us due to their staggering price in those days and I’m going to start the whole point of this review is about a new cuboid case from Deepcool, the Steam Castle.
The idea is not new and it’s pretty much the same internally but the Steam Castle is a lot more spacious in the motherboard area which is something the HAF XB lacked whether the bottom or the top.
This case’s design is not new either as it’s actually the same case as the Aerocool DS Cube and the Xigmatek Aquila
Beginning with the front it is just a grille with Steampunk elements, much less than I hoped for actually.
Turning to the rear we find a 120mm or 140mm fan slot which is the same as the other two aforementioned cases and 2 water cooling grommets (Does anyone still use them?).
We also get a standard ATX PSU bay and an ingenious arrangement toolless PCIE bay
The real problems start here. Turns out it’s really just a grille and it doesn’t even have a filter for pete’s sake. Plus you’re either stuck with a 200mm fan or a 140mm fan or a 120mm fan and the intake vents are pitifully for the lack of definition.
There’s one 5.25″ external bay and a 3.5″ external bay but the 3.5″ external bay hasn’t got a cutout on the exterior and the case mould comes with ridiculously old fashioned “pop open with screwdriver” panels
It’s the semi-glossy side panels that attracts fingerprints like there’s no tomorrow and the audio jacks that you can’t tell apart*and then*there’s the flushed reset button that takes a bit of work to find and press it. I quite like the knob which is actually the controller for the LEDs up top and the fans as well as the smoked side window.
The top panel doesn’t fare any better though as the 2x 120mm fan slots have basically only that small grille at the top to exhaust/intake and it’s frankly, love or hate and in our case we think it’s hideous. The connections to the LEDs are done with a single cable though and that is great. If they were 80mm fan slots as well then they’d be more useful but alas, no.
Lastly there’s the PSU filter which is actually a nice fine filter not a coarse plastic mesh that many companies use for low-end cases. Even Deepcool included.
The internals have a raised roof so you can install fans without obstructing anything or remove the top drive bay and install a 240 AIO. Interestingly the Captain series of AIOs from Deepcool have design elements from the Steam Castle but the issue with installing it in this case is that you wouldn’t be able to see it because it will just be blocked by the GPU that you’ll most likely install if you bought a Intel motherboard and CPU because their integrated graphics*definitely won’t have enough grunt for a gaming machine. Not even close and then there’s the issue of video quality with Intel graphics
But we have another problem boys, the right side panel is just a cluster of cables. JUST a cluster of cables waiting to be a problem in cable management
The problem with this case is the build quality … When I took it out of the box 2 rivets were loose and fell off not long after. It could only be my case that’s plagued with this problem but it’s not a good sign.
The front 200mm fan is 25mm thick. That’s honestly too thin for a 200mm fan for any useful static pressure! Even a Silverstone 180mm fan is 32mm thick.
That said there are no specs on the fans from Deepcool and that is a big shame. But I would say the rear fan is about 1000rpm if it’s anything like the rear fans on the Tesseract.
2x 3.5″ HDD bays, 2x 2.5″ HDD bays flank the bottom along with an accessory box which is shipped with attached to one of the 3.5″ HDD bays to prevent it from jumping around in the case.
If anything the cable cutouts are pathetic for the graphics side and one of them is ABOVE the 3.5″ HDD *bays along with a cutout below the socket that is absolutely useless.
What I do like about it though are the HDD mounting mechanisms
The 2.5″ bay is done with installing four rubber mounts with screws and sliding the HDD/SSD into the bay. But a SSD can be placed anywhere so it’s mainly for HDDs only.
The 3.5″ bay is even better, I’ve seen this on a Phanteks case but nowhere else. None of those horrible 2 clip arrangement or the flexible HDD tray which is very hard to take HDDs out of and they are bad at mechanically isolating the HDD from the case
The accessories box turns out to be underwhelming with screws that look almost exactly the same and not even categorized.
And installing any GPU longer than 260mm in the first or second PCIe slots requires removal of the 3.5″ external bay but you can install it back provided the GPU isn’t any taller than the standard GPUs.
On the left is a fully installed system and it is a a bit packed and hard to navigate through as you have to plan the installation really well as the cables for the I/O panel is just long enough to reach the other end of the case with just a bit of slack with the right side panel closed.
The motherboard used here is a ASUS A88XM-A which has the USB3.0 header on the bottom end of the motherboard making installation quite a bit harder. This isn’t a fault of the case it’s ASUS’s design flaw of the motherboard
And oh, the side panel allows you to see the mess of cables underneath. Bummer.
Conclusion
The design is a bit hate or love and a bit quirky plus it has flaws but the biggest problem is the price … at 159$ I would have bought the Aerocool DS Cube in the first place which is at a more sensible 125$ and it is the same case to begin with. For around the same price of the Steam Castle I can buy the Phanteks Enthoo Pro (which is what I am using)
It also has the standard horizontal cube issues with installation as the bottom partition is impossible to get at if your power supply is any longer than 140mm.
While I do like the thought put into this case unfortunately it isn’t a good case but*the compact dimensions on the outside but great layout on the inside means you may be able to get a whacking LC setup with a bit of modding inside this without issues.
Cooling is excellent plus the case is really quiet when it comes to performance for a small case.
Would I buy one though? No. I wouldn’t buy either of the 3 cases. I would rather buy a Cooler Master N200 but that thing hardly has any cable management space except in the bottom and actually I like the 3 sibling cases more than any Bitfenix mini cases
So the best recommended case for mATX in my opinion is the Cooler Master N200
Read More: http://ift.tt/1r6A5Y2
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