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The Final Five: Our Last Round Of Mainstream Gaming Cases
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1. Antec Solo II

Antec surprised us by sending a member of its silence-oriented Sonata series as its second choice for our mainstream gaming chassis round-up. Can a design with solid front and side panels stand up to the ventilation standards set by the company's own Eleven Hundred?

Uncovered external drive bays differentiate the Solo II from Antec’s regular Sonatas, while low-sitting front panel connectors indicate that this particular model is designed to sit atop, rather than under, a desk.

2. Solo II Quattro...Ports

Two USB 2.0 ports supplement the USB 3.0 connectors we were looking for from the cases in this round-up. Though the shields on our review sample were slightly bent, we had no trouble pushing them back into place by inserting a thumb drive.

A lighted ring surrounding the power button serves as the Solo II’s power-on indicator.

3. Behind Antec’s Solo II

Unlike Antec’s game-themed designs, the Solo II features both a top-mounted power supply and a seven-slot expansion panel. While that may win over traditionalists, we also sympathize with the folks concerned that the power supply is situated at the hottest part of the case.

Anticipating those complaints, Antec placed a vent above the power supply, recommending that PSUs with bottom-mounted intake fans be installed with the fan on top.

4. Inside The Solo II

A 120 mm exhaust fan pulls air from every hole in the chassis, without the benefit of directional control. Optional intake fans can partially alleviate this, though their air is limited to whatever flows through tiny slots around the face panel’s edge.

Noise reduction is the Solo II’s primary goal, though Antec is confident that its submission will also survive the rigors of our thermal tests.

Also seen from this angle, four 5.25” drive rails are clipped to the case’s floor for easy storage.

5. Solo II Cable Management

A top-mounted power supply doesn’t need room to run its main power cable behind the motherboard tray, which is good since the Solo II has little room there.

If you have long cables, you'll probably have to stuff some of them in the space above the optical drive bay up top in the traditional, somewhat-messy fashion.

6. Multiple Hard Drive Mounting Options

Three 3.5” drive trays employ silicon grommets to prevent vibration from rattling the chassis. Those same trays also have secondary holes to accommodate 2.5” drives.

If you want even more vibration dampening, the hooks on the sides of the drive cage hold rubber bands. Twisting them 90° lets you insert drives between them to create a suspension-style mounting for only two drives in the same space.

7. A Hinged Face Plate

Drive access isn’t encumbered by a door, but that doesn’t mean the Solo II lacks one. Instead, the entire face swings open, making it easier to insert 5.25” drive rails and clean the dust filter.

8. More Doors

One of the Solo II’s dust filters is mounted on a door that swings down to allow drive tray access.

Drive grommets have to be repositioned to smaller holes if you want to install 2.5” drives.

9. Corsair 400R

Gaming-themed features of Corsair's 400R include two front, two top, and two side fan mounts. Half of them are populated by fans that Corsair includes. That combination should be good enough to cool all but the most extreme graphics card configurations.

10. 400R Ports

Though the 400R has only two USB ports up front, they're both SuperSpeed-capable. Corsair also retains the FireWire port typically missing from modern cases, and features a button to control the case's included LED fans.

11. Behind Corsair’s 400R

Overclocking is the best way to overcome performance bottlenecks, so Corsair outfits the 400R with four grommets to accommodate high-capacity external liquid cooler tubing.

A number of motherboard and graphics card combinations end up hanging a third (or fourth) card one slot beneath the motherboard’s bottom. So, Corsair also adds an eighth expansion slot there.

A large protruding section of the right side-panel creates copious room for cable storage space behind the motherboard tray.

12. Inside The 400R

Corsair's 400R supports up to six hard drives on removable trays, in addition to four 5.25” external drives.

From this angle, we can also see part of the 120 mm bottom intake fan mount, located a couple inches forward from the power supply’s intake vent.

13. 400R Intakes

LED backlighting on the 400R’s twin 120 mm intake fans adds some flair, though a switch on the case’s front panel lets you turn them off if you want.

14. Atop The 400R

Corsair designed its 400R to support two 120 or 140 mm fans, spacing both sets of holes appropriately for dual-fan radiators.

Yet, with only 1.3” of clearance in both directions (above and in front of the board), you might find it difficult to mount anything thicker than a pair of fans there. We suggest checking your motherboard for DIMM and sink clearance before attempting to pair this case with the firm’s Hydro H100 kit.

15. 400R Cable Management

A moderate amount of motherboard tray offset complements the 400R’s larger side panel, creating lots of hidden space for cable routing.

16. 400R Filtration

An extra-long dust filter on the 400R’s bottom panel covers its optional intake fan mount, as well as its power supply intake fan. It slides easily out the case's rear edge for cleaning.

The 400R’s front panel also has filter mesh, though it’s not as easily removed.

17. In Win Buc

At least from a marketing standpoint, In Win seems to be two companies. Its Web site is split between stodgy office-oriented products and its newer In Win Style brand.

Deep contours and mesh panels classify the Buc as one of In Win's Style cases, though a centrally-located 3.5” external drive bay harkens to the company’s past. We like that touch of tradition, since we still own a few 3.5” bay panel devices.

Eight holes on the mesh side panel allow builders to add two 120 mm fans, if they choose.

18. Buc Ports

In Win adds a handy storage tray atop the Buc, but complicates the use of that tray by mounting two USB 3.0 ports inside of it (presumably to be used by devices sitting in the tray). Other connectors are found on the enclosure's front panel, though. Color us confused by this design decision.

19. Behind In Win’s Buc

Sliding the Buc’s side panels back an inch or so allows them to be lifted off. Plastic pegs prevent the side panels from sliding accidentally. Instead, they're extracted by lifting the edges of tabs on each panel. If you want to lock the panels down even more securely, In Win drills screw holds near each of those plastic tabs.

Two grommeted holes along the top of the Buc’s rear panel support external liquid coolers.

20. Inside The Buc

The Buc provides five hard drive trays, in addition to four 5.25” and one 3.5” bay. Devices populating those spaces are secured via push-in pins.

Screw-less card latches for the Buc’s seven expansion slots are also visible in this shot. Screw holes offer additional security, if you need them.

21. Buc Cable Management

Space between the Buc’s motherboard tray and right side panel is barely adequate for small cables. A vertical channel between the tray and drive bays creates some room for the main power cable, though the hole you see at the very top isn't large enough to pass an ATX12V or EPS12V connector through it.

In Win adds backplane connectors to four of the case’s five 3.5” hard drive trays, and each tray is designed with offset 2.5” mounting holes to assure proper positioning of both drive sizes.

22. Buc Intake

A single 120 mm intake fan feeds cool air to the graphics card area through space between hard drive trays. A clip-on air filter reduces the likelihood that dust will eventually clog other fans.

23. Atop The Buc

The Buc’s 120 mm top-panel exhaust fan is mounted to the plastic panel itself.

Though that doesn’t leave any radiator options, In Win does make the panel easy to remove for fan service.

24. Buc Air Filtration

While the intake fan has a separate dust filter that’s a little harder to access, the Buc’s power supply dust filter that's a lot easier to clean. It slides out from the back edge of the enclosure's base.

25. MSI Ravager

Sharing structure with the firm’s Steath, MSI’s Ravager uses flatter exterior panels, alternative drive bay layout, and blue “slash” graphics to win over customers with differing aesthetic tastes and storage needs. Exterior panel design affects both noise and cooling, so we’re giving this model a separate test.

Ports are moved to the top panel, but the dual 140/120 mm fan mounts on the side panel remain identical to the Stealth.

26. Ravager Ports

The area surrounding all of those front-panel connectors would make a great storage tray, if it wasn't for the fact that there are four ports down there you don't want to get clogged with gunk. MSI includes two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 interfaces, along with a pair of audio jacks.

27. Behind MSI’s Ravager

Two grometted holes that help enable external liquid cooling are placed low on the Ravager’s back panel for convenient routing to liquid-cooled graphics cards. Once you run hoses there, however, you'll have limited access to the cards themselves.

28. Inside The Ravager

Six hard drive trays and three 5.25” drive bays occupy the front portion of the MSI Ravager’s interior, compared to the 4+4 layout of the Stealth. The Ravager also moves its hard drive cages slightly forward compared to the Stealth, yielding more space for add-in cards.

29. Ravager Cable Management

Approximately three-quarters of an inch between the motherboard tray and right side-panel is enough for power cables. Access holes are rolled to prevent scraping the cables (or your fingers), but they don't employ grommets, which vendors sometimes use to clean up aesthetics a bit.

30. Expandable Card Space

Shown partially opened, the Ravager’s three center 3.5” drive trays are mounted on a slide-out cage. Removing the cage entirely creates about 17" of room for the longest add-in cards.

Pins on hinged brackets lock 5.25” devices into external bays, and side pins lock 3.5” drives into trays. Smaller 2.5” drives have to be screwed to the base of 3.5” drive trays.

31. Ravager Intake

MSI extended the Ravager’s card space by moving the case's intake fan forward, placing it between the structural sheet and plastic face panel. That single fan includes a dust filter, though the installation kit doesn’t include an extra filter for the optional second intake fan.

Notice that the mounting holes for a second fan are offset the wrong way, towards the enclosure's interior. Securing a fan to the inside requires the removal of the aforementioned three-tray hard drive cage.

32. Atop The Ravager

Though the Ravager’s top panel supports up to two 140 or 120 mm fans, it lacks the space to mount fans and a radiator.

As a result, our concerns that the fan hole spacing is improper for production liquid-cooling radiators doesn't really matter.

33. Raidmax Seiran

The second Raidmax case in our 15-way round-up, the Seiran offers far smaller dimensions that more easily fit on top or underneath your desk. Its front-panel ports are also moved forward to allow easier reach from below (sitting on a desk) without significantly impeding access from above (when it rests under a desk).

A 180 mm fan fills a vented side panel that alternatively supports dual 120 mm blowers.

34. Seiran Ports And Controls

The Seiran’s front-panel I/O is a little more extensive than rival products, adding three-output fan speed and fan lighting brightness controls. Raidmax also includes a single 3.5” bay adapter, with its face plate screwed to the adapter tray.

The case does, however, come up a little short on USB 3.0 connectivity by only giving us one port. Fortunately, dual USB 2.0 ports support more devices, albeit at lower data rates.

Fan control also comes up short, since the rear fan uses a different style of power connector.

35. Behind Raidmax’s Seiran

Grommets on three ingress/egress holes protect external liquid cooling setups, though running tubes through them will make it harder to get at installed graphics cards.

A c-shaped bulge on the Seiran’s right side-panel creates more room for cable management within an otherwise-compact space.

36. Inside The Seiran

Nine externally-accessible (and no internal) drive bays simplify the Seiran’s interior, allowing anyone with an extra-long graphics card to run that extra length through the cage itself.

The comparison chart in our upcoming performance analysis makes clear that the case does support internal drives, since the company includes seven adapter trays.

37. Seiran Cable Management

If you choose the Seiran, expect to get creative with cable management, since the stow area is mainly limited to the c-shaped protrusion on the side-panel. Cable ties come in handy here.

Raidmax leaves the bottom access hole open, while grommets on two narrower cut-outs along the motherboard tray’s front edge help hide cabling mess. The Seiran does not, however, have a pass-through-point for ATX12V/EPS12V cables. As a result, it's almost impossible to use the top of the side-panel's protrusion.

38. Seiran Drive Mounting

Held in place by twist-on pin connectors, the Seiran’s drive trays serve multiple functions. Brackets on the intake fan are secured to them, firstly, as is the 3.5” face plate for front-panel access.

If you need extra cooling for a particularly hot disk, you can add a 120 mm fan to the tray's outer holes. Notebook drives and SSDs attach to the closer holes. And 3.5” drives are screwed to holes on the side.

39. Seiran Intake

Though the face plate is not designed for easy removal, most of the Seiran’s front is accessible by removing 5.25” bay covers. Adapter trays are easily accessed, along with a lighted front fan that’s attached to those drive trays.

40. Seiran Dust Prevention

Though the intake fan relies on open-cell foam backing for filtration, power supply fans are more easily kept clean by a filter sheet that slides out from the Seiran’s rear edge.

We hope that illustrating the extended features of the last five enclosures in our 15-case round-up has piqued your curiosity about their performance. Our upcoming comparison will demonstrate how well each of these cases holds our components, in addition to their heat and noise reduction.