Deepcool is good at two things: making very affordable cases that seem to do the job, and making very expensive, exotic cases. Today, the company is announcing the Dukase, which is a $70 unit targeted at mainstream builders looking for a decent ATX case.
When looking at the Dukase holistically, it seems like a fairly standard ATX case. The interior of the chassis offers room for an ATX motherboard, two 3.5" drives, three 2.5" drives, and two 5.25" optical drives. CPU coolers can be up to 170 mm tall before hitting the side panel, and there is room for graphics cards up to 390 mm long. The case has seven expansion slots, which means there is room for no more than three dual-slot graphics cards.
A trend we're seeing more of over the last few years is the bottom PSU area of the case being sealed off from the rest of the interior, and that design is present in the Dukase, too. What this allows for is a hidden PSU and the ability to tuck the cables neatly out of sight.
As far as cooling goes, the case has support for one rear 120 mm fan (which comes pre-installed from the factory), up to two 120 mm fans up front, and two 140 mm fans up top. The intake is covered with a dust filter, and the top of the case features a fan controller.
Externally, the case features a swivel door to cover up the front of the chassis, hiding the unsightly optical drives you may have installed. You better install some good-looking guts though, as the case does have a window in the side panel.
Front I/O consists of one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, and the usual pair of HD audio jacks. (We would have preferred to see two USB 3.0 ports as opposed to this cost-cutting implementation.)
Pricing sits at $69.99, and Deepcool is shooting for global availability in December.
______________________________________________________________________
Niels Broekhuijsen has been with Tom's Hardware since 2012, and works as a Contributing Editor on the news team. He covers mostly hardware, components, and anything else that strikes his fancy. Outside of work, he likes to travel, cook, and fix things that are broken.
You can follow him at @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.