Five Gaming Enclosures, Rounded Up

ABS Canyon 595

Average Online Price: $400 (yes, really)

This tall, handsome enclosure has its share of unique features, but whether they are enough to justify its price (which, to be clear, doesn't include a power supply) is questionable at best.

The layout itself is interesting. The top of the case contains two 5.25" optical bays and one 3.5" bay for a floppy drive, a card reader, or whatever. The interesting thing about these bays is that they face your choice of the left or right side of the large, aluminum, 17" tall tower. There's no option for front-facing external bays. This top area of the case, where the power supply is also mounted, is considered one of three "heat zones," the others being the central area where the motherboard and other parts go, and the bottom in which up to four hard drives are mounted. 

The rear of the case accommodates up to eight expansion slots. Each of the three heat zones contains its own set of fans: the top, of course, contains the power supply fan, the central zone has three 120mm fans (two in front and one in rear), and the bottom has two 60mm fans in the rear. One more front-mounted 120mm fan is split between the central and bottom heat zone.

There is plenty of room for big, long graphics cards in the central area since the hard drive bays are on the bottom. There's also a vertical arm with slots to help support big, heavy graphics cards.

Front ports are actually on the top-front of the case, beneath a narrow cover, and these include four USB ports, a FireWire port, an eSATA port, and standard front-audio jacks.

Interestingly, the power supply is mountable through the rear of the case, after you've removed a bezel that in turn holds it in place. There's plenty of room for large power supplies.

Building inside this case was a pleasure. There's plenty of finger room and all of the cables were able to reach their destinations. This is helped by the inclusion of two extra-long SATA cables. It was a stretch, though, to get PSU cables from the top of the case down to the hard drives. The use of thumb screws in virtually every capacity makes the case tool-free.

  • doomtomb
    That Lian Li PC-X1000 is my favorite
    Reply
  • CoryInJapan
    Haha I was thinking the same thing about the Lian Li PC-X1000
    Reply
  • CoryInJapan
    I dont think I would ever need to change my case for an extremely long tile with that Lian Li PC-X1000 case
    Reply
  • Proximon
    Thanks, good article. I have a comment and a request:
    You said, "The other complaint came in having to remove the bezel of our optical drive so that the case's own bezel could take over." this was on the Lian Li case.
    I would consider this a feature. Brushed aluminum cases look crappy with flat black optical drives and the only way normally to avoid that is a stealth mod, such as I have done with my TJ09.
    I would like to see a picture of each case with the motherboard in place. This helps provide perspective and gives the less experienced builders a clearer idea of what they are actually getting.
    Reply
  • mcbowler
    Awesome PanzerBox. Where do the hard drives go?
    Reply
  • redgarl
    400$ cases... WTH? I will never buy that! Where is the Raven one?
    Reply
  • CHRISTLUBAS
    Panzerbox.........I prefer a M1A1 ABRAMS BOX!!!!!!!
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    How flimsy/sturdy is the plastic cover for the connectors, and the power button ? looks like they're using the same parts as on my PC-A70 ; and on mine the power button feels as if it isn't big enough for its socket, and the top lid broke off quite easily.
    Reply
  • Pailin
    "The best-performing case, both under load and idle, was the NZXT Panzerbox."

    err... not according to your own graphs its not.

    The P193 beats the Panzerbox at everything on idle! and the Panzer only beat the P193 on CPU temp by 1 deg.

    The 5870 "might" push me from my P182 to a P193 due to the extra length and me not wanting to loose HDD slots - but will prob just get a 5 and a qtr bay converter and hopefully only have to move one drive.
    Reply
  • WheelsOfConfusion
    Pailin"The best-performing case, both under load and idle, was the NZXT Panzerbox."err... not according to your own graphs its not.The P193 beats the Panzerbox at everything on idle! and the Panzer only beat the P193 on CPU temp by 1 deg.Yeah, what gives? I could understand if we're taking points off for the effort that goes into assembling it and wire routing versus the Panzer, but "performance" would, I think, be measured by how well it cools and how quiet it was. It cools better when idle, almost identically under load, and apparently was the quietest case in the roundup.
    Reply