Specifications, Interior & Exterior
We don’t often refer to size as a metric of greatness, but when it comes to size the “greatest” form factor enthusiasts have encountered is EVGA’s old HPTX at 13.6” tall by 15” deep. Yet even that wasn’t the tallest board developed for enthusiasts, as Foxconn once attempted to establish a 10-slot, 14.4” form factor called Ultra ATX. Rosewill’s latest big tower, the B2 Spirit, is large enough in both directions to support both standards. More importantly, the tenth “Ultra ATX” rear-panel slot allows HPTX users to put a double-slot graphics card in the motherboard’s bottom slot.
The “Greater Than” symbol is my latest solution to the naming problems of oversized parts, as it’s less likely to be misidentified as a “new form factor” than a plus sign following the form factor’s name. My hope is that readers will ask “how much larger” when they see it in a title. But just how large is Rosewill’s latest “Greater Than HPTX” solution?
Don’t let the slender visual effect of black fool you: Over 26” tall and nearly 26” deep, the B2 Spirit is larger even than Azza’s recently-tested GT1.
Exterior
Potential buyers need not worry that panel rigidity decreases as panel size is increased, as the B2 Spirit is reinforced with nearly 38 pounds of steel and heavy-duty plastic. Worry instead about your back, or whether your reach is broad enough to tote this case without having it slip from your grasp. Spirit of the B2, indeed!
Notice that the top panel has six USB ports, in addition to two audio jacks, under a tiny slide-away cover? That cover is nearly as wide as a dollar bill!
The B2 Spirit is larger than a traditional “Full Tower,” breaking from that tradition by having neither a rear drive rack or second power supply mount. Instead, the extra height is devoted to mounting space for thick top-panel radiators and lower expansion cards.
A pair of fans are mounted to hinged brackets behind the face panel for easy access, replacement, and filter cleaning. Although they look fairly small in the photo, each of these is 140mm square. When it comes to scale, the word “staggering” comes to mind.
A slide-in filter protects the power supply intake plus a pair of 120/140mm fan mounts on the B2 Spirit’s bottom panel. It's over 17.5” long, so most users will probably need to turn their case around to pull it out.
Interior
Marketed both with and without the hyphen in its name, the B2 Spirit includes a 10-drive, and a removable 3-drive drive cage. The smaller cage covers the second bottom fan mount, and the larger cage includes a 2x140 / 2x120mm radiator mount.
The B2 Spirit has access holes for boards both big and huge: The inner cable access holes are spaced for a 12” x 10.7” oversized ATX board, such as MSI’s X99S XPower AC and Asus’ Rampage V Extreme. That means the outer access holes are spaced for something really big!
Rosewill didn’t sneak any extra storage behind the motherboard tray, but the B2 Spirit does have enough space for all your cables.
The B2 Spirit top panel can hold up to three 140mm or 120mm fans, with enough space to sandwich a 1.5”-thick radiator between two layers of 1”-thick fans.
If 3.5” of space above the board isn’t enough for your cooling bits, you could dig into top panel space. Sliding bars that tie together the top panel’s opening mechanism could get in your way, but modders are welcome to customize.
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