Spring Case Madness: 24 Of The Best

Chenbro PC61122, Continued

The PC61122 offers what is one of the most progressive features: the side venting air duct. This duct is designed to pull the heat from the CPU and push it right out the side panel of the case. This design is compliant with the thermal performance targets that Intel has established for the 3 GHz and higher processors. In the event that you don't want to vent it out the side of the case it is also possible to mount the duct to the rear of the case depending on your setup.

The cooling configuration of the case can be setup to use 80mm, 90mm, or even 120mm fans for optimum cooling performance. With an aggressive fan size and placement, you can really move some air through the case. It was one of the most aggressive cooling setups that we have seen even though the case only offers a total of four fans.

The case itself had no bend or twist to the case. It is very solid and didn't flex which is no surprise since the case is well constructed. The edges of the case were rolled or dulled in such a way to prevent sharp edges. The quality is very good for a case in this price range, but we have seen better.

The PC61122 includes a removable hard drive cage for easy access to the hard drives. The case features a screwless rail design for both the 5-¼ and 3-½ devices for easy mounting. Another interesting new feature is the screwless cardholder that secures the cards in the PCI slots. Good design from the Chenbro team.

Look behind the door and we find the front mounted ports on the PC61122.

The PC61122 includes a front mounted I/O panel option that supports USB, Audio, and 1394 Firewire. This is covered by a flip down door at the bottom of the case. The construction of the door is good, and above what we have seen from other vendors. We still think that the placement of the ports at the bottom of the case is the best option and Chenbro does get this right.

Overall, the PC61122 is a very good design and an attractive case. While it doesn't offer the most innovative styling that we have seen, it is solid. We would have liked to have seen a window added to the side panel of this case with the side panel ducting, plus a little more design work on the front panel to make it a little more interesting. The black and sliver look of the case is attractive and we like the support for fan sizes up 120mm. The price is good, making this a solid purchase for those who want to stay in mid-field price wise with the purchase of their next case. For those who like some of the ideas presented in this case, take a look at the PC61319 from Chenbro, which is even more aggressively styled when compared to the PC61122.