Spring Case Madness: 24 Of The Best

Kingwin KT-436BK-WM, Continued

The construction of the KT-436BK-WM is good, but not as great as I originally thought. The KT-436BK-WM has a few rough edges here and there, and you can cut yourself on this case if you are not careful. Some of these areas are covered with plastic guards that slide over the edges of the case. Not a bad solution, but still we would like to see the edges a bit more polished or rounded in some areas. The case has some bend, but no twist. It is fairly solid, but not as solid as other aluminum cases that we have reviewed.

The inside of this case as well as the tray is painted black. It is somewhat scratch resistant, but it can be scratched, like most painted surfaces, if you are not careful. If you are at all clumsy and drop things like screws and screw drivers, it is going to be pretty easy to scratch the paint on the inside of this case; and because of all of the windows, you might notice it. Since we are talking about the windows, it is important to note that this case offers windows on both of the side panels as well as the top of the case. While we still have not figured out what the use is for the window on the back side of the case, it is there nonetheless. In addition, you can use the top window to get a good look at your power supply and backs of your optical drives. Kingwin has also added a top lighted fan in the top window, which is an addition that we had not seen in this case before.

The front of the case is covered with Plexiglas, which after many months of use I have come to hate the look of. Most of this is due to the fact that it covers the paint job under the Plexiglas which isn't good because it sort of takes away from the finish of the case.

The case itself does feature a slide out motherboard tray, which is a good thing because you are going to need it to assemble this case. Once this case is fully loaded with devices, things can get a little cramped.

One of the best features of this case has to be the dual front and rear 80mm fans. The fans in the front offer a washable filter that can be removed. We suggest removing it and replacing all four fans with lighted fans for an excellent effect as well ample cooling for even the hottest of systems.

A look at the front mounted ports at the bottom of the KT-436BK-WM.

The KT-436BK-WM features a total of four front mounted USB ports, one 1394 Firewire ports and two audio ports. These are located at the bottom of the case. They are not covered, which some believe is a better solution than having them covered with a door of some sort. These ports work well and they are at a good location on the case.

Overall, the KT-436BK-WM is a good case. We don't recommend it for cramped configurations (such as my system), but our test system configuration wasn't bad in this case. This case does work best with a smaller motherboard and less cabling to run, as it is difficult to hide anything when you have three windows to look through in this case. While the KT-436BK-WM is a good case, it is fairly expensive and there are other solutions that cost less and provide about the same level of features and quality. We do like the cooling configuration in this case a lot, however; it is able to circulate a lot of air and it does look cool from the front if you use the lighted 80mm fans.