IN-WIN BUC: Just How Much $100 Can Buy
by Dustin Sklavos on May 9, 2011 4:28 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- In-Win
- mid-tower
Conclusion: A Lot For a Little
While a hundred bills is more than entry level cases tend to go for, it's also a world away from the more expensive enthusiast cases on the market. What's impressive is that in many ways IN-WIN has given those cases a run for their money.
The IN-WIN BUC is a tremendously flexible piece of kit, full of features without seeming to be overrun by them. The hotswap bay is a little problematic with some drives, but it's also there on a $100 case, and it does work. Likewise, there's USB 3.0 connectivity, a drive/key tray on the top of the case, and a largely toolless assembly. The plastic/steel construction can feel on the chintzy side, but it also keeps the case comparatively light. Every time I've needed to work on my tower when it was in the Antec P182 and now the Corsair 600T, I've felt like I was going to throw my back out trying to move the thing. The BUC is frankly incredibly light compared to those two monsters.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though. With that construction you do get an enclosure that's not as effective at dampening noise. There's a lot you can do to mitigate it by using quiet fans and employing fan controls, but it just doesn't have a whole lot to really keep all that noise in and with a video card like the GeForce GTX 580 it might get a little louder than you'd like. The BUC also seemed to struggle a little with our overclocked setup; while it never locked up, it certainly ran hotter than we'd like. If your system is more conservative you're not likely to have any issues. I'm also not a big fan of the gamer-centric styling and I'm not sure how many gamers like their computer cases ostentatious. That may just be me, as I tend to prefer builds that look more austere, but many or our readership appears to feel the same. The Corsair 600T is about my limit. Finally, the hotswap bay works great in theory, but in practice the plastic trays bow so much with 3.5" drives installed that they become extremely difficult to actually remove.
What I'm left with, though, is a pleasant surprise in the form of a case that's inexpensive but feature-packed. IN-WIN clearly tried very hard to produce an enclosure that offers a tremendous amount of value and in that respect they succeeded. I know a lot of boutiques will tend to cut corners a bit on their case selection, so I'll spell it out: boutiques looking for a case that's comparatively inexpensive should go with the BUC. But what about you, the end user? Well, if you need a workhorse case that's feature rich, relatively easy to work in/with, and you don't have a lot of bread to spend on it, the BUC is an excellent choice and it made a believer out of me.
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ggathagan - Monday, May 9, 2011 - link
If you look at the pictures, you'll note that it's not really a SATA backplane.It's hot-swap connectors mounted on 4 of the 5 drive bays.
Belard - Monday, May 9, 2011 - link
In-Win has been a rather small company for a very long time. I've built systems with their cases 10 years ago. In general, they do come (and in the past) some very cool designs. But for the most part - in the past 4-6 years, their design have gone towards plain or ugly (IMHO).But I've seen the BUC at a store, and it is a very very nice looking case.
Spivonious - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
My first PC used an In-Win case. It had a Celeron 333A to give you a time frame. :)They've always been a quality, value-oriented case manufacturer.
Belard - Saturday, May 14, 2011 - link
Around that era, I sold some In-Wins. They even had decent PSUs.shamans33 - Monday, May 9, 2011 - link
Nice to see CPU HSF clearance values on the features table.It might be nice to see a list of unusual features onto a table as well (as a summary of key new features)
kmmatney - Monday, May 9, 2011 - link
The only thing I don't like about routing the power supply wiring behind the motherboard is that its a pain if you want to swap it out. I spent a long time routing all my power supply wiring in my case, and then my son's computer had trouble. I suspected the power supply, but needed to put mine into his computer to properly troublshoot. So I had to undo my hard work...jrocks84 - Monday, May 9, 2011 - link
The noise and thermal testing graphs are very helpful for making decisions on cases. Not that many case reviews give this data, so it's nice to see more sites adopting this testing.Ammaross - Monday, May 9, 2011 - link
Anand, perhaps while you're on full ATX cases with backplanes for the hard drives, could you look over the AzzA Hurrican 2000? (yes, no 'e' in 'Hurrican'). I used it recently for my home rig and I think others might like to see your take on it. :)nightalon - Monday, May 9, 2011 - link
I don't mean to sound like a snob, but Mr Sklavos needs to clean up his article a bit.Anand's style is much more coherent, uses fewer cliches, and adheres to more conventional and conservative journalistic style.
I'm not implying that reviewers shouldn't be creative with their language, but using the word "popped" about 15 times seems excessive to me.
Also, if there are any questions for readers in an article, they should come at the start or in the conclusion.
I highly recommend some of the Engadget editors and reviewers for examples of good writing. Pogue and Mossberg, of NYT and WSJ respectively, also do a good job, although I think their target demographic is slightly different.
Nonetheless, adherence to standard grammar and to Strunk and White would be wonderful! Otherwise, this seemed to me to be a pretty good review.
earle36 - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
"I highly recommend some of the Engadget editors and reviewers for examples of good writing. "You're kidding right??? Those guys write article full of cliches and more importantly they lack the technical depth found here at Anandtech. After being consistently appalled with the reviews at Engadget, I'm glad that Anandtech ramped up their coverage of Mobile devices too.
Personally, I think Mr. Sklavos did a fine job.