BitFenix Ghost Case Review: Begging for the Premium Treatment
by Dustin Sklavos on November 10, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- bitfenix
- quiet
- ATX
Conclusion: Needs an Upgrade
Reviewing the BitFenix Ghost, I'm left with strangely mixed feelings. Every so often a case comes through that I very much want to see succeed, and the Ghost is one of those. If you've been keeping up with my reviews you've seen that I've championed BitFenix pretty hard in the past, and the Ghost was another design that I felt was encroaching on a kind of sweet spot between price, performance, aesthetic, features, and ease of use.
As far as assembly goes, the Ghost is all but bulletproof. The side panel alignment mechanisms need to be thrown out and replaced, but while the interior isn't the best or most progressive in the world for airflow, it is among the easiest to build in. BitFenix's engineers hit a lot of the right notes when it came to assembly: the Ghost is incredibly simple to build in, and would be an ideal case for a newer builder interested in a quiet system to try out.
The aesthetic I'm a little bit shakier on. While I really like the way everything is laid out and I'm a fan of the overall look, I feel like there's real room for improvement here in terms of the materials used. I can't help but feel like the Ghost's plastics are on the cheap side and I think they really do the overall design a disservice.
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I'm in an unusual position where I feel like the Ghost is okay and certainly reasonable for the price, but I also feel like it practically begs to be even a slightly more premium product. In a weird way it's like a cheap knockoff of an amazing case that doesn't actually exist, if that makes any sense. Just in terms of looks and build quality, I'd like to see this chassis redone in a combination of aluminum, plastic, and steel similar to what Corsair did with the Obsidian 550D. I'd also like to see the front intake replaced with either two 140mm fan mounts and/or one huge 200mm/230mm fan. The curved venting design in the sides of the front door is cute, but could probably stand to be widened to increase airflow without substantially impacting noise.
With these suggestions in mind I have to wonder if the Ghost's lackluster thermal performance wouldn't also be improved somewhat. Adding fans made it at least competitive and even a little impressive since you'd have to spend another $50 to get a Corsair 550D that performs on par with, if not a little worse than, what the Ghost can achieve. But those fans do cost money.
Ultimately, do I recommend the Ghost? I think so. If you like the way it looks and you're either not looking to push the cooling or you're willing to play with it a little bit, I think you might walk away from the purchase satisfied. I have a harder time determining if it's superior to the NZXT H2, which hangs out in the same price range and has seen a minor revision that's improved its thermals, but I'd personally probably still go with the Ghost. This isn't the homerun I was hoping for, but it should be good enough for the closed-loop cooler testing.
Now if BitFenix can just go about putting together a slightly bigger, more premium model. That's the case I really want to see.
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rickon66 - Saturday, November 10, 2012 - link
I too hate doors on cases. The Antec 1100 is still the overall cooling champ and it is almost as quiet while doing it with no door.IceClaec - Saturday, November 10, 2012 - link
According to NewEgg, it should be 8.27" x 20.55" x 20.08"Apetn - Saturday, November 10, 2012 - link
Last paragraph on 'noise and thermal testing, stock' you say addition of BitFenix fans when I'm pretty sure you added Be Quiet! fans.Grok42 - Saturday, November 10, 2012 - link
It seems that cases are stuck in the past and I'm losing hope that they will ever move forward. I'm not claiming Dustin shares my concerns but he certainly shared some level of frustration when he commented that it seems unbelievable that this is the first case he has seen to provide obvious and reasonable support for 2.5" drives. My big beef is why do I have to put up with all those useless 5.25" drives?Drop the external bays and you do lose the option to put a legacy optical drive inside your computer. However, so much else would be gained that it would easily offset this lose even for those few that still need an optical drive and have to use an external one.
Better cooling. 6-8 additional 3.5" or 2.5" bays. The case no longer needs a door improving cooling and cost. The width of the 5.25" drives to some degree define the width of the case which could now be narrower. Instead of adding additional 3.5" and 2.5" drives the entire case could get smaller.
Death666Angel - Monday, November 12, 2012 - link
Narrower case -> you lose the ability to use the biggest, baddest tower coolers and/or you lose area behind the mainboard to route cablesAnd external 5.25" drive bays can be re purposed in tons of ways, I personally have a "ODD Slim Drive + 2.5" HDD + 2xUSB" adapter thing in one and a 6 x 2.5" HDD adapter in the other 5.25" bays of my TJ-08E. Since I don't use the internal 3.5" drive cage (wanted the space for my water cooling pump and reservoir), I now have easy access to all my hard drives and extra front USB ports. There are tons of adapters for multiple 3.5" HDDs in 5.25" bays with hot swap capabilities etc.
Grok42 - Monday, November 12, 2012 - link
Completely agree that narrowing the case has downsides like you mentioned. The question is to what degree these would be problems. Given that every case I've seen is basically designed to be as wide as a 5.25" bay plus the thickness of 4 pieces of sheet metal I would guess that the depth is driven by the 5.25" bay and not so much on cooling and cable routing needs. The funny thing is that the 5.25" format was setup back before any processor needed active cooling much less tower coolers. I would add to your list of negative effects that it will make it less stable, although how much depends a lot on other decisions like where the PSU is located.I'm glad you've overcome your cases disability. Imagine how much easier and cheaper if the case had simply come with additional 2.5" and 3.5" bays instead? Of course I also am a huge fan of the bays being removable so the case can be worked on easier or for better airflow. Typically 5.25" bays are not removable because they are the width of the case and simply made structurally part of it.
Bonesdad - Saturday, November 10, 2012 - link
Nice review...love seeing cases like these. Something well built and nice clean lines with a more grown up look. What was that last horrid case reviewed here - Cougar Challenger? Stay far away from anything like that. Need more cases like this...cjs150 - Monday, November 12, 2012 - link
"While neither drive cage is removable"Give me 5 mins with a dremel and a drill and I promise you they will be!
Very nice review, the case is not bad, just not good enough.
My main compliant is that the case designers are playing safe. With the exception of Lian Li nobody is really experimenting - the interior is the same as 5 years ago. In fact over the last 10 years the only noticeable change is moving the PSU from the top to the bottom.
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - link
Have you not been paying attention to SilverStone?And Lian Li are much tamer than you'd like to think. They keep experimenting but most of the time they never actually fix the problems that have dogged most of their enclosures in my reviews: poor build quality, awkward drive mounts, and needlessly complicated assembly.
dingetje - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link
Anyone have the Cooler Master HAF-XB ?