Rosewill Line-M Case Review: Wherefore Art Thou Micro-ATX?

Conclusion: The Line-M Almost Hits Its Mark

My instincts when I saw the Line-M hiding in Rosewill's suite during CES 2013 turned out to be pretty much on the money. Rosewill has produced a budget case that is exceedingly effective at cooling hardware, producing competitive if not superior thermal performance even with some heady overclocking going on under the hood. This is by no means a perfect enclosure, but it's definitely a strong one and worthy of your attention.

Part of the reason why the Line-M is so effective is the simple and smart cooling design. The conventional ATX cooling design is honestly pretty awful, and even most case designers will agree. Bottom-front intake to top-rear exhaust is inefficient design, and you really do need to create a pretty strong updraft to get the air to move the way it needs to. Silverstone advertises natural convection as being one of the reasons why its rotated motherboard cases are as effective as they are, but it barely comes into play; the reason those cases are so good at cooling hardware is because there's nothing between the intakes and the hardware. Air just moves in a straight shot through the tower cooler and blower and out of the top of the case. Rosewill's Line-M doesn't have to rely on convection either; cool air comes in through the front and has almost a straight shot through the coolers.

Where I think Rosewill starts to miss the mark is that the Line-M is too conservative in some ways. Silverstone's excellent Temjin TJ08-E featured a vent in the top of the case and allowed you to flip the power supply so that you didn't run the risk of pushing hot air through the PSU's components. I would've liked to have seen better cable management features in the Line-M as well, although that would undoubtedly add to the size of the case. I'm also perplexed by the use of an LED fan in the front. It sticks out like a sore thumb when the rest of the case is really quite staid.

Finally, while I don't think $55 is too much to ask for the Line-M, I do think it's not as competitive as it ought to be. I'd like to see this about ten dollars cheaper to be honest, and hopefully NewEgg's regular sales will drive it down to the price range it probably needs to be in. For the price, the Line-M is within range of Antec's more ostentatious but also more flexible GX700, though Antec's case is also much larger. Performance is comparable between the two, though, and the GX700 can do its job more quietly than the Line-M can.

When all is said and done, though, I do think the Line-M is a very strong choice for a budget build. For bottom-line enthusiasts it offers compelling thermal performance, while for office builds it has the potential to be a basic, reliable enclosure with the minimum needed trimmings. The Line-M could stand to lose the LED illumination in the front fan and does ask for a motherboard with some kind of fan control to spin down the fans when the system is idle. Despite these qualms, though, it's a pretty solid offering at $55, and if it shows up on sale for south of $50 it's going to be tough to beat.