Rosewill Throne Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on August 2, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Rosewill
- ATX
- XL-ATX
While my experience with the Rosewill Throne was admittedly colored somewhat by the quirks of my review unit, testing has nonetheless left me with mixed feelings all around. Life is simpler when you can recommend a product without hesitation, and that's unfortunately not a possibility here.
First, we'll talk about what's good about the Throne. Rosewill has once again produced a fairly solid value contender. $159 isn't cheap per se, but you're getting a case that will hold pretty much any motherboard spec and system you want to build without issue and offer tremendous cooling performance to boot. You get fader-style fan controls; I'm a huge fan of these because the traditional 5V, 7V, and 12V steppings of switchable fan controls can often miss the inflection point on fans where additional rotation and noise offers very little performance gain.
You also get a beastly amount of connectivity in the top of the case; I personally feel four ports is about the right number, but I'm not going to complain about having six. Whether or not the hotswap bay is a selling point will depend on the individual user; I know I installed one in my Nanoxia Deep Silence 1, so take that for what it's worth.
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The problem the Throne has is that it's not entering the same market the older Thor v2 entered. If you explicitly need the oversized form factor then it's settled, and I'd take the Throne over even Rosewill's flagship Blackhawk Ultra. But if you're still hanging out in ATX territory, the Throne suddenly looks far less compelling, and Rosewill loses their budget edge. At that point they're competing with the beastly NZXT Phantom 630, which offers comparable thermals at substantially lower noise levels. The Throne is easier on the eyes than SilverStone's oddly goofy Raven RV-04, but the RV-04 can do with two fans what the Throne needs six to do, and it's a lot quieter to boot. Finally, down at $129, the unique and completely awesome Corsair Carbide 540 serves as a major spoiler, offering competitive thermals and a slicker chassis at a lower price.
No option here is strictly superior to another (except, arguably, the Throne to Rosewill's own burly Blackhawk Ultra), so it does come down to what you feel like you need. If from this review and from the specs, the Rosewill Throne looks like the best fit for your build, I can recommend it without much hesitation. Just be sure to weigh your options carefully; most standard ATX builds are going to be better off with the NZXT Phantom 630 at the same price. And hey, if you're on a budget, the Thor v2 is still around.
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DanNeely - Friday, August 2, 2013 - link
A case like this makes tri-SLI on an ATX board easier too; it's not just EATX builds that benefit. If you get a board with x16 slots at positions 1, 4, and 7, you've got an empty slot between each pair of cards to improve airflow and cooling. While there are atx cases with an 8th slot cover to let you do the same, most of them will push the bottom card up against the PSU obstructing it.I don't think this case is in play for significant water cooling at all. There doesn't appear to be enough clearance between the mobo and the top fans to fit a radiator, without dremeling out the 3.5" cage, you're not going to fit one in the front, and a larger PSU would obstruct the bottom fan mount. The giant door fan should help a lot if you're running multiple air cooled cards; which I think is where this is being targetted.
mwildtech - Friday, August 2, 2013 - link
Doesn't look much different from the Thor, not bad overall.WhitneyLand - Saturday, August 3, 2013 - link
Are these giant case articles less popular on AT nowadays? They seem so irrelevant and anachronistic.@Dustin: Love your writing and articles. This is not a criticism of an author.
I know some people still want to read these, but what’s the big picture trend here with the AT audience?
ShieTar - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Personally, I tend to be most interested in the two extreme options: The Mini-ITX on the one hand, for Media-Player solutions or just On-the-Desk-Systems for friends who need very little computing power. And on the other hand the very big towers, for my own gaming system which just sits next to my desk and gets opened up and fed with new hardware about once a year.So, from an enthusiast point of view, there is nothing anachronistic about giant cases. They give you plenty of options for your build, and as show in this review, once you put an overclocking/SLI setup together, they can quickly become the most silent option too.
random2 - Saturday, August 3, 2013 - link
TIL; Dustin has no taste in cases. :Pbeepboy - Monday, August 5, 2013 - link
On future case reviews, can you include the weight as part of the specs on the first page? It would help me at the very least. Thanks!alex110 - Monday, August 5, 2013 - link
is looking weird.http://mnrparts.co.uk/index.php?route=product/cate...
sulu1977 - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link
Just out of curiosity, I want to know what your ideal, perfect case would be given a budget of let's say $500 million.J_E_D_70 - Friday, August 9, 2013 - link
I can see it now: I'm playing a game, friend calls and asks what I'm doing, and I reply, "I'm on the throne."warpuck - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
Looks good, that is until you try to install 280 radiator in it. Put it in the top? Nope. Put in the front ? Nope. HDD cage is riveted. OK lets see inside the cage then, maybe. Nope. Outside cage? Sell my 690s and get something shorter? Nope fake 3mm screws. OK then a thin 240 in the top maybe if you can live without heat spreaders on your memory. Looked good up to the point after I put the extreme 9 in. OK time for the Dremel tool, saber saw and drill. So the only thing that fits in there handily is a 140 radiator on the exhaust.