ABOUT BENCH FORUMS PODCAST LOGIN REGISTER
PC Components▼
Smartphones & tablets▼
Systems▼
ENTERPRISE & IT
GUIDES▼
DEALS

Price-Point Comparing Three-Way Case Shootout

 by Joshua Buss on January 13, 2006 12:05 AM EST
69 Comments | Add A Comment
69 Comments
Raidmax X1 (cont’d)

For the first of our pictures of a system getting installed into the X1, we thought that we'd show how the X1 also suffers from the same problem as the P150 in terms of making it a little hard to get side-mounted IDE cables into the motherboard. Thankfully, the access from the other side of the case makes it a little easier than in the P150, however; and nowadays, SATA drives are becoming more and more popular as users everywhere share the frustrations with thick IDE cables.

Getting the power supply seated and fastened into place was a breeze. There's a decent amount of steel still helping to support the unit, even without the explicit inclusion of a crossbar. This is one area where a simple screwdriver is still a necessity, unless of course one simply uses thumbscrews instead of standard case screws to secure the power supply.

After getting the power supply in place, we proceeded to install our 6600 GT, which was also easy, thanks to the tool-less expansion card holders.

While still not quite as good as the DynaPower F3323s, which we looked at in our last mid-tower roundup, the X1's clips work well enough. The only complaint about them is that they can be a bit tricky to slide back into the unlocked position after a card has already been installed.

Sliding the hard drive into place and locking it with the single locking clip was simple and effective, and after connecting together the components, our build was complete. This picture doesn’t really do any justice, but the X1 overall just has a very nice feel to it and was a pleasure to work in. We didn't find sharp edges in the chassis anywhere.


Click to enlarge.

After putting the side panel back on and firing up the system, we were greeted with the X1's fanciest treat, which is a simple LCD on the front to display power, fan, and hard drive status as well as report a single temperature. Our efforts to do this unit justice were met with utter defeat, so we've borrowed this image from the RaidMax site to give you a better idea of what it really looks like. Just remember though that this picture comes from the white version of the case – on our case, the section to the right of the display is black.

Raidmax X1 (cont’d) Dynapower E68
PRINT THIS ARTICLE
Comments Locked

69 Comments

View All Comments

  • Tamale - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Lol.. I've gotten this several times now. It's a solid, quiet, dependable, modular unit that's made by NEC. It's a great unit that we've chosen OVER similarly priced and even much more expensive units from antec, ocz, and thermaltake.

  • photoguy99 - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    I'm sure the first time I read the article it warned that people have been having problems with the P150 powersupplies.

    I've also seen reports of this.

    Has it been removed from the article?

  • yacoub - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    If the article doesn't mention it, here you go:

    Antec has been aware of the problem with the NeoPower 430W PSU (with Asus motherboards) that happens to be the one included with the P150. They have fixed the problem but no idea if all the P150s that were already stocked at distributors have been sold by now and the new ones have worked into the system.

    Either way, Antec support will work with you to swap you an updated model of the PSU.

  • puddnhead - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    For me thre are four standards to evaluate a case: cooling, noise, installation proagmatics, cost, and "interface" (getting stuff into and out of external ports and removobale media drives mounted in it). While I realize it's a subjective thing, IMO the last is too often ignored. THis review did a good job in one aspect, noting how far the USB ports are spaced apart. But it failed to notice what I immediately saw as a HUGE flaw in the "edotors choice" case, the X1: the USB, etc ports are BEHIND the door! SO if you have anything plugged into the port, the door MUST stay open. A door is nothing more than something that gets in the way if it can't be closed. AM I the only person in the world that has things plugged into front USB ports for more than a few seconds at a time (the amount of time the door on my current Sonata case is open, to insert and remove CDs & DVDs. The front ports, not behind the door & including firewire, is a big reason I went with the Sonata.

    What I would really like to see is a case that has USB/firewire/audio/etc ports AND one 5 1/4" drive bay not behind a door, and the rest of bays hidden behind the door. Like most people I suspect I pretty much have one CD/DVD drive I need access too a lot, and another less frequently, & of course other bays with no external access needed at all. That would be cool.

  • Zepper - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Why was the front fan mount on the X1 ignored in the review. Looks like it can hold a 120mm there too. Personally I'd mount the front and rear fans and block off the side fan (unless I was going to duct directly to the CPU) and any other large area of ventilation holes like those at the back. Looks (from the limited view in the one picture - should have taken the front bezel off and taken a shot of the naked front so we could see what's there for ourselves) like the front fan grille is very restrictive and would need to be cut out for best cooling. No real technical-level user or reviewer would have missed that.

    For the fellow in Australia looking for Raidmax, those cases are sold here under several names like Fudin and Logisys as well as Raidmax. I suppose that anyone that wants to can import them from Korea (I believe) and sell them under their own brand name. Another little item that any reviewer with any level of perspective on the PC market would know...

    One would hope to get better than superficial, FANBOY-style reviews from AT. <rolleyes>

    .bh.

  • Zepper - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Another question I have is why is there a Mad Dog PSU in there? That is one of CompUSA's in-house packagers. Raidmax usually uses L&C-type bottom-feeding junkboxes...

    .bh.

  • Zepper - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    re. the Mad Dog PSU - OIC, the X1 can be had either with or without PSU. The OE one is a junky old design w/ only 14 Amps on the +12, so now we know the why of the PSU swap.

    And the 0.7mm metal thickness is marginal in my book. Can't imagine how that case could not feel flimsy and have ringy acoustics.

    .bh.

  • Tamale - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Actually, we couldn't use included power supplies because the P150's unit would not allow us to boot the test bed.

  • yacoub - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    For a review of the P150 based on what it was designed for (silence and usability) read this review: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article272-page1.htm...">http://www.silentpcreview.com/article272-page1.htm...

  • Tamale - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    I'm sorry, but spending $150, and then going to a lot of extra effort on top of that, all to get a computer as quiet as the X1 would've been in the first place for a third the price seems a little silly.

    I compared these cases for a reason... I really like the P150 too, but I really feel people need to know that there's much cheaper options that are just as/almost as good.

    As for usability, you do have a nice point. The P150 definitely is a nice advancement in this regard. Still, please use some common courtesy and don't use the public comment space to advertise for other websites. Thanks.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.
BENCH
TOPICS
FOLLOW
ABOUT

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now