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
Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
We'll start our testing with the processor and RAM set to stock speeds to see how well the IN-WIN BUC handles a thermal load more or less indicative of an average enthusiast's setup. Down the road, we'll add more cases to the charts, but so far the only cases we've tested with our new equipment are a micro-ATX case and this mid-tower.
Thermals are very reasonable, with the i7-875K hovering below 60C and the GTX 580 being fed plenty of fresh air from the intake fan we mounted on the side panel. 80C under load is really quite good for the 580. The SSD and by extension the hard drive also run nice and frosty thanks to both ventilation above the bays and the front intake fan.
With proper fan control in place, the BUC also remains remarkably quiet. The 37dB idle noise level is actually very comfortable, with a low whooshing character to it that remains inobtrusive. Under load things get a little bit noisier but still reasonable.
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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.