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
Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
Dealing with cases that are engineered specifically for silence as opposed to excelling in every metric (as larger, more expensive cases often are) means accepting potential trade-offs. The BitFenix Ghost, at $99, is geared more towards acoustic than thermal performance and unfortunately it shows. Yet there's at least potential in the Ghost for better performance, as most of the fan slots are vacant.
I don't like to make a habit of experimenting with cases because then I'll be expected to experiment with every single case that comes through here, and I just don't have time for that. However, the flexibility of the fan mounts in the Ghost make it a potentially ideal case for the roundup of closed-loop liquid coolers I'll be testing soon (particularly since NZXT has released a 140mm cooler and a 280mm cooler). More than that, I felt it was relevant to see if the closed door was suffocating the enclosure the way the one on the initial release of NZXT's H2 did.
Amusingly, the rep for be quiet! is actually my predecessor here for case reviews, and he was able to supply me with a healthy amount of fans for random testing. Their case fans are, I have to admit, really stellar. I'm using three of their 120mm fans in an FT03 for my media center, and for the Ghost I added their Silent Wings 2 140mm fan as an exhaust in the top of the case and a 120mm fan from the same line in the front as an intake.
California is becoming increasingly confused about the weather as we enter what Californians will call a freezing cold, rainy winter, and what people from states that have actual seasons will call "a bit nippy outside." The result is that there was a bit more variance in ambient temperatures when testing the Ghost, between 22C and 24C.
You can see stock performance is pretty underwhelming, but the pattern you see here is also one that will be consistent throughout testing: adding the fans takes a couple of degrees off the temperatures, and removing the front door takes another couple of degrees off. Unfortunately, only adding fans and removing the door is really enough to get it past the lower side of competitive in our stock configuration.
Again, fan speeds are on the lower side of competitive. It's not awful, but it's not very impressive either. I was a bit underwhelmed by Corsair's performance with their pricier 550D, and that feeling echoes in the BitFenix Ghost.
With all that said, the Ghost does achieve what it sets out to: it's one of the quietest cases we've tested, both at idle and under load. The addition of the be quiet! fans has the added bonus of reducing load noise and reducing temperatures. Chopping 1dB and 2-3C off of the system under load isn't necessarily a tremendous gain, but it does prove that there's room for improvement with the Ghost as well as being a ringing endorsement for the efficiency of be quiet!'s fans.
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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 ?