The Cougar QBX Mini ITX Case Review
by E. Fylladitakis on November 13, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- Cougar
- Case
Final Words
Wrapping up our reivew, for Cougar the main selling point of the QBX is its design, and for good reason. The company has clearly put a good bit of effort into this design, and despite being their first ITX case it has already won a trade show design award. With the QBX, Cougar has definitely put together something that is interesting and rather versatile, and they've made it look good in the process. The elegant appearance of the QBX, along with the low retail price, are probably the strongest selling points of this product. Which is not to say that this is a case without drawbacks - its small size is both a curse and a blessing - but as we'll get to, these are matters that an experienced builder should be able to handle.
Overall the quality of the QBX is excellent, all the more considering the low price of the case. Cougar may have skipped some "luxury" features, such as rubber grommets, but the case is very well designed, with excellent mechanical strength and made of high quality materials. The solid craftsmanship is reflected in the aesthetics of the QBX as well, making it look almost just as good as much more expensive designs.
In terms of performance the QBX won't quite deliver "the best performance of its class," at least not with just the slow 92 mm stock fan, but it's definitely a solid performer. The case is cleverly designed so as to provide very good airflow to the main system and it appears capable of handling fairly heavy thermal loads, while the optional fan mounts should give it yet more thermal headroom. Meanwhile isolating the PSU's airflow from the rest of the system is a clever and welcome design, but it is not really something new. The vast majority of cases, from the smallest to the largest designs, employ the same dedicated intake & outtake cooling strategy for their PSU bays.
The drawback of this case then is also one of its greatest strengths: its size. For just about everything - the selection of the graphics card, the size of the CPU cooler, the type of the PSU, etc. - there are limitations and consequences that need balanced. A modular PSU would limit the maximum length of a video card, the installation of an ODD drive would block the installation of certain PSUs, installing a side fan limits the CPU cooler's height to just 80 mm, and so on. In the end nearly every hardware selection impacts another, requiring careful planning and selection of hardware to make the most of the case's limited space.
As a result our final thoughts on the QBX may be somewhat complicated, but the Cougar QBX is a deceptively complicated product as well. Ultimately once you have done the necessary homework, what you will find is that the Cougar QBX is a well-designed and high quality Mini-ITX case, one that experienced builders should find rewarding. This, coupled with retail prices hovering around $53, makes the QBX a definite steal right now in the Mini-ITX space.
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Ninhalem - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
Best cable management cases would have to be the Case Labs' cases, hands down.Samus - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
Hah, yeah, Case Labs are awesome cases, but for $500 they should be :)kmmatney - Sunday, November 15, 2015 - link
I'm happy with the Corsair 400R I bought for my server. I bought it as it can take 10+ hard drives, but it also has decent cable management, at a good price.simonpschmitt - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
Well there is the Fractal Design Node 304.http://www.anandtech.com/show/6470/fractal-design-...
It's a M-ITX Case with just 19.7 liters volume and it has exelent airflow, especially for the 6(!) 3.5" disk bays and room for a long graphics card. Tough it has no ODD slot.
I have mine now for 3 years as a 6 disk file server and I'm thinking of building my next gaming rig (i7, GTX980) into it. Based on my experience with it I very much expect it to handle the thermals well.
zsolmanz - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
I have one of these too, excellent case. When I get round to changing my server to itx, it'll go into the Node - you just can't fault a 19L case with 6 disk slots (plus extra space for 2.5" drives if you get creative).HollyDOL - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
Built a M-ITX on Fractal Design Core 500 for relative, got Fractal Design Define R3 myself, both work perfectly.Samus - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
A well known problem with the Node 304, even pointed out in the review you linked, is one of the oversights Fractal and NZXT cases are always plagued with, in this case, fitting a tall or long video card. As far as what you say about fitting a GTX980 into one...I don't think there is a GTX980 in existence that'll fit into the Node 304 so you might want to research that. Some 970 cards will fit, but since they are not blowers and have top down coolers you are going to have a furnace inside the 20L case.I had this temperature issue with an FT03-mini and inevitably ended up using a GTX970 with a blower to exhaust all the heat the card generates out the back (top) of the case, instead of venting it into the case. Fortunately, unlike the Node 304, the FT03-mini is well engineered and accepts a 10.5" videocard AND accounts for power connections on the top AND the rear of the card. It's a tight fit, but that's expected, and in the end, it works. Everything works. You can fit a water cooler, 10.5" card, 2x2.5", 1x3.5", 1 ODD, up to a 600w SFX PSU, organize all the cables, and the case is 17.6L. You get what you pay for.
The Node 304 is really a crappy engineered case. You might not realize it until you see a properly engineered ITX case, though.
zsolmanz - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
Hey now, I wouldn't give them *too* much credit for their design. At least one of them will have seen NCase M1:https://www.ncases.com/
Still, can't complain about such a similar case for a quarter of the price.
jtd871 - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
The M1 is 2/3 the volume at less than 13 liters.DavidBrees - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
The NCASE M1 just seems like a better designed case. The layout of the M1 seems to utilize the space much more efficiently.