Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Components > Cooling > The Lazy Days of Summer Case Review

The Lazy Days of Summer Case Review

07:00 - Monday 4 August 2003 by David Stellmack

1. The Lazy Days Of Summer Case Review
2. Another Not So Surprising New Trend In Cases
3. The Review Process
4. On To The Reviews
5. Aerocool - Acryclear II, Continued
6. Aerocool Acryclear II, Continued
7. Antec Sonata
8. Antec Sonata, Continued
9. Aspire X-Superalien
10. Aspire X-Superalien, Continued
11. Aspire X-Superalien, Continued
12. Atech STK6551
13. Atech STK6551, Continued
14. Atech STK6551, Continued
15. Athenatech A100SC
16. Athenatech A100SC, Continued
17. Chieftec Extreme Series BX-01B-SL-B
18. Chieftec Extreme Series BX-01B-SL-B, Continued
19. Chieftec Extreme Series BX-01B-SL-B, Continued
20. Chenbro Xpider ("Gaming Bomb") PC61166
21. Chenbro Xpider ("Gaming Bomb") PC61166, Continued
22. Chenbro Xpider ("Gaming Bomb") PC61166, Continued
23. Coolermaster Centurion CAC-T01
24. Coolermaster Centurion CAC-T01, Continued

25. Kingwin K11-BK-WM
26. Kingwin K11-BK-WM, Continued
27. Kingwin KT-424-BK-WM
28. Kingwin KT-424-BK-WM, Continued
29. Kingwin KT-424-BK-WM, Continued
30. Raidmax Scorpio-668
31. Raidmax Scorpio-668, Continued
32. Raidmax Scorpio-668, Continued
33. Raidmax Galaxy-988
34. Raidmax Galaxy-988, Continued
35. Raidmax Galaxy-988, Continued
36. TTGI TT-301
37. TTGI TT-301, Continued
38. TTGI TT-301, Continued
39. TTGI TT-561
40. TTGI TT-561, Continued
41. TTGI TT-461T1
42. TTGI TT-461T1, Continued
43. Yeong Yang YY-5601
44. Yeong Yang YY-5601, Continued
45. Yeong Yang YY-5601, Continued
46. Conclusion: New Choices For Buyers To Consider
47. Conclusion: New Choices For Buyers To Consider, Continued
48. Side-by-Side Comparison Feature Table - US Prices

With the lazy days of summer upon us, it is time again to look at what the case manufacturers have been up to. Normally, this would be an excellent time to look at many of the new cases that have been released, as the majority of the case manufacturers have traditionally launched their new case offerings at Computex. But with the postponement of Computex until September, many case manufacturers and case marketers have not yet introduced new models. While we expect to see more new cases announced at Computex this fall, we received fewer cases for review this time around.

Regardless, we received submissions from Aerocool, Antec, Aspire, Athenatech, Atech, Chieftec, Chenbro, Coolermaster, Kingwin, Raidmax, TTGI/ Superflower and Yeong Yang, for a total of sixteen computer cases. As mentioned previously, several manufacturers contacted us and advised us that they either had no new models at this time or that they would be introducing new models at a later date. You should expect to see these new models in our upcoming fall and winter cases reviews.

This review features five newcomers to THG's case review series: Aerocool, Aspire, Raidmax, TTGI, and Yeong Yang. As is our normal policy, we limited the number of cases per manufacturer to three, and only TTGI elected to send three cases. While Raidmax and Kingwin sent two models each, the remainder sent one case model for testing. Companies were instructed to ship only the case (with no power supply), as we test power supplies separately from PC cases. (Not all companies followed these instructions and some cases still arrived with power supplies installed as you will notice in some of the pictures, these in situations where the case arrived with a power supply installed, it was removed and exchanged with our standard power supply prior to testing.) We established a hard deadline for all participants and cases received past that deadline were held for the next case review.

A word about the suggested retail prices that are listed in this review: the prices that are quoted are each company's suggested retail price in US dollars, however, the configuration of the case as well as its options can affect the price listed. For example, many companies only sell their cases with a power supply included, and this extra item can affect the cost of the case. In some instances, although the company removed the power supply for the review, they quoted the suggested retail price as if the power supply were still included. The prices in this article are a guideline as to what you should expect to pay for the case. And, of course, to get the most competitive price you need to research the case and its options to determine who has the best price for your desired configuration. We use resources on our website, such as the "Tom's Low Price Finder" guide to verify that the price listed is close to, or less than, what a buyer can expect to pay. In most instances, these prices are considerably less than the prices that the manufacturers provided us with, which we have listed in this review.

This review includes a lot of cases that are available for under $129 US (with some shopping around). This price range was not requested. We did not receive as many of the higher priced models as we have in the past couple of reviews. We have received comments from many readers that previous case reviews only covered high-end cases, so these readers should be pleased with number of more affordable cases reviewed here. Some of these cases include features that are found on higher-end models and may even in fact resemble the more expensive models.