Price-Point Comparing Three-Way Case Shootout
by Joshua Buss on January 13, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
This was a bit of a deviance from our normal article structure here at AnandTech, but we really do feel that it illustrates things in the case realm in a rather enlightening way. Typically, the P150 is available right around the $150 price point, with sales bringing it down to $115. With this premium comes an incredibly stylish, quiet, excellent-performing, easy to use, sturdy, and above all a practical product, including even one of Antec's nicest power supplies. The P150 is a delight to work in, and the rail system makes everything snug and simple.
However, available for as little as $50, or $70 with a 450 watt power supply, one can receive a case which, in our opinion, is so close in performance to the P150 that the choice for anyone who likes the styling of both units is simply a no-brainer. The X1 does have a bit more of a "gamer's" look to it, but at least it's not nearly as distasteful as so many gaming themed units.
Finally, at the lowest price point, the E68 actually fared quite well compared to these competing products. For a mere $30, one can have a solidly performing, simple-enough, and still rather tasteful case that, at least from the front, looks like it's worth a lot more than what you're really paying for it, in our opinion.
While the P150's look will definitely grab some people's attention enough to warrant them getting that case, we really find the price a little steep, considering the lack of a door, screen, window, or anything else that would truly add that much to the cost of the product. If a user really cares about simple, elegant aesthetics, then perhaps they'll feel otherwise though. And, with the additional goodies of the X1 - namely the window and sharp LCD display on the front - available for only $20 more than the E68, the X1 gets our nod as the recommended case in this little roundup, and in fact, delivers so much bang for the buck in our opinion that it is deserving of our silver editor's choice award. Simply put, it's been a long time since we've seen such a nice case available for so little dough. Congratulations deserve to be sent out to all three manufacturers, though, for all of these units are above-average performers and come highly recommended from AnandTech.
UPDATE: The problem not previously mentioned of not being able to access the X1's ports after the door was closed is severe enough to degrade our judgement of the X1 from Gold to Silver.
This was a bit of a deviance from our normal article structure here at AnandTech, but we really do feel that it illustrates things in the case realm in a rather enlightening way. Typically, the P150 is available right around the $150 price point, with sales bringing it down to $115. With this premium comes an incredibly stylish, quiet, excellent-performing, easy to use, sturdy, and above all a practical product, including even one of Antec's nicest power supplies. The P150 is a delight to work in, and the rail system makes everything snug and simple.
However, available for as little as $50, or $70 with a 450 watt power supply, one can receive a case which, in our opinion, is so close in performance to the P150 that the choice for anyone who likes the styling of both units is simply a no-brainer. The X1 does have a bit more of a "gamer's" look to it, but at least it's not nearly as distasteful as so many gaming themed units.
Finally, at the lowest price point, the E68 actually fared quite well compared to these competing products. For a mere $30, one can have a solidly performing, simple-enough, and still rather tasteful case that, at least from the front, looks like it's worth a lot more than what you're really paying for it, in our opinion.
While the P150's look will definitely grab some people's attention enough to warrant them getting that case, we really find the price a little steep, considering the lack of a door, screen, window, or anything else that would truly add that much to the cost of the product. If a user really cares about simple, elegant aesthetics, then perhaps they'll feel otherwise though. And, with the additional goodies of the X1 - namely the window and sharp LCD display on the front - available for only $20 more than the E68, the X1 gets our nod as the recommended case in this little roundup, and in fact, delivers so much bang for the buck in our opinion that it is deserving of our silver editor's choice award. Simply put, it's been a long time since we've seen such a nice case available for so little dough. Congratulations deserve to be sent out to all three manufacturers, though, for all of these units are above-average performers and come highly recommended from AnandTech.
| Raidmax X1 |
 |
UPDATE: The problem not previously mentioned of not being able to access the X1's ports after the door was closed is severe enough to degrade our judgement of the X1 from Gold to Silver.
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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.