Having grown bored (yet again) with my current case (Antec 1200), I decided to try a recent release from Coolermaster.
I have owned a Stacker 830, HAF 932, and Cosmos S in the past so I am no stranger to Coolermaster products.
After having read the obligatory web reviews, I went out and picked one up.
It retails for $209 CAD (I paid less of course
)
A few things that stood out to me:
Very light; Compared to the Antec 1200 (which is similar in size), the case is much lighter. With the two integrated carrying handles on top, it is very easy to move about.
The motherboard tray has a cutout in the back allowing access to any cpu cooler without removing the motherboard.
I love the feet! I've always been a big fan of fold out feet. Not only for stability but also because it lifts the case. (I actually took the feet off my thermaltake armor and mounted them on another case). In this instance, the elevation serves the purpose of providing airflow should you put the power supply in fan down (which I did).
It's like Lego... Literally this case snaps apart into many many pieces. The top, bottom and front bezels all unsnap off easily making it very simple to mod or add/remove components from this case.
Supports a dual rad without modding. the top 200mm fan is removable. There are holes predrilled to allow either 2 - 120 mm fans or a dual rad with ease.
The tool free card holders are too flimsy to support a large video card. They work fine for single slot cards but anything bigger needs screws. I took them out as I am not a fan in general.
The side doors are pretty spiffy. Not only is it mesh on the main side, but the centre of the door is extruded outwards. At first I thought this was a cosmetic feature, then I noted the pre-drilled holes in the mesh door (see pic). The Sniper comes with several sets of screws (differering heights) that will allow you to either mount a 200mm coolermaster fan (longer screws used) or 2 standard 120mm fans (with shorter screws). Because the centre is extended, you can use any combo of fans in conjunction with a tower cpu cooler without any interference... Way to go CM, this was the biggest flaw of the coolermaster Cosmos S.
The back door, while plain steel also has the same extrusion. In this case, it is very very handy as you can pile all of your wire management into it without interfering with closing the door.
Wire Management is a snap. In addition to the above back door space, there are numerous ways to route wires in this case.
All wires are unpluggable from the top console section (very handy as there are quite a few wires). Unplugging the ones you don't use makes wire management even easier.
The hard drive cage is removable with screws. What a great idea! I took it out to provide more airflow to the GPU/MB area. Of course you need somewhere to put the hard drives... I put a thermaltake icage in 3 of the top bays. Not only does it have a fan but I can mount up to 3 hard drives in it. Plus there is still two slots for my DVD and card reader.
The fan controller works on all fans connected to the molex daisy chain!!! All of the reviews indicated that the fan controller would only work on the two, 200mm fans because it was 2 pin... WRONG! the two, two pin connectors are to power the LED's in the fans (the controller can turn off the LED's independant of the fan). I linked all of the case fans into the daisy wire and can now turn up/down all fans at the same time.
I can't believe 3 different reviewers did not bother to test this...
The bottom of the case has room for a 120 mm fan. I was able to add one (despite my PS being quite long). I cannot use the bottom connectors for the modular section but then again I have never needed them so no biggie.
All of the fans have integrated dust filters (as does the side of the door).
Compared directly to the antec 1200, GPU and CPU temps are within 1C of each other. Otherwise, they both perform really well. I would say that the sniper is superior in modding (especially as you can add a dual rad up top without a hiccup and mount a variety of fans in the door. on the antec 1200, I put a 120 fan in the door but could only align my TRUE horizontally as a result).
More comments and pics to follow.
Edited by Robilar - 2/26/09 at 9:47pm
I have owned a Stacker 830, HAF 932, and Cosmos S in the past so I am no stranger to Coolermaster products.
After having read the obligatory web reviews, I went out and picked one up.
It retails for $209 CAD (I paid less of course
)A few things that stood out to me:
Very light; Compared to the Antec 1200 (which is similar in size), the case is much lighter. With the two integrated carrying handles on top, it is very easy to move about.
The motherboard tray has a cutout in the back allowing access to any cpu cooler without removing the motherboard.
I love the feet! I've always been a big fan of fold out feet. Not only for stability but also because it lifts the case. (I actually took the feet off my thermaltake armor and mounted them on another case). In this instance, the elevation serves the purpose of providing airflow should you put the power supply in fan down (which I did).
It's like Lego... Literally this case snaps apart into many many pieces. The top, bottom and front bezels all unsnap off easily making it very simple to mod or add/remove components from this case.
Supports a dual rad without modding. the top 200mm fan is removable. There are holes predrilled to allow either 2 - 120 mm fans or a dual rad with ease.
The tool free card holders are too flimsy to support a large video card. They work fine for single slot cards but anything bigger needs screws. I took them out as I am not a fan in general.
The side doors are pretty spiffy. Not only is it mesh on the main side, but the centre of the door is extruded outwards. At first I thought this was a cosmetic feature, then I noted the pre-drilled holes in the mesh door (see pic). The Sniper comes with several sets of screws (differering heights) that will allow you to either mount a 200mm coolermaster fan (longer screws used) or 2 standard 120mm fans (with shorter screws). Because the centre is extended, you can use any combo of fans in conjunction with a tower cpu cooler without any interference... Way to go CM, this was the biggest flaw of the coolermaster Cosmos S.
The back door, while plain steel also has the same extrusion. In this case, it is very very handy as you can pile all of your wire management into it without interfering with closing the door.
Wire Management is a snap. In addition to the above back door space, there are numerous ways to route wires in this case.
All wires are unpluggable from the top console section (very handy as there are quite a few wires). Unplugging the ones you don't use makes wire management even easier.
The hard drive cage is removable with screws. What a great idea! I took it out to provide more airflow to the GPU/MB area. Of course you need somewhere to put the hard drives... I put a thermaltake icage in 3 of the top bays. Not only does it have a fan but I can mount up to 3 hard drives in it. Plus there is still two slots for my DVD and card reader.
The fan controller works on all fans connected to the molex daisy chain!!! All of the reviews indicated that the fan controller would only work on the two, 200mm fans because it was 2 pin... WRONG! the two, two pin connectors are to power the LED's in the fans (the controller can turn off the LED's independant of the fan). I linked all of the case fans into the daisy wire and can now turn up/down all fans at the same time.
I can't believe 3 different reviewers did not bother to test this...
The bottom of the case has room for a 120 mm fan. I was able to add one (despite my PS being quite long). I cannot use the bottom connectors for the modular section but then again I have never needed them so no biggie.
All of the fans have integrated dust filters (as does the side of the door).
Compared directly to the antec 1200, GPU and CPU temps are within 1C of each other. Otherwise, they both perform really well. I would say that the sniper is superior in modding (especially as you can add a dual rad up top without a hiccup and mount a variety of fans in the door. on the antec 1200, I put a 120 fan in the door but could only align my TRUE horizontally as a result).
More comments and pics to follow.
Edited by Robilar - 2/26/09 at 9:47pm
Murder Box
(15 items) |
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Murder Box
(15 items) |
