It certainly won't be to everyone's taste but I like it, I always feel there are far too many boring square boxes out there and not enough chances are taken design wise.
I still fail to see any “steampunk” in that case, I don't think it looks bad, just don't see any “steampunk” there, Deepcool seems to of just used the name in the marketing as it's “cool” atm, that or their designer just heard the cool term without the first idea of what it meant.
I watched Bill Owen's review/look at this case on youtube, they pulled up a couple of points you seem to of missed.
Although you cannot really use psu's longer than 160mm, it becomes far worse if you want a modular psu, then even a standard 140mm deep psu becomes tricky.
Allot of this could of been alleviated by simply swapping the psu and 2.5“ cage positions over, allowing the majority of the cables to clear the 3.5” cage that's in the way.
To remove the 2.5" cage you have to get the bottom bezel off and to do that you have to peel off 3 of the rubber feet as they hid the 3 screws that hold the bottom bezel on.
I'm off the opinion that that is truly ugly!
It's not crying “steampunk” to me either. When I saw the first picture, I thought “Mehh, maybe like an engine, sort of thing?”, but the more I've seen it, the more I think it's just off-base. A string of LEDs running down the little grovves and you get away with cyberpunk, perhaps (modders at the ready!)?
I can't help but feel that, given the size of the case, there shouldn't be any clearance issues for anything. It's too “big” to be so constrained (Pob255's PSU comments in particular).
Deepcool need to go back to the drawing board on this one. For what fundamentally looks like a wider Bitfenix Prodigy with some bling on the roof, they've missed the mark.
On a side-note, can we get some thermal testing done in the smaller chassis that you review? A case can look as good (or otherwise) as it wants, but if its cooling ability is naff, it can stay on the shelf.
I'm really not into the whole “steampunk” thing at all, but I do quite like the look of this case. That said, the IO panel cabling is a bit… meh.
It's a good looking case, certainly.
A couple of groovy features as well… but alas, when you get inside it there are way too many other features that are absolute deal-breakers for me.
Steampunk eh? With black, red and white options? I await the limited edition brass finish version with optional analogue fan-monitor dial display.
Looks more like it was influenced by the tastes of alt/industrial fans, judging by the angled ports which are reminiscent of a gasmask, rather than the steampunk aesthetic. I'd expect a lot of brass and dark-coloured wood in a steampunk case. Then again, it's also reminding me of my dad's electric shaver.
I think even my teenage nephew would recoil from this case though. It's hard to imagine who would look at this and think it looks good.
Tpyo
Steampunk eh? With black, red and white options? I await the limited edition brass finish version with optional analogue fan-monitor dial display.
An analogue fan-monitor dial display.
My. Lord.
BRB, need to change my pants.
Just seen the photos on the ****** review, they had a red version in, it's all bright red glossy plastic :puke:
If they had painted it to look like bakelite and made the grills a brass or copper colour it would look like cheap steampunk
Pob255
Just seen the photos on the ****** review, they had a red version in, it's all bright red glossy plastic :puke:
If they had painted it to look like bakelite and made the grills a brass or copper colour it would look like cheap steampunk
Oh, the red case in the “Zetrov” review? I saw that too. It's a bit more like a Ferrari-esque engine design, like the Coolermaster V8. Those two would pair up nicely, come to think of it.
The case top reminds me of a well known make of shaver! :)
This is just a big clunky horrific plastic mess. It's about as steampunk as a wheel of cheese. I've not seen a case fail so badly at it's goals, ever.
Innards look astoundingly similar to Aerocool's “Deep Silence” case, which looks a whole lot better TBH.
This looks more "
DieselPunk" than steampunk.
iworrall
Innards look astoundingly similar to Aerocool's “Deep Silence” case, which looks a whole lot better TBH.
This looks more "DieselPunk" than steampunk.
Yep. There are a few cases that as built around the same layout - I have the Aerocool DS Cube and everything except the top, front and bottom plastics is identical. No bad thing - the DS is a cracking little chassis.
In fact, you'd really have to go of your way to ruin a case based on the same skeleton, so we should take our hats of to Deepcool for trying damned hard to do just that. It is hideous.
It is NOT steampunk. Never has been, never will be.
Finish the roof in a faux rivetted boiler plate effect and you'd be on your way but, as it is, it's just sad.
I also have the DS, that's how I recognised it.
It's a bit more Fallout-esque retro-futurism than Steampunk, but it looks like it's a decent case at least.
I really like the look of this case.
I really like this concept of having the mobo flat and a window to see it, but I don't understand why they couldn't put a window on each side. Are there any cases that do that?
theleader
The case top reminds me of a well known make of shaver! :)
I instantly thought the exact same thing. Quite a handy built-in feature….
KeyboardDemon
I really like the look of this case.
I really like this concept of having the mobo flat and a window to see it, but I don't understand why they couldn't put a window on each side. Are there any cases that do that?
I have the Aerocool Dead Silence cube, mATX, which uses the same horizontal design with the PSU and SSDs in their own compartment in the base. Mine is the closed version, but there is a windowed option. I'm pretty sure it's only windowed in one side though, like most window cases. The window is not exactly halfway up the panel because of the lower bay, so you wouldn't be able to buy the window panel as a part and reverse it. You could try contacting Aerocool in case there's something they can do for you, but I wouldn't hold out much hope.
It's a great case though. It's very quiet, although I'm a little puzzled that they didn't put the 10dB Aerocool Dead Silence fans into the case. If you add one/some of them (in my case, a 120mm fan clips onto my BeQuiet CPU cooler and the case has a 120mm exhaust) it could be cooler still, since the intake fan at the front is a big 200mm fan that spins slowly and quietly anyway. There's room to add a couple of 140mm fans in the top if you want to, which could help to keep fan speeds down across the case.
It's a ridiculously easy case to build into, or at least the easiest I've used. I love the toolless HDD trays, and SSDs don't need a tray at all - just screw in four rubber points on each drive, and they slide right into the cage and click into place. I think the reports of its airflow are a little overblown - it's good, but not especially good - but temps were reduced by about 6C by swapping the solid roof panel for the provided grill-and-filter one, so I'm perfectly happy now.
To be honest, this just looks like the bitfenix prodigy with a kinda cool mod.
the rubber coating, as you can see in this article`s photos, is fingerprint magnet, soon starts looking tatty.
don`t know about steampunk, but definitely retro-futuristic.
People can't see any ‘steampunk’ in this case… why?
BECAUSE IT DOES NOT IN ANY WAY FOLLOW THE ‘STEAMPUNK’ STYLE !!!
Maybe…. if you stretch the definitions to breaking point… you could call it cyber-punk or diesel-punk or closest would be ‘industrial’… but never EVER steampunk!
The real truth is it's none of these, it's just an over-styleised case with some cheap mouldings.
Sheeesh Hexus. Who writes this stuff?
It's like being on a movie site and reading reviews from people who can't tell the difference between a rom-coms, sci-fi or horror movie!
I looked up what the other colour look like. It they had highlighted the carved areas such as the screws with a different colour or material, this case would really pop.
It is still nice and unusual at a good price too.
PS. I guess it had to suffer from lack of functionality for the price.