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Assembly::...
Assembly went smoothly and alignment was very good on the whole.
Here you can see the "eyes" illuminated by their blue LEDs which are positioned in the inner corners and shine out onto some kind of light coloured reflective material. This gives a fairly smooth and even light that almost resembles EL lighting.
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Eye-Eye |
Summary:
The BAT case is an interesting product that doesn't completely sacrifice quality for looks.
The use of 0.7mm SECC steel in preference to 0.8mm or 1.0mm may disappoint those used to thicker stuff, but the side panels showed no signs of resonating, probably in part due to the stiffening effects of the plastic molding screwed to them.
There's a lot of plastic in the construction but much of it is on a steel backing while the rest is good enough quality to not raise any obvious concerns.
The ability to sit a 120mm fan in the front would have been welcome, if only to keep noise levels down a tad.
£57.00+ isn't cheap for a case with such limited appeal, in fact the limited appeal may be what's driven the price up, but as I mentioned it's really a pretty good all-rounder so perhaps I shouldn't begrudge them that.
Conclusion
The 3DVelocity 'Dual Conclusions Concept' Explained: After discussing this concept with users as well as companies and vendors we work with, 3DVelocity have decided that where necessary we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions Concept' to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the hardware we review. As the needs of the more experienced users and enthusiasts have increased, it has become more difficult to factor in all the aspects that such a user would find important, while also being fair to products that may lack these high end "bonus" capabilities but which still represent a very good buy for the more traditional and more prevalent mainstream user. The two categories we've used are:
The Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely to put price, stock performance, value for money, reliability and/or warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that operates beyond its design specifications. The mainstream user may be a PC novice or may be an experienced user, however their needs are clearly very different to those of the enthusiast, in that they want to buy products that operate efficiently and reliably within their advertised parameters.
The Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the things that the mainstream user cares about but is more likely to accept a weakness in one or more of these things in exchange for some measure of performance or functionality beyond its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels of overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually large heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may be considered acceptable if it offers significantly superior cooling in return.
The Mainstream User ~
It's not for everyone in terms of how it looks, but for once the familiar equation of "exuberant design + bright colours = questionable quality" doesn't apply.
Asian design taste can be very different to what we're used to over here, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but if Sansun expect the BAT to have wide market appeal they're wrong. Young kids, mostly boys, will no doubt love it. Batman fans may also convince themselves they should own one, but outside of these two markets the demand is likely to be limited.
The lack of a power supply may seem mean but the quality of units supplied at this price point is usually questionable at best, so don't let that put you off.
Thermally the case performs very well, so in all it's only a few poor design decisions like the flat-backed front door, the poor fan vents and black-on-red surface finish that stop it picking up an unexpected (by me at least) award.
If you like its looks it's actually a very good case
The Enthusiast ~
It's easy to be a snob about cases like this (I should know), but in truth it's actually not a bad case at all in the scale of things. Whether or not you can live with its looks is something only you'll know.
There's no removable motherboard tray for those of you who value such things, nor are there the usual flourishes often seen on costlier cases, things like like chassis intrusion micro switches, dust filers, lockable panels, temperature readouts and so on, but you do get a lot for your money even without a power supply, something few enthusiasts will mourn.
Buying one may rate somewhere alongside buying a "Best of Des O'Connor" CD in terms of embarrassment, that's if you can even find one for sale, but you could certainly do much, much worse.
We're always looking for ways to make our reviews fairer. A Right To Reply gives the manufacturer or supplier of the product being reviewed a chance to make public comments on what we've said. They can explain perhaps why they've done the things we were unhappy with or blow their own trumpet over the things we loved. It's easy for us to pick a product apart but sometimes things are done a certain way for very specific reasons and here the company concerned can explain the reasoning behind their decisions.
Should Sansun decide to exercise their "Right To Reply", we'll publish their comments below:
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