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Assembly:
Building a PC in the Maxtop case was a pleasant experience.
All of the mounts are well aligned and threaded. The
motherboard tray is easily removed and installed,
even with the monstrous TT Volcano7+ mounted on the
motherboard. The Q Power PSU that came with the case
seemed to be quiet enough and was rated at 350W, it
had plenty of molex connectors and the cabling was
sufficiently long. However, I must admit, I swapped
it out for a 420W before installing the components.
I figured with a XP2700+, DualDDR, lots of fans and
lights I would need the extra power. I have always
been a stickler for providing more than enough juice
ahead of time. But for most users, 350W should be
plenty.
Once up and running, I had a close look, and wondered
about the window placement. It seems to showcase the
drive bays more than anything else. This is fine for
RAID fetishes, but I want to show off my sweet ass
motherboard, RAM, video card and CPU cooler. Some
of these components, unfortunately, are veiled by
the area of panel not fitted with a window. As much
as I like the "L" shaped window, it needs
to be adjusted a bit (at the design stage) to really
showcase the important components.
Maxtop kindly provided a few extras with my review
sample to show what a window can do for modders. In
the box I received was a crystal clear fan with 4
color lights and a set of tri-colored dual cold cathode
lights. So not only does it boast bubble lights on
the front bezel, but with the lights off, this thing
looks like the dance floor in Saturday Night Fever.
Sweet.
All in all, I like this case a lot. The Maxtop CSX-7788KEB-Win
feels solidly built, comes with a 350W PSU, and has
some interesting pre-modded features. It looks very
cool; the design of the front panel is classy and
the buttons feel of very high quality. The front bubble
lights made me wonder if I would be the laughing stock
of my local LAN scene, but I think that they look
really cool once everything is together. Unfortunately
the window shows off more of the drive cages and less
of the good stuff (unless you are into drives) and
the intake/exhaust fan mounts are of the restrictive/loud
type.
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 catergories 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.
Mainstream User:
I think that for $71 you can't really go wrong here,
the features definitely outweigh the drawbacks, the
quality is surprisingly good and you could easily
drop the same amount on a piece of tin crap with no
PSU from someone else. There is plenty of room inside
to make it easy for less experienced users to assemble
a PC. The straight forward wiring leaves a smaller
learning curve than I have seen in other cases, and
the pre-fab window and bubble lights will make you
feel like a pro. If you are in the market for a pre-modded
case and don't want to empty your wallet, Maxtop should
be on your short list.
Enthusiast:
Enthusiasts will be almost as pleased with this case
as the mainstream user. The addition of a removable
motherboard tray and well ventlated panels lend this
case to the constant tinkerer/overclocker. The side
intake and top exhaust fans leave even more room for
overclocking with additional circuation to keep things
cool. My only gripe is the placement of the window,
which displays more of the drive bays than the motherboard
area. Constrtuction is solid enough to handle the
constant nstalling/removing of components and last
a lifetime (or atleast until a new form factor is
introduced). Only a thin front panel surface finish
that scuffs and wears easily spoil an otherwise very
accomplished case.
Currently Newegg
carries the full line of Maxtop cases at very reasonable
prices. Maxtop is not equipped to take direct orders,
so please follow the link to Newegg
for ordering.
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