CompuCase Tower Cases

Reviewed by James 06.23.2003

Conclusion

These cases come with many great features, but not always in a single package. Compucase certainly had moments of brilliance in designing both cases, but for some reason did not pull of that brilliance into a single, well thought-out case. For example, the LX could easily hold the slide rails on the side panel or inside one of the bays, but instead the owner will have to attempt to keep up with those rails, which is an impossibility for most people. On the other hand, the great mechanism for holding the drive cages in place will never be realized if someone attempts to use the box "within specs," i.e. the way it came. Likewise, the thumbscrews for the side panel on the LX are pointless because the latch mechanisms should keep the panel in place. The thumbscrews would have been much better served on the other side, where none are available. Furtermore, all the edges in the cases are well rolled to prevent cuts and other injuries that all have experienced from low quality cases, but the side panels are rolled incompletely, leaving sharp edges. Compucase seems to have just barely missed the mark here.

Notice how the edges are unrolled in both pictures, making a slide of the finger across the panel's edge a risky venture.

The major detraction of the cases is the lack of a removable motherboard tray. All manufactures of cases aimed at more advanced users, especially those who customize their systems, need to know: EVERYONE WANTS REMOVABLE MOTHERBOARD TRAYS. They make life too much easier to go without. This is the only factor which would prevent me from getting either of the cases. Something which I really like about the cases is that for the front panel access, the connectors are made to go to the motherboard using a standard connector but single wire connectors are included for non-standard situations. Well, this is true for the USB and Audio jacks. The firewire connector is another story: It uses the standard male connector which needs fed out through the back of the case to be plugged into a back port. There goes a spare PCI slot. Again, they almost hit the mark, but miss by a single mis-step. At least the USB port is fully 2.0 compliant. However, for all the mis-steps made, the cases are still great. The quality construction, great price, and features make it a worthy look when buying a case; you'll simply have to choose which features you like most.

Pros
-Quality steel construction
-Simple, well-designed bay cages
-Easily installed fans
-Screwless access to PCI slots, side panel, and upper drive cage (LX only)
-Built in holder for drive rails (CI only)
-Easily accessed and cleaned air filter

Cons
-No Removable Motherboard Tray
-Lack of tight integration of features (the screws in the bay cages, for example)
-Firewire port cannot be connected to the motherboard
-Lacking Webpage, makes it difficult to buy the cases with the desired options