Inwin Dragon Rider Review

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Once in a while, I like to review something a little different from the usual power supply. Today is just such an occasion. Inwin Development has asked me to review their new Dragon Rider case. Some of you may already know that I am a fantasy novelist, and because of that I just couldn't turn this opportunity down. Come on in, and we'll try to do some dragon riding.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=237

[allikat]

I think you managed to avoid the PERNicious lawyers there Wolfy :p
Nice review on what seems to be a pretty average lower mid-range case.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Why, I have no idea what you're talking about.

/shiftyeyes

[mariush]

I cringe whenever I see blue cables coming out of holes and going back in connectors...

Is it really that hard to make a bracket with female USB connectors or those pins as found on motherboard on a side and male connectors on the other side? It's would be just a tiny piece of PCB on the bracket.

This way you could either connect the cables straight to motherboard or to the bracket and use 2 small usb cables on the back to connect to the fixed usb 3 connectors.

[allikat]

The motherboard connector spec was only finalised several months ago, long after the initial release of USB3. Some newer boards now come with the headers for USB3, but very few cases have the fittings to support it yet.

[Elledan]

Makes me kind of glad I won't be building a new system until I move to Australia later this year. Yay for having such glitches with loopback cables and everything sorted out.

Oh, and a yummy Bulldozer system to use too :D

[walterm]

Forsooth, enjoyed the Wolf tour. Thank you.
Shouldn't they add smoke pellet vents like electric trains used to use? Candle holders?
Someone design an expansion slot cover that passes thru cables?
I shudder to think what a Snail shaped case might bring forth. Or do I?

[Zero82z]

I shudder to think what a Snail shaped case might bring forth. Or do I?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112084

[walterm]

That's why!

[LxMxFxD]

I think this case really looks bad ass, perhaps the best looking case on the market. However, only fanning 3/4 (unsure) HDs is no bueno, and I would worry about the noise and dust from that enormous side intake fan. At only $130 (current newegg price) this is pretty competitive. If I weren't in love with xigmatek's elysium, I would possibly hop on this case. When the hell is that thing going to be available, anyway?

[muddocktor]

Hey Wolf, see you got one of these to review too. :D

Overall, I found it to be a nice case too, with a few problem areas. And the 2 major points I found to be problems you didn't comment on. One could possibly have been missed because of the cooling option you chose for your cpu cooler but I can't believe you didn't catch the other. The one I figured you'd catch, being a psu reviewer and all, is the lack of any way to get to the filter under the psu with the psu installed. To clean that bugger you will have to unscrew the psu and try to move it to the side. I have another full tower case to review soon that gets around this problem by building in a trap door to get to the filter from the bottom. The other major problem that I found and you didn't catch is because you used that crummy little POS cpu cooler. If you go with high end air with a tower style heatsink, it will interfere with that side fan. In Win didn't provide enough room in the case for a tall heatsink while using that side door fan. Now you can get around the problem by repositioning that fan lower on the door. You can rotate it roughly 40 degrees and move it down in the case and still have some mounting holes line up with the fan and that is what I ended up doing for testing. They could have alleviated this problem by making the coarse mesh insert in the side door stick out another 1 1/4 inches or so. And the USB3 pass through cables thing has already been answered by allikat, who hit the nail on the head. Until very recently, you couldn't even find a mobo that had a usb3 header on the mobo anyways, which is why they went with the pass through cables. But it would be nice to see them add a usb3 header adapter with it, since they are now rolling out boards with usb3 headers.

LxMxFxD, the noise from that fan isn't bad IMO. But the lack of filtering on the door fan (and other side door 120 mm fan) does let it get dusty inside. But for overclocking, the big mesh panel on the door also leads to excellent cooling for the whole case. There is no place to get trapped or stagnant air to build up inside.

After living with this case for 3 months or so and using it as part of my heatsink review test rig, I must say that I have grown real fond of it. There is plenty of room in the case to swap heatsinks out and they made a nice big cutout in the mobo tray to give loads of room for installing backplates for various heatsinks. It is also a good case to mount those "turnkey liquid cooling solutions" like the Corsair Hx0 series of cpu coolers too.

1 other point you commented on about the pass through cables that has a very simple fix. I was able to pass both through one of the grommet holes without knocking the grommet out was to use a dab of superglue on the grommet and set it back in the hole.:D Problem solved and both pass through cables coming out of 1 hole.:D

BTW, for you all that don't know, I review heatsinks for the Overclockers.com website, where Wolf is also a Senior member of too.

[LxMxFxD]

mudd, thanks for your comments. I have an 8 year old in win case which has been very good to me, but my USB2 front ports have mysteriously "died". Thus im in the market for a new case but... it isn't an amazing priority. I def appreciate your comments on this. I do have a large heatsink (xigmatek s-1283) on my socket 775 mobo, so I doubt it will fit with that side fan. Even still, I think whichever case I end up buying will be the one that I see a good deal on. My short list is:

Coolermaster HAF 932
Antec DF-85
In win Dragon Rider
NZXT Phantom (though I may remove this as no usb3 ports)
Xigmatek Elysium Super tower

I'd really buy the xigmatek today if it was $200 shipped. That top loading sata dock just makes it heads and shoulders above the rest, for me.

[muddocktor]

LxMxFxD, if you shift the large door fan down,, your 1283 will fit just fine. I am using that case as my new test rig case and it hasn't run into a clearance problem yet with any heatsinks I've tested in it. I've tried the following coolers with no pclearance issues (in no particular order):

TR TRUE Rev. C
TR HR-02
CM Hyper 212 Plus
Evercool Transformer 4
Evercool Transformer 3
Corsair H70
Corasir H50
Coolit! ECO LCS
Zalman 9900 Max
And the 1 I'm testing presently, which is under NDA for a few more days.

Here's the link to my review - LINK (http://www.overclockers.com/win-dragon-rider-case-review/)

I have a couple of pics that show when I relocated the fan to in the side door. You will need to rotate it around 40 degrees or so, to where the fan mount hole lines up with the second to the back bottom screw hole in the door and then rotatke the fan assembly until the fan's mounting hole align with some of the screw holes in the door. The fan's light switch wire is just long enough to reach when the fan is mounted this way. But be sure you take the switch off the side door when remounting the fan to keep from straining the wire and breaking it off the switch or fan.

[LxMxFxD]

LxMxFxD, if you shift the large door fan down,, your 1283 will fit just fine. I am using that case as my new test rig case and it hasn't run into a clearance problem yet with any heatsinks I've tested in it. I've tried the following coolers with no pclearance issues (in no particular order):

TR TRUE Rev. C
TR HR-02
CM Hyper 212 Plus
Evercool Transformer 4
Evercool Transformer 3
Corsair H70
Corasir H50
Coolit! ECO LCS
Zalman 9900 Max
And the 1 I'm testing presently, which is under NDA for a few more days.

Here's the link to my review - LINK (http://www.overclockers.com/win-dragon-rider-case-review/)

I have a couple of pics that show when I relocated the fan to in the side door. You will need to rotate it around 40 degrees or so, to where the fan mount hole lines up with the second to the back bottom screw hole in the door and then rotatke the fan assembly until the fan's mounting hole align with some of the screw holes in the door. The fan's light switch wire is just long enough to reach when the fan is mounted this way. But be sure you take the switch off the side door when remounting the fan to keep from straining the wire and breaking it off the switch or fan.

Awesome review. Ironically, I have that exact case you used to test and compare! You call it an antec 1040 clone, this is what i have! (I've searched high and low to find out what kind of case I actually have, as there are NO Markings on it anywhere with brand). I actually own 2, with the one with "dead usb front" it appears to be (after googling) an antec SX1040BI. Mine is silver and I got it from some guy on a forum like in 2002 who modded it with a 120mm intake fan that blows onto graphics cards. That fan and a single low-volt modded 80mm exhaust fan are the only fans I have in the case.

I'm saddened to see the case temps dont drop much compared to the antec. However, with my near silentpc config, volt modded to make significantly less noise.. of course, I get significantly less air push. I think that if my front USB ports hadn't died, i'd be using this case until I ran out of hard drive bays or until a graphics card wouldn't fit.

Dragon rider is such a nice looking case, I dont think anyone can disagree. Like your review said, it sucks that the side fan has to be moved with heatsinks that any average enthusiast would of course have. Oh well, we'll see which case from my list goes on sale first for a price that will command me to upgrade from this old antec beast :0)

Just out of curiosity mudd, what case do you think is the best case for silence/air flow that is on the market now for $200 or less?

[muddocktor]

I don't have a whole bunch of experience with modern cases. Just what I've bought and the Dragon Rider. In the last 3 years I've bought a Cooler Master HAF922 and a Mountain Mods U2-UFO and received the Dragon Rider to review. Of those 3 cases, the quietest is the U2-UFO, but that one is way out of the price range you are looking at. Between the HAF922 and the DR, it's pretty much a tossup. The Haf might be just a tad quieter, since they used 2 big, slow turning fans for case ventilation. But I am sure that if you would put a side door fan on the HAF you would have the same clearance problems as the DR, because it isn't any wider than the DR.

My choice for cooling on my personal systems (the ones I don't test heatsinks in) is water. Everything except the test rig has a loop on it. If you go water, the DR is a little better set up, because the layout of the fan holes on the top of the case are set up perfectly to mount a dual fan rad up there. And I have 1 other case waiting for me to review, which I can't find for sale yet in the US. It's called the Cubitek HPTX Tank (http://www.cubitek.com/products/chassis/hptx-tank/features.html) and it's a massive full tower aluminum case that can accommodate even an SR2 mobo. It's a bit plain like a Lian Li, but has some interesting possibilities for a build. I am presently planning a build for it for a review. It has a 230 mm intake fan, a 140 mm exhaust fan and 2-140 mm fans on the top of the case. The top plate of the case is also removable, opening up quite a few possibilities for cooling and modding. I've powered up the fans on it and they are pretty quiet too.

[LxMxFxD]

Well, there was a deal on a cheap rosewill (newegg) case, called Smart One. it was e-blasted for $35 free shipping included, and it had all the features I was "needing." No it doesn't have 4 hotswap bays and no it doesn't glow in the dark red or something, and doesn't have usb3. I don't have a USB 3.0 mobo anyway, i'll likely upgrade in the fall to the 2011 socket i7-2xxx series which will have usb 3.0 native along with pci express 3.

So I figured I'd give it a shot. I had to volt mod the front fan to 5V and add a silent 80mm fan, but I now have all 5 of my HDs and SSD fan cooled and the case is about the same noise level as my old antec behemoths... which is.. practically silent. I'm pretty stoked with this case, honestly. It doesn't have USB3, so probably in the fall if I upgrade i'll buy a new case along with it. Probably the USB3 headers will be standardized by then anyway. Until then, thumbs up to newegg and their slick marketing ;)

I've been overclocking CPUs since the celeron 266 days. That is, 266 --> 450 for something like $500 savings over the equivalent 450mhz PII. In all that time, i've never gone water cooling. I think in my next build that will be the route for me, and i'll buy a case which can accommodate. It is looking like that xigmatek Elysium might just be the one. That said, I look forward to reading your review of the htpx tank. It looks like a strong contender.