Value Case Roundup: A Look at the Affordable

Powmax CP769PL

Powmax, like many other case manufacturers, has a short line of products but quality products at that. Besides PC cases, Powmax designs and manufactures high quality power supplies and other accessories such as UPSs. Today we will look at one of their traditional cases, their 769 series.

External Design

Being the seventh case we have looked at in this roundup we can surely say this is aesthetically the simplest looking case of them all. There is no special coloring on the bezel (though Powmax does have 3 different versions of the case), which is all black.

There are, of course, four 5-1/4" drive bays and two external 3-1/2" bays aligned at the vertical center of the bezel.

Under the bays we see the reset button, which is extremely small like many of the other cases. To the sides of the reset button we see the power and HDD activity LEDs and the large chrome power button directly under the reset button.

At the bottom of the bezel we see a fold up door which hides away into the case when opened to reveal the audio in/out ports on the left and dual USB ports on the right. Again we see no FireWire ports, which obviously seems to be a trend in budget cases.

The side panels have what looks like an hourglass design on them with small bumps punched out. To remove these panels we need to remove the screws on the back and slide back. The panels also do not have any indentations to get a good grip so do make sure to have moist hands when doing this.

Internal Design

With a total of four 5-1/4" drive bays and seven 3-1/2" drive bays, the 769 is ready for expandability. The 3-1/2" drive bays are lined with holes to mount HDD with screws as far back or up as desired. All of the bays also have platforms the drives can sit on while installing them.

Similar to AsiaPro's 8654BL, the bottom four expansion slots feature a vent and screw holes to mount an extra 80mm fan. Of course, once those expansion slot covers are removed, a fan cannot be installed. This feature is great for those who use only a few expansion cards such as microATX board owners.