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Price-Point Comparing Three-Way Case Shootout

 by Joshua Buss on January 13, 2006 12:05 AM EST
69 Comments | Add A Comment
69 Comments
Raidmax X1 (cont’d)

For the first of our pictures of a system getting installed into the X1, we thought that we'd show how the X1 also suffers from the same problem as the P150 in terms of making it a little hard to get side-mounted IDE cables into the motherboard. Thankfully, the access from the other side of the case makes it a little easier than in the P150, however; and nowadays, SATA drives are becoming more and more popular as users everywhere share the frustrations with thick IDE cables.

Getting the power supply seated and fastened into place was a breeze. There's a decent amount of steel still helping to support the unit, even without the explicit inclusion of a crossbar. This is one area where a simple screwdriver is still a necessity, unless of course one simply uses thumbscrews instead of standard case screws to secure the power supply.

After getting the power supply in place, we proceeded to install our 6600 GT, which was also easy, thanks to the tool-less expansion card holders.

While still not quite as good as the DynaPower F3323s, which we looked at in our last mid-tower roundup, the X1's clips work well enough. The only complaint about them is that they can be a bit tricky to slide back into the unlocked position after a card has already been installed.

Sliding the hard drive into place and locking it with the single locking clip was simple and effective, and after connecting together the components, our build was complete. This picture doesn’t really do any justice, but the X1 overall just has a very nice feel to it and was a pleasure to work in. We didn't find sharp edges in the chassis anywhere.


Click to enlarge.

After putting the side panel back on and firing up the system, we were greeted with the X1's fanciest treat, which is a simple LCD on the front to display power, fan, and hard drive status as well as report a single temperature. Our efforts to do this unit justice were met with utter defeat, so we've borrowed this image from the RaidMax site to give you a better idea of what it really looks like. Just remember though that this picture comes from the white version of the case – on our case, the section to the right of the display is black.

Raidmax X1 (cont’d) Dynapower E68
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  • yacoub - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Yes, the Antec P150 is the best case EVER. No really, it's awesome. I wish they'd offer it without the included PSU though, since that PSU has issues with some Asus boards. I ended up buying a different PSU ahead of time since I knew that and was getting an A8N-SLI Premium.

    I highly recommend the P150. No reason for any other case unless you simply need MORE room than it offers.

    The best part about the P150 is you can build a silent PC system in it very easily. I have the included 120mm fan on the lowest setting and insulated from the case itself with rubber grommets so it's totally silent, a TruePowerII 480w PSU (has a 120mm fan inside it) which is totally silent, the harddrive isolated with the included grommets, the CPU fan throttled down dynamically with CPUSpeed, and the GPU fan throttled with ATITool.

    It's also high quality part and construction-wise.

  • Live - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    The optional front fans in the P150 are for 92mm.

  • Tamale - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    fixed.

  • xsilver - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    anybody here from Australia? know where I can get the raidmax X1? not sure if there are any australian distributers -- (cant find anybody on staticice.com.au)

  • Cygni - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    My only comment is with the title of the article. Probably should be a bit more descriptive... like "Cases - 3 Way Price Point Shootout" or something,.

  • balilu - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Is the P150 available in black or any chance of being in the near future?

  • Tamale - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    I haven't seen any indication that antec is going to release other models of the P150.. that being said, you might want to check out their Sonata II reviewed several months back.

  • Avalon - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Raidmax getting an editor's gold choice award makes me giggle inside.

  • Googer - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Why does the title of the page say

    ate: January 13th, 2006
    Topic: Cases & Cooling
    Manufacturer: 3Com/U.S. Robotics
    Author: Joshua Buss

    Why is 3Com and US Robotics listed? 3COM Spun them off and they are no longer part of 3COM. Also 3COM and US Robotics do not make PC Cases and there were no other USR or 3COM Components reviewed in this article.

  • Tamale - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    no idea. Thanks for point it out....
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