Final Thought
In the end, what really makes a good gaming chassis? We believe a worthwhile product should include a tool-less design, greater possibilities for expansion, ample drive bays, and regardless of any other feature, a removable motherboard tray. We mentioned earlier that gamers, more than any other end user, swap out hardware to keep up with changing technologies. This creates the need for a case that will allow them to do this without running into messy wiring or cramped space inside the case.Though Chenbro does not include many of these features in their Xpider II, its performance comes close to a great gaming chassis as far as heat and noise benchmarks go. Compared to the Thermaltake Damier V6000A, the Xpider II performed at just about the same level. It is surprising, since the Damier has three more fans than the Xpider II.
Click to enlarge.
The Xpider II's use of drive rails was also a great choice, but would have been even better had it been implemented in the bottom six 3-1/2" drive bays. And Chenbro's add-on card securing device was an excellent idea, but could be improved to work with the varying designs of add-on cards.
With the combination of these features, we conclude that the Xpider II is at par with the other mid-range themed cases, like the X-Mask and the Guardian, but a price tag of around $80 may seem a bit on the expensive side compared to those two.
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masher - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
> with over 700 employees across the world,> Chenbro is one of the biggest manufacturing
> companies in the world.
Haha, what are you smoking? If they had 70,000 employees, they'd be one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world...at 700, they're not even a flyspeck on the map.
Booty - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
Figured I might as well pipe up too - I love hearing about new cases, but really, when you reviewed this, did you actually think anyone out there would like the looks of it? Did YOU like the looks of it? I don't care if the thing has the most spacious and effecient design to date - there's no way in hell I would buy a case that looks like that. Or like the Guardian. I browse through the cases at Newegg and wonder why anyone would buy about half of them - there are so many just plain tacky designs...I'd take a nice simple Antec 3700 over this thing any day of the week. If I hadn't been reading Anandtech for so many years and this was the first review I read off your site, I'd have trouble taking you seriously and might not come back...
Maybe you guys (at AT) just have really bad taste. I look at some of the case choices in the custom-built system guides and wonder why you'd choose those over some other options. In any case, please, please stop wasting resources reviewing junky, ugly cases like this one. Case reviews are good. Ugly case reviews are bad. I don't care if the company sent it to you for free to review or what - you guys have a reputation to uphold.
Oh, and I also agree - if the case comes standard with a power supply, it should be benched/tested with that supply. If you can buy the case without the supply, that's a different story, but test it with the included hardware. If you want to then throw a different PSU/fans/whatever in to try to make the noise comparisons fair, fine... but most people who buy a case aren't just going to gut it - they're going to want to use the goods that came with the chassis.
araczynski - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
reminds me of a similarly named one a month or so ago... don't think its the same company, but obviously this company didn't bother to read this site before just randomly deciding to send their case to be reviewed here.anyway, i would say the only thing missing is a little UV Spider dangling on a thin strand of UV web from inside there, at least then the design would get a smile rather then a cringe out of me.
brian_riendeau - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
I have no idea who some of these case article are targetted at. I do not know anyone that would dare show up to a LAN party with a case that looks like this.Is anyone coming to this site actually interested in a plastic bezel spider case that looks like it belongs to a 5 year old? Why not start reviewing Barbie and Pokemon computer cases too???
Creig - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
I agree with #4. If you swapped out the power supply to equalize noise comparisons, why didn't you swap out the case fans as well? And I don't recall previous video card reviews saying that they swapped out the cooling fan, either.At the very least, do a before/after set of readings so people who are thinking of ordering the case/power supply combo can gauge the difference between the two.
Just an idea.
Aquila76 - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
Why is the market flooded with these "gamer" cases that look like something out of a 70's gay porn movie?Just a thought, but if you spend less time building these atrocities and more time building the cases we do want, you'll actually have better sales which translates to more money, which translates to hooking up with more women (or men, if you like this case), which translates to less time to come up with these hideous designs.
TrogdorJW - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
I'm not at all convinced of the "growing trend" in removable motherboard trays. Yes, they exist, but they're generally only in very expensive cases. I can see where they might be somewhat desirable, but I swap out hardware relatively often and have never felt overly distressed by the lack of a removable motherboard tray. Let's be honest: if you're removing the motherboard, it's going to be something of a pain in the ass with or without the tray. The only thing it helps with would be the installation/removal of a CPU, as getting a CPU out when the motherboard is installed is very difficult.Maybe other people swap CPUs and motherboards frequently, but I usually only do it once or twice a year at most. I can deal with the non-removalbe tray for those times when I do remove the motherboard. A bigger concern for me is the fugly exterior and the LED fans. But I'm not the target market for this case. I believe the target market is kids with purple hair, nose rings, bad vision, and access to mommy and daddy's credit card. ;)
MDE - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
Cable management 101: Don't put the giant ATX cable right next to the CPU heatsink...skunkbuster - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
the message is clear! its DAMN FUGLY!ProphetCHRIS - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
It comes right after the Guardian in my list of the worst cases ever....