Great review Justin and the case looks like an incredibly interesting piece of work - mostly due for its customization capabilities. Much like the Silverstone FT02, Id love to get my hands on one of these and spend hours on making a perfectly assembled system (its also a challenge to do builds on such unusual cases and i like it). I still do believe however that your cable management needs more attention. I suspect that you usually must be on a deadline to build the system and write your review (which means that you dont have the luxury of time on your side), but i would really-really like to see you doing better cable management. You assembled the system ofc and you know better, but i look at the case and i see so many options and possibilities for cable routing, or ways to make things cleaner :) But still, great revew... its one of those cases that make your "creativity juices" go sky-high :)
Great review, Except I have one overall gripe with how you do mid and full size case reviews.
I can't speak for everyone, but When I'm building a machine that needs a medium or large sized case, I have more than just an SSD, MicroATX and one video card.
I understand the need for uniformity across all your reviews/test beds, however using the case in a way that the majority of users in a real life situation would be much more informative.
For example, my "gaming" machine is a Mid sized tower, with 5 hard drives, 2 optical drives, and two 6850's in crossfire.
The setup you have could be fit into a small HTPC (minus the video card) Who in their right mind would waste 200+ (160 in this "case") to put micro atx motherboard and a single hard drive into a full size tower?
Heat, Airflow, noise would all change when loaded up with an "average" full size setup, Including installation, cable routing, etc.
I'm with sudz on this one. I would want to see something more in line with a case full of motherboard, graphics cards and hard-drives. After all, that's why one would need a case this big.
So let's see it with a liquid cooled core-7 processor with a closed-loop radiator in the top of the chassis, and at least four 3.5-inch hard-drives installed with the OS running on a 2.5-inch SSD. Then I would have a MUCH better idea as to whether this case deserves consideration for my next build project.
We know that, all other things being equal, a larger fan will move more air with less noise. So I would like to have 230mm fans everywhere. The problem comes when you're actually trying to select and buy them. There is practically no choice. All ideas of working with RPM ranges and PWM control go out the window. And you may find that only sleeve bearings are available. Those are completely unsuited to horizontal mounting (as at the top of this case) where they will fail early.
I've learned the hard way to prefer plain old 120mm or at most 140mm fan ports. I'd like it to be otherwise, and tried to go there, but the industry is nowhere near ready. There just isn't enough demand, and I don't see that changing soon.
I'm annoyed, the review gives temps for SSD's and doesn't use HD's. SSD's don't generate much heat and are quite heat insensitive. HD's on the other hand generate significant amount of heat and are sensitive to heat especially if there aren't fan's in front of them.
I've had significant issues with cases where placing HD's next to each other have caused HD's to get excessively hot and I've needed to either get fans that generate noise or spread the HD's apart so that they are not next to each other.
With no HD temps in the review, means I skip this case in my next build...
I second that. I think future reviews for gamer/power user cases should reflect more reality... One SSD and two 2TB Hard Drives. Both of my desktops have two HDs, my main has an SSD.
While the 3.5 Drive bays may seem a bit of a waste being in 5" drive sleds, it gives them plenty of air-space. In todays world, I think even having TWO optical drives is rare. In the past 10 years, I've only built 2 computers for others who requested 2 drives.
In the OLD days of PCs, the 3.5" drive bays were SNUG against each other. I noticed this problem back in 2002 when I opened my side panel of my HUGE Antec case (God it was loud) and notice the HEAT from the 3 HDs that were attached side by side. The AIR gap between the drives was slightly bigger than a quarter and the sides were solid. (These were drive cages). The drives were too hot to touch for more than a few seconds. I moved 2 drives to an adapter and stuck in a 5.25 bay (each), and left the 3rd in the middle 3.5 cage.
Since then, my PC cases require having an air-vent in front of the HD bays and a good amount of space (top and bottom) for each drive.
In the 90s with typical 4-drive setups (FD/HD/CD & CDR), this wasn't an issue with SLOW tech.
I too agree that it would be nice to see cases reviewed with min and max setup options, I can only imagine this would take forever. I work on a social site and we have a guy that does reviews which we participate as additional testers. It takes an enormous amount of time to test and this is for simple things like specialized towels and other non-configurable equipment.
I not exactly sure of your exact point about 5.25" bays Vs 3.5" bays but I think you and I are of the same opinion. I posted a long screed about this in the last case review that wasn't very popular. Basically 5.25" bays are pretty useless. There are almost no internal 5.25" accessories on the market anymore other than CD/DVD/Blue-Ray drives which you pointed out you only need one of. Other than possibly using one for an optical drive, the rest of the bays, while providing plenty of room for cooling, are also a waste of space.
"Basically 5.25" bays are pretty useless. There are almost no internal 5.25" accessories on the market anymore other than CD/DVD/Blue-Ray drives which you pointed out you only need one of. Actually you are mistaken their. I admit that the huge number of 5 1/4 "drive bays in this case is a bit odd but they are used a lot in custom rigs for water cooling which this case looks like it was really set up for. For example here is a page of Bay reservoirs for water cooled rigs. http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g30/c97/s168/list/... Some come with pumps as well. With this case you could put a rather large rad in the top and an smaller one in the bottom for a dual loop set up. Two large pumps and reservoirs would take up 4 bays.
You also have something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... Which lets you mount 31/2" drives in two 5 1/2 bays and have them be hot swappable so one could in mount 16 hot swappable drives in this case for a storage server. Or any combination of or drives you could want. There you go . I am sure you can see ways now to fill them with a high end water cooled rig.
You seriously can't tell that the hard drives are going to be spaced well apart? Even after I specifically mention that the drive trays actually kind of waste space because it's basically one drive per 5.25" bay?
We're a long, long way from the old days of horrible 3.5" hard drive cramping.
The vast majority of internet reviews are non-critical specifically designed to sell the product. Is because there is a potential problem with HD temps and that's why they didn't include them? We don't know, for they didn't test.
There are lots of cases where that info is known so there are lots of alternatives so this case is not needed but if they want to review a case then they should do a good job and include important data such as this.
I wish to reword the sentence "Is because there is a potential problem with HD temps and that's why they didn't include them?" to be "Is there a potential problem with HD temps and that is why they were not included?
"Bottom-to-top cooling can be very effective, but the motherboard isn't rotated ninety degrees here the way it is in SilverStone's more efficient designs, so air travelling through the Genesis 9000 unfortunately just doesn't have a very efficient default path to work with."
If I remember right, some website did a compare of Silverstone's alignment to other cases rotated at 90 degress and found that rotating your case (or mobo inside it) made no difference in temps.
I'm surprised this case isn't quieter, I wonder if the fans could be replaced by slower/quieter fans. As the results show, increasing the speed doesn't help much, so maybe it could be lowered.
The point I was making wasn't that the convection design isn't what makes SilverStone's designs work, it's the fact that the coolers for the CPU and GPU are completely unobstructed in their 90-degree rotated designs. There's just a straight shot from the fans right into the coolers, while here either the CPU fan or the GPU fan is being prioritized.
Very nice to see another case acknowledging the fact that larger mainboards exist, and multiple-GPU rigs need space to support them all. I would have preferred to see a 10-slot capability over 9-slot, but definitely a step in the right direction.
I've been considering this case since I noticed it about a week ago. I was hoping for good results in this review, but now I'm not so certain... For one thing, my video card is the hottest component in my case (GTX 580), so I'll have to rotate the motherboard to the normal position - and I was under the impression that this alternative "flipped" design was supposed to be superior for GPU cooling!
A minor thing I'm disappointed about is that the blue-teal LEDs will not be illuminated except when fans are at maximum speed, which I will probably never have... Unless maybe I can replace the stock fans with my Noctuas and keep them running at high speed.
Quick question - 25" is the maximum height of the case, and as some of us keep computer cases under our desks, how much of an impact would a 3"-4" clearance above the case have on the overall airflow? I assume 25" is the maximum height, as the top is rounded, and the lowest points are maybe 23", so there's going to be more clearance in those areas.
Thank you, and a follow-up question I forgot to add in earlier:
According to the NewEgg video describing this case, there's a button at the top of the case that turns on/off the LED strips AND the two bottom fans. In your review, you say that the "high" fan speed setting on the controller turns on the LED strips, but imply that the controller turns all fans on high. Which is it? I guess I'm confused whether there's a separate fan speed controller and a button to turn on/off LED strips and the two bottom fans.
Operating without the bottom intake fans would just leave the side fans for intake, which could be problematic with so much left-over exhaust, unless the top fans can be flipped upside down for more positive pressure.
Edit: someone posted a correction comment under the NewEgg black Genesis listing, so I understand now -- the LED button lowers the top/bottom fan speeds, but does not turn off the bottom fans.
The intro a paragraph for this article says you can put a atx and min-itx motherboard in this case at the same time. Does it actually have a second motherboard mount point or is it something you have to rig up on your own?
Actually it says that the "Fusion 4000" by the same company has the capability of mounting an additional mini-itx board. And according to the manual of that box, it does not only have the mount points for the second board in its "top unit", but also offer space for a second power supply for that system.
"Still, you can do it, and that's how you can install a massive radiator to the top of the case."
Could you quantify this in a little more detail? I have just made the mistake of buying the "ideal for water cooling enthusiasts" Shinobi XL (according to the Bitfenix Homepage), only to realise that the two options for 3x120 radiatiors allow a maximum height of 75mm (top) or 85mm (front). Not enough for a 65mm radiator and 25mm fans.
So how much combined height does this case allow for radiator and fan?
Ok, you can laugh at me for this question, but I can't figure out if the LED strips on the white case are teal or more light blue. On promotional photos, they look like a pale teal color, but then on some photos and videos they look plain light blue with no green... What color are they actually?
I realize that the bottom supports the 140mm fans/rads. Does anyone know if the top can support 140mm fan/rads? I am interested in mounting a 3x140mm (420mm) radiator up top and was wondering if the mounting holes are already there for the 140mm width.
I am a believer in former following function, especially with things that are so critical to the entirety of a system (not just completed computer systems, but everything from cars to, I don't know, refrigerators)... But surely I can't be the only person who thinks that this case could have been made to look infinitely better? As it stands, I find the Genesis 9000 to be a truly ugly case. Plain and simple, it is the absolute opposite of "good looking" in every possible way. I am so, so, so sick of the "G@m3rZ" cases designed to look "high tech", futuristic, and tend to have thirty-bazillion "lines" (visual lines) that go up, do, wn, all-around, and still manage to intersect one another at the worst possible places. Now, I am appreciative of the fact that, unlike many of the cases geared towards 14-18yr olds who subsist entirely on Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, and Cheetos, this is not covered in strobing LEDs, useless (and terrible) "temperature sensors", and countless "features" that exist solely to pad the Case Features list on retailer's sites yet in practice actually serve no purpose but to take up space (at best) or even impede performance/function (far worse and, unfortunately, more common). I get memories of the first case I ever used to build a custom PC in, the Thermaltake Xaser V, which was (is) actually an extremely nice case with a level of build quality that is hard to find today for less than 3-4 Benjamins, and at the time the teenage me thought it was a "wicked" case with its fancy digital display and other doodads. The fact is, the Tt Xaser V is an ugly, ugly case, and while far from the worst, I have never bought a "gamer" case again.
The most recent build of mine, and the first foray into custom water cooling since it has become much closer to mainstream (and not dependant upon Bonneville heater cores), has been in what I have to say is perhaps the absolute best case under $200 or even $250, for water cooling. I was originally going to be purchasing a CaseLabs TH10 with White Powder coating, the 85mm extended + ventilated top, XXL MB-side and XL PSU-side Windows, 6 total drive cages (a mix of Flex-Bay and regular), the entire Extended Pedestal with Reinforced Casters, USB3.0 I/O panel, 6 Flex-Bay fan mounts, 2x 4x140 Rad Mounts, 3x 4x120 Rad Mounts, 1x 3x140 Rad Mount, 1x 2x120 Rad Mount, 4x Accessory Mounts (2x Extra-Large Horizontal HD and 2x Extra-Large Vertical HD), 8x HDD Bay fan mounts (blow air up through HDDs), 6x 90deg 120/140mm Fan Mounts (for behind HDDs, and spot cooling), all fan holes replaced with Hex-Mesh Grills, PSU Support (Magnum), 8x SSD Mounting Kits, and lastly full anti-vibration kit (HDD/MB/Fans/everything) and full-case filtration. The wonderful people at CaseLabs were actually giving me a good price for buying it all at once, and I was extremely close to purchasing when... I saw the Switch 810 for the first time, and instantly fell in love. I was originally facing the dilemma of "CL TH10 + IVB" vs "no-CL + ultimate SB-E", and I instantly changed to the latter (although I will still be purchasing the TH10 when I add GPU's 3+4).
The NZXT SWITCH 810 is the preeminent example of how to design a case that is: - Elegant and Understated yet Subtly Powerful (Aesthetically speaking) - Cuts NO Corners in Function or Features - Makes the Absolute Most of the Space Inside incl E-ATX MBs, 200mm PSU's, 10+ 140mm Fans, 7x 3.5" or 13x (up to 15) 2.5" drives, 4x 5.25" Bays including the Hot-Swap Bay and Stealth ODD bay, and insane amounts of room for water cooling (420 + 280 + 140 + 120 rad config possible) - Does not sacrifice airflow when you go with H2O for CPU/GPU's, unlike the majority of cases - Assembled entirely with SCREWS instead of Rivets (the sole exception being 3 of the 5.25 bays) making modding as easy as possible - Removable and easily cleaned fan filters for all intake areas - Almost a full inch of space behind the MB panel for cable management, with 10x cable routing grommets
And I don't feel like a dork showing it off, in fact it fits the modern black/white/grey/blues style of my house so well that most people ask if I had it made custom.
I guess my point is that there is absolutely no excuse for building ugly cases! It is ALWAYS possible to make an equally functional, if not more functional, case that looks GOOD, grown-up, and mature than it is to make a "Uber-L337 GamerZ Dude Mega-Ultra-TechPlus eXtreme Ultimate Gaming Case" filled with pointless ugly trash.
The tech community has grown up (at least the gamers/tinkerers), and most of us want mature cases, we don't want stuff we have to hide under a desk because it's embarrassingly childish or tacky.
I sincerely hope AZZA recognize this and start, at the very least, producing a line of cases with far more upscale designs. Just follow NZXT's lead (and Fractal Design's Arc/R4/etc, Bitfenix's Shinobi/XL/Prodigy, Silverstone's FT02/TJ04/TJ07/TJ10, the exterior of Lian Li cases (they are masters at making "it was so close to being perfect but it falls short" cases because they have a truly horrendous internal design philosophy which seems to be "let's make this as bad on the inside as it is good on the outside"), and of course the PREMIUM case manufacturers such as CaseLabs (by far the best enclosures ever built, ever, by anyone), Little Devil, XSPC, Mountain Mods, and Phobya).
i have a question about the front mounted psu, im not gonna bash it or anything im looking forward to building my first pc soon. and im very interested in this case, but about that psu it takes in air at the bottom of the case and exhausts out the front. but my question is when you have that front panel on and the psu is exhausting air to me i looks like the only place for it to go is up or down. is the being exhausted out of the psu into the bottom part and being sucked back in a endless cycle plz reply this going to greatly effect my choice for my first pc.
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30 Comments
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Ilias78 - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Great review Justin and the case looks like an incredibly interesting piece of work - mostly due for its customization capabilities. Much like the Silverstone FT02, Id love to get my hands on one of these and spend hours on making a perfectly assembled system (its also a challenge to do builds on such unusual cases and i like it). I still do believe however that your cable management needs more attention. I suspect that you usually must be on a deadline to build the system and write your review (which means that you dont have the luxury of time on your side), but i would really-really like to see you doing better cable management. You assembled the system ofc and you know better, but i look at the case and i see so many options and possibilities for cable routing, or ways to make things cleaner :) But still, great revew... its one of those cases that make your "creativity juices" go sky-high :)blackmagnum - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
It looks like a storm trooper and a Camaro has mated. Though it seems easy to clean the smooth exterior.MakingMonkeys - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Thank you for the review,The price link is attached to a wrong item on newegg.
mentatstrategy - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
and Tron themed devices - including the price! (Super high for a case in my opinion sheesh)sudz - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Great review, Except I have one overall gripe with how you do mid and full size case reviews.I can't speak for everyone, but When I'm building a machine that needs a medium or large sized case, I have more than just an SSD, MicroATX and one video card.
I understand the need for uniformity across all your reviews/test beds, however using the case in a way that the majority of users in a real life situation would be much more informative.
For example, my "gaming" machine is a Mid sized tower, with 5 hard drives, 2 optical drives, and two 6850's in crossfire.
The setup you have could be fit into a small HTPC (minus the video card) Who in their right mind would waste 200+ (160 in this "case") to put micro atx motherboard and a single hard drive into a full size tower?
Heat, Airflow, noise would all change when loaded up with an "average" full size setup, Including installation, cable routing, etc.
Just a thought!
AeroJoe - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
I'm with sudz on this one. I would want to see something more in line with a case full of motherboard, graphics cards and hard-drives. After all, that's why one would need a case this big.So let's see it with a liquid cooled core-7 processor with a closed-loop radiator in the top of the chassis, and at least four 3.5-inch hard-drives installed with the OS running on a 2.5-inch SSD. Then I would have a MUCH better idea as to whether this case deserves consideration for my next build project.
Nomanor - Sunday, July 22, 2012 - link
Great point.When reviewing Full Tower cases, stuff them with proper components.
Arbie - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
We know that, all other things being equal, a larger fan will move more air with less noise. So I would like to have 230mm fans everywhere. The problem comes when you're actually trying to select and buy them. There is practically no choice. All ideas of working with RPM ranges and PWM control go out the window. And you may find that only sleeve bearings are available. Those are completely unsuited to horizontal mounting (as at the top of this case) where they will fail early.
I've learned the hard way to prefer plain old 120mm or at most 140mm fan ports. I'd like it to be otherwise, and tried to go there, but the industry is nowhere near ready. There just isn't enough demand, and I don't see that changing soon.
P5-133XL - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
I'm annoyed, the review gives temps for SSD's and doesn't use HD's. SSD's don't generate much heat and are quite heat insensitive. HD's on the other hand generate significant amount of heat and are sensitive to heat especially if there aren't fan's in front of them.I've had significant issues with cases where placing HD's next to each other have caused HD's to get excessively hot and I've needed to either get fans that generate noise or spread the HD's apart so that they are not next to each other.
With no HD temps in the review, means I skip this case in my next build...
Belard - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
I second that. I think future reviews for gamer/power user cases should reflect more reality... One SSD and two 2TB Hard Drives. Both of my desktops have two HDs, my main has an SSD.While the 3.5 Drive bays may seem a bit of a waste being in 5" drive sleds, it gives them plenty of air-space. In todays world, I think even having TWO optical drives is rare. In the past 10 years, I've only built 2 computers for others who requested 2 drives.
In the OLD days of PCs, the 3.5" drive bays were SNUG against each other. I noticed this problem back in 2002 when I opened my side panel of my HUGE Antec case (God it was loud) and notice the HEAT from the 3 HDs that were attached side by side. The AIR gap between the drives was slightly bigger than a quarter and the sides were solid. (These were drive cages).
The drives were too hot to touch for more than a few seconds. I moved 2 drives to an adapter and stuck in a 5.25 bay (each), and left the 3rd in the middle 3.5 cage.
Since then, my PC cases require having an air-vent in front of the HD bays and a good amount of space (top and bottom) for each drive.
In the 90s with typical 4-drive setups (FD/HD/CD & CDR), this wasn't an issue with SLOW tech.
Grok42 - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
I too agree that it would be nice to see cases reviewed with min and max setup options, I can only imagine this would take forever. I work on a social site and we have a guy that does reviews which we participate as additional testers. It takes an enormous amount of time to test and this is for simple things like specialized towels and other non-configurable equipment.I not exactly sure of your exact point about 5.25" bays Vs 3.5" bays but I think you and I are of the same opinion. I posted a long screed about this in the last case review that wasn't very popular. Basically 5.25" bays are pretty useless. There are almost no internal 5.25" accessories on the market anymore other than CD/DVD/Blue-Ray drives which you pointed out you only need one of. Other than possibly using one for an optical drive, the rest of the bays, while providing plenty of room for cooling, are also a waste of space.
lwatcdr - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
"Basically 5.25" bays are pretty useless. There are almost no internal 5.25" accessories on the market anymore other than CD/DVD/Blue-Ray drives which you pointed out you only need one of.Actually you are mistaken their. I admit that the huge number of 5 1/4 "drive bays in this case is a bit odd but they are used a lot in custom rigs for water cooling which this case looks like it was really set up for.
For example here is a page of Bay reservoirs for water cooled rigs.
http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g30/c97/s168/list/...
Some come with pumps as well.
With this case you could put a rather large rad in the top and an smaller one in the bottom for a dual loop set up. Two large pumps and reservoirs would take up 4 bays.
You also have something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Which lets you mount 31/2" drives in two 5 1/2 bays and have them be hot swappable so one could in mount 16 hot swappable drives in this case for a storage server. Or any combination of or drives you could want.
There you go . I am sure you can see ways now to fill them with a high end water cooled rig.
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
You seriously can't tell that the hard drives are going to be spaced well apart? Even after I specifically mention that the drive trays actually kind of waste space because it's basically one drive per 5.25" bay?We're a long, long way from the old days of horrible 3.5" hard drive cramping.
P5-133XL - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
The vast majority of internet reviews are non-critical specifically designed to sell the product. Is because there is a potential problem with HD temps and that's why they didn't include them? We don't know, for they didn't test.There are lots of cases where that info is known so there are lots of alternatives so this case is not needed but if they want to review a case then they should do a good job and include important data such as this.
P5-133XL - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Sorry about the grammar/editing error.I wish to reword the sentence "Is because there is a potential problem with HD temps and that's why they didn't include them?" to be "Is there a potential problem with HD temps and that is why they were not included?
MilwaukeeMike - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
"Bottom-to-top cooling can be very effective, but the motherboard isn't rotated ninety degrees here the way it is in SilverStone's more efficient designs, so air travelling through the Genesis 9000 unfortunately just doesn't have a very efficient default path to work with."If I remember right, some website did a compare of Silverstone's alignment to other cases rotated at 90 degress and found that rotating your case (or mobo inside it) made no difference in temps.
I'm surprised this case isn't quieter, I wonder if the fans could be replaced by slower/quieter fans. As the results show, increasing the speed doesn't help much, so maybe it could be lowered.
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
The point I was making wasn't that the convection design isn't what makes SilverStone's designs work, it's the fact that the coolers for the CPU and GPU are completely unobstructed in their 90-degree rotated designs. There's just a straight shot from the fans right into the coolers, while here either the CPU fan or the GPU fan is being prioritized.MilwaukeeMike - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Found some other pics online of this case... the top looks very cool, you should throw in some pics of it.Sabresiberian - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Very nice to see another case acknowledging the fact that larger mainboards exist, and multiple-GPU rigs need space to support them all. I would have preferred to see a 10-slot capability over 9-slot, but definitely a step in the right direction.;)
BlueHighway - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
I've been considering this case since I noticed it about a week ago. I was hoping for good results in this review, but now I'm not so certain... For one thing, my video card is the hottest component in my case (GTX 580), so I'll have to rotate the motherboard to the normal position - and I was under the impression that this alternative "flipped" design was supposed to be superior for GPU cooling!A minor thing I'm disappointed about is that the blue-teal LEDs will not be illuminated except when fans are at maximum speed, which I will probably never have... Unless maybe I can replace the stock fans with my Noctuas and keep them running at high speed.
Quick question - 25" is the maximum height of the case, and as some of us keep computer cases under our desks, how much of an impact would a 3"-4" clearance above the case have on the overall airflow? I assume 25" is the maximum height, as the top is rounded, and the lowest points are maybe 23", so there's going to be more clearance in those areas.
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Personally I'd probably be fine with the 3"-4" of clearance.BlueHighway - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Thank you, and a follow-up question I forgot to add in earlier:According to the NewEgg video describing this case, there's a button at the top of the case that turns on/off the LED strips AND the two bottom fans. In your review, you say that the "high" fan speed setting on the controller turns on the LED strips, but imply that the controller turns all fans on high. Which is it? I guess I'm confused whether there's a separate fan speed controller and a button to turn on/off LED strips and the two bottom fans.
Operating without the bottom intake fans would just leave the side fans for intake, which could be problematic with so much left-over exhaust, unless the top fans can be flipped upside down for more positive pressure.
BlueHighway - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Edit: someone posted a correction comment under the NewEgg black Genesis listing, so I understand now -- the LED button lowers the top/bottom fan speeds, but does not turn off the bottom fans.SunLord - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
The intro a paragraph for this article says you can put a atx and min-itx motherboard in this case at the same time. Does it actually have a second motherboard mount point or is it something you have to rig up on your own?ShieTar - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Actually it says that the "Fusion 4000" by the same company has the capability of mounting an additional mini-itx board. And according to the manual of that box, it does not only have the mount points for the second board in its "top unit", but also offer space for a second power supply for that system.ShieTar - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
"Still, you can do it, and that's how you can install a massive radiator to the top of the case."Could you quantify this in a little more detail? I have just made the mistake of buying the "ideal for water cooling enthusiasts" Shinobi XL (according to the Bitfenix Homepage), only to realise that the two options for 3x120 radiatiors allow a maximum height of 75mm (top) or 85mm (front). Not enough for a 65mm radiator and 25mm fans.
So how much combined height does this case allow for radiator and fan?
BlueHighway - Sunday, July 15, 2012 - link
Ok, you can laugh at me for this question, but I can't figure out if the LED strips on the white case are teal or more light blue. On promotional photos, they look like a pale teal color, but then on some photos and videos they look plain light blue with no green... What color are they actually?ViperRCR - Monday, July 23, 2012 - link
I realize that the bottom supports the 140mm fans/rads.Does anyone know if the top can support 140mm fan/rads?
I am interested in mounting a 3x140mm (420mm) radiator up top and was wondering if the mounting holes are already there for the 140mm width.
nleksan - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
I am a believer in former following function, especially with things that are so critical to the entirety of a system (not just completed computer systems, but everything from cars to, I don't know, refrigerators)... But surely I can't be the only person who thinks that this case could have been made to look infinitely better?As it stands, I find the Genesis 9000 to be a truly ugly case. Plain and simple, it is the absolute opposite of "good looking" in every possible way. I am so, so, so sick of the "G@m3rZ" cases designed to look "high tech", futuristic, and tend to have thirty-bazillion "lines" (visual lines) that go up, do, wn, all-around, and still manage to intersect one another at the worst possible places. Now, I am appreciative of the fact that, unlike many of the cases geared towards 14-18yr olds who subsist entirely on Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, and Cheetos, this is not covered in strobing LEDs, useless (and terrible) "temperature sensors", and countless "features" that exist solely to pad the Case Features list on retailer's sites yet in practice actually serve no purpose but to take up space (at best) or even impede performance/function (far worse and, unfortunately, more common). I get memories of the first case I ever used to build a custom PC in, the Thermaltake Xaser V, which was (is) actually an extremely nice case with a level of build quality that is hard to find today for less than 3-4 Benjamins, and at the time the teenage me thought it was a "wicked" case with its fancy digital display and other doodads. The fact is, the Tt Xaser V is an ugly, ugly case, and while far from the worst, I have never bought a "gamer" case again.
The most recent build of mine, and the first foray into custom water cooling since it has become much closer to mainstream (and not dependant upon Bonneville heater cores), has been in what I have to say is perhaps the absolute best case under $200 or even $250, for water cooling. I was originally going to be purchasing a CaseLabs TH10 with White Powder coating, the 85mm extended + ventilated top, XXL MB-side and XL PSU-side Windows, 6 total drive cages (a mix of Flex-Bay and regular), the entire Extended Pedestal with Reinforced Casters, USB3.0 I/O panel, 6 Flex-Bay fan mounts, 2x 4x140 Rad Mounts, 3x 4x120 Rad Mounts, 1x 3x140 Rad Mount, 1x 2x120 Rad Mount, 4x Accessory Mounts (2x Extra-Large Horizontal HD and 2x Extra-Large Vertical HD), 8x HDD Bay fan mounts (blow air up through HDDs), 6x 90deg 120/140mm Fan Mounts (for behind HDDs, and spot cooling), all fan holes replaced with Hex-Mesh Grills, PSU Support (Magnum), 8x SSD Mounting Kits, and lastly full anti-vibration kit (HDD/MB/Fans/everything) and full-case filtration. The wonderful people at CaseLabs were actually giving me a good price for buying it all at once, and I was extremely close to purchasing when...
I saw the Switch 810 for the first time, and instantly fell in love. I was originally facing the dilemma of "CL TH10 + IVB" vs "no-CL + ultimate SB-E", and I instantly changed to the latter (although I will still be purchasing the TH10 when I add GPU's 3+4).
The NZXT SWITCH 810 is the preeminent example of how to design a case that is:
- Elegant and Understated yet Subtly Powerful (Aesthetically speaking)
- Cuts NO Corners in Function or Features
- Makes the Absolute Most of the Space Inside incl E-ATX MBs, 200mm PSU's, 10+ 140mm Fans, 7x 3.5" or 13x (up to 15) 2.5" drives, 4x 5.25" Bays including the Hot-Swap Bay and Stealth ODD bay, and insane amounts of room for water cooling (420 + 280 + 140 + 120 rad config possible)
- Does not sacrifice airflow when you go with H2O for CPU/GPU's, unlike the majority of cases
- Assembled entirely with SCREWS instead of Rivets (the sole exception being 3 of the 5.25 bays) making modding as easy as possible
- Removable and easily cleaned fan filters for all intake areas
- Almost a full inch of space behind the MB panel for cable management, with 10x cable routing grommets
And I don't feel like a dork showing it off, in fact it fits the modern black/white/grey/blues style of my house so well that most people ask if I had it made custom.
I guess my point is that there is absolutely no excuse for building ugly cases! It is ALWAYS possible to make an equally functional, if not more functional, case that looks GOOD, grown-up, and mature than it is to make a "Uber-L337 GamerZ Dude Mega-Ultra-TechPlus eXtreme Ultimate Gaming Case" filled with pointless ugly trash.
The tech community has grown up (at least the gamers/tinkerers), and most of us want mature cases, we don't want stuff we have to hide under a desk because it's embarrassingly childish or tacky.
I sincerely hope AZZA recognize this and start, at the very least, producing a line of cases with far more upscale designs. Just follow NZXT's lead (and Fractal Design's Arc/R4/etc, Bitfenix's Shinobi/XL/Prodigy, Silverstone's FT02/TJ04/TJ07/TJ10, the exterior of Lian Li cases (they are masters at making "it was so close to being perfect but it falls short" cases because they have a truly horrendous internal design philosophy which seems to be "let's make this as bad on the inside as it is good on the outside"), and of course the PREMIUM case manufacturers such as CaseLabs (by far the best enclosures ever built, ever, by anyone), Little Devil, XSPC, Mountain Mods, and Phobya).
I promise, we are waiting...And "us" is many....
DeepFrydFreedom - Wednesday, July 24, 2013 - link
i have a question about the front mounted psu, im not gonna bash it or anything im looking forward to building my first pc soon. and im very interested in this case, but about that psu it takes in air at the bottom of the case and exhausts out the front. but my question is when you have that front panel on and the psu is exhausting air to me i looks like the only place for it to go is up or down. is the being exhausted out of the psu into the bottom part and being sucked back in a endless cycle plz reply this going to greatly effect my choice for my first pc.