A budget mATX case that's somehow managing to punch well above its weight, making it a great choice for a LAN box.
We really do wish we could say we’ve had a love/hate relationship with In Win over the years, but to be brutally honest… it’s always been more of a dislike/hate relationship. The case and peripheral maker has always been known for focusing on the cheap side of the cheap-and-cheerful-moniker, and we’ve more often than not simply refused to let any of its gear into the Atomic labs.
That, however, has changed with the coming of the dramatically-named Dragon Slayer, an mATX case with some grand stylings and a surprising amount of cool features. Of course, for every feature that impresses, there’s one or two that does the exact opposite and really grinds our thumbscrews.
How does that balance up at the end of the day? Well…
Externally, the Dragon Slayer’s delivers some serious visual impact. Built from black and grey metal with grey and clear plastic highlights, the whole case has an almost ruggedised look to it. Gunmetal mesh on the front fascia and side panel is offset by a second, tighter black mesh layer beneath. Sadly, none of it’s filtered, but the double layer does provide a bit of protection. For the full visual impact, turn the box on – the In Win logo and power buttons light up brighter than the sun. It’ll be over the top for some, but it only adds to the ruggedised, almost military look.
Taking off the sidepanel for a peek at the internals, however, revealed one of our most hated things in PC case design: plastic thumbscrews. These horrid little lumps of poorly designed plastic are an upgrader’s nightmare. Prone to tearing themselves apart after a few uses, they just scream cheapness. Thankfully, any seriously regular builder probably has scads of proper solid metal thumbscrews to replace the dodgy plastic ones, but the choice to go so cheap still leaves a bad taste in our mouths.
Regardless, with the side panel off, the Dragon Slayer is pretty impressive. The black interior is surprisingly roomy given it’s mATX form factor, and makes use of some clever build options. There aren’t a lot of drive bays, but those you do get are cleverly built. There are two 3.5in bays that sit at the bottom of the case, that can house drives using some neat rubber-grommetted rails; but you can also unclip the interior caddy to expand these bays to two 5.25in ones if you need the option. At the top of the case is another 3.5in bay, and a 5.25in one, and slung under these bays is a mount for an SSD. It’s overall a very neat design that gives system builders a lot of flexibility.
The mobo plate is similarly well-designed, with a CPU cutout, integral standoffs, and a roomy area behind the plate for stowing excess cabling. If you need more cooling, there’s also four 120mm fan mounts on the side-panel, and these are also rubber-grommetted to keep noise down. The interior’s roomy enough for a full length video card – making this a pretty good LAN choice – but full height coolers don’t quite make the cut. There’s a tool-less system for clamping expansion cards in place, but it’s thankfully removable; and even In Win admits it’s not up to securing high graphics cards.
We like the Dragon Slayer. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly the closest we’ve seen In Win come to enthusiast-grade material in some time, and it’s a great option for anyone looking to get into mATX system building.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012