Review: Another foxy little case from BitFenix that nails it for the enthusiast on a budget.
BitFenix has been doing a pretty good job of figuratively turning the PC case market on its head for a while, thanks to some very good, very cheap chassis. Now, however, it’s managed to do it figuratively and literally, with the new inverted tray designed Outlaw.
Hmm, slick We really loved BitFenix’s last budget case, the Merc Alpha, but the one thing which we felt it missed out on was the company’s signature ‘Soft Touch’ rubberised coating. That lack has been rectified for the Outlaw, at least partially. The bulk of the case’s exterior is painted metal and coloured plastic, but there’s a broad strip of the touchy-feely stuff running down the front fascia. Set off by mesh inserts along the Outlaw’s front edge, it’s an understated, but definitely stylish design.
The leading upper edge houses four USB2 ports and audio jacks, while further back is a mesh panel with room for two fans. The front fascia has two similarly empty fan mounts, while the side panel has another two. The only mount that has a fan installed out of the box, though, is the rear exhaust mount. The lack of something drawing cool air into the case is about our only issue with the Outlaw, so we’d recommend making sure you have extra fans on hand if you go this route.
The only other thing, externally, that draws the eye is the obviously inverted rear panel. It’s all down-is-up, black-is-white back here, but it’s pretty clean nonetheless.
With the side panel removed (and boo to tacky plastic thumbscrews!), the Outlaws topsy-turvy interior is revealed. At a mere $60 bucks, you don’t really expect much, but it’s pretty impressive in here. It’s plain, but it’s all black coated, very cleanly designed, and should offer solid airflow once you have more fans installed. There’s probably more ODD bays then you need in a case this size, but at least it means there’s nice a open space, and the lower-mounted HDD bays even feature rubber grommets on half of the mounts.
Next to the HDD cage, there’s a useful enclosure for storing excess cable, but it’s a mere nod to good cable management. There’s almost no clearance behind the upside down mobo plate, so you’ll need to be particularly careful to keep the interior nice and obstruction-free.
As to the choice to invert the motherboard, we’re a bit torn. This is often done in higher-end cases to help manage thermal load, but it really doesn’t help at all in the Outlaw. It’s a good option to have nonetheless, especially if you have a computing space that really only fits a case to the left of your desk. And it is still very cheap, so we feel really quite nitpicky looking for too many flaws. It’s an excellent option for first builders, and an ideal basis for a second system.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012