Gigabyte Poseidon

Austere is the new brash, and nothing yells 'look at me' more than understated elgance.

It’s not often that we see a case that is designed from the get-go to house a water cooling solution. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? What if we told you this actually means Gigabyte has just cut a couple of holes in the rear of the case? Not so impressed now, are you Mr Gushing Enthusiasm? Still, regardless of how simple this would have been to implement during the manufacturing of the case, it’s a nice touch for those who are definitely going to include a water cooling solution.

From the exterior, the Poseidon looks like a relatively standard mid-tower. There are none of the fancy curves or chromed turbines that seem to be so popular amongst case makers who haven’t yet realised these went out of fashion two years ago. But flick the power switch, and prepare to be dazzled by the blingy projection unit mounted in the front of the case. Alas it doesn’t produce a 3D holograph of princess Leia – instead it beams the catchy phrase ‘Poseidon’ across your floorspace. If your first name isn’t ‘Poseidon’ you can actually customise the image projected. You’ll just need to print out a suitably simple logo and then cut it out using a Stanley knife. If the colour blue makes you froth at the mouth, the option to switch the image to white is included.

If you feel the need for a Perspex window, it’s possible to pop out a grilled section on the side of the case and then screw in a provided Perspex window. This will allow the world to see the Gigabyte 3D Galaxy LCS water cooling kit within, which promises to cool your CPU like a fresh sea breeze on a balmy Sydney summer afternoon. Or something.

For a mid-tower the Poseidon holds a respectable number of drives, with a total of nine bays comprised of five 5.25” external bays, one 3.5” external bay and four 3.5” internal bays. The internal bays are housed in a small sideways facing bay at the bottom of the case, and the tool-less clipping mechanism makes adding or replacing a drives child’s play.

A couple of low RPM 120mm fans, one at the front, one at the rear, will keep a nice gust continually blowing through the case. Sadly there aren’t any controls to adjust the speed of these if you’re of that persuasion.

The case itself appears quite sturdy, insomuch as squeezing and pushing it can prove. We’d love to have thrown it from the window of an apartment block to see if it stacks up to Gigabyte’s claims of it being ‘shockproof’; but alas we’d like to review more Gigabyte cases in the future. It’s constructed from brushed aluminium, and weighs in at a surprisingly heavy 8kg.

The Poseidon stands out for… well, for not really standing out. In this day and age of cases crafted by the designers of Porsche, cases that include phase change cooling systems and cases that can house a small suburb inside a shoebox sized exterior, the Poseidon is a relatively ordinary case with a couple of tricks thrown in. Having said that, there’s nothing really wrong with the Poseidon, but we’ve come to expect lots of cool features from premium cases.