Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Steve from gamers Nexus dotnet and today we are looking at an Tex GX 700 budget glass gaming case which retails in the $60 price range and is targeted toward entry-level systems and budget gaming pcs I built our test bench in the GX 700 and benchmark for thermals using multiple fan configurations and the stock configuration I also routed all the cables and did basic quality checks for the review so before we get to all of that all the actual reviewing of the case as always let's go over the hard specs of the case before diving into my own analysis and opinions to give you an idea of what we're working with here we'll hit thermal data toward the end along with alternative case recommendations if you don't like this one so first of all I first saw this case at CES 2013 where an tech showcased the cases basic features and and the aesthetic of it but here we have a bit more details so first of all as for objective specs the GX 700 stands at a pretty non-threatening 20 inches tall firmly ranking it as a mid tower ATX enclosure it's not a massive case but it's not tiny either so if you want something that can be desk bound and you're not terrified will fall over and punch a hole through your wood floor then this is probably about the right size for that but anyway it's the GX 700 comes equipped stock with three case fans in total to 140 millimeter top exhaust fans and one 120 millimeter rear exhaust fan there are no intake fans in the stock configuration and most CPU coolers will fit in the GX 700 given its 172 millimetres CPU cooler hi allowance although some wider coolers may collide with the side intake position so be aware a couple of non grommeted cable routing holes are present and the standard locations on the board tray there's nothing really flashy here just the basics so you can pretty easily route the front panel and power connectors through the cutouts though the SATA location isn't ideal for some ATX boards so the rear side of the case has 13 millimeters of clearance between the board tray and the side panel and surprisingly this actually ended up being plenty of room for my stacked 24 pin and six pin connector cable routing though I did put some effort into tying it all very close to the board tray the GX 700 also comes equipped with a couple of stylized elements and switches on the outside included among these is a fan speed controller the fan speed controller is not a linear dial it is actually a toggle so it just toggles from maximum low or off settings and this is done by throttling voltage to the fans it just it picks either max voltage or a throttled voltage and then that lowers the fan speed pretty standard stuff the fan speed switch is concealed under a cold war-era nuclear launch cover so depending on your taste that's either extremely gaudy or kind of cool and I will leave that entirely up to you as it is more of a subjective thing the exterior on the whole is largely the same way antics own logo kind of showcases this as it is branded on a dog tag attached to the front panel and then of course the power button is a large cheap piece of plastic that's kind of colored with like the USSR red so if you like that kind of thing awesome check it out if not then I don't know maybe strip the paint or something in general the case resembles a cheaper version of Corsair C 70 so if you want the C 70 but can't quite afford it then this is probably your best bet in the budget range the paint isn't anything to brag or complain about so really it's just another idiosyncratic matter if you like the color you like it if you don't you know what are you gonna do let's talk about cable management and installation now so these are a bit more flexible elements here cable management was shockingly easy in the GX 700 it wasn't as easy as say a 150 or 200 dollar case but very easy and surprisingly so for a budget case it did have a couple of caveats that I want to note for those of you who buy this and need some help routing cables for starters the HD audio cable is incredibly short and the header wouldn't fit through the optimal cable pass-through if the power supply was already mounted for this reason I had suggest writing all i/o cables and connecting them to the board prior to mounting the power fly and then go ahead and route your amount the PSU and connect the power connectors from that the PSU won't pinch the cables or cause any damage at least in my build obviously you should judge this on an individual basis but it is large enough to prohibit cable routing if already mounted so it keeps that in mind other than that all the cables fit behind the board and the panel closed without any warping or outward bowing for a $60 case this is a feat worthy of note so I'm noting it if you're working with a non modular PSU you're and you probably are if you're buying a case at this price it'll be a bit tougher to hide all the cables but as possible with the right finagling I would suggest removing the bottom to drive brackets and then kind of snake your cables into that drive cage area try to do so without blocking front intake if you have a fan there finally we hit benchmarks I tested the stock configuration against several aftermarket configurations basically in an attempt to answer the often asked question of if I added one more fan what and where should it be to see those tests hit the article link in the description below that said let's talk about the benchmark against other cases our test methodology uses a clean system with an i-5 35 70 K at 4.4 gigahertz CPU tests are run using prime95 and logged using Hardware monitor and then normalized in a spreadsheet the GPU component is tested with an X FX 7850 video card which is a pretty small card so it doesn't generate the same amount of heat as something that's bigger like a 680 or 780 and let's just jump into it here's the CPU benchmark for the GX 700 you should mostly be looking at the GX 700 vs. Roseville's r5 which is a $50 case right now Silverstone's KL 0 4 and raid maxes Cobra case on high settings the GX 700 ranks firmly between the competing cobra and r5 though one of my fan optimization tricks did place the GX 700 up just below the R 5 and above the 820 so kind of vision it there if you do one of my fan tricks again hit the article link for that performance is largely uninspiring but it isn't we'll call it above average for a $60 case and then move on so here's the GPU text again nothing to write home about our GPU thermal Delta only has a swing of 5 Celsius total between all the cases so things are fairly stable across the board and uninteresting the GX 700 on high settings rest between the KL o 4 and Cobra again it is below the R 5 it seems if you're looking for peak thermal performance the R 5 is the way to go let's be realistic though most of us aren't going to notice a 1 - 2 C thermal Delta between cases if you're working with hotter hardware like AMD products and really want to overclock but are confined in a cheap case then definitely pay close attention to temperature data picked the coolest case if you're not planning on doing much overclocking or enthusiasts work and just want to build a cheap system take based on quality of materials construction ease of installation and aesthetics whatever you're gonna be ok with looking at for a few years at the end of the day the GX 700 has solid build quality all the paneling is sturdy and firm even the plastic front panel surprisingly was pretty easy to remove and sturdy which was awesome after working with the aged 630 and it also has good cable management features decent ease of installation features for novices and average to above-average cooling I can pretty readily recommend the GX 700 to system builders looking to get a case in the 50 to $60 range but there are some seriously good alternatives out there I strongly encourage you to look into Corsairs 200 R and Roseville's R 5 both links below if you if you kind of want to look at the competition if you have more room in your budget and want something similar to the GX 700 but a bit higher quality look into Corsair c 70 case that's all for this review be sure to check the article link the description below and I will see you all next time peace