Gadgetory

anyone has built its brand around expensive enclosures like the $2,400 each tower that we saw at CES and Computex previously which is syn animatronics transformer type of thing they've also got the $400 and up amalgams of tempered glass and aluminum like the D frame and things like that and they've never really made a good case for the mainstream market but in ones finally trying and they're making that effort with the in wind 303 that we're reviewing today before we get into that this coverage is brought to you by MSI and their new MSI GTX 1060 gaming X with Twin Frozr six cooler available now at Computex this year we got a glimpse at the n1 303 and 509 cases actually being made in the factory and we have some footage of that for you throughout this video but you can check out our in win factory tour for more so we saw these things being made the 303 is a $90 case which does make it one of the more affordable cases that n1 does offer and that puts the 303 in competition with the likes of the 400 C from Corsair about a hundred bucks we reviewed that previously it's a bit more expensive than NZXT s340 a bit more updated - which is about a $70 case and so it fits in that sort of mid-range but affordable market let's run through the specs before getting into thermal testing acoustics and build quality the n1 303 enclosure ships in black and white models both versions of the case have a tinted three millimeter thick tempered glass side panel and both use LED illuminated nametags and i/o ports on the front the 303 is built of secc steel that is one point two millimeters thick making the paneling one of the thickest on the case market especially at this price range most competition in this price range just for perspective uses about a 0.8 millimeter thick steel paneling instead the case supports ATX micro ATX and mini ITX and motherboards and we'll talk about some ATX fitment issues later expansion slot support is up to seven PCIe devices which can be up to 350 millimeters in length through the video card which accommodates basically everything on the market power supply support maxes out at 200 millimeters along with the ATX 12 volt specification and the maximum CPU heatsink height is 160 millimeters the case we received includes zero fans I've seen some folks receive a case with rear fan pre-installed but ours did not include one and product listings on us retailers like new egg do not currently indicate inclusion of a fan so we're reviewing it with that understanding that no fan is pre included in wins a cooling support allows for 120 millimeter cooling devices in the rear slot three 120 millimeter bottom fans and three 120 millimeter top fans or a three sixty millimeter radiator maximally if you prefer that for drives the 303 can support two three and a half inch hard drives on two two and a half inch SSDs or laptop hard drives and up to three bays can be used simultaneously the case weighs 24 pounds definitely making it a bit heavier and sturdier than similar cases in its price range and that's largely because the extra thickness of the paneling and the three millimeter thick tempered glass let's talk design at first the n1 303 subscribes to the industries trend of tempered glass panels for this year which we talked about following Computex 2016 and it's also got a semi minimalistic look in that there's no crazy gamer screaming plastic appendages sticking off of it but other than that we are seeing this sort of trend of tempered glass and somewhat minimalism in when it did sort of set this trend with the D frame a couple of years ago at CES and with most of their other cases the H frame included that all have tempered glass paneling but have been traditionally very expensive and we're talking four hundred dollars plus externally anyone has taken a few small steps that differentiate an already mature case market cases have a fundamental set of rules obviously that don't really change for the most part but there's still room to innovate and it's small but in in ones at 3:03 there's an LED illuminated nametag instead of i/o ports and that includes a mechanically pretty sound power switch that I'd like actually the LED illumination fits with the graceful aesthetic and reminds us of some of the small steps NZXT took with it's s 340 the case is otherwise a barren on the front and top breadth of any gamer edge or even ventilation and cooling and the side panels are where the most interesting stuff is going on anyone has opted for a full side window and it's also using a honeycomb top mounted PSU cage at half width to create an illusion of greater interior space than it is actually available it's sort of like an interior design trick but for computers the right panel is secured with large thumb screws that protrude from the panel resting just above the honeycomb design and using that thicker steel makes for sturdier paneling and a feel of higher quality most of the competition does opt for a zero point eight millimeter thick steel panel and some of them are as flimsy as 0.6 millimeters which is actually very noticeable to the touch and there's some acoustic benefit to think our paneling but it is mostly a psychological thing that feels sturdier which tends to coincide with a perception of higher quality ventilation intake is entirely through the bottom of the case sort of following a stack effect cooling pattern the bottom of the case can theoretically support three 120 millimeter fans maximally but we had issues with fitment installed in the bottom rear slots some fans will collide with the motherboard depending on your board or cause issues with connecting FPC headers we mostly relied on using the bottom front intake when testing fan mount positions for the curious the top fans don't actually mount to the top of the case like normally it's a little bit different than that the sweet generous setup of the interior sees the top fans at mounting internally vertically against the power supply shelf which is about half the width of the total case the fans then pump heat into the power supply shelf and the PSU it handles dissipation out the back of the case for almost all power supplies this should not substantially increase the heat within the unit the only exception would be if you mounted a 128 millimeter radiator straight in front of the PSU then attach that to a hot CPU or GPU like an FX 9000 series chip and we wouldn't really recommend that for larger radiators the heat is spread out enough over the surface area that it will dissipate more evenly it's clear that the case was mostly built with radiators in mind and one note here the top mounted radiators are only supported in multiples of 120 millimeter fans even though the Shelf would easily accommodate a 288 millimeter radiator so we really jinhwan would have included mount points for 280 millimeter radiators CPU tower support is only 160 millimeters which is sort of a weak spot in comparison to the rest of the specs and that eliminates a lot of the higher-end units from be quiet Noctua and anyone else trying to create a cooler that fits with the full display style of the window let's run through the thermals our full testing methodology is defined in the review linked in the description below and we did recently update our methodology for cases so these results are not comparable to previous case reviews we've done you'll have to look at these charts independently from previous results because of those changes like over clocks and things like that and also we use one of these which helps us actively monitor the ambient temperature this logs every second we subtract the value seconds a second from the value second a second of the CPU cooler the GPU things like that so that does ensure a high level of quality and validation and accuracy with our tests and if you're curious about how that works our delta T over ambient video will explain more of that without any fans we're seeing the n1 303 sustain a CPU temperature of 37.3 Celsius delta T when under full CPU a GPU load with a CPU fan at 100% in the GPU fan at 55% you can read why we do that in the article idle is at 17.5 Celsius NZXT s340 only marginally cooler than the 303 at 36.7 celsius delta T though it's idle temperature is a full three and a half Celsius lower at 14c adding a bottom and rear fan to the 303 reduces idle temperatures noticeably as does adding a bottom fan alone but we actually saw the load temperature slightly increase which can be a bit confusing at first glance for clarity this review has delayed about five days because we retest this in several different positions with the fans and with different hardware and even revised on the test methodology to validate the results but what we came up with is as follows the bottom intake in the front bottom position is propelling what little air it can get access to up and pass the GPU which reduces some of the blower fans efficacy went under load and at higher rpms especially considering our PCIe SSD down there as well in the lowest slot the PSU is also facing with the air channels and that fan is faced internally to the case so it's not a standalone loop like you find in most cases and that does change the cooling patterns here's a quick look at the noise chart as usual the cases are fairly comparable across brand we might see more acoustic differences with something like it be quiet case or a fractal case but we'll look at that in the future with a more silent specific case review or roundup thermally with our setup the n1 303 is pretty unimpressive but it's still permissible it's only marginally ahead or behind of the s3 40 depending on what you're testing what the fan setup is things like that and that's through 40 is pretty good in terms of just thermals for a single GPU case a small box that's not trying to be loud but I did say single GPUs so we wouldn't really recommend doing a dual GPU setup in this I worked on testing this case and a couple other cases with Mike he does some of our test stuff for cases and dual GPU setup you run into an issue where especially if you're trying to do a PCIe SSD just definitely don't do the case in that regard because then you're relying on the bottom for all of your intake you can't install fans there for the most part depending again on the setup and the form factor the board and things like that but if you can't install fans down here suddenly the top card will choke on air intake and this is something that we'll be looking into more in the future with multi-gpu testing for cases that'll be added very soon but other than that just thermally unimpressive but not bad and airflow is a little bit tricky to look at measure with the PSU have in its own intake in the case that's different and actually pretty cool in some ways we talked about that with the Corsair 600c which also had its power supply intake in the case and influenced air channels in a way that for that case was actually a beneficial output so this case will perform worse in thermals than something like a 600 C or a 400 C or any case that's thermally driven thermal take cases for the most part but in terms of other comparable cases like the s 340 you're basically about the same and unless you have very specific cooling needs these are all going to be fine for the average PC build especially if it's a single GPU in terms of the big picture the n1 303 has a clean design that doesn't go crazy with minimalism like the s3 40 and it uses sturdy materials with a high build quality the tempered glass is tinted and visually superior to the usual acrylic found on these cases and structurally superior for that matter the honeycomb design helps bring some flair to the paneling and is well engineered and LCS support is mostly top-notch that we really do think in when should have added mount points for 280 millimeter radiators as they easily fit in windows a lot of small things right with a 303 to the name tag and front IO LEDs are unique and not adolescent the dust filter pulls out sideways so the case doesn't have to be moved away from the wall for once to remove that dust filter and clean it out and the paneling is made of far thicker steel than its competitors landing a feeling of higher perceived quality and then there's of course even in phantasmal detail internally like the pass-through for the screwdriver to access the bottom expansion slot without risking cross threading very small detail that they obviously thought of it's got room to improve like better support with large radiators the two eighty millimeters for example and better cable management passage for ATX boards would also be appreciated since the current ones get blocked when you install the board thus leaving cables plainly visible and routed through the main part of the case actually kale management is the biggest point where the 303 could improve after the bottom fan clearance issues with some motherboards anyway the small and big wins of the in win three or three outweigh those growth points the case is a $90 enclosure that's a very high build quality it competes directly with the 400 C and s 340 the last 340 is a bit cheaper and the 400 C is $10 more those are the two cases I would recommend looking at in comparison to the 303 if you want to research your options fully and cooling is acceptable it's not great except all for a single GPU certainly and this case is a good fit for mid-range gaming PC's it's made a couple of small moves to innovate in some regard in the market too which is a stagnant market so that is all for this review as always pay traveling the post well video if you on the help site directly link the description below for the full review and I'll see you all next time Oh No what nothing