Gadgetory

hey guys welcome back to another hard work next review we are checking out this stylish and elegant mini ITX case from BitFenix The Prodigy enough of the plain and boring black boxes mini ITX cases usually reassembled so here we have a breath of fresh air amongst the competition and the black version is also available with minor changes to the exterior you are expected to pay around $80 for this one which is pretty decent considering the aesthetics and its internal functions but despite its small form-factor the chassis is actually quite large when compared to the standard mini ITX cases so make sure to double check the dimensions prior taking out your wallet but BitFenix is targeting this towards an enthusiast market which helps to explain its relatively larger size so let's dive right in the exterior is a combination of steel and plastic which does have the soft touch treatment that we are so familiar with the front panel has one optical Bay and a black bezel that incorporates the venting strips unfortunately this design practically chokes the front intake fan and I wish they kept the same meshed panel that is found on the black version of the same case and behind the panel we find a variety of fan mounting options BitFenix includes 120mm fan for the front but ideally if you are cooling on air it is designed for a larger fan something around 180 200 or 230 millionaire fan alright the handles are the next part they can be used to transport and they seem relatively strong but they are a bit too flexible I'm not gonna lie that does bother me a little bit and I would have preferred something a lot more solid but after working with the case the handles should have no issues transporting a fully loaded system and the bottom features the same type of flexible feet which makes the case prone to sliding and wobbling and the top has dual dust filter that clips in and can easily be removed for cleaning and you can mount dual 120mm fans or even a radiator unfortunately if you do mount the second fan closer to the front you will not have clearance for the optical drive and I wish to design this case allow fan mounts above the frame without compromising on its stylish appeal and it would also allow an optical drive to be installed now strangely all the front panel connectors are located on the side door which helps to keep the front clean but limits the orientation of the case while in use so the placement of these connections is really impractical and we want to see them move to the front where they belong but here we have the power and the reset buttons the headphone and microphone jacks and 2 USB 3 ports which can be connected through the 20 pin or the USB to plug the side panel can also mount to SSDs it's not the most comfortable location for wiring but still a good spot for additional drives the other side panel has dedicated venting holes for your graphics card so you can pull air from the outside this is very much needed as the graphics card practically touches the side panel at the back we have an exhaust for both 120 and 140 mm fans two expansion slots are your area and then bottom mounted power supply with a removable dust filter now finally take a look inside the prodigy we have the hard drive cage with five tools brackets that are SSD compatible the cage is modular so it can be removed simply by pulling it out no need for that screwdriver and this would allow for a beefy graphics card to be installed as we have clearance up to 12 inches this is pretty impressive for an ITX case and this is also one of the reasons the prodigy is so large the power supply cage has cable cutouts all around but has clearance only for power supplies up to 160 millimeters in even then it's a tighter fit I would have liked to see the power supply bracket that allows longer units to be installed and for this reason our silverstone unit didn't exactly properly fit into the prodigy the included front intake fan is mostly blocked by the drive cage so installing 140 mm fan would allow a more direct airflow towards your main components and as mentioned earlier the drive cage is modular it can either be removed or rotated and if you do decide to completely remove the hard drive cage you have the options to install three 2.5 inch drives inside the case turn the power supply cage mounting and the removal of which will be I'm problematic and one more on the bottom of the case now the reasons you might want to remove the optical mouse and the entire drive cage is full water cooling to my surprise you can fit two hundred forty million radiators one at the top and one at the front of course this means losing out on the optical drive if the ride is on the top and sacrificing the entire drive cage is not very appealing if you do decide to install the ride at the front so finally putting in our mini ITX board CPU coolers up to 175 millimeters are okay but many people have raised the issue of not having clearance for the CPU backplate as the motherboard standoffs are a bit too short so between extra step it up in quality control department to not turn off its customers and finally closing the side panel this is another disadvantage of having all those front cable connections on the side panel and that's just the wiring becomes really awkward and we really wish between X can sit right next time with the front panel and so partially assembled our triple slot graphics card wouldn't fit our power supply was a bit too long but in terms of cabling prodigy stacks up quite well and I can definitely imagine a clean and powerful build that could be used for land parties or just regular home use so to wrap it up prodigy brings to the table a very stylish and elegant chassis that can house all the enthusiast hardware with long graphics cards and 240 million radiators we have plenty of storage capacity and it's a relatively small stature that allows easy portability and all that it's a reasonable and a very competitive price that consumers will find appealing however in the flipside airflow for the arctic white version drastically suffers because of the front panel and practically chokes the front intake and you already know my opinion about the front panel connectors that are located on the side panel and that's really terrible placement and they should have included a power supply bracket that allows longer units to be installed but overall it's a unique case that has a lot of potential for a decent system and we're giving it the hardware canucks damn good value word the really whole BitFenix further improves their game when it comes to design and quality control and that's it for this one guys thanks for watching and we'll see you next one