Gadgetory

when it comes to affordability budget-conscious consumers are always trying to get the best bang for the buck but most often the low price tag comes with many compromises and build quality but also features it makes us question the balance between affordability and functionality so a company under the name cougar is really redefining what affordability means within this fastly competitive Sassy's market so this mini gaming case spike is the lowest priced case we've ever reviewed here at Huracan ox retailing at $35 now of course concerns do arise because of the price but I'm sure many are willing to overlook the negatives at such an attractive low-cost solution I mean individual side panels are sold at similar price so keeping that in mind let's get on with the review so the case does manage to give off a unique vibe with this front panel the rest of the construction is thin steel we don't get that tough feel but it does manage to pull off a decent build quality at this price point now we have two five and a quarter inch drive bays along with a 3.5 inch below with your power and reset buttons two USB ports one which is USB 3 and your audio jacks now the panel can easily be removed from the front which reveals all the connections are attached to the panel itself and not to the frame a single fan can be installed either 120 90 or 80 millimeter are supported with a sight cutout to route your cable it's a nice consideration and we do have a front mesh but unfortunately no dust odor I speaking of fans only one fan is included with the spike for your rear exhaust so it is highly recommended that you install that front intake for adequate passive airflow now the case does have small anti-vibration pads installed at the bottom which is better than nothing the top of the case is bare which means no additional fan mounts can be installed and only one way to install your power supply facing down now this is one of the few cases that we've looked at with the top mounted power supply but in this case it actually works and we'll talk about that a bit later now my only concern is this very small power supply base that supports the unit and it would be nice to see it enlarged to reassurance that it won't drop on your motherboard aside from securing it from the back now in the back we have four PCI slots that are unfortunately non-reusable and additional side venting and given the limited airflow options here the side fan mounting options are very welcome which are positioned to cool both your CPU and your GPU now look inside the old black interior is going to be well received for a value case here we also have the old toolless mounting for your optical and hard drives and right below is the space that has the potential to house 14 inch graphics cards which is pretty impressive also that front fan installed you have yourself a nice cooling solution although your 3.5 inch rise might get a little toasty as they are outside of the airflow channel now we can also install a single 2.5 inch drive on the floor although it might be a little difficult accessing while your graphics cards are in place and looking in the back there isn't much here and there's absolutely no room behind the motherboard tray so expect to do all your cable management internally and with the first few parts installed this micro ATX case doesn't stack too bad of course cable management is limited but there is plenty of room at the top to store all your cables now clearance for your CPU heatsink and memory may become an issue especially for your memory modules because of those 3.5 inch drives of course this will vary based on motherboards but any module higher than 2 inches will have clearance issues so continuing with cable management to my surprise wiring everything wasn't so difficult at all little cramped but honestly it cleaned up pretty well considering all the cables are inside of the case and not at the back and I was actually quite surprised at how the spy can handle such enthusiast load and show cases that even a $35 case can do the job well with support for long graphics cards up to four fans for cooling three hard drives and one SSD is pretty much all we need for a decent gaming rig anyway and the entire package for such a low price is an absolutely and no brainer for any value build and also cable management if done properly will leave the internals clutter free now of course our critique cannot be seduced by the price but these are minor issues that if taken into account can make this an even more competitive case for example the lack of a dust filter the front and slightly taller case feet would be nice however no matter of the price the sticking out 3.5 inch drives are no excuse and the simple 90-degree rotation of the cage would solve for the extra RAM clearance and get rid of that extra cable mess but seriously guys for a $35 case this is an absolutely damn good value product from Cougar so that wraps up a review for the spike thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one