Gadgetory

alright guys I am ready are you ready maybe should like an off-camera character that I can talk to can't use jack maybe George woohoo it's gonna be a good one it's this time of year again when I go into our case review playlists to refresh my memory and give you guys the case the words of 2016 Oh as usual the rules are simple we can only nominate cases that have been released and reviewed by us in 2016 and you can check out our 2015 2014 and 2013 case or words linked in the description now here's an interesting Tim bid Harbor Canucks has published a total of 174 case reviews if you were to watch them from beginning to end it would take you roughly 1300 minutes or 21 hours or an average seven minutes per case you guys are welcome for our efficiency alright enough chatter the categories for case awards are the best ITX option the best budget case the best first-time builder case the best tempered-glass upgrade case seeing this was a very major trend this year the most innovative case and the new category the fail compilation this one is fun one and finally the case of the year let 2016 case awards begin oh the new NZXT air RGB fans can be daisy chained together for awesome lighting cohesion in your build with vibrant and accurate color illumination all easily controlled through the hue plus via cam software full details in the description below and so the best ITX option for 2016 goes to the Nano s from fractal design now it's a little unconventional seeing is just a shrunken version of every fractal case ever but this formula works with a simple body and complete the open interior that easily fits a loaded system including a full-size ATX power supply and you can even fit a 240 million radiator in the front all while still having storage capacity for dual SSDs and a three and a half inch drive and yes for an ITX system it's an overkill but that's what the market wanted in 2016 which is why the runner-up is the NZXT monta ITX that follows a similar approach with a large body for ITX system without compromises like a dedicated power supply shroud and clever interior frame to hide the cables with a 240 mm already support at the top and the front making this the ultimate vertical incase in its class and actually the balloon side panels are this way on purpose for additional space for cable management and totally unique character and the final runner-up is the century ITX that unfortunately isn't available yet but this case is the perfect example of true dedication to small form-factor builds with the 7 liter volume century like stands and steel body that presents some challenges with assembly however with support for s FX and s FX l power supplies full size graphics cards on the top chamber and the ability to do this with your system the next category for the budget enclosure is surprisingly empty slim pickins out there but the corsair ii 7y r is the cheapest case we've reviewed at $59 the interior frame on the - 7 yard is fantastic with a smart power supply shroud that hides and complements cable management this open area has a lot of potential for good cooling setups and storage options are pretty good with dual SSDs and three and a half inch drives this by no means though is a complete package as top dust filter is not included plus a crappy red LED fan is present and the IO is facing the wrong direction but at its core you get the guaranteed solid building experience for 59 bucks but rivaling that is a $69 z9 neo Bizon with surprising list of features like a nice side window with a concealing power supply shroud that has a drive cage built-in with decent cable management plus you can install SSDs on the interior side although they're not really oriented properly and they're also two removable five-and-a-quarter in drive bays something that is not found on majority of 2016 releases the biggest selling point here are 5 included fans two of which are blue LED so each slot is already occupied for excellent out of box cooling moving on to the most popular category for the best first-timer build a case we have the fan Tech's p400s that makes a fantastic first impression with its Iron Men type mask looks the built in RGB lighting and front of the case with option to connect an LED strip that will match the case lighting and all of the completeness of the p400 series with sound dampening material and all new places including top covers with dust filters depending if you're installing fans here or not and the open interior is a very good recipe for hassle-free assembly without any hardware compatibility issues cable management is easy with included velcro straps and storage capacity is decent with dual SSD caddies and the drive cage this is the mid tower that has it all and an awesome place to start for your first build the runner-up is the Corsair 400 sea and I love this case because it's a brilliant collection of coursers best features including the large side panel that swivels to open one of my favorite power supply shroud designs with its two-piece approach so you can hide that drive cage and move the front portion back a little bit more to make room for the front radiator and everything is covered with US filters including the top panel and for storage I appreciate the convenience of tools as the installation and the removable drive cage in front of the power supply the assembly process is very rewarding and would compliment first time builders and very well the next category is the best tempered glass upgrade case which goes to the s 340 elite by NZXT simply because for the $30 price premium you get a lot of new including a glass panel with a blackout perimeter to hide the frame inside the glass is only slightly tinted but without any color cast which is good and installation is proper with rubber inserts that hold the panels first the Boxee frame looks absolutely stunning with a piece of glass on the side and on top of that we get an extra SSD mount with proper cable orientation and expanded top IO with HDMI pass-through and extra USB ports and improved cable management with pre-installed clips to simplify cable routing and also a magnetic puck that can be used to hold headphones or help with cable organization the s340 elite is now the benchmark to beat on what it means to upgrade a case the runner-up is the corsair 460 ex that adds a glass on all the immediately visible sides that looks absolutely gorgeous especially with the RGB fans that you can control the at the top iö for color only and they highlight why that front piece of glass is important and you're putting your entire system on display with slightly tinted and warm a tonne glass that sits on long thumb screws and not as easy to operate as many other tempered glass cases but it sure is gorgeous the compliment the looks the corner support structure has been minimized so it's not as visible while the rest of the frame is based on the 400 C and the third runner-up is the gorgeous evolve 80 xt G from fantex that takes a more risky approach by placing glass on both sides on the main side it's perfect the glass is shaped to complement the front panel with the top and bottom extensions and the standard blackout perimeter behind which padding is installed to prevent glass on metal contact but on the right side there's also glass revealing the cable guts and something you might not want to show off unless serious work is put throughout everything perfectly which I see as a welcome challenge moving on to the next category for the most innovative case this easily goes to the street come DB for a unique aluminum cube that is unlike anything I've worked with in the past it's a fan li's design first of all everything is passively cooled it's an ITX form factor with GPUs up to 200 millimeters supported there is a proprietary power supply limitation which is not so nice and not in easily accessible IO at the bottom but this totally unconventional approach to turn the aluminum panels into the heatsink for the CPU is so awesome people may look at this and say it looks like a CPU cooler which is technically correct where you assemble the cooling contraption that goes from the CPU and that attaches to the side panel and that's what handles all the cooling it's not an easy case to work in but the universal brackets are awesome that you can use for drives to power supply and other accessories that you can mount anywhere around the square frame it's cases like these that encourage innovative features to be rolled out for the mainstream market and highlight the lack of forward thinking for many cases in 2016 which is the perfect segue into our next category of the fail compilation highlighting the bad decisions that did not need to happen starting with the beat Phoenix Pandora ATX that from a spec sheet look great but with horrendous side panels that are thin wavy sheets of metal with terrible mounting that also carries over to the weak metal frame on the top that cannot even properly accommodate a radiator because spacing is not correct the long dust filter the front is removable but it's only removal from the bottom who thought this was a good idea and finally interior SSD mounts stick out way too much that would interfere with a front radiator moving on to the rear tour prism twelve eighty a case with so many fails you're not world's first anything and even if this was the truth it's really nothing to brag about with the garbage fans that are super loud and low quality lighting that is de-seeding compared to what you see on the site the drive gauge is riveted despite having fan slots right underneath with the dust filter and nobody clearly built a system when the SSD in the drive cage as the drive caddy blocks the silent cables and we also have a lot of space that is wasted in this power supply chamber just for the sake of it or what about the silent bass 600 from be quiet recycling a really old interior frame that is not user-friendly totally restrictive front airflow intake and only a tiny ventilation opening at the top to choke the fans all for the sake of silence by forcing you not to install any fans hey Corsair the 570 X feels completely unfinished I don't care about all the glass if I cannot properly visually block the power supply chamber that is open for all to see and also why is it that a $59 case has a better power supply shroud how does that make any sense what about lighting inconsistency on the two illuminations may be linked them to the RGB fans which is the whole point of this case after all that would be nice EVGA why does your case look like a rear projection television I realize its weight their friend from anything else so let's not be overly judgmental but with a case so large it feels surprisingly tight to work in because the bottom frame is non-removable and the power supply sits way too far back that might result in some cables not having enough reach and the strangest thing is case orientation that is actually meant to face you like this with a flock of cables running out on the side and not the rear of the case while the power supply cable is still visible there feeding this hole cleanliness approach hey Silverstone PMO one NZXT called they want their designer back also why can I not install any fans above the frame when the plastic top panel is so high this should not happen if you want to attract the mainstream builder with potential AIO plants now listen cases released in 2016 means they've been in production for last two to four years the pipeline from idea to sales is a long one which is why this failed compilation in this video is important to highlight all the errors that we hopefully won't see moving forward which brings us to my favorite category case of the year that without a doubt it goes to the be quiet dark based 900 Pro it absolutely nails on all the market trends including tempered glass fan controller built in RGB lighting a wireless Qi charger at the top that works beautifully and so this case truly is pushing the boundaries for customization and can adapt based on user's needs with height adjustable motherboard tray if you require extra clearance at the top for like portable or very thick radiators you can also rotate the motherboard tray for an inverted system while every single piece of the interior is modular and can be configured based on your needs with individual drive caddies that are metal multiple slots for the power supply that all accommodate different motherboard tray locations and all this modularity doesn't feel like an afterthought it's very well polished radiators up to 420 millimeters are supported at the top and the front it's also carpet friendly as the bottom panel is solid so in take around site is consistent with the design language and all of the feature said that allows experimentation it is also future proof and deserves to be our 2016 case of the year now it's very interesting how fast built-in RGB lighting and temper glass as the two major trends for 2016 really spread through the case industry and I'm having a tough time figuring out what will be that trend in 2017 I'm hoping for more customization and modularity on a larger scale so if you want an ATX system you add a few pieces to the enclosure to make it larger to accommodate for larger motherboards and vice versa that type of customization was so cool but what do you think leave them in the comments down below what would be the next big trend in the case industry and before we conclude a quick message from our sponsor assembling your verdict your gaming chair just got a whole lot easier with a simple insert maker ISM off the back seat onto the side rails so you mount the side screws much faster a true one-man job assembly made easy by our gear now this would be our fourth annual case of words we'd love to wrap up the year with this type of video but there are a few cases that have been delivered to the studio quiet late did not get the hardware conducts review treatment which are the cooler master master case maker 5t T stands for turbo we have an ITX enclosure that I'm sure will be fantastic the cooler qbx they actually want in the word during copy text and the defined see from fractal that refreshes the interior with a power supply shroud so stay tuned for full videos on those cases in 2017 and on behalf of myself and the entire higher conduct crew we want to thank you for being such an awesome community happy holidays we'll see you in next year but what do you guys think 11 in the get the next year rolling without focus whoa got really dark how long have been recording for food