Gadgetory

no you don't know what's inside Corsair gaming RGB keyboards feature precision Cherry MX RGB key switches for sixteen point eight million color / key backlighting for virtually unlimited customization click now to learn more the BitFenix pandora and i have a love-hate relationship well it's an inanimate object so I guess I have love-hate feelings towards the pandora starting with the outside you have on one hand beautifully brushed aluminum side panels with a tastefully sized and shaped window depending on if you spring for the window model or not on the other hand you have the same side panels but they pick up dust like crazy are really hard to clean will show fingerprints boldly and permanently if you don't handle them and clean them properly and also they happen to wrap around the front of the case which hoses an extremely glossy front panel which will yet again pick up fingerprints dust and in general just pick up imperfections very easily but also happens to look pretty damn cool if you keep it perfectly clean next up we have the screen in front of the case called the BitFenix icon and know the love-hate doesn't end here installation is easy enough you plug it into a USB header extract the application to wherever you want and drag and drop photos with a canvas size of 240 by 320 on top of it the screen supports transparencies and if you have a charging USB header that allows power to pass through even when the computer is off the screen will be able to illuminate itself so it can use its local memory to display the picture that we put on it at all times like we're doing here but it didn't work at first it turned out that we had a bad unit inside of our first case and swapping it made it work perfectly but troubleshooting was more difficult than it needed to be because the application has no GUI or error codes and there doesn't even seem to be a manual included with the case or posted on their website it was pretty frustrating and it doesn't stop there unfortunately back to the side panels we have a ball and socket pressure mounting system thing yeah you heard that right and just for reference friends don't let friends who work at case design companies design cases with balance get mounted side panels doesn't seem that horrible at first I mean it's no big deal just to push the side panel into the case and it stays there right cool right in theory yes but in practice the left side panel is a bit challenging to install without using gloves or something covering your hands and immediately cleaning it afterwards but where things really start to go off the rails is with the right side panel which also brings us to our first look inside the case removing this side panel is easy enough but the problem is putting it back on due to extremely restricted space behind the motherboard tray if you were to do a lackluster job of cable management you might not be able to get this panel on at all this is the first case in quite a while that I have found the use of zap straps to be an absolute undeniable requirement especially if you actually want to have side panels on your computer while we're back here behind the sign panel is also an SSD mounting point which while it is a little bit hard to plug the SATA power into due to available space is actually pretty handy spot to mount an SSD shifting our focus up to the top of the case we are greeted by a power and reset button which would probably actually more consistently with stabilizer bars like in the space bar of a keyboard if you were to press too far from the middle in any direction the button will move a little but not actually go far enough to trigger this switch between these two buttons we will find audio jacks and dual USB 3.0 ports the rest of the top of the case is dominated by a large fan filter which is easily removed by pressing down on the two clip mounts mine is especially easy to remove as one of the clip mounts was damaged out of the box resulting in only needing to press down one of the clip mounts yay luckily once the broken clip mount decided to fall out completely the filter set flush with the case so it was at least not aesthetically I'm pleased another's fan filter you'll find mounting spots for a 120 millimeter fan and oddly enough a three and a half inch hard drive the hard drive mount features nice rubber feet as vibration dampeners and is actually pretty nifty spot to mount your storage device although I do find it a little annoying that they didn't provide an option to mount it in the other direction as it is currently orientated the cables will likely go through the middle of your case unless you happen to have very long SATA and very long SATA power Abel's and that power cable needs only have one SATA power plug on it due to space constraints under the hood if they're able to turn the hard drive around then the cables could have easily been managed but unfortunately that wasn't the case finally we come to the main compartment the SSD mount on the side of the cable management box is stylish and easy to install the hard drive mount under the cable management box is easy enough to install although it is a little bit weird that you'll have to flip the case either upside down or onto its side to access the screw holes which are fixed into the bottom of the case said cable management box is actually quite effective at providing you enough space to hook in modular cables into your power supply while hiding your main compartment cable clutter which you will have due to lack of behind motherboard cable management space it also sports some rubber grommets at the top which I expect mainly to be used for things like expansion card power cables and motherboard headers I would have liked to see them implement these rubber grommets on the motherboard tray as well in order to hide some of the rest of that cable clutter in the back the expansion card slots are accessible although the tower framing can actually get in the way sometimes especially if you have thicker fingers and while I appreciate the fact that this piece is removable it honestly seems easier just to awkwardly try to install things by working around the framing rather than removing it entirely it should be noted though that line has had an easier time with this with his smaller hands up in the front you'll find two 120 millimeter fan mounts with a surprisingly ample supply of fresh air from the ventilation holes that are hidden by the curved aluminum where you can easily install a double rad by screwing it in by removing the front panel this combined with a top 120 millimeter fan gives the case compatibility of housing some surprisingly powerful hardware in conclusion do I hate this case honestly no I'd not at all it's flawed but it's beautiful and once you manage to get it built and cleaned up you'll probably find yourself asking was it worth the effort I think you'll agree with Linus and I when we say actually yeah it will look fantastic in pretty much any environment the front facing icon screen is pretty damn cool and you can do tons with it from displaying your company logo if it's a customer facing PC to showing off the icon of your favorite internet group it's compact and thin and while I can gripe about the lack of space behind the motherboard all I want when all is said and done I understand the compromise the designers made here because the width of the case suits it very well and they went with a philosophy that I hope more case designers will adopt they didn't try to cram 8 hard drive bays into a case that obviously didn't need it and instead they used what little space they had as efficiently as possible when all said and done I feel like a slightly disappointed father the case had so much potential but much of it was overshadowed by imperfections lack of attention to detail and for our review sample at least several out-of-the-box defects hopefully pandora 2 will be everything I could have wanted and if it Phoenix addresses the issues I brought up in this video I think it will be alright guys thanks for watching let me know what you guys thought about this video in the comments down below while you're down there like dislike favorites subscribe share go to our channel to see other videos I don't know if you want somewhere else to comment because you don't like YouTube comments jump over to the livestock tips forum and the link in the description down below where you can discuss this video directly or a variety of other topics throughout the rest of the forum if you don't like the ads on the forum if you become a contributor it gets rid of all of them thanks for watching if you want one of these shirts not this one specifically but a mod 24 commemorative shirt you should be able to also check that link in the description below that'll be the tee fury link thanks for watching I'll see you guys next time