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Price-Point Comparing Three-Way Case Shootout

 by Joshua Buss on January 13, 2006 12:05 AM EST
69 Comments | Add A Comment
69 Comments
Dynapower E68

In our last roundup, Dynapower surprised us with a very sturdy case designed for more ”industrial” use (namely a server configuration), which offered many great tool-less features and was simply built like a tank. At roughly the same time, the company released a more typically configured tower, the E68. In this first picture of the tower, take note of the gold-colored 120mm fan grill – it's the only active cooling component included in the case.


Click to enlarge.

Normally, we're not fans of taking any pictures of the packing job of any hardware; we expect the packaging to do a good enough job of protecting the vital components and don't feel that readers care to see the packaging unless something is horridly wrong. Upon the opening of the E68 though, we discovered something that we've never exactly seen before, and felt we should share what we saw. The tower of the case was 90% there, but the front bezel itself was packaged separately.

We found it particularly interesting because the front bezel of the E68 is only plastic. However, that really doesn't change the fact that it's a thoughtfully designed unit, which is both highly functional and styled in a particularly unique manner.

Connecting the front bezel to the rest of the case simply consists of guiding the cabling through the circular opening and pushing until the clips snap in place. The bottom portion slides to the left to reveal the port cluster on the E68, which only includes two audio jacks and two USB ports, and unfortunately, the USB ports are pretty tightly placed.


Click to enlarge.

This portion of the bezel is also where the power and HDD activity LEDs are found. Moving upwards, we find the large power button and much smaller, recessed reset button. The silver space to the right of the buttons is not another space for an external 3½” bay, but there is still a dedicated bay centered above.


Click to enlarge.

Raidmax X1 (cont’d) Dynapower E68 (cont’d)
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  • Tamale - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Thanks for the quick criticism guys. Article updated.

    Please continue to scrutinize :)

  • Viditor - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Another comment for your conclusion (which is important for those of us that do video work)...the P150 is the only one of the 3 that has Firewire connector in front (as far as I can tell). If you could list the specs of each case at the head of that cases segment, that would also help (e.g. number of 3.5 slots, front firewire connector, etc...).

    Cheers!

  • ceefka - Saturday, January 14, 2006 - link

    The P150 also features a cable organizer. If you take of the right panel, you'll see it at the right side of the internal 3,5" drive bays. This can make your cabling a lot tidier than the picture in the review shows.

    The FireWire connection is S400 on an Intel standard. Those who wish to connect AMD boards might want to call Antec for an adapter cable.

    All'n'all I think the P150 looks like a fridge. I bought it though because it made the most sense for its price.

  • Tamale - Saturday, January 14, 2006 - link

    I've heard the P180 referred to as a fridge much moreso than the P150.. hehe

    but yah, good catch on the cable organizer.

  • andrewln - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    i wonder if they suspended the hard drive or they used the brackets.... it makes a difference when the hard drive seeks

  • yacoub - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    For that matter I wonder if they had the 3-speed 120mm fan it comes with on the lowest setting for the sound tests or still ramped up to max from the cooling tests.

  • gman003 - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    Why only 3 cases in the roundup? Not much to compare to... :-(

    In any case, I would really love to see an Aspire case tested against these sometime. I've been building with them for a while now and IMO they look better and cool better than Antec or other so called "Gaming" cases.

    Raidmax and Antec cases are nice, but Raidmax is too chinsy with their materials at times and Antec is sooooo overpriced sometimes that one really shouldn't even consider them anymore as their go to case because of so many other competing vendors out there with high quality cases at cheaper prices.

  • mindless1 - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    True, Antec is often overpriced but (putting aside the possible issues with the power supply), it's expected that with the Antec one has a power supply they can use long-term. Raidmax power supplies I wouldn't even install in most systems. What would be most interesting is a P150 discounted due to no power supply until the issues with the present one are resolved.

  • oofboi754 - Thursday, March 31, 2022 - link

    This case isn't so bad. Put in some Noctua Fans in the front and back ant it keeps my 3060ti (EVGA XC) and 12700kf (NH-U12S) at a comfortable 40 Degrees Celcius when idling. The Noctua Fans combines with the quiet nature of this case keep my rig silent as possible. For it's age, the cable managment isn't bad, it just takes a bit of creative thinking. This case is great for a Sleeper PC like I made.
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