** ENSO MESH - FORUM REVIEW SAMPLES **

Associate
OP
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Thanks! I am pretty it is the LEDs themselves that have dead. When I first got it they were flickering unless the cable was held in a certain way. Presumed it was a loose connection somewhere but they finally gave up last week, going dim blue before stopping completely.




No worries, as said while it was a bit negative the case has a lot of potential, I can't find anything I would choose over it. Particularly as I am not a fan of tempered glass fronts that most cases seem to be moving towards.

I contemplated RGB cables but thought it was a bit much! Not to mention the extra cables to manage. I have a bit more cable braiding to do on the io cables but that is on hold for minute. An addressable light strip and replacing the rear fan with an addresable spectre will no doubt happen at some point.

With luck I'll be able to buy a new front panel of Bit Fenix, if not I think I will wait to Insomnia and pick a new one up then.


If it's the actual case that's faulty, I can arrange an RMA that's no worries, just drop me an email [email protected] and I'll get that sorted out for you with Bailey!
 
Associate
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I totally missed your review Ravl, the video looks amazing! Do you have a page or website you want us to credit for it, if you're okay for Danny to share it on social?

Thanks again for taking the time to review the case though and I'm really glad the swap worked out for you, nothing like a fresh look to start off the year. ;)

I had a go at building in the BitFenix ENSO mesh white too, I'll upload some photos later, cable management was a bit fiddly I had the same issue with you as I had way too many cables with maxed out RGB fans/strips, but then again at least you only have to close the back panel once hahaha - the finished build looks really nice. (Maybe that's a bit biased just because I'm a big fan of white cases, although getting a set of components to match is a nightmare).

Thanks, glad you like the video :)

I'll message you with a wetransfer link to the original file, you guys can post it anywhere you want!

Yeah, I really like the look of the case too, I've actually disabled the front RGB fans now, they were just a bit too much, so I've only got the strip on the inside on, as well as the front panel RGB's.

@Repta
Really good review!

I see we shared some of the same thoughts on the overall build, just a shame your sample had a few more issues than I had, as personally, I'm quite happy with mine.
 
Soldato
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Replacement case arrived today, it is of significantly better quality. Once I transfer build across I will give my update impressions as it appear I was somewhat unlucky with the first case I received.
 
Soldato
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Bitfenix Enso review

Finally got around to writing up a little review for the case with a few pics and vid.

This was my first proper case with cable management options such as gromets, ssd mounting areas, PSU shroud and my first tempered glass case.

I installed my older system in it which is an old 2500k at 4.5 ghz with a be quiet dark rock 4 and a 290 pcs +.

Installation was very easy with more than enough space at the rear for cable management, only thing I did find was the PSU area was a little tight, although it worked fine with my Corsair 750M, it would have been nice for a little extra room as my main PSU cable is bit tighter than I would like, but not a deal breaker.

I also found the HDD trays a little flimsy but they work fine and my HDD’s are silent.

I don’t have any ssd’s installed so couldn’t assess the SSD mounting options, I use a small M2 drive which I just tucked out of the way.

I installed 3 x spectre pro rgb case fans that were kindly given to me by Connor at ocuk at the front intake and one included non rgb fan at the rear.

These fans are lovely and even at full load they give a nice whirring sound, I leave them on full because I like the louder noise from fans and the air flow is incredible. They are all attached to the fan controller at the back, powered by a small sata connector.

The most important thing for me with a case is airflow and GPU, CPU temps and this is where this case really knocked it out of the park for me.

My 290 PCS+ developed a common issue where when the fan goes above 45% one of the fans gives off a loud rattling noise and it only occurred to me the other day that I haven’t heard this noise since installing in this case because it has dropped my load temps on the GPU from 68c to 53c, incredible.

I also love the little hold beneath the bottom front fan inside the case which allows me to tuck way all the fan cables. Also the rubber grommets on the side of the case that hold the tempered glass panel in place make it very easy to take on and off.

The front panel is incredibly easy to take off to clean or change fans, just pull away gently at the bottom and it comes off.

I attached a pic of my be quiet dark 4 from an angle which shows that it was quite a close fit.

Thanks again to bitfenix and connor at ocuk for all the gifts, I’ll be using this case for years to come!



I would give the case 4.5/5 stars, just improve the psu space a little and be aware that some larger air coolers may not fit. Had I not won this case it would definitely have been in my short list for the price, if it were a little cheaper say £70-75 it would have been my number 1 pick.

Album with a few pics and a vid of the lovely rgb.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WXm3tMRxyLBDVmvr6

Plan to install a few rgb strips that connor kindly gave me also :)
 
Last edited:
Associate
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Nice review Nitram :)

I found the noise of the fans on full a little too loud, I do prefer a quiet setup overall.

The link to the photos and video is empty though?
 
Associate
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Yep, works now!

Actually looks quite good in black, I like the black and blue look.

Seems like the cpu cooler is right on the limit of the glass sidepanel too?
 
Soldato
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Yep, works now!

Actually looks quite good in black, I like the black and blue look.

Seems like the cpu cooler is right on the limit of the glass sidepanel too?

Yup sorry for the bad quality pics! That cooler is rather a large one to be fair, but yep very tight indeed ! Really love the cooling of the case, great airflow.
 
Underboss
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23 Oct 2013
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Hi everyone, apologies for the delay had some card reader issue then some system build issues!

Full disclosure, this case was provided to me for free by OcUK and Bitfenix to conduct a case review, the views expressed are my own.

My review follows, including hopefully pictures.

Firstly packing was good and more than adequate for the protection of the case:

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Lots of polystyrene held the case secure during transit.

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Looks: Brilliant, the matt black coupled with the tempered glass side panel give the appearance of high quality design. What surprised me the most was the weight, it was very light (7kg)

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The top panel has the standard configuration of buttons that you would expect except no USB 2.0.

L-R: Line in - Line out - LED Indicators x2 - RGB Button - Power (I) - Reset - USB 3.0 x2

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There is dust filter under the PSU mounting point with mesh.

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Both the front panel and top panel covers are magnetic and snap into place easily, one handed operation is possible for fitting and removal making for easy dust removal and cleaning/access.

Inside:

Firstly the back, here it's pretty standard affair with the normal cables you would expect to find in a PC case - the RGB controller is hidden here along with the SSD caddies x3 and many cables routing/mounting points, the PSU and HDD caddy is also access from the back.
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Here is where we run into our first negative, the PSU mounting area is very small, you need to access which cables you need, plug them in (thankfully it was a modular PSU) and fit the PSU, this places stress on the cables. You also need small hands, sadly I have hands like a spade so much swearing and a couple of small cuts to my hands later it was fitted. A poor design choice for the cvase, I feel that if the HDD caddy was modular then not only would it look neater but it would be much simpler to fit the PSU and provide much better air flow.

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With the extra cables in this area for the RGB headers it becomes very compact.

Around the front is a clean looking case, the PSU shroud hides the normal cable jumble and contains the ASUS sponsored branding sticker - removal of this would be pretty easy if you wanted to make a specific theme.

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The case comes supplied with x2 120mm fans, the front fan is RGB whilst the rear isn't. There is space for x3 120mm fans up front or x2 140mm fans.

Fitting: Went smoothly enough, mounting the mobo was an easy as any other mobo mounting, the ATX board didn't have any clearence issues although you may want to feed the 8pin Power Cable in before you fit the mobo and the top right artea of the case gets pretty tight once the mobo is in.

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This brings me onto another negative point - this may be mobo specific but the front fan cable was only long enough to reach the fan headers, I was left with no give at all resulting in a wire crossing the entire mobo as I had no option to hide it.

Another negative is the SSD placement, if you use the placement closest to the cable mounting holes (nearest the SATA Ports) you will have a difficult job of actually routing cables as the caddy sits driect next to the pass-through.

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There are x2 caddies in this area and one further along nearest the HDD backplate section, thankfully there was only the x1 SSD in the system or this area would have been even more of a squeeze.

Once everything was assembled I had issues with the RGB not working, I plugged, re-plugged and checked every cable with nothing working. Leaving it overnight and trying again the next day and doing the exact same as the day before and...it worked.

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Overall this is a good budget mid tower case with some okay features and RGB, if you have a hankering for ASUS products then using this with Aurasync would give a nice result.

I asked my son for his opinion on the case as this was a replacement case for his ageing, broken Corsair 300R and his response was a very teenage "cool, can I play fortnite now?" - so I take that as a good sign!

TL:Dr for those who struggle to read:

Lightweight
Looks nice
Front mesh very easy to remove
Good Airflow
Good cable routing options
Tempered glass
RGB


HDD Caddy is too close to the PSU slot making installation of PSU difficult
Cable length on front fans barley reaches the fan headers of my MOBO
SSD caddies sit directly behind the cable routine sleeves making installation difficult


Thanks for Bitfenix and @Connor@Overclockers for hooking me up with the case. Apoligies for the slight vignette of the pictures I didn't realise until afterwards that a setting on my camera had been activated!
 
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19 Mar 2014
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@Connor@Overclockers

I was one of the very lucky people to win a case, I am still in the process of finishing the build, awaiting a new GPU, so will give my experiences on what I have found so far.

The case is a good option for what it offers at the lower price point (currently £70). My son chose the black version, though I really wanted to see the White version as I thought it would look good with the component choices. The case looks great and I like the airflow options, Steve at GamersNexus would definitely approve.

It is relatively easy to build in and the cable management is mainly good though it would be nice to see an additional rubber grommet mounted up rather than mounting rails for an Optical drive, especially as they've included mounting for two 5.25" drive bays in the PSU shroud, as well as additional 2.5" caddies on the back of the motherboard tray. On a positive note there is enough clearance on the back side for cables, something that has been an issue in other cases I have built in.

It comes with two fans, a 120mm static RGB exhaust fan as well as a non RGB 120mm intake fan. Given the included addressable RGB case lighting and AuraSync support it may of been a better choice to include one of their Spectre addressable RGB fans instead of a static RGB fan, but at this price point its not necessarily an issue.

I had no problems getting the addressable RGB case lighting to work as I am using an Asus motherboard with an addressable RGB connector, so it links up perfectly via the SATA powered hub on the back of the motherboard tray.

I would say that the case itself probably is best used with a tower CPU cooler (maximum 160mm), whilst you can mount a 240mm AIO in the front, doing that rather compromises the airflow path, however this is the same on most other cases in this price point so not really a criticism and more of an observation.

The one criticism I would have is that is I'm struggling to get my Corsair RM650i and cables into the PSU space as its right on the limit of 160mm for the PSU, this is by no means a large PSU.

All in all I would give the new Enso Mesh a 4 stars out of 5 stars. I like the airflow improvements, since there is a lack of good airflow cases in the market, but feel with a few small changes to the design it could be improved.
 
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