TLDR: I'm well impressed.
Here's the product page.
I decided to give my backup PC - an 8 GB Q6600 system - some TLC. Before I started it resided in a Jeantech Micro Titan case and looked like this:
This is a 8 GB Q6600 system with a GTX 780 Ti and USB 3 card. There are two DDR3 RAM slots and two DDR2 RAM slots. The PSU doesn't even have SATA conneectors - it's Molex, baby; the board is that old. But it did me for 4k gaming way back when.
That's a mess. There's no room for cable management. Yes, that's a stock Intel cooler. And yes, the SSD is hanging freely (it was tucked in the 5.25" bay but there were no mount points).
I didn't want to spend much money - hey, it's only a Q6600 - so looking at mATX cases the Kolink Citadel was the obvious choice.
So I purchased the case and some extra 140mm fans, plus some fan grilles. I also decided to put in a better CPU cooler. I also made use of some 180 degree power connectors for the GPU and a 90 degree connector for the ATX plug.
Routing cables behind the tray is a cinch. The openings are well placed all around the board - check out the the SSD, for example - and there's plenty of room behind, as well as an adequate number of cable tie points. There are no cable routing channels or anything fancy: this is a budget case and just does the job.
And this is the result:
Those 180 degree adapters for the GPU do a really good job. I'm disappointed I couldn't fit a grille on one of the fans but there was simply no room.
Remember that the motherboard has no USB 3 socket and USB 3 is provided by the top PCIE card - hence the cable. Similarly the 3-pin fan header is not placed well for cable mananagement. I hope I've minimised the visual impact.
That looks pretty damn good to me. The ATX connector is in the wrong place for the opening because there's an IDE connector in the way. This is a decade-old motherboard, after all.
I'm not sure if the top can cope with two 140mm fans. It measures as if it can, but it's going to be a very tight fit. The top magnetic dust filter is very nice.
There are a few niggles: there's a cage for two 3.5" drives behind the PSU but it's too close for a standard length modular PSU, so you need to get a short PSU; I just tossed it. It needs to be moved farther from the PSU. Rubber grommets would have been nice. There's not enough room between the CPU cooler and the fan immediately above it to fit a grille and you can rule out that fan if you have a larger cooler. But users of AIOs won't be bothered unless they want to put their AIO at the front: the opening in the PSU cover is big enough for a slim radiator but not big enough to allow the hoses as well, so double the depth, please, or make the front third removable. The PSU dust filter is poor: the top filter is magnetic, so why not make the bottom one magnetic too?
For the price I'm giving it 9/10.
Here's the product page.
I decided to give my backup PC - an 8 GB Q6600 system - some TLC. Before I started it resided in a Jeantech Micro Titan case and looked like this:
This is a 8 GB Q6600 system with a GTX 780 Ti and USB 3 card. There are two DDR3 RAM slots and two DDR2 RAM slots. The PSU doesn't even have SATA conneectors - it's Molex, baby; the board is that old. But it did me for 4k gaming way back when.
That's a mess. There's no room for cable management. Yes, that's a stock Intel cooler. And yes, the SSD is hanging freely (it was tucked in the 5.25" bay but there were no mount points).
I didn't want to spend much money - hey, it's only a Q6600 - so looking at mATX cases the Kolink Citadel was the obvious choice.
So I purchased the case and some extra 140mm fans, plus some fan grilles. I also decided to put in a better CPU cooler. I also made use of some 180 degree power connectors for the GPU and a 90 degree connector for the ATX plug.
Routing cables behind the tray is a cinch. The openings are well placed all around the board - check out the the SSD, for example - and there's plenty of room behind, as well as an adequate number of cable tie points. There are no cable routing channels or anything fancy: this is a budget case and just does the job.
And this is the result:
Those 180 degree adapters for the GPU do a really good job. I'm disappointed I couldn't fit a grille on one of the fans but there was simply no room.
Remember that the motherboard has no USB 3 socket and USB 3 is provided by the top PCIE card - hence the cable. Similarly the 3-pin fan header is not placed well for cable mananagement. I hope I've minimised the visual impact.
That looks pretty damn good to me. The ATX connector is in the wrong place for the opening because there's an IDE connector in the way. This is a decade-old motherboard, after all.
I'm not sure if the top can cope with two 140mm fans. It measures as if it can, but it's going to be a very tight fit. The top magnetic dust filter is very nice.
There are a few niggles: there's a cage for two 3.5" drives behind the PSU but it's too close for a standard length modular PSU, so you need to get a short PSU; I just tossed it. It needs to be moved farther from the PSU. Rubber grommets would have been nice. There's not enough room between the CPU cooler and the fan immediately above it to fit a grille and you can rule out that fan if you have a larger cooler. But users of AIOs won't be bothered unless they want to put their AIO at the front: the opening in the PSU cover is big enough for a slim radiator but not big enough to allow the hoses as well, so double the depth, please, or make the front third removable. The PSU dust filter is poor: the top filter is magnetic, so why not make the bottom one magnetic too?
For the price I'm giving it 9/10.
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