Category Archives: Cases

Almost perfect – Jonsbo A4 case review

Sometimes there’s a product that you want to be good so bad that you’re willing to overlook some of the more glaring mistakes. That’s how I felt about the Jonsbo A4 ITX case. It’s a SFF (small form factor) m-ITX case that brings Jonsbo’s unique design aesthetics to user’s wanting a smaller foot print computer. Unfortunately, it’s not all tiny roses and sunshine.

Based on the design, the case it truly intended to be use with either a 120mm or 240mm AIO (all-in-one) liquid cooler. While AIO’s are fairly common in the current day, enthusiast are more often turning to creating custom loops in their build to maximize space efficiency. The “dream” CPU block from Barrow, that combines the pump, CPU plate, reservoir, is just 2mm too tall to fint into this case, which is a shame.

The biggest offender though, is the cable management. Or lack there of. With the case being so small, planning and routing cables is a the only way to be successful and that takes a lot of time. This is definitely not a case for the unitiated or faint of heart. It can be made into a beautiful build, but you’ll need to bring your A-game.

What are you’re thoughts? Is this your next ITX case or are the issues a deal breaker for you? Sound off in the comments here or in the YouTube comments section.

Check out the other Jonsbo case I’ve looked at, the late Jonsbo VR1

More bigger, more better baby! LIAN LI releases the LANCOOL 215 with giant fans

Back during the good old days of CES 2020, Lian Li showed off a plethora of cases. While the LANCOOL 215 wasn’t the flashiest case of in their suite, it was good to see that the manufacturer was still thinking about those of us that want a budget option for a case instead of a Transformer or PC-O11D.

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Cougar goes for case domination again with the Conquer 2

The original CONQUER case definitely made a huge splash when it was released two years ago. Prior to it, Cougar was on the map a bit from the few iterations of the PANZER case, but was mostly known for budget options. Then this open-frame, Transformers-looking case seemingly came from no-where. People were abuzz with intrigue and excitement over it and it seems like Cougar really wants to try to dominate the exotic case segment of the market.

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Antec hits innovation hard with the Striker itx case

The ITX case niche of the case industry has recently in the last 5 years been the Shining beacon for interesting design choices. Don’t get us wrong, ATX has seen some notable entries in the “You did WHAT now” category of case designs, but those are much further and farther betwen in releases and from a much smaller selection of manufacturers. Most notably, INWIN, Cougar, and most recently Antec. ITX however, truly pushes the envelope of what’s necessary to put in a computer and where it needs to be placed.

There seem to be two distinct camps when it comes to ITX case design. One side, small form factor or SFF crowd, is mainly concerned with size management and getting the entire system as small as possible. The other side, which doesn’t have a name as far as we know, is more interested in seeing what kinds of layouts are possible given the smaller components like the motherboard and PSU.

Antec has released the new Striker ITX case that it clearly in the second camp.

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Aerocool wants to bring out your Darkside with new RGB cases

Aerocool is making a big push this year to get into the minds of PC enthusiasts with the launch of not one or two, but nine new cases, all of which are aimed at budget-minded builders. The company announced the first six during CES this year and now has announced another three. The latest trio all take some inspiration from Darkside of pop culture. Let’s take a look at what likes beneath, shall we?

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