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We have seen a flush of more affordable chassis recently. It is as if the whole market has shifted subtly down a notch, in terms of price, which attempting to carry on delivering a full set of features.
Early BitFenix designs were definitely aimed at breaking the mold – with the huge, bold markings on the original Colossus and soft-touch, curve-ended finish of the Survivor.
At the same time, both of these cases had challenges when it came to system integration.
As with all of BitFenix's recent chassis, the outer packaging is spot on and will take a beating en route without allowing damage to its cargo.
The simple black styling and cool logo have become a definite branding statement by BitFenix.
Left and right views are pretty mundane with no window on this version.
While the overall size of this chassis means that in a standard build, with 2-3 drives and a single graphics card, you are unlikely to run into thermal issues – that might not be the case if you fully load the design.
In recent Aerocool Dead Silence testing, we observed a drop of several degrees when using the mesh roof – as opposed to the solid design. On the plus side, noise levels are typically lower with ‘sealed' units.
Additional air will flow into the front, behind the closed door, ensuring smooth flow over your key components.
When the case is powered down, you don't notice the coloured lighting strip at the bottom.
Storage capacity won't be an issue. This case comes with a large number of drive bays – both sizes.
Adding a new drive is a very straightforward process and everything in the BitFenix Shadow smacks of a significant jump in quality when compared to pure budget models like the Comrade.
Enough speculation, let's move onto the actual building process.
