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Windtunnel III Case


Date
: 08/20/01 – 11:49:33 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Coolerguys
Price: starting @ $159.95

Introduction

We have done many case reviews already at O, but today we are taking a closer look at one of the most beautiful and coolest cases that have landed in our testlab. The case we are reviewing is made by one of the most established online stores around: Coolerguys. Their latest creation is the Windtunnel III and comes in both black and beige colors. I already stated it in previous articles, but I want to point it out to you guys again (and again and again and …) that case cooling is very important for a stable system, especially during hot summer days. I always feel sorry for people who have to clock down their rig by 100MHz or so just because it is too hot outside to maintain a stable system. This is the part where the Coolerguys and their Windtunnel III steps into action. Not only does this case knows how to chill, it also looks great! Care to find out more about the Windtunnel III? Go ahead and surf through the review :).

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

The Windtunnel III is based upon a very popular computer chassis, namely the Fong Kai FK-320. Coolerguys took the case apart and modded it with bigger fans, blow holes and window kits. So, in short, they took something good and made it better.

Here is the spec list straight from the Coolerguys website:

- Supports ATX-E and all ATX2.0x motherboards
- Choose from 92mm or 120mm fan in the front!
- 92mm Fan and Fan duct in the rear for additional Motherboard and CPU cooling.
- Three5 1/4 bays
- Five 3 1/2 bays (1 visible, 4 hidden)
- Two Laser cut 92mm Fan Blow Holes on side or optional Windows kits!!!.
- Fans and grills pre-installed and ready to go on non Window optioned cases.
- Completely rounded edges for safety
- P4 ready case and AMD compliant!
- Includes a front Dust cover that looks very sleek!
- 100% CoolerGuys Customer Satisfaction Guarantee!

The Windtunnel III comes totally packed with features: it can handle all available ATX motherboards (as well as micro ATX), including the P4 motherboards that require special mounting holes.

Expansion won’t be a problem for the average computer users since the case comes with 3 exterior 5.25′ drive bays and 1 exterior 3.5′ bay.

This gives you plenty of room to house a cd-rom, a cd-writer a Live!drive and a floppy drive. I think an extra 3.5′ bay on the outside would be great because many of us have a zipdrive or something alike … but you can always toss out the floppy drive since noone uses it anyway ;).

On the inside, there are 4 more 3.5′ bays to house that RAID0+1 setup you always wanted to have. This is more than some full towers so I think they did a good deal on that one no?

This case wouldn’t be called a Windtunnel III case if it wouldn’t be equiped with some high-end cooling goodies … but more on that later, as I want to point out that the peeps at Coolerguys offer a truckload of options on this case: a window mod, a window mod with two 92mm fans inserted in the window, a window mod with a 120mm fan in the plexi window, several front intake fans and last but not least a wide range of power supplies. Note that all blowholes and windows are laser cut and that there are no sharp edges in the case (no more bleeding fingers … wOOt!). Now lets take a closer look at the cooling potential of this ‘black beauty’ shall we?

Page 3 : Cooling

Cooling Power

This computer housing has several features I have yet to see on other cases currently available in a store near you. One thing that drew my attention right away was the front intake fan. Unlike most other front fan setups, this one does NOT have to be bolted down, inserted in a crappy plastic cage that breaks after removing it 3 times, … Instead the Windtunnel III comes with a removable fan tray just like we’re used to see for motherboards.

How does it work? Very simple! You push the lever to the side and pull the handle towards you and tada, the fan slides right out. I wish more anufacturers used this mounting system, as it is very user-friendly and easy to use. Some people will say that it is overkill, but I am pretty sure that those who clean their fans every few weeks for optimal cooling, will love this ‘gadget’. Our case came with a 120mm Sunon fan in the front that sucks cold air in at 108CFM! This kind of cooling power comes with a certain amount of noise, so if you are attached to your peace and quiet I suggest you select a fan with a lower rpm number or a 92mm fan instead of a 120mm one (you have the choice).

The second feature that caught my attention was the fan duct that comes with the ‘black beast’. Like many cases, the Windtunnel III comes with a 92mm fan in the back of the case, just behind the cpu. The idea behind this setup is to suck the hot air that is expelled by the cpu out of the case as soon as possible, before it gets a chance to heat up the case. Where other cases stop, this one carries on … The 92mm fan comes with a fanduct that mount over the heatsink which makes sure that no hot air at all is able to escape.

Although the idea behind it is good, the pratical side is another story. With the fanduct sitting right over the heatsink, the fan that has to blow air over the heatsink is inhibited from working the way it was intended to … why? Because the fanduct fan and the heatsink fan are working against each other … The cpu fan tries to suck air onto the heatsink and the fanduct fan tries to suck air away from the heatsink. This results in higher temps.

The first thing I did was reverse the cpu fan. Instead of blowing onty my Vantec CCK-6035D, I had it suck air away from it. This way the hot air would be blown into the fanduct and be ejected out of the case a.s.a.p. Again, theory proved to be a lot easier that pratical arrangements because although the idea worked, temps were still higher than without the fanduct and with the fan blowing onto the heatsink. I guess the Vantec does not like the fan sucking hot air away.

It was time to shift into 2nd gear and unfold plan B. What was plan B? Well, my secondary plan meant that I would reverse the fan inside the fanduct so the fanduct would actually blow fresh air over the heatsink instead of trying to suck hot air out. This setup seemed to work perfectly because I have never seen such low temperatures! So how did the hot air got out of the case? The Enermax 431 took care of that. As you may or may not know, the Enermax power supplies come with two fans: one at the back and one that sits above the cpu and sucks hot air away. Plan B proved to be a huge success!

Lets recapitulate for a brief moment: we have a 120mm Sunon fan sucking cold air in at the front bottom, we have a 92mm fanduct delivering cold air to the cpu and we have the Enermax psu sucking hot air out at the top of the case. Not enough power? Just what I thought …

That’s why I had the case modded with the Coolerguys retro window with a 120mm blowhole premade in the plexi window. Again, I opted for a Sunon 120mm fan pushing 108CFM to make sure all was cooled properly. This fan was setup to blow hot air out of the case and came with fan grills on both sides:

- on the exterior: to protect you, your pets and your family
- on the interior: to protecht your cables from being hacked in 1,000,000 pieces

So now I have the 120mm intake fan blowing cold air over all the add-on cards while the side 120mm fan is sucking the hot air away from the cards. The fanduct provides the cpu with freshness and the power supply takes the hot air from the cpu out. Mission accomplished!

Ok … so we are aware of the cooling power behind this beast, but the eye wants some goodies as well no?

Page 4 : Looks

The Looks

When I tell you that this case is the most beautiful case ever sold by Coolerguys, you can bet your $$$ on it that I am not kidding you! When UPS delivered the case, the first words I spoke were: waw, sweet $@”3-’4$^6 this thing looks great! Of course taste is something we can not argue about because everyone has a taste of their own. So what I did was leave the case unwrapped in a place where many people pass by: our hallway. Everyone who layed eyes on it begged me to be able to take it home because they just loved it …

The biggest attention-drawer is of course the color: the Windtunnel III which we are reviewing today, is pained totally black (it is also available in beige but I think the black one looks much better). There aren’t many black cases around (expect for those ultra expensive Lian Li cases and some other brands), so this one is pretty ‘exclusive’ on its own.

The bad part about a black (or other but beige case) is the fact that most cd-roms and other devices are painted beige, so they don’t fit in with the case very well. If that is the case, you have three options: buy a new cd-rom in the correct color and spend $$$, paint the drive and lose your warranty or just leave it like it is and feel stupid ;).
Again, the Windtunnel III offers the ideal solution: it comes with a plastic half-transparant cover that slides in front of the drives. Not only does this look very sweet, it also protects your drives against dust and will come in handy at LAN parties (both @ the party to prevent nosy fingers from pressing buttons but also to protect the drives during transport.)

If you don’t want the cover @ home, than you can just slide it into the top of the case and use your pc just like normal. Other covers tend to open to the left or the right, and when you are in a hurry it sometimes occurs that your crash into it and break the cover … not with the Windtunnel III … the cover is secured in the top area of the case when opened.

The window with the premade 120mm blowhole looks very slick as well, and it adds a lot to the cooling like I told in the previous paragraph.

Last but not least I want to mention that the Windtunnel III is not a boring rectangle case, but has sweet looking rounded shapes everywhere … front, top, … The downside? I don’t think it will be possible to install a blowhole in the top of the case since it is not perfectly flat … but you couldn’t do that anyway since the cover slides into the top area …

Oh and before I forget, the Windtunnel III does not only have thumbscrews, it also features lock buttons that will make it impossible to open the case without unlocking them first. If you don’t like the thumbscrew, just leave them out and use those buttons only!

Page 5 : Installing & Testing

Installing & Testing

Because I like this case so much, I decided to give it a very special place in the O testbunker and build my very own rig around it. Here are the parts that were installed into it:

- IWill KK266R
- AMD 1.33GHz @ 1.51GHz / 1.85v
- 256MB Crucial PC133 memory
- Hercules GeForce2 GTS
- Creative Soundblaster Live! + Live!drive
- Teac 32x cd-rom
- Plextor 16/10/40 cd-rewriter
- Accton NIC
- 2x30GB IBM 7200rpm hdd’s- Win2K + SP2 + VIA 4.32 + Detonator 12.90
- Enermax 431 powersupply

The package includes everything you need to install your hardware: bolts, stand-off’s, strips, … the usual stuff. Something that I felt should be available in this case is a removable motherboard tray. Ok, most of you don’t install a new mobo every two weeks, but for myself I would have loved a removable tray.

One thing that really bugs me are the side panels. They are very hard to remove and even harder to install again. After removing it for like 15 times it went a little easier, but it was still too hard for my taste (no I am not a wimp or something ;)). Of course noone will open your case and rip your GeForce3 card in the blink of an eye as it will take them 5 minutes to open the case ;).

The Windtunnel III does have thumbscrews to bolt the side panels down, and they stick on the panel after you unscrewed them. No more losing thumb screws with this baby!

And now the most important part: how did the case perform? Well, my cpu temps have never been this low and the case temp is one of the lowest I have ever layed eyes on as well. The Windtunnel III outperforms every premodded case previously tested by O and to be honest it is also the most beautiful premodded case we ever tested. Our results were achieved thanks to the options we took on the case: the 120mm intake and the 120mm blowhole. If you order one without the 120mm fans, it is obvious that your results won’t be equal to ours. So with our case, we got a cpu temperature of 39 degrees celcius and a case temp of 29 degrees celcius. The room temperature was 23.9 degrees celcius during the tests. All temps are measured under full load.

Page 6 : Conclusion

Conclusion

What more can I say about the Windtunnel III … The case performs very well, comes with very cool features that are rare on other cases and it looks amazing. Fitted with a window mod, this case will get people’s attention faster than Ferrari passing by at supersonic speeds. The price is right and if we look at all the features and quality you get, I don’t think you can find it any cheaper than this. Should you buy it? Yes, if you want to draw the attention and want a well cooled setup. No, if you don’t care about looks and like to run your system slower during hot summer nights … The choice is yours. Go to the Coolerguys website if you want to purchase the Windtunnel III.

Good

- Great looks
- It’s black
- Very good cooling
- Fan tray
- Fanduct

Bad

- No removable motherboard tray
- Hard to install/remove side panels
- Only one external 3.5′ bay