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On review today we have Macase's KA-230 Midtower from their new "Champion" range. One of the first reviews I ever did was of their KA-10 Sunrise Midtower a couple of years ago and I was impressed with it at the time. I was a little surprised when taking this case out of the box because it seemed, well, oddly familiar. It looks quite a bit like the Antec SX1030B and the Enermax FS-710. The Australian distributor who provided this Macase review case is Fortune Tec - they say this case was manufactured by Macase and they don't know about the other brands. Maybe there's some some OEM deal or rebranding or something, or maybe they're not really as similar as they seem.

Anyway, taking a leaf (ho ho) from the Digit-Life photography book, here's some shots of the case in my girlfriend's garden - click to enlarge:

the case, with door open, with feet extended - click images to enlarge

No photo of the shipping box required, it's like every other generic cardboard box that cases have been delivered in since the dawn of time - but I was surprised by how heavy this one was when it arrived! For a mid-tower this case carries a lot of weight - bad for lugging to LAN parties, but generally a good sign for build quality. This case also passed my equally unscientific "twist test" with flying colours - this involves taking the two side panels off, gripping the case at top and bottom and trying to twist it along the height axis. This case basically doesn't flex at all and feels very solid.

My first nitpick about the case is that the door opens to the left (viewing the case from the front). Ok, it's a tiny thing, but when you've got the case on its side installing a motherboard and whatever, especially in the limited space on most people's workdesks, having the door open to the left (upwards, when the case is on its side) is annoying because you have to open it much further to get to the power button than if it opened to the right (downwards).

click to enlarge

Removing the left side panel is made simple by the use of a lockable handle. No tabs requiring you to slide the panel back along the case (as per AOpen's HX and HQ-08), you simply pull the handle and the side swings off. Note also the fan holes - we'll look at the purple bits in more detail later, but I was impressed by the amount of airflow the stock fan holes allow. In too many other cases - including the Macase K10 I looked at earlier - the fan mounts are metal plates with a few small holes drilled into them, restricting airflow and increasing noise. This case has four mounting points - two on the back and two on the front - all are similarly free-flowing which is a welcome sight.

click to enlarge

In the picture above you can see the aforementioned two front fan holes and clearly see through the two in the rear. Taking the front off was easy enough to do - one niggle being that you need to remove the right side cover to get to one of the front mounting clips. Not a big drama, but makes removing the front take a fair bit longer. Another pet niggle of mine that's present on this case is that the wiring to the LED's and switches on the removable front panel of the case is attached to that panel permanently. This again makes it a little more tricky to remove the front cover but, again, is more an inconvenience than a genuine design flaw.

Next Page - Internals

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