First this is obviously a budget case so im not picking at what I consider small things. I initially needed a small case of a certain height a few years ago and the Rosewill FBM01 was the size I needed and worked ok , but soon found I didn't like the whole top bay being taken up by the front panel hardware and wires in the top, and it was just plain ugly - the Ranger-M was not out yet or I would have bought it. The Ranger case itself looked virtually identical internally except for the front bezel so I thought I could just swap out the front panel, move my optical drive and good to go. But I was wrong, the front panel retainers holes and pins are in different places at the middle and bottom so I had to swap the whole case. No matter even though its virtually the same case internally, the front panel is so much more functional and much better looking. After swapping the computer into the new case I had no problems and im very pleased with the look and function. The case is small, but it can be made to cool reasonably well with up to three case fans being possible. Something I often do before the build to slightly increase cooling efficiency and reduce fan noise is use a small cutoff wheel to cut out and open up the rear stamping hole to an open round hole for the back fan to increase efficiency and lower fan noise - then I upgrade the stock 80mm fan to a quality fluid bearing 92mm fan then I install it with a nice chrome steel wire grille to cover the blades, If this is done correctly the hole looks professional Like a factory punch out. Then I installed a low RPM 120mm fan in the side panel opening to direct more fresh air to the cpu cooler and video card, you have to slightly mod the existing holes as there are no real fan mounting holes here, but its easily accomplished. These changes along with the 120mm front intake fan will be more than adequate for all but serious gamers, In my case I changed the front 120mm led fan to an led fan with a three speed switch, then I have yet another opportunity to boost cooling here if needed, Add to this the power supplies 120mm exhaust fan and you effectively have four fans in this small case and it works very well. In any small case you must plan carefully but in this case there are holes so you can incorporate an SSD at the bottom instead of / or in addition to your regular hard drive, this case will hold a pretty long video card. Large tower coolers wouldnt fit in my situation as they interfere with the side fan I installed, so im running a slightly shorter than average Arctic 7 tower cooler with no problems on a quad core, 16G of ram and an adequate HD7700 video card with room to spare - but you have to establish your build order or youll find yourself taking things back out. But this is just a fact when small cases are used. Im very pleased and would buy again, its well worth the money if you need a small budget micro ATX case.
UPDATE---PRICE GOUGING-!!->> I bought two of these for around $26 or so ea. and I love them, but now they are shamelessly price gouging AT FRIGGIN $72.00 !!!!! This is an OUTRAGEOUS price to ask for this low budget case, no one should have to pay more than $30 for a thin metal low buck case like this - shame on Amazon an whoever else is involved in this PRICE GOUGING-!!
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 2 |
