Apologies in advance for the photos, the photo studio I intended to use is closed until the new year. I will try and get some better shots once it is available.
Product on Review: BitFenix Raider
Manufacturer and Sponsor: BitFenix
Pricing: £68.99 - £79.99
Introduction
First off I would like to thank BitFenix for supplying me with this review sample. By supplying enthusiasts like me who have no affiliation with either them or established review sites you're hopefully able to get a 'real world' review from lots of different perspectives.
About BitFenix
BitFenix are a relatively new company, starting out last year and rapidly expanding their product line which caters for enthusiasts and gamers alike:- “BitFenix is the result of the collaboration of several veterans in both the technology and gaming industries. From the same minds behind some of technology’s most venerable products, our goal is to create products that grant the user the utmost control, strength, and performance to complete their computing tasks.”
Specs
Materials Steel, Plastic
Dimensions 210 x 500 x 493mm (ATX Mid Tower)
Motherboard Sizes Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX
5.25" Drive Bays x 4
3.5" Drive Bays x 6 / 2.5" Drive Bays x 7
Cooling Front 2 x 120mm (included) or 1 x 200mm (optional)
Cooling Rear 1 x 120mm (included)
Cooling Top 1 x 200mm (optional)
Cooling Bottom 1 x 120mm (optional)
PCI Slots x 7 I/O 4 x USB3.0, HD Audio
Power Supply PS2 ATX (bottom, multi direction)
Packaging
The Raider comes packaged in a fairly plain brown box, adorned with the brand name, logo and some of the case features, somewhat reminiscent of those used by Thermalright for its heatsinks. However it's fairly thick and should offer ample protection in transit.
Once out of the box the case is held in place by two pieces of Styrofoam with a plastic bag to stop any scratches to the paintwork.
Accessories
As well as the case you'll get a load of cable ties, a small speaker, the manual and a bag containing all the screws you're likely to need.
External
Compared to some of its first efforts (such as the Colossus) the Raider is a much more reserved case, finished in black with little in the way of lighting. Both the front and top panel are finished with their signature soft touch rubber material, giving the plastic a much nicer feel than it may otherwise have.
The front is dominated by a fine steel mesh which runs from the bottom all the way to the rear, supplying cool air to the two included 'spectre' 120mm intakes. If you wish you can install a 200mm fan in place of the 120mm ones that are included, either way a non removable dust filters should keep everything inside nice and clean. Broken up only by a small silver logo and the well hidden 5.25” drive bays on the front it makes for a great looking case that would be at home in most situations. Both sides are identical, with no windows or fan mounts on either and only a small handle to aid you in removing the panels.
Front filter.
Moving onto the back you can see a fairly standard layout, with the now much more common bottom mounted PSU, which allows the PSU to be installed facing either way depending on your preference. The seven PCI slots have mesh covers to help with airflow, moving up there's a 120mm fan mount and the final included fan. There's also mounts for an 80mm fan, if, for whatever reason you may want to use one. Just above that you have two rubber grommets for water cooling tubes and another hole, presumably to feed out USB3.0 pass through cables if required.
Up top we have a selection of buttons and ports; the usual power and reset buttons, activity LEDs and 3.5mm jacks are all present and correct. Somewhat unusual, particularly for a sub £70 case are the 4 USB3.0 ports (with both 3.0 and 2.0 motherboard headers) and a built in fan controller for up to five fans. Underneath the top panel you can also see a mount for a 200mm fan.
Front USB and Audio.
Fan controller an dpower switches.
Finally the bottom of the case contains two fan filters, one for the PSU and another for an optional 120mm fan.
The feet, whilst looking very nice are only held on by sticky pads and did fall off a couple of times whilst building. Unless you regularly move your system about it shouldn't cause an issue but the option to screw them on would be nice.
Internal
The side panels are held on by two thumb screws for each, once removed they slide off pretty easily. Almost everything inside is finished in black, thankfully including all of the IO cables. As well as one massive hole in the motherboard tray for mounting CPU coolers there's also numerous others for cable management, most with nice and secure rubber grommets. Behind the motherboard trays there's a good inch or more of space, as well as mounts for cable ties which should make building a tidy system a piece of cake.
Black I/O cables.
Motherboard mounted showing the cable management available.
There's space for up to 6 x 3.5” drives which mount onto HDD trays using a screwless design. You can also install 2.5” drives but you'll have to get a Phillips head out for those. In addition to the HDD trays there's also a seventh 2.5” mount on the floor of the case. The four optical bays also employ a plastic mounting system, however I can't comment on how secure they are as I haven't used optical media in some time, if it can be avoided!
2.5" Drive mounted to a HDD tray
HDD Bays
Moving on you can see 4 rubber mounts for the PSU to sit on, this should help minimise vibrations, and hopefully noise generated by your power supply. Up top you can see the mount for a 200mm fan, unfortunately they have neglected to leave mounting holes for any other sizes. For most this won't be an issue, but it could make the installation of coolers such as the Corsair H100 or Antec Kuhler somewhat difficult.
Installation
Installation is fairly straight forward, with a lot of room at the back for cable management as well as little mounts for the included cable ties. In comparison to my current case (Arc Midi) there's a tiny bit less space there, but not much. In order to install large graphics cards in this system you may have to remove the top HDD bays, for most this shouldn't pose an issue however you should keep in mind that a card mounted in the top most slot of some motherboard may still interfere with the HDD mounts.
There's loads of holes for cable management, making routing them away from the front and keeping it tidy nice and easy, which for me is one of the most important features in a case.
Finished System
Test Specs:
i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz 1.32v
Gigabyte Z68
1x50Gb SSD
1x500GB 2.5" HDD
5870 1024Mb with VF3000 Cooler
Thermalright MUX 120 Cooler
Temps
All temps taken at 100% load using Prime 95, ambient temp is around 17-18c:
Fans on low:
Fans on high:
Noise:
I only have basic measuring equipment in the form of an app, so I will say that, subjectively the Raider is slightly quieter than the Arc Midi when both are at high fan speed. This makes sense, given that they both use 1000RPM fans but the Raiders are slightly smaller.
Measurements were taken form 2.5 feet away with the wide panel off.
Ambient:
Arc Midi @ High:
Raider @ Low:
Raider @ High:
Conclusion
Overall this is a great case at its price point, offering very good cooling at a low noise, great cable management and looks fantastic. The only thing I'd like is a windowed side panel
Pros:
Great cooling
Low Noise
4xUSB 3.0 with internal headers
Built in fan controller
Space for 200mm fans
Great cable management
Black interior
Black I/O cables
Tool free optical and 3.5" HDD mounting
Rubber PSU mounts
3 Quality 120mm fans included
Cons:
Feet aren't very well fitted
Little bit cramped, could do with being an inch or so longer
No 120mm roof mounts, making it poor for water cooling
Side panels are slightly flimsy
May struggle with certain configurations (SLi/Crossfire)
Score: 83%
Thanks again to BitFenix and thanks for reading
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