Article: www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3123-bitfenix-enso-case-review You might also like our Best Cases awards show: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DjmPpsIB6AQ.html
Could you put all your case reviews and cooler reviews into their own playlist so we can find them easier on your youtube page. That would be great. and as always thanks for your informative review.
Cases like these are candy for the eye, brother has dukase v2 which also not winning any airflow contest but with a g4560 and a gtx 1060 reference, never saw temps rise above 73 on GPU, and 54 for the cpu with stock cooler and these temps with only the back fan working the other 2 top and 1 front are off no reason to add noise, IF and that is a big if that's why is in caps they lowered the price at 60-70$ would you recommend it for builds like g4560 or i3-8100 with a blower cooler GPU?
So true man. I still have a Storm Stryker big tower and it looks like i will be keeping it when i eventually upgrade my i7 2600k. Case manufacturers have lost their marbles the past few years.
I have been in meetings where marketing basically said ship it like it is we need a product now. While I (engineering manager) was saying wait we know it has these issues...and have upper management go with marketing and ship it now. In over 2/3 of those cases it came back to bite the company and two of the companies no longer exist.
that is what people did like 10-15 years ago, they had these towers that looked like cd racks standing outside of their computer, the things where really really big.
Steve L I learned from manufacturer's diagrams that blue=cold, so set your RGB lights to blue and everything will run nice and cool. Watch out for red, though...
I sound old but when i was younger RGB on tech was considered idiot lights for tempting consumers who havent got a fucken clue, dont get me wrong lighting has its place but too often its used like a tye dyed t shirt from the 70"s, i.e. ugly af unless you've popped a couple and are partying next to your computer
When you were younger? I have been on the marketplace only from the early '00, so i'm not omniscient, but isn't full on rgb quite new? I remember the red and blue single leds they pushed everywhere, but i have no recollection of some really old rgb concoctions.
Great review Steve, love how in depth you get! It's a nice looking case, and I found the temps did increase with side panel on vs off, I wouldn't recommend anyone drop anything that dumps too much heat in this build.
tried...? fixed the problem, though yeah this case probably wasn't the best thing to do that with in hindsight lol. As for the panel removed, I know the 570x and 460x and air series I have tested in the past do better with the side panels on vs off.
For some reason Bitfenix cases don't have good ventilation. Bought the Nova, and w/ 3 fans my R9 390 went to 93C at 100% fanspeed. Took side panel off, temps decreased to 72C.. Take in mind I changed the thermal paste on the GPU. So in short, no high TDP stuff on Bitfenix cases!!
wow...as much as i am impressed you fixed that guys haunted build, you also kinda sold yourself out with that "case" aka the box with a window. Don't lie man the ventilation and thermals are HORRIBLE and you shouldve said something more about that in your video, as the On vs OFF thing was a start BUT mightve left some viewers confused or mislead on the overall thermal capabilities (or lack of them) in this case/box ASIDE from the cpu heat issue/curse... in the very least you realize that you shouldnt have done the troubleshooting in there, and that with the side-panel ON (as in the case completed lol) you were getting noticeably worse temps!
Yet another showpiece case that's designed to be set on a table in a showroom with custom watercooling and flashing lights, but isn't actually designed to house a real computer, and makes it almost impossible to even build said computer in the first place. Thermal performance might be acceptable for anyone just doing light office work and web browsing, but computers like that should be in 40$ cases, not 90$. I don't think anyone is gonna be just dying to show off their new Microsoft Word and Email Rig with RGB Lighting anytime soon.
These Cases are sold in MEXICO as EAGLE WARRIOR, they are both made in the same factory, just slap a different logo to them, they cost around 30$ with plastic glass, the eagle ones have more air openings than these lol
I think I found the knock off on their webpage "Robot Z" 1.320 MX is about 70 USD. I love their product names, they alone should make them one of the most competitive brands in their market.
If a blower style fan was mounted in the bottom front to force air up the front panel it would probably drastically improve airflow. If companies are going to continue this type of styling, a blower fan with a little duct work would be an easy fix and very cheap to implement.
Amazing work as always, Steve, but I would really like to see what your ambient temps are below each graph. Some people have it at 21, others at 25, I never know what yours is. Deltas are great, but knowing the base is great too. Thanks!
I can see this case hitting a $60 price point through various sales, a lot of companies love showing off the "Below MSRP" pricing. The MSRP of $89 is the same price I bought a Rosewill cullinan case for when it was on sale and I'd take that case with its vents everywhere over this case any day. I may need to spend $10 if I want to go flashy RGB though.
I am not a gamer, nor could,I be called an enthusiast. I am just interested in pc hardware. This channel by far, has the best reviews. In depth and zero glossing over the negative features, while pointing out the positives.
These reviews give me life. Antec did this exact same thing with the P9... front panel literally had zero air flow, but at least there was a front panel piece you could remove to provide something... this doesn't even appear to have that.
Phanteks has been my go-to for this reason. They may sound like they have crippling depression over the support lines, but their glass and tempered glass window cases have two entire pages of fan mount options: back, radiator top, front panel, bottom. If you search up a PDF manual on a case and you don't see this, don't buy it. Airflow's an important aspect of your build. I'm running a liquid cooling setup with a massive radiator. Optimizing airflow makes the world of difference to liquid temps and passively cooled component temps, like my M.2 key.
luKe What disappoints me is that minus the placement of the HDD cage, all they had to do was make part of the front panel be made of mesh. That way, you get a nice looking case with great airflow for a budget price, but RGB was more important.
Rudolph Sedlin they didnt even have to do that. they couldve pushed the front panel forward an inch and put side/front intakes like all the other blocked front panel cases
You are wrong. The case has holes in the middle part too. Check it out on the official website. There is 3 air intake spots (two mid, one bottom) at the front.
After watching this review, I'm glad I got my Vivo Titan case model V05. Might not have fancy RGB lights & a smaller Acrylic plastic window, but it has a large open front panel with an grid covering. No airflow problems here. ;)
Its a trend now. Gamers didn't cares about airflow, they just cares about rgb and show off their setup. Plus others review also didnt put up this issues. Thats why i really appreciated steve job here cos of honest reviews. Good job steve!!!
So at the moment I am using the exact same case but in the color black and I actually have no problem at all with any kinds of ventilation, I think the case has some great airflow. The biggest problem that I have with this case is that the dust filter at the bottom always gets stuck when trying to pull it out for cleaning and when trying to put it back u really have to put some pressure on the filter just to slide it back in. Other than that I have had no complaints at all with this case I think its an amazing case for the price I paid for it and it has excellent airflow (and btw the dust filter at the front of the case with the only fan behind it gets a lot of air because that dust filter is always full with dust when I clean it just like the bottom one). My pc specs are: -Amd Ryzen 5 2400G -Corsair DDR4 1×8GB 2133 -Asus Cerberus Geforce GTX 1050 TI 4GB Advanced Edition -Kingston SSD A400 120gb + 2TB HDD -MSI A320M Grenade -Corsair VS series VS450 (2018) -Bitfenix ENSO (Black) (and btw I bought this case because I really wanted a good looking case with some amazing RGB and I really wasn't disappointed at all because the RGB on the case is actually brighter than the RGB on my corsair strafe RGB MK.2)
That front panel, even if overbuilt, is screaming for some Dremel mods!!! Cut out big holes in front of all three fans positions and place a filter on the top one mainly (looks like the bottom two have filters already.) Then it would become a case with actually likely excellent ventilation, even when covering its top with the solid thing. In any case great review Steve! You are a true Ventilation Evangelist extraordinaire, the industry ought to pay attention to your criticism
To be fair; the front top fan would not be completely useless when adding additional fans to the front. It keeps hot air from inside the case from being recycled. Also it will increase the negative air pressure in the compartment in front of the fans (especially with static pressure optimized fans), thus sucking more fresh air into the case. Static pressure optimized fans in the front are highly recommend.
I came from the Bitwit "review" of the case... he didnt make it look great, but he was as lenient as he could be with the case. Im glad theres a channel like gamers nexus where they review things straight like they are.
I actually have a mesh version of this case, it's actually very simple/basic. You pay for what you get. Sadly there isn't enough top coverage for a water cooler if you want one of those mounted up top. There is enough room up front for a twin fan water cooler, and of course barely enough room for a single fan water cooler on the back. Though I'd argue with this case you shouldn't be using a water cooler anyways. Over all, I have 6 fans. 1 in the back 2 up top pulling air out of the case. and 3 up front pulling air in. Works pretty well. The mesh front keeps the dust out and it's magnetic so you can easily detach it and clean it. BIGGEST problem is of course as this video mentions power supply location as seen at 10:47. though I think some tin snips can easily fix that issue personally if you choose not to install any HDDs.
i fell inlove with this design tbh, but then when I saw the review that it doesn't have a good airflow on the front panel... I decided to drill holes in it.
And this is why I stick with my CoolerMaster Haf 932. Tons of space, almost the entire front is mesh, room for a 240mm rad on top, a 140 rad on the back, 200mm on the front 200mm side pannel fan. They REALLY don't make them like they used to. I will take high airflow over RGB any day.
Please do a review of the new Enso Mesh version filling up the all the fan slots. I really would like to use this case. Hoping that the mesh front solves the issues. I don't expect anyone who buys a case to only have one intake fan.
Ok stay with me here. I’ve got the fix. The front fans need air to be fed to them right? So take the blower off your Vega 56 mount it under the case. Direct the exhaust straight into the opening and crank it to 100%. Boom goes the dynamite!
Seems case builders expect you to keep the front panels of their cases off for better air flow, either that or they don't bother to do some serious thermal testing. Thanks for another excellent case review.
Drill a couple holes in the front bottom of the case and cover it with 2 razer logo stickers then poke the razer logos with a pin multiple times. That should do something.
*Sees the thumbnail* Yep that's exactly what I thought: I fully expect this being an excellent case for people who want a PC part convection oven that's fairly fast in throttling your stuff.
Finally someone that is willing to talk about these cases and their lack of anything besides just trying to look pretty. I'm sorry but when I build a computer my goal is to have a fully working PC that will not cook itself in 30 minutes of work. These case makers all seem to think we all want to hot box our hardware. Sorry guys but pretty lights don't mean nothing if the PC dies in 2 hours because it got cooked from to much heat.
I really think it's a awesome looking case with a ton of good ideas. If they'd have listened to you guys they'd have had a total home run. It sucks when people say they are gonna do stuff and they dont.
My first thought is take out at least one of the front fan filters so that there is now some ventilation on the side, I'd take them both out though, and use that magnetic filter over the fans. Mind you no filter at all may be better, and just have a few cans of compressed air on hand.
Love the video keep up all the hard work & maybe one day the case manufacturers will actually take your advice. Curious for you to try reversing the rear exhaust fan to an intake & adding a top exhaust fan possibly 2 by removing front fan altogether. I think that might actually help the GPU temps & CPU should remain similar to the front grill being removed. On the bright side the front cover looks easy enough to cut some custom holes & glue on some mesh lol.
I have a case with similar airflow type as this one. I solved the lack of airflow problem for the GPU by flipping over the PSU and also just sitting an 80mm fan at the back of the case. The 80mm fan is positioned up against the back expansion slots, below the gpu. This pulls the hot air that gets traped in that bottom corner out the case in exchange for a slightly hotter psu
I would like to see some case companies play with the design more. You could have a solid front panel if you placed a fan at the front bottom of the case that pulled air up inside. Just something different.
I really like the RGB aesthetics of this case, but like you said in the video, the lack of ventilation and some of the internal design flaws are a turn off.
I would have settled for two thin strips of mesh on the front where it angles-in. Two 1/2 in wide mesh strrips going from HALF-INCH of the bottom to HALF-INCH to the top would have been something. Screws for the drive cage instead of rivets however is a MUST, so no screws is madness.
A *slight* critique about the fade in / fade out effect, Steve; when making those shots, make sure not to move the damn case and keep the camera completely stationary. The set should become a militarized zone the moment you are set for a shot like that where you need two takes in separate states to cross-fade into one another. If you _have_ to move the case, set up a jig to place the case 99% where it was at all times, and draw a centre line on the table and stand to not waste time.
They should've gone with glass window rather panel, so when you are playing games or working you could open it like are real window to pull air in with a giant filter to prevent mosquitos getting inside.
try adding a fan to the top case ( mesh cover) front slot as a exhaust this should cool the CPU more and help pull the air in from the front. if you load it with all 6 fans (1 back 2 top exhaust ) ( front 3 intake) or even 2 bottom front intake. from my knowledge the case to run cool is meant to run on 4 or 5 fan minimum.and some one slipped up as the PSU should have been blocked off from the main case, the bottom front is adding supply to the PSU instead of too the case.
Bitfenix has set up preordering options for a bitfenix enso, but in the revision of the enso the front panel is replaced with a decent mesh which is placed where flat panel in-between the rgb is set up. Same price. 79.99 seems ok.
i think what bitfenix should have done is just keep the RGB the way it is at front panel, but instead of close off panel make it mesh like meshify, with the rgb surrounds it.
I would buy this case, but (and a big BUT) I would do some DIY on the top panel close to the front panel. Drill a hole in it (120 mm in size) and refine it to have a 120mm top intake, making it to have two ventilation holes (bottom and top). That should help taking atleast 8-15 degrees celsius off the cpu and gpu. So one fan at front and one at top for intake and one at back for exhaust, and have positive air pressure to push most of the heat.
I would love to see Gamer's Nexus review a case like the Corsair 450D. Sure it's not brand new, and sure it's not top of the line, but I think it has good airflow potential and even had a windowed side panel (though not t. glass).
