Rosewill R5604-TBK

David Murphy — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:34:05 -0500

Rosewill tackles the low, low end of the cheap case spectrum with its $65 R5604-TBK chassis. But save for a few minor oopsies, the case makes for a breezy installation of all your computer parts. There’s nothing fancy about the R5604-TBK, no lights or other arcane mechanical trappings. It’s just a no-frills, screwless enclosure—you get an interesting industrial-style locking mechanism for the side panel, but that’s its most daring attribute.

The four 5.25-inch and six 3.5-inch bays all come with rails that you attach to your various devices before sliding them into place—we just wish the rails fit the drives better. It’s a nitpicky note, but just as with the case’s PCI holder—which pushes a bit too firmly against add-on cards—a little more engineering would have gone a long way.

While we are using an oversize PCI Express card in our tests—the GeForce 8800 GTX—the R5604-TBK would be cramped with most any build. Hands-down, this chassis comes with the least amount of space to work in of any of the sub-$100 cases we’ve reviewed. The hard drive bays jut out just far enough to limit your options when customizing your system’s internals.

The R5604 comes with a 12cm fan at both the front and rear and front-panel FireWire support is an extra-special treat. Now if only the case came with front-panel HD audio support, as well.

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Rosewill R5604-TBK

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