BitFenix is a brand you might not recognise; after all they haven’t had much of a presence in South Africa over the last few months.

This has changed and companies such as Evetech PC (who supplied the unit for review) have started bringing in the cases, offering competition to the more well known cases from Coolermaster and Antec who have typically dominated the South African market.

Let’s see if the case is any good.

Specifications

The Colossus features an impressive list of specifications, something one would expect from a chassis this large (245W x 558H x 582D).

Most obvious is the SoftTouch coating on the exterior of the chassis, which is designed to improve the feel of the chassis and eliminate fingerprints and stains. Initially it feels a bit cheap compared to brushed aluminium and gives the impression that the chassis isn’t quite as sturdy as it really is.

I/O ports on the exterior of the case include two USB3.0, two USB2.0, eSATA, and Audio in/out. They’re located in a compartment on the top, front area of the case underneath a lockable lid, and offer cable routing that allows devices to be connected even when the lid is closed and locked.

In terms of cooling, the Colossus offers the following fans installation points:

• One front-based 230mm cooling fan;
• One top-based 230mm cooling fan (can be replaced with one 140mm fan or two 120mm fans);
• One bottom-based 120/140mm cooling fan;
• One rear-based 120/140mm cooling fan.

This is a fairly standard fan configuration and provides good airflow for all the components in the chassis. A dual water-cooling radiator can be installed on the top-based fan mounts which is great if you plan on using a custom water-cooling solution.

As for component support, a case this large can accommodate a variety of components, including:

• Motherboard sizes up to E-ATX;
• 5 x 5.25 inch drive bays;
• 7 x 3.5 inch drive bays (which can be used as 2.5 inch drive bays for SSDs);
• 8 x PCI slots for graphics cards and other PCIe based devices;
• A bottom mounted PSU.

A front case door and unique case lighting round off the specifications of the Colossus.

Installation

Thanks to the large amount of space inside the case, installation of the motherboard was a breeze. Fitting in a large Asus Rampage II Extreme went off without a hitch, and despite the boards large size everything was still accessible.

The case features a large hole in the motherboard tray, allowing easy installation of CPU coolers that make use of a backplate without the need for removing the entire motherboard.

Cable routing holes allow you to manage your cabling well, and the rubber grommeting did a good job of holding the cables in place and making everything look neat.

As for installing hard drives, the pre-cast plastic casings for the hard drives were flexible enough to allow easy hard drive installation without seeming flimsy.

Finally, the tool-less installation of both PCI-e cards and drives that fit in the 5.25 inch bays went off without a hitch. The plastic on these seemed slightly flimsy, but held components in place relatively well.

General usage

The first thing we noticed after installation is that the left side panel makes a terrible noise when moved. This is due to a layer of mesh-like material that hides the case lighting away from the internal compartment. During operation there was a faint rattle from this mesh which quickly became annoying, something to consider if you work in a quiet environment.

The Colossus wasn’t a particularly loud system, about as loud as a Coolermaster HAF 932 with all of the optional fans installed; fairly standard all in all.

For LANing the case is rather large to transport and weights more than you would expect thanks to its steel construction. LANers should typically avoid full tower cases and the Colossus is no exception.

Conclusion

Final thoughts on the Colossus are positive. The case is well made, with a range of features you would expect to see in a modern PC chassis. The storage compartment at the top of the case is a very cool feature, though small things like the lack of a spring to keep the lid open by itself are disappointing.

The rattle on the left side panel was also disappointing, and one would need to consider this before spending money on the case, which carried a recommended retail price of R1599. Nevertheless, the BitFenix Colossusa is good all round case.

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