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Tricod 8078 ATX PC Computer Case with LED Fan, Clear Side Window and 450 watts Power Supply | 
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| Brand: Tricod
Category: CE
Buy New: $29.95
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 27709
MPN: 8078
Model: 8078
EAN: 8581440002011
ASIN: B000VHKMSM
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
OK, but not for overclocking October 28, 2008
D. Christensen (Leominster, MA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a great looking case, fairly well constructed. The included power supply is garbage. But the price (with power supply) is about as cheap as you will find in a functional, good looking mid-tower case... whether it includes a power supply or not. (more on power supply later)
On looks, this thing looks pretty good. I was afraid that the etching on the window would look cheesy, but it doesn't. I don't use fans included with a case, so I can't comment on how they look or function. I like that it has a door to hide the external drives and connectors, but you can still access the power and reset buttons.
On installation, this case is pretty easy to work with. Individual pins on the USB and audio connectors mean that it will be compatible with ALL motherboards (not all motherboards use standard pinouts). There is no manual included with this case, but the motherboard manual is the only manual you should need to build a computer system. Also, all surfaces you might touch during installation have rolled edges (so you won't cut your fingers). This is usually only found in more expensive cases, so that's a nice touch. The drive cages are nice and sturdy, except for the bottom of the optical drive cage. But that surface should not be supporting any weight.
On cooling, this case has a very poor airflow design. There are two 80mm fan mounts up front, and two 80mm fan mounts in the back. That should be MORE than sufficient to cool any system. The problem is, only the ones in the BACK are functional. In the front (where you can optionally mount two 80mm cooling fans) there is no exterior air inlet to service the front mounted fans! So what good are the front fan mounts? Well, you can (if you wish) put fans there to recirculate interior air around your hard drives. This will help somewhat with keeping the hard drives cool. So how is this case cooled? Well it comes with one fan in the back, and you can install a second one in the back. There are air inlets on the RIGHT side of the case (opposite the windowed side). So your back mounted cooling fans will pull air through the right side of the case, over your motherboard components, and push it out the back of the case. This isn't a bad idea, BUT without other cooling fans pushing air INTO the case somewhere (usually in the front, but the front fan mounts are useless!) the rear fans will be directly competing with the airflow design of your power supply. If you aren't careful, you might actually pull hot air from the power supply back into the system. Yikes. And while you could theoretically turn around the BACK cooling fans to push cool air into the case, this would create a local "loop" of air out the back of the power supply, right back into the case and through the power supply again.
If you want to build a low-noise system, or you are into "overclocking", you need to avoid this case. To cool this properly, you will need a lot of airflow through the power supply. This means that the power supply fan(s) will be loud. And even with a loud power supply, your interior temperatures will be warmer than necessary, due to poor airflow. Overclocking will add more heat to an already warm running system. This case has enough cooling challenges, no need to add more heat to the interior!
But this would be a decent case for anybody who doesn't care too much about noise, and never wants to overclock.
On the power supply...it is junk quality, and says it is rated for 450W. However, the sticker also claims that the +12V rail is spec'd at 19A. A decent quality 450W power supply would have roughly 27 - 30A of power available on the +12V rail(s). The 19A rating on the +12V rail pegs this in the class of ~300W power supplies. There is nothing wrong with that if 300W is enough to run your system. However, the power supply quality is junk anyway. Don't risk using this power supply in any new system. If you've got a system that is several years old and needs a new case/power supply, you might get away with using the power supply included with this case. Because for an older system, it won't matter too much if a junk quality power supply dies and takes the motherboard down with it. That's the risk you take when you use a no-name power supply. It might be able to power your system, but what kind of protection does it have (if any) for connected components when it fails?
I bought this case expecting the included power supply to be junk, and I wasn't disappointed. But I don't see this issue (poor power supply) as a reason NOT to recommend this case. If you are building your own system, you really should be putting as much research and MONEY into your power supply as you do into other components like your mainboard or processor or video card. Or in other words, you should be buying the power supply all by itself, not using a power supply included with a case.
Overall, I'd say this is a decent budget mid-tower case. Power supply is junk (as expected) and airflow is poor (which is a disappointment) but it looks good, it is decent build quality, and it is easy to work with.
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