Coolermaster Cavalier 3

[Howard]

Any reason why I shouldn't buy one of these?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=134904

It looks fantastic, and seems a decent enough price. Anyone offer any advice or opinions?

It'll give me the opportunity to set up my SCAN free shipping thing too

[icq3800846]

I have one of those which used to house my main system but I got a Silverstone TJ03 after 4 months due to more efficient cooling.

The Coolermaster Cavalier 3 is serious sexy in appearance. The curved front alumninium bezel is very aesthetic and I have spent many an hour looking at it!

It served me well apart from the airflow/cooling design which I have my doubts about.

The good points are:-

1) relatively cheap
2) Well made, solid case
3) Uncluttered and stylish frontage
4) Front side mounted USB ports avoid use of flimsy trap door some cases use
5) Case fans that come with it (1 x 80mm front, 1 x 120mm rear) are quiet.

[icq3800846]

Some points I personally had issues with are:-

1) There appears to be no intake at the front. When I put my hand inside the case next to the 80mm front fan I can feel no air movement as I believe there is nowhere for the air to be "sucked in" from.
2) There rear 120mm fan appears to suck air in from the side panels and they enxhaust it out the rear without it passing over any component. I tested this with my trusty butane lighter, the flame of which would be drawn into the case at the side vents near the back of the computer.
3) The tool-less 5 1/4" drive bay devices did not clamp a cheap and nasty hard disk drive bay I was using. Admittedly this is probably due to me beaing a cheapskate and buying a cheap hot swap bay made by a company I have never heard of costing less than a good portion of fish, chips and curry cause. When I went to remove the removeable disk caddy the whole cage came out as well. Answer? Buy a proper disk drive caddy or screw the cheap one in.
4) I broke one of the AGP/PCI/PCI-E expansion card "screwless" plastic clips with my large thumb. The value of these plastic clips are debateable..... it's not like a Ferrari pit team that need to change tyres in seconds, and to me, taking time to screw them into the case (screw holes are also included) is absolutely no detriment at all. And I know they won't move.

[icq3800846]

I've written all this in three posts as I typed nearly all of this out on one past and pressed something and lost it all, so I was just playing safe......

Conclusion.

In my opinion the case is extremely well made. The only alumunium is the front panels, the drive bay blanking plates are plastic, but as it has a door, who cares, you won't be looking at them. I have my concerns over cooling, but I've always been an Intel fan, and I use my Pentium 4 630 to make my toast on in the morning.... so if you go the AMD road, which seems to be the best bet for money and performance, you might not have a cooling problem.

And remember, a lot of my cooling problems are due to playing Far Cry at 1600 x 1200 with high detail. My 7800GTX can't use the thermal probes of my fan controller as it hits 90 degrees and the alarm sounds constantly.

The nForce 4 Northbridge also seems to hit around 70 degrees and I now find I don't really need central heating at all.

For the money, it is an excellent case but beware of the airflow.