BitFenix Prodigy Review - epic budget mini ITX case for gaming!!

[Pob255]

Well that's my point the TJ08e while a great case for air cooling can only mount a single 120 rad, the Precision ps07 (which is the same internal frame but with 2x120mm fans in the front instead of the 180mm) AFAIK can mount a 240rad in the front but only by removing the hard drive cage.
The layout is a little odd but when you look at it it does make a lot of sense for air cooling and it's great use of limited space.

This case can mount a full 240 rad in the top by removing the optical drive bay and one of the hard drive cages, and we're talking full rad (up to 60mm-ish) not a slim 25mm one like the H100, with fans in push+pull, in fact it's the only miniITX case that can do that as standard out the box that I know off.
water cooling options are massive in this case.
120 or 140 rad in the rear as standard
240 top, removal of 5.25" and one hard drive cage (although this will block other rad options.
120 or 140 rad in the front, with the removal of the upper hard drive cage only
replace the front 120mm fan with up to a 230mm fan (25mm wide) as standard
240 or 200 rad in the front with removal of both hard drive cages

granted some of these watercooling setups would be a nightmare to fit in all the tubes, pump and such, but it's possible.

Both of these cases fall into similar slots, that of being as small as they could possibly be while still packing in a lot of high end hardware with demanding cooling requirements.
remember that coolers are the size they are because there is a physical minimum surface are and mass required to dissipate that level of heat.

[Terbinator]

The case in the OP can take an H100 though and even a GTX690 or HD6990 fine without cooling limitations. I suspect it can also take probably almost any air cooler too.Your case cannot take a bigger cooler,which is why it can be made smaller.

The TJ08E looks flawed though. A case that height and length should be able to take an H100,but it cannot do the graphics card blocking any of the tubing. Moreover,use a graphics card with a centre mounted fan,looks like a recipe for disaster. A recirculating fan will creat a dead zone above the card especially,if you are using one of the other slots too.

Putting the PSU upside down might help,but means,the other expansion slots are useless.

The hard drive cage looks orientated the wrong way,it was at right angles to the current design,the case would be tad wider,but the hard drive overhang also limits your choices,and it looks like the drives are more finicky to move. The way the hard drives are orienated alone,would make want to avoid this case.

I can put up with that in a Shuttle case(barely) due,to the smaller size,but anything bigger,really should have quick access bays as standard.

The TJ-08E can accommodate up to a DH-14/SA as well - there is even a support bracket for 'big' coolers. I'm not sure why it 'should' fit a H100, either. Unless i did poor research not many (uATX) cases this size have room for a 240mm rad. The Bit-Fenix only can after you lose the capability of the disc drive.

As for cooling, i suspect it would be fine, going off my own temps being under that for most reviews where a full ATX case is used.

I'm not too sure what you mean by the PSU orientation.

Again, i can see what you mean by the HDD drive but it isn't an issue at all. As for being finnicky to move, I'm not sure what you mean or more importantly, why it matters. It's the same as any other drive cage i've used IMO.

As i said up above, i don't/didn't want to turn this into a TJ-08E/other versus the Bit-Fenix, but it isn't really an ITX case either. You could buy the Lian-Li A05 for little more (both in terms of cost and dimensions) and fit everything but a H100 into it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Oh,FFS,why doesn't the PS07 have the drives bays at right angles!!??

[Terbinator]

Oh,FFS,why doesn't the PS07 have the drives bays at right angles!!??

It's rather odd now you've mentioned as there is a fair bit of room to play with at that side of the case.

Edit:

@Pob: There are some pretty impressive W/C setups for the TJ - surely 180mm + 120mm rad's are enough to cool anything you could throw in an uATX case?

[Pob255]

The TJ08E looks flawed though. A case that height and length should be able to take an H100,but it cannot do the graphics card blocking any of the tubing. Moreover,use a graphics card with a centre mounted fan,looks like a recipe for disaster. A recirculating fan will create a dead zone above the card especially,if you are using one of the other slots too.

Putting the PSU upside down might help,but means,the other expansion slots are useless,which negates one of the main advantages of an mATX,ie, addtional expansion slots.

On top of this,this would be partially solved,if their were mounts above the optical bay for a fan,but there are none,ie, if you ditched the optical drive.

The hard drive cage looks orientated the wrong way,it was at right angles to the current design,the case would be tad wider,but the hard drive overhang also limits your choices,and it looks like the drives are more finicky to move. The way the hard drives are orientated alone,would make want to avoid this case.


I can put up with that in a Shuttle case(barely) due,to the smaller size,but anything bigger,really should have quick access bays as standard. Even then the cages are not that hard to remove.

Maybe,when the next version is released,I might consider it.

It looks a nice case.

As I just said this is a case built around air cooling not water cooling, which is why the lack of rad support, that and the strange layout of it doesn't allow for it, you could mod it by cutting a hole in the floor for the rad.
However this case is designed around a strong positive pressure front to back air flow and it's a cell design like the old p180
As such it's designed around the lower cell being a straight tunnel for the air flow, it's a really good use of their 180mm air penetrator fan at the front of the case, you get good flow across the graphics card both top and bottom so shouldn't have any heat pockets.
The psu sits above the motherboard & gpu, with the fan facing upwards, to the vent on top to separate it out.
The motherboard is upside down so you can fit long graphics cards without getting in the way of the hard drive cage.
The whole hard drive cage is removable from the side, held in by 2 thumb screws, while I prefer my drive cages at 90 degrees esp in a wide case like this, I can see the reason, namely to give a cleaner air flow path from that air penetrator to the back of the case.

[Pob255]

The TJ-08E can accommodate up to a DH-14/SA as well - there is even a support bracket for 'big' coolers. I'm not sure why it 'should' fit a H100, either. Unless i did poor research not many (uATX) cases this size have room for a 240mm rad. The Bit-Fenix only can after you lose the capability of the disc drive.

Fractal design Arc mini, can fit 240 in the top as standard this bitfenix is mini-ITX not uATX/mATX, find me another miniITX that can fit a 240rad as standard.

As i said up above, i don't/didn't want to turn this into a TJ-08E/other versus the Bit-Fenix, but it isn't really an ITX case either. You could buy the Lian-Li A05 for little more (both in terms of cost and dimensions) and fit everything but a H100 into it.

The A05 is not small, it's short height wise, but not small, that thing is nearly half a meter long, it would only just fit under my desk.

I'll say it again, if you want a small form factor case that for general use or light gaming, then this is NOT the case you want. But for a seriously top end gaming rig this is about as small as you can get, the only way to get smaller will be to custom build a case.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The TJ-08E can accommodate up to a DH-14/SA as well - there is even a support bracket for 'big' coolers. I'm not sure why it 'should' fit a H100, either. Unless i did poor research not many (uATX) cases this size have room for a 120mm rad. The Bit-Fenix only can after you lose the capability of the disc drive.

As for cooling, i suspect it would be fine, going off my own temps being under that for most reviews where a full ATX case is used.

I'm not too sure what you mean by the PSU orientation.

Again, i can see what you mean by the HDD drive but it isn't an issue at all. As for being finnicky to move, I'm not sure what you mean or more importantly, why it matters. It's the same as any other drive cage i've used IMO.

As i said up above, i don't/didn't want to turn this into a TJ-08E/other versus the Bit-Fenix, but it isn't really an ITX case either. You could buy the Lian-Li A05 for little more (both in terms of cost and dimensions) and fit everything but a H100 into it.

As Pob255 mentioned this case can take big coolers,and for its size it is still the smallest to do so. It has hardly any cooler limitations. The way your case is designed even without an optical drive it is impossible to do so as the PSU is in the way and it can be made smaller.

Moreover,the H100 is pretty easy to install too - Bagnaj97 has one in his case,and it seems to do much better than the Asus Kuhler 620,and the latter was with a larger case which in theory has better airflow.

The HDD cage is enough for me to avoid the case. I have used older cases with a similar orientation and I cannot stand them. If this case had side mounted drives then maybe. Having to take the whole cage out just to change one drive out,is something you need to do with the Shuttle systems too,and at least with the biggest Shuttle being under half the volume of the TJ08e it is at least excusable.

I can probably understand some of the cooling aspects after Pob explained it,but still its something that annoys me.

It is more a personal bug-bear on my part though!

Edit!!

At least it is nice to see SFF fans have more choices nowadays though.

You could never argue that much about what choices you had 7 years ago!

[Terbinator]

Fractal design Arc mini, can fit 240 in the top as standard this bitfenix is mini-ITX not uATX/mATX, find me another miniITX that can fit a 240rad as standard.

The only way the Bit-Fenix is ITX is in the size of board it takes - this is the point I'm trying to get across, it isn't actually *that* small. The Fractal is also nearly as deep as the A05.

I'll say it again, if you want a small form factor case that for general use or light gaming, then this is NOT the case you want. But for a seriously top end gaming rig this is about as small as you can get, the only way to get smaller will be to custom build a case.

A seriously top end rig where you can only fit one (690/6990 aside) *good* GPU and most likely a relatively lacking ITX board? OTOH uATX cases of similar sizes offer 4 expansion slots and a bevy of good uATX boards to be thrown in.

[Terbinator]

As Pob255 mentioned this case can take big coolers,and for its size it is still the smallest to do so. It has hardly any cooler limitations. The way your case is designed even without an optical drive it is impossible to do so as the PSU is in the way and it can be made smaller.

Which case? The only cooler difference is the H100. I'm not sure what you mean by the PSU again - i have a Blu-Ray drive in mine perfectly?

[Pob255]

I never said it was *that* small, what I've been saying is that it's as small as you can possibly make it while still packing in that level of hardware.
smaller cases cannot pack in the same level of hardware because of the basic constraints of physical size.
the ONLY way to make it smaller is to custom make a case to a single given set of hardware, then you can shuffle bits around inside.

It's common for smaller form factor cases to drop the larger standard components, esp PSU and cpu cooler space, in favour of smaller components, but this greatly limits hardware options.

I've tried to custom build an minITX case, that could still mount a large cooler, ATX psu, 11" dual slot graphics card, 5.25" bay and a single 3.5" hard drive, it was a real pig, I just couldn't get it small enough, because no matter how I a ranged the bits the total volume of the components was larger than the space available.

An mATX build of similar hardware specs could still be relatively small, but it will not be quite as small.
Reguardless of if there is a market for such a thing or demand for it that doesn't change the fact that it's slightly smaller.
Yes it's large for a miniITX, never said it wasn't, but that's the physical reality of it, larger cpu cooler need large amounts of space, long graphics cards need long areas to fit.

As you seem to like comparing it to other things, here's an example the fractal design core 1000, this is a very good basic mATX case, just as long, taller (small amount if you include the handles larger amount if you don't) narrower, probably less volume overall.
however it's trade off is the it cannot fit larger cpu coolers (92mm fan base tower cooler max) it only has 2 hard drive slots, reduced to one if a long graphic card is use, so it cannot support the same level of hardware.

ps I'm not sure what CAT is on about there, the TJ08e can take any air cooler on the market, and the layout means that the cooler support can help reduce strain on the motherboard.
it is lacking in water cooling options and I don't know of anyone who makes a 180mm rad, heck silverstone is the only company who makes 180mm fans AFAIK I think the format is propitiatory to them, so unless they come up with one I don't think you'll see one.

[Terbinator]

I never said it was *that* small, what I've been saying is that it's as small as you can possibly make it while still packing in that level of hardware.
smaller cases cannot pack in the same level of hardware because of the basic constraints of physical size.
the ONLY way to make it smaller is to custom make a case to a single given set of hardware, then you can shuffle bits around inside.

It's common for smaller form factor cases to drop the larger standard components, esp PSU and cpu cooler space, in favour of smaller components, but this greatly limits hardware options.

I've tried to custom build an minITX case, that could still mount a large cooler, ATX psu, 11" dual slot graphics card, 5.25" bay and a single 3.5" hard drive, it was a real pig, I just couldn't get it small enough, because no matter how I a ranged the bits the total volume of the components was larger than the space available.

An mATX build of similar hardware specs could still be relatively small, but it will not be quite as small.
Reguardless of if there is a market for such a thing or demand for it that doesn't change the fact that it's slightly smaller.
Yes it's large for a miniITX, never said it wasn't, but that's the physical reality of it, larger cpu cooler need large amounts of space, long graphics cards need long areas to fit.

I understand what you're saying but comparing it to the competition, on everything but H100 support, i think it just falls flat. The TJ08-E is smaller in terms of volume, height and width, for example.

it is lacking in water cooling options and I don't know of anyone who makes a 180mm rad, heck silverstone is the only company who makes 180mm fans AFAIK I think the format is propitiatory to them, so unless they come up with one I don't think you'll see one.

Phobya do one.