Chenbro Gaming Bomb II: Anyone for Upscale Gaming?
by Purav Sanghani on December 14, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
We have seen many case designers try to put out their rendition of the perfect case, but only some rarely come close. With so many features that a case could have, we need to look at the costs of having everything. It just isn't possible to include tool-less designs throughout the case while it is constructed of an all-aluminum body, with a removable motherboard tray and pivoting drive cages. The costs, both manufacturing as well as selling, would be tremendous.Chenbro has weighed the features and has picked out the ones that they feel should be in a chassis no matter what. They have implemented tool-less locking mechanisms into their drive bays. They have included rubber mounts for their FlexiBay HDD cage, which can be removed and also positioned in two arrangements.
Chenbro has also implemented a removable motherboard tray as well as a system of passages to maintain a clean, managed environment inside the case, which reduces cable clutter to the bare minimum. Features like this may be small, but help bring a chassis closer to the state of perfection.
The GB2 performed extremely well in our thermal benchmarks. Though very loud, the dual 120mm fans helped keep the air flowing to move warm air out of the chassis as quick as possible. The Athlon 64 3200+ remained between 37-48 degrees from idleness to 100% load,which is a very safe range. The "holed" design of the expansion slot covers also helped cool the VGA card a few degrees by allowing air to flow past the 9800XT back through the holes.
So, the question on everyone's mind is, "is the Gaming Bomb II worth the money?" In our honest opinion, the GB2 is one of the best cases that we have seen in Chenbro's product line. They went from plastic and steel-themed gaming chassis to high end, enthusiast class gaming cases with many functional improvements.
The Gaming Bomb II should be arriving at retailers sometime this month and for about $240, you can pick one up just in time for the holidays. The price may seem a bit steep to the novice user, but for those who are looking for features and functionality combined with good looks and don't mind spending 2½ bills, the Gaming Bomb II is definitely for you and we would recommend it to those who can afford it.
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hoppa - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
does anyone else think its unfair and incredibly biased (and unjournalistic) that they dont make a single mention of the noise this thing puts out in the conclusion? come on! this thing is on par with the noisiest case they've ever reviewed and they do all they can to skirt the issue. this thing is as loud as a f*in lawnmower! BS, if you ask me.Jackular - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
Good to see that the case fans are with the 3-pin connectors (I got Zalman's fanmate and multi-connector to get the fans into different volts). It's loud as default (with 12V) but how "loud" are they at 5V or 7V? This is something I would really like to know about.ViRGE - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
Looking at the case, for the price given, there's 1 critical flaw that really hurts it: the placement of the front Aux ports. Aux ports are only useful if you can reach them, and the bottom of the case is next in the line of unreachable spots just head of the rear of the case. If I'm buying a high-end case, the Aux ports MUST be at least mid-way on the case if not ideally at the top.Noli - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
The question on value is simple - $240 for the (near equal) noisiest case Anandtech has review is crap value plain and simple. This then begs the questions others asked about the fans. It seems very strange that 2x 120mm fans should be so loud so does replacing them with decent alternatives (panaflo etc) put it on par with an Antec with 2x 120mm in terms of noise? I'd hope with such a discrepancy that a little bit more journalistic investigation would have come naturally - if I spend $240 I want to know if replacing the fans is a solution or if there is an inherent flaw in the design. Apologies for rant.Wolfz - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
What is the heat performance like with the third fan installed?Would switching the fans to (better/quieter?) ones reduce the sound significantly?
Are they suppose to be stuck at 3200 rpm's, I thought it was standard to have variable speed fans running inside the system. Is there any sort of mod you can do to handle that?
bldckstark - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
I think the different length stand-offs were for different sized boards. The 1/3" are for universal locations, and the 1/8" with the add-on part are for customizable locations for different board sizes. That seems reasonable to me, and not a negative. Also, thanks for finally agreeing that a removable MB tray is not such a great feature. I got tired of seeing cases ripped for something that even most enthusiasts don't use. Now, about testing cases with their own PS's. Do them with the stock PS, and with your own so I know if I need to buy a new PS with the case or not. Better yet, benchmark the PS if it is a part of the sale just like you would any other part of the case it comes with.Good review by the way. Keep up the good work, and remember you can't please everybody, so try to please me instead.
Avalon - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
I was really starting to like the case until I read the price. I was expecting half of that, at the most. Jesus.TinyTeeth - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
Interesting. But damn, a Coolermaster Wavemaster with 120mm fans would be perfect!LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
In response to #6, I agree on the dodge about whether this case is worth our money. I also agree with #8, finally a review of a case that isn't a downright tacky pre-mod.I had wanted this case at one point and waited several months. However, I had extremely poor communications response from Chenbro, who ignored two of my three e-mails, and never gave me the information I needed on pricing and availability. I ended up buying an Antec P160 with the window, and modding a custom 120mm blowhole on top, a feature that I wanted that the Chenbro has. I'm glad I bought the Antec; $240 even for a case as nice as the Chenbro is ridiculous. I paid half that for the Antec, which is a topnotch design, and used the money I saved to do things like sleeve the power supply and rebuild the system.
One more thing: The review was very well done on the case itself. My compliments, it's one of the better reviews I've seen here in a long time.
Aquila76 - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
$240?!? This isn't a server case, it's a gaming case. I'd rather blow the 240 on a video card or a 500GB RAID 0 SATA array. Maybe they should call it the Chenbro Duesenberg!