Value Case Roundup: A Look at the Affordable

Linkworld 3131G

A quick search for Linkworld Electronic Co. on Google will show an extremely long list of products from which to choose that both look like they are high end, yet carry the price of a budget PC case. Linkworld looks to be one of many case re-branders in the industry, which means that they take a reference OEM design and modify the external look to give it their own flavor.

External Design

Like the 268WSP, Linkworld's 3131G gives the impression from its external look that it is far from cheap. The front bezel is a combination of a beige and gray plastic molding, which keeps the look simple, but not cheap as we would expect from a product of this price.

The top half of the bezel consists of four 5-1/4" and two 3-1/2" drive bay covers. They are all secured in place unlike those we have seen in some higher priced chassis, which can be punched out easily.

Continuing downwards, we see the power and reset buttons in a similar vertical arrangement as the 268WSP, but the power and HDD activity LEDs are on either side of the button arrangement to give it a symmetrical look. Each button is easy to press, the power button being the larger one, and the reset button does not require anything less than an average-sized finger.

At the bottom of the case, we see a fold-down door that hides the auxiliary ports. The door itself seems a bit flimsy at the snap-in points. The auxiliary connections consist of just two USB ports. We felt the door to be unnecessary for this reason and the manufacturer could have pulled it off if they could implement the USB ports seemingly on the bezel.

The left and right side panels are completely identical. Neither features a mounted fan, but they do have arrays of holes for ventilation at the top and bottom of each panel. This should help in passive cooling of the entire case. To remove the panels, we again need to remove two screws at the back. Unlike the 268WSP, though, the panels have indentations to allow a better grip on each panel in order to slide them off.

Internal Design

The 3131G has a total of four 5-1/4" and eight 3-1/2" drive bays. With the extra HDD bays, we can even use this case as a small server. One thing we noticed with the bays was that while the 5-1/2" bays had platforms to support the drives, the 3-1/2" bays did not. We have to hold the drive straight to mount it properly, which can sometimes be a hassle when installing multiple drives. Each set of drive bays has slots cut out on the sides for more flexibility in mounting drives (they can slide back and forth).

We were very interested in the motherboard tray for a couple of reasons. First, there are raised stand-offs punched into the steel tray at the most common points of a motherboard. Besides that, though, the manufacturer has implemented removable plastic stand-offs to allow installation of a variety of motherboards. Linkworld has also included plastic insulators for the raised stand-offs, which will not be used to keep from shorting circuits on the motherboard. How's that for preventative technology!

Again, with the 3131G, the expansion slot covers need to be punched out to use them. Right above the slots are a few cutouts for additional serial and parallel ports from a motherboard that features them.