The home of your "1337" system. The house of your Frankenstein's monster. The place from which hence forth all joy related to PC will be housed. Getting a new Case for you system can be as important as the system itself, especially when you consider the way in which many use there PC's nowadays. No longer are they consigned to be hidden away under a desk, or in a cupboard, not anymore. Nowadays PC's can be found in all sorts of places around the home, from your living room to the bedroom, and as such have to blend in with the surroundings. Nowadays, your PC case along with the specs of the system inside can be considered by some to be a status symbol. So it has to look good and perform its task well too. Functionality and good looks are a must these days, and with that in mind (and a bit of nudging from the wife) I decided to go with the Juno P6 Full Tower!
Specs
Full Tower Case
Twin PSU Capable (1 x 300watt PSU supplied)
Apertures for 5x 80mm Case Fans
Swing out motherboard tray
6x 5 1/4 bays
2x 3 1/2 floppy bays
3x 3 1/2 HDD bays
Screws, standoffs and other misc clips
Dimensions - 210mm (W) x 475mm (D) x 640mm (H).
Before I chose a case, I had a few specifics in mind that I wanted it to do. Look good was one. Have lots of room for all my planned additions was another. It also had to have good cooling. And I wanted to make the chicks moist from a distance. Well ok, maybe the last is pushing it, but with that in mind, I've decided to rate this case on the Scream Factor.
What's the Scream Factor you ask? Well it goes like this. You take one piece of hardware and try and decide what features are going to get to the chicks/guys (delete as applicable). For each feature in its favour, you can add a smile, a moan, a gasp, and finally a scream. Get enough screams, and you may even achieve an orgasm!! So, on with the review!
Functionality
The case is big and roomy, there's no doubt about that, it's a damn big case, and could easily house two complete systems. It already has the ability to house 2 PSU's straight out the box with no modifications at all. Maybe you want to try out a watercooling system? More than enough room for the whole setup to be housed in here. That's got to be worth a scream!!
But, if you look at the next picture closely, you will see that there is a strange support platform running through the middle of the case. With the 1 PSU in the bottom placement or 2 PSU's taking up both slots, that only leaves an area of about 2 x 3 inches to pass the wires and hot air through! Doh! That scream just turned to a frown!!!
It does have 5 apertures for 80mm fans, one of which was included with the case. As you can see, there are two for the lower front, one for the lower rear by the mobo, and two at the top rear above the PSU's. Now where talking!! hmmmmmmm, we shall give that a near scream I think.
The fan that came with the case was some generic cheapie fan, and didn't push much air at all. And having one case fan really doesn't cut it in my opinion. Two would have been ideal, one for blowing air in, and one for an exhaust. Humph, there goes the scream. Very easy to add more though, so we will only take it down to a loud moan. The real main problem with this tower is that middle support platform. It really does increase the heat build up in the lower half of the case a hell of a lot. I recorded nearly a 12C drop just by removing the case side : (
Overall? A moan to a gasp I think.
Looks
When I first saw this case, I have to admit, I didn't personally like the look of it, but the wife did, and we both agreed it would go with the blue colouring of the room we wanted to put it in. However, it seems that the case doesn't actually photo well. That blue case turned up, and my first thought was, "its green". It's a weird colour. It's not completely green, having a hint of blue in it. But it's not turquoise though. Not a good description I know, but that is the best I can honestly do. Do I think others will like the colour? Hard to say really, that has got to be done to personal preference.
The finish of the plastic is a matt finish rather than the iMac glossy colouring you'd first think of and slightly transparent. Going to have to give that no more than a smile (a quizzical one at that). The case has a plastic "second skin" which is actually quite flimsy but it does its job. The plastic "rivets" on the sides are basically just push studs and break very easily.
Also for some strange reason, the case side plastic is 2 parts. I cannot see why this was done in place of a 1 piece design, very strange, but not what I would call a problem, just weird as to the reason for it. Modding this case with say a side window, or a top blowhole, is going to be a bit more effort than most cases, due to the plastic skin. To cut a hole would require first going through the plastic and then going through the steel beneath it. Not impossible, and I have seen it done, but still a lot more difficult than your average case. Oh dear, now we have a frown : (
On the plus side, the whole tower gives off an impression of tidiness thanks in main to the door on the front which conceals all the bays and the power/reset buttons. The white stripe down the front goes a long way to break up the monotony of the green/blue/whatever.
Overall? Tough one this one. Going to have to give it no more than a smile I think.
Conclusion
This case out of the box leaves a lot to be desired. The looks are deceiving, and if you are thinking about buying one of these cases, I would highly recommend you go look at one for real, and not go by just a photo on a website (or the sig others pressure that it looks good). The one included fan was crap to be honest, but easily replaced, and with provision for 5 more with out having to modify or cut up the case can make for an easy and quick overclockers fancy, assuming you don't mind cutting out that middle platform first. Any mods involving holes of some kind, like a window for instance will require a lot more care and time, and also the use of rubber framing, which is a shame as nowadays the clean look seems to be in.
The plastic on the skin of the case is quite transparent under light, and would look quite good if lit up with a neon. There is a hell of a lot of room in this case, so if you have lots of peripherals and hardware to house, this case would certainly accommodate you there. It does have one BIG thing in its favour, and that's the price, the price alone is worth a scream. It costs just £72 GBP which gives you a lot of tower for your money. Overall though, I'm going to have to say this case can only muster a moan. With a bit of attention to things like that middle platform and perhaps if your brave enough to try it a window kit, then it could easily reach a gasp. But I'm reviewing this case as it came to me, and that is I'm afraid to say, not a very good case. It is cheap, and it does have a lot of potential, but when you add in the cost of things to "set it right" as it were, I think I would have rather spent my money on a more expensive case, and not worried about the hassle of making any modifications to it. Now then, where did I put my Dremel ...
Pros: It's roomy, very roomy. 5 x 80mm case fan apertures. Door on the front hides away the drive bays, good price. The colour?
Cons: Poorly designed support platform makes little room to pass wires and hot air through to top of case. Heat build up is as much as 12c more with case side on even with good circulation. Only a swing out motherboard tray, removable tray would have been more efficient. The colour?
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