Hardware First Look: In-Win Wavy Mini-ITX case

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2009/09/06/in-win-wavy-mini-itx-case-preview/1

At the request of our readers, we take a look at In-Win's cute and elegant mini-ITX chassis to see whether we have finally found the right mix of design and build quality to make a great ultra-SFF case.

 

Shouldn't you doing a certain review of a Raven02??? First?? I'm in need of a case! My PC is at the moment Antec-skeleton like.

 

Good for air flow.

So, basically, there is no Mini-ITX case out there that's REALLY good, right?

 

It's pretty much asking to be made into HL2 / Black Mesa - mod.

 

The Cubit 3 was, but that was too expensive. Basically, yes, you're right.

 

I can't see this case as a product for any customer builds but it DOES have a power supply many of us have been looking for. 120W is quite acceptable for small ITX builds and eliminates the PICO-PSU and wall wart.

 

Most un-original design ever, then the cool citadel-esq bits just FOLD OUT? Designer needs a slap.

 

I disagree, there are plenty of mini-ITX boards out there now that are perfectly suitable for HTPCs or a small, low power PC for the family. It looks good, it has at least one of everything and it comes with a PSU built in. Job Done! I'd swap this out for my parents oversized ATX any day.

It just needs some design tweaks to make it last more than 5 minutes without damage.

 

Hey this case looks very good overall. For the layout at least. But plz plz plz loose that PSU. A pico PSU and the right power brick can power a pretty powererful system (think dual core CPU and 250 GTS),

 

A pico PSU on a 250 GTS? You will blow it! For starters it doesn't have a 6-pin connector (for a reason) and it doesn't have the design to deal with sudden high current situations. You'll get brown outs, surely. Not to mention both together probably cost as much as this case

 

Surely not! I said with the right power brick. For example, the dell DA-2 has three 12v rails. One can go into the GFX card, one for the CPU, and the other to the pico to power the rest of the system. You get about 75W to play with times 3. So as long as the CPU is less than 65w and the GFX card has a single aux power connector it should work fine. Ok maybe a 250GTS would be pushing it, but somthing like a 4770 would be a piece of cake.

 

There is a good Mini-ITX case. Check this out: http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=319&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=63

The PC-Q07 from Lian Li
You can use full size components with a mini-ITX board. Bit are going to review one soon I heard.

 

It got lost in the post in July and was returned to Taiwan I was chasing it for months!!

 

Sad Bindi...

 

"Sample and stylish"



I quite liked the look of it until i realised it reminds me of one of those little bins that are always in the women's loo

[edit]had a longer look and must say i'm quite impressed with the design, especially the normal ATX PSU bit

 

At first glance I thought this was a review for an oddly shaped new PSU...

 

Another good case is the ever popular Sugo SG05 which Bit-Tech have already reviewed.

As an aside, I would like to see a review of the MINIX LX-01, if you could get your hands on one, that would be great (it's from J&W).

 

As you stated in your article, InWin supplies rubber feet for the case (which you didn't use) so the case doesn't need to sit directly on a surface. You can even choose between case orientation, upright or flat.
If you were like me when assembling my InWin-cased dualy Atom-based system, you were probably spinning the case around trying to get a clean build, but unlike me, you neglected to put something down (like a towel) first.

I use it as my main computer, and the InWin case works great. It doesn't seem to be easily scratched in practice (depending on how you treat your systems). Cheap yes (especially when compared to other mini-ITX case manufacturers), but it has been reliable and of reasonable quality (certainly not the worst I've owned). As a personal preference, I also don't like the SG05 cube shape. The InWin backs up against a wall partly behind my monitor and out of the way.

When I bought mine (for a Via mini-ITX MB), the only other mini-ITX case manufacturer available to me was Morex who sold cases of limited appeal/features for twice as much. Now Morex has dropped their prices by about 20% (competition, who needs it, eh?). But they are still too expensive.
I should point out that I'm not an InWin shill, nor in the retail business. I just think they make good little case for a reasonable buck.

Have you seen the new Thermaltake SD100 mITX case? Looks to be deeper and wider, but slimmer and a HSF can draw air through the perforated side/top.
Link: http://www.thermaltake.com/product_...C_00001373&id=C_00001374&name=SD100+Mini&ov=n

I agree with you whole-heartedly that small systems are great for everyday activities. Why have a gaming rig suck down all that energy and blowing hot air around while at idle? I use mine for browsing, eMail, office activities, and even a bit of programming, web development and photo-manipulation work. If it bogs down I just move over to my game machine to do the hard stuff.
I've been really sold on the whole "good enough" concept. I'll still remain stuck on the gaming upgrade train, but I'm not fussed about having a document open 2sec slower.

 

I have to agree it looks about a million times better than most of the mini-ITX crap out there - especially Morex, but no I didn't put down a towel. We never do because of potential static issues. I didn't spin it, just gentle movements as things got screwed in.

The minix does look nice, but I really want the (very expensive) Oregon case we featured in a news piece from Computex. Very very very lovely!

A VIA board would work great in the Wavy, even with an optical drive because it doesn't need much cooling.

How much did you get the Wavy for? I don't expect it to be expensive at all, but it really needs to fix the issues I pointed out for us to recommend it to everyone, without them breaking left, right and centre.

 

Sorry if I gave the impression of using the Wavy, I meant that I used a InWin mini-ITX case.
I've had it about a year: http://www.in-win.com.tw/products_pccase_series.php?cat_id=1&series_id=49&model_id=239
From the Wavy photos, it has a similar matte finish. In fact, if you look at the link, it looks like the same chassis is used.

I don't normally use cheap cases, and I wouldn't even look at InWin's larger cases (as with their mini-ITX cases, a bit plastic-y and cheap), but there were no real options a year ago if you wanted a reasonably-priced mini-ITX case.

For the same reason I choke at the cost of AM2+/775 mini-ITX boards. The J&W 780G boards are downright reasonable compared to how much the ION boards cost.
I have a Foxconn 45CSX (Atom 330) that is cheap and fanless (and the InWin's exhaust fan is next to the heatsink) and is far better and more capable than the Via C3 1.5 board I had previously.