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Raidmax Skyline Mid-tower Case
Submitted by jwhitakr on Tue, 04/27/2010 - 18:52.
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Raidmax has long been a common name in computer cases and cooling solutions. While not necessarily known for over-the-top designs or cutting edge technology, their products have always been very competively priced.
The chasis we are looking at here today is the Skyline; a slick looking mid-tower case a with a hard drive cage that swings out for easy installation as well as tool-less 5.25” bays. The case also comes with 4-120mm fans and an 80mm fan pre-installed. The main questions are, how easy is it to work with and how well does air flow throughout the case. Let's take a look.
Design
The windowed side panel includes an 80mm fan that lights with blue LED and is powerful enough to light the interior of the case fairly well. The interior of the case is plain steel colored – no fancy paint job comes with this case. The side panel fan and the single 120mm fan at the bottom front of the case provide airflow for the lower half of the case especially across the hard drive cage helping to cool the drives. The case does not come with a power supply, so one needs to be installed. An odd feature of the case is the location of the power supply at the bottom of the case instead of the top, which actually makes installation a little easier because you can just lay the power supply in the case then screw it into place.
Specifications
• External Drive Bays: 5 x 5.25", 1 x 3.5"
• Internal Drive Bays: 3 x 3.5" H.D.
• System Board: 10” x 12” max size ATX form factor / micro ATX
• Expansion slots: Standard ATX 7 slots
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| Retail box | Front View |
Installation and Performance
Installaing the hard drives is a simple matter of attaching the rails and sliding tfshem into place, whereas the 5.25" drives slide into place and lock in with the provided locking mechanism on the side of the drive bay with a simple twist. One possible issue is with the hard drive cage. It swivels out easy enough to install the drives but you have to be careful because if you swing it too far out it will fall right out of the case. This could be a potential disaster if you have drives already installed and it falls out.
Motherboard installation is fairly straightforward as well and the only real complication may arise with large graphics cards fitting properly. The GeForce 9800 GTX video cards barely fit with hardly any room left over making it difficult for air to flow properly throughout the case, even more so if you have dual video cards installed. This can also make it more difficult to run cables if you have several 5.25" drives installed because the space at the top of the case is limited around the area of the processor and video cards. The good thing is there are three 120mm fans located there in the top corner so airflow near the processor is rather decent – on par with other mid-range cases we have tested.
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| Case Opened | Three 120mm fans | Side view |
Which leads us to another small issue with wire management. There is really nowhere to hide the wires and cables in this case, nor are there any built-in clips to hold them against the sides as with some cases. The best you can do is to tie them together with zip-ties and try to route them away from the fans and motherboard as best you can. However, it still looks sloppy when it's all said and done.
Raidmax Skyline Mid-Tower Case
While not the most radically designed, nor the most eye-catching interior, the Raidmax Skyline is a good choice for a budget priced mid-tower. Priced at around $60-$70 average street price, it will certainly not break the bank.
The airflow of this case is going to depend mainly on your build, large video cards can hinder it somewhat but for the most part airflow is pretty fluid and with decent graphics coolers you should be fine in that respect. As far as drive space there is plenty of room for installing up to four 3.5" drives, a floppy drive and five 5.25" drives. Overall this is a decent case for the price but certainly not the best available.
Pros: Plenty of drive space, four 120mm fans, nice looking design.
Cons: Cable management is sketchy, airflow throughout the case and accessibility near the processor could be better.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
