In Win B2 Mid-Tower

 In Win has spent there time on the details, as I have shown with some of there other products.  This case is no different.  What is making In Win unique in a market of flashing lights and windows, is a theme.  Each of their new cases (and power supplies for that matter) have some sort of a theme to make them unique and perfect for their user.  Here is what In Win has to say about this case:

Modeled after one of the most recognizable jets in the world, the features of the all-new In Win B2 Bomber will surely get you noticed amongst a crowd of gaming elites. If the auto-sensing front door doesn’t do it for you, perhaps the W-shaped side intakes inspired by the Stealth Bomber will. Throughout the chassis you’ll find four high quality ceramic fans, lasting longer and running quietly to provide a superb cooling process. Ultimately stylish and completely innovative, this chassis will have you “flying” over the competition. 

  Specifications

About In Win

 Packaging

A we have seen with their other products, In Win puts quite a bit of effort into their packaging.  Lets take a look at the B2's box.

Click on pictures for a larger view.

All right, the front of the box pictures the case, and the cockpit of some sort of jet fighter, displaying the inspiration behind the front door.  The rear shows the case with a side open, an image of the VGA turbo cooling solution, and there picture stats at the bottom.  The use of images for key features makes me think of a motherboard box, not a tower, but it has worked well as a similar theme across the In Win lineup.

On the side you have the features table displyed in the introduction, and some more images and callouts to primary features of the product.  These would be great if you could find one in a store!

Opening the box you can see the tower is packed like a glove.  It is wrapped in plastic, then nested floating in a thick plastic foam.  This isn't styrofoam, than can compress only a little bit and then apply pressure to the product, but instead a lighter almost bubble based foam that can take any hits UPS throws at it.

Inside the tower you find two bags, one with the owners manual, decorative stickers, and the other with an assorment of screws, standoffs, PCI back plates, and an adapter.  Personally I found the stickers to be a little weak.  Almost what you would expect in a cheap model airplane kit, not a mid level computer case.  At first I thought the back plates were spares, but then I looked at the back of the tower.  Not only are these the only back plates for the tower, but there are six of them and seven openings.  I guess the assumption is that the case is geared towards gamers, and most of them (knock on wood) will have a dedicated graphics card, eating at least on slot; but really, it would have cost what, three or fours cents more to put in the last plate?  The adapter was interesting though, taking a molex connector into a three pin fan connector.  That could be handy for all the included fans.

Just in case anyone was confused, In Win and I would like to clear something up.  Plastic bags are not toys.  They will get wrapped around your kids' (or dogs') heads, making them cry until they pass out. 

As amusing as the image on the bag is, really your child could die, throw the bags away!

The Exterior

On the left side of the tower you can see the raised portion serving a triple purpose.  Not only does it sport an In Win logo and look like the top of a concept B2 (furthering the theme) but it is vented across the front to allow airflow to the VGA turbo cooling system.  Looking at the foot, nothing is overly special.  They are foam on plastic, jsut enough to keep scratches off your desk, but aren't optimized for sound reduction, nor are the adjustable to balance the case. 

This case has both some weight and some depth.  It is lighter than the GD case, without the heft of the door, but still is a substantial case.  The front faceplate provides a nice clean look with the concealed drive bays.   Looking down the side you can see the almost one inch lift on the vent, allowing lots of air to get in.  Note also that In Win applies blue tech tape to anything that could move to protect it in transit.

Here is the B2 logo on the lower front panel, along with the power button, door button, and activity lights.  The warning labels in both places tell you that if you need to open the front door without power (or if the button breaks) ie, for the initial install, you hsould press this switch on the side to release the motor.  Failure to do so can damage the opening mechanism.

As youi can see, the toggle tips up and the door is released.  I took this picture partway open so that you could see the lifting mechanisms.  In the second picture you can see how the door slides over the top of the case.  Make sure you don't set things on top of your case if you want to get to your drives!  When the door has power all of these motions are automatic.  I was expecting them to be smooth, but slow.  Fortunately I was proven wrong.  The opening and closing actions were smooth and quick making for a good presentation.

Here you can see the six exposed bays with the door open.  Also on the left side there is a small door to get to the IO panel.  It contains 2x eSATA, 1x Firewire (1394), 2x USB 2.0, a mic, and headphone jacks.  Though the door provides for a nice clean look, the placement is a bit akward.  This is positioned on the left side towards the bottom of the case.

Looking at the back of the tower top to bottom you see:

• The PSU mount
• Predrilled and grommeted holes for water cooling hoses
• A basic IO plate
• The 120mm exhaust fan
• The 7x expansion slots

In the image to the right you can see the latches used for the toolless side panels.  They do hold them in place quite stabely, but there are holes in the back for thumb or machine screws, and a hook for a padlock.  With that undone, lets get to the interior.

The Interior

Opening the left panel, you get a clean look at the interior, and the VGA turbo cooling system.  This might seem in the way, but if you slide the green latch on the right, and press on a tab to the left, it folds down completely out of the way. More on that system in a minute.  Opening the right panel I was a little disappointed, because theere was no need to take it off.  There is nothing that you can get to here that you couldn't from the other side, other than making it easier to take the front panel off.

Moving on to taking the front panel off, there is the white cable that hooks up the front panel.  In Win was kind enough to place a quick disconnect for it to make removing the front panel very easy.  There are three clips on either side of the panel, then disconnect the cable.  Looking at the stripped front, there is nothing special.  To place standard external drives, the internal covers weren't even included.  To add additional ones, you will want a screwdriver or pliers to bend the panel until it snaps out. 

The inside back wall comes with a 120mm cooling fan, on the same green (in the pics it looks more yellow, but it is 90's style neon green) and black style of the others.  This one is in a toolless bracket, making it easy to swap for a different fan if you found it necessary.  Inside to the right you see the external drive bays, and the hard drive bays.  Four of these are turned 90 degrees, although not uncommon anymore, this is still handy for installation, and provides more room for graphics cards. 

There are a couple stickers like this in different places on the case.  Apparently these are the parts they thought you might need the manual for, so they brought it to you.  A nice gesture, but then why is there still a manual?

Here we see the intake vents on the left side panel.  The lower one goes to the VGA turbo cooling system, and the top one goes to the CPU cooler.  Both have removable dust filters, to help keep your system clean, thought they are a larger grain, so the will really just keep pet fur and other large particles out.  The top vent also has a tube to extend to the CPU cooler, giving it a dedicated fresh air supply.  This item is both movable and removable, nice to see that you have options.

Here we can see the back of the VGA turbo cooling system.  This is intended to draw fresh air from the outside, directly onto the graphics and other expansion cards.  Supplied with the system are 2x 80mm fans matching the others in the system.  They are also removable toollessly if you want to swap them for other fans.

If you don't have a long graphics card, then you also have the option of tipping one of the fans out.  This would then propel the air from the front intake along the cards until it met the air coming in from the other fan.  There is also one hard drive bay set the standard way, at the bottom of the case.  This drive must be mounted with screws.  Might be good for securing your OS drive, and placing everything else in the tool free zone. 

Now there is an interesting way to get at the front intake fan.  If you press on this green tab the hard drive cage rotates out.  Then you press up on the tab at the right, and slide the fan out.

As you can see, this fan also sits in a tooloess cage, with a removable filter, providing clean cooling air, and the option to swap the fan if you so chose.  The toolless, vibration resistant drive rails are stored in a container that slide into a 5.25" bay.  Here you see one side of the storage bay, and the underside is a duplicate of it.  Even if you needed that bay (I don't know why you would need all four bays in a tower this size) it would be a handy way to keep all of these rails together.

The Installation

Here are all the IO and power leads.  The molex pass through is for the LED's in the front panel.  For the Power LED lead, you are provided with both the two and three slot variety plugs, still not on every case.  In one cable you are also given both HD audio and AC '97, depending on the board you are using.  I was frustrated at the inclusion of split USB leads.  Thought there are a few motherboards with different pin arrangements, most are universal, and having to hook up four small leads for each set of USB ports is an extra hassle. 

The tool free drive installation works great.  The only thing better would be if the rails held themselves in place before meeting the brackets.  The rails simply set into place, then you press it into the drive space until you hear a click.  With the rubber on the sides of the rails, the drives fit snug and secure.  The process for optical drives is the same, just through the front panel.

The power supply and motherboard are the only two parts of this install that require tools.  To be quite honest if there was a way to put them in without tools I wouldn't do it anyway.  Those two are too important to not use screws.  The expansion cards are held in place securely by the clips on the side, even for the weight of my 8800GTS (GTX260 on the way).  If you plan on moving the tower a lot, or just like the added security you can use screws also.  These pictures show my biggest problem with this case, cable management.  Now granted I didn't spend a ton of time cleaning them up in this, but their aren't any places to hide them, and not many to secure them.  You can get them out of the way for decent airflow, and I guess without a window that is all you need, but I like them to be nice and neat.  With the VGA cooler in place it looks better, but I still know!

Looking at the back panel installed it is pretty standard, but how often do you look at the back of the tower? 

Conclusion

At the time of this writing, this case can be found at Newegg.com for $139.99 USD, less $20 for the sale, and then a $10 mail-in rebate.

In Win has again taken their time with the details on this case.  They have shifted their focus with the new lines towards themes, giving them a unique place in the market.  This case follows a concept of the B2 bomber.  The chasis is steel, but there is still a lot of plastic.  The combination has quite a bit of weight to it for a mid-tower, especially after installing components.  The front door assembly was smooth and quick, much to my suprise.  This case was set up for entry to mid-levels gamers, both in the style and cooling methods.  The VGA turbo cooling solution works quite well to add fresh air onto your expansion cards.  On stock settings, my temperatures were improved over the GD case.  Good under normal use, and still decent under heavy gaming.  I belive this is due to the larger vent on the side for fresh air intake.  If you intended to overclock, you would definitely want to take advantage of the water cooling grommets.  The toolless design is handy and feels secure, with the rubber wrapped slides absorbing a lot of vibration, and hence sound.  Overall this case would be purchased for its unique styling.

Pros:

• Unique Theme
• Solid Construction
• Quality Airflow with Provided Fans
• IO Panel has 2x eSATA
• Toolless Design

Cons:

• Short 1 Expansion Cover
• Poor Cable Management Options
• No Window
• Split USB Leads

8/10