Best Hardware of 2015 – The KitGuru Editorial Awards

Chassis

With all of your major components selected, now’s the time to consider looks: What will your next rig look like?  What size chassis do you go for and what will it set you back?  When you consider that a chassis is basically a frame with 6 panels attached, it’s incredible how much variation there is – and just how much fanbois reaction gets stirred up every time one of the major design houses releases a new option.

One thing is for sure, you have spent a lot of 2015 telling us how much your love our video reviews for chassis. There’s nothing quite like a KitGuru Labs walk-thru to let you know if your dream case will actually allow you to assemble your dream build.

This year, we nominated options in 4 categories: Mini ITX, Micro ATX, ATX and Design Innovation. We’ll start with the innovation category.

Design Innovation
The strangely named Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL chassis was one of the first to arrive in 2015, but it stood out a mile and had ‘flexibility’ at the top of its feature list. Phanteks call the overall concept ‘Super Micro ATX’ and it involves giving system builders the option to install two machines in one chassis. It’s at that point that the name starts to make sense.

You can’t have a mini XL in the real world – the terms are contradictory – but here they refer to the combination of the two build options. Build quality & lighting were superb and assembly/ maintenance was really straightforward – with thumbscrews and magnetic dust filers to make life easy.

If water cooling is your bag, then the options are ‘legion’. Overall, the feeling we got was that Phanteks’ R&D team was really showing off its ability to innovate with this chassis. We’re not sure how many people would want to build a pair of systems into one case, but there could be one instance we can imagine: Someone who wanted a standard Windows PC running right alongside a descendant of BSD Unix (Hackintosh anyone?).

At £145, it isn’t cheap, but then great craftsmanship should cost money. Whatever your criteria, Phanteks certainly pushed some barriers.

KitGuru's choice for Chassis Design Innovation for 2015 goes to the Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL.

Mini ITX
Without doubt, this will become an ever more important battleground. There’s something very cool about building a tremendous amount of power into a small/good looking space. Our winner in this category looks good with the lights on, but really comes to life when you have spent some time on the lighting design and then drop the ambient.

When designing the GamerStorm Tristellar, Deepcool spared no expense on materials or build quality. As a result, what appears to be a relatively delicate design at first glance, turns out to weigh in at a surprising 16Kg. The triple cabin layout is amazing, with the graphics card and 3 drive bays in the top section. The mainboard gets one of the supporting cabins with the power supply in the other.

There’s no getting away from the challenges that this chassis presents in terms of weight, cabling, price, cable labels and the overall footprint size. That said: We loved it!  The launch price of £499 has tumbled to a more manageable £349. While not cheap, this is a ‘statement PC’ chassis and, as such, is sure to be a talking point with any visitors to your humble gaming abode. It supports a full length (320mm) graphics card and there are lots of powerful CPU options available on Mini ITX boards.

Companies like Fractal Design, Thermaltake and Cooler Master have plenty of sensible options in market. This is solely for those who want to add a touch of OMG to their experience.

KitGuru's choice for Mini ITX Chassis of the Year 2015 is the Deepcool GamerStorm Stellar.

Micro ATX
After a pair of designs that look to innovate hard and expect you to pay accordingly, for our Micro ATX choice we have opted for one of the best value chassis we’ve seen in a long time.

The Thermaltake Core V21 has a truly adaptable design, allowing you to move fans and radiators around to your heart’s content. Even if you don’t augment the main 200mm front-facing fan, you will still enjoy decent temperatures.

We built a Core i7 4770K system with a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X which, under load, did not exceed 65/77 degrees. Despite the amount of holes cut into the design, we got an average of 35.3 dBA, which isn’t that bad and could be reduced with the addition of some anechoic alterations. Magnetic dust filers will help keep your new build clean and there is a big window on one side, through which you can admire your assembly skills.

Last of the plus-points is the ability to stack V21 chassis to build an improbable system with a separate home for serious liquid cooling. Sure, it could be quieter and you’re not getting the most rigid steel frame the world has ever seen, but at a smidgeon under £47, it has plenty of cool things on offer to keep you happy.

Micro ATX is the mass market, so we went with a good value proposition.

KitGuru's choice for the Best Micro ATX Chassis of 2015 is the Thermaltake Core V21.

ATX
If you’re on a budget, then you’re likely to be looking at Core i5 processors and Micro ATX chassis. Choosing a full size ATX case means you’re planning on a much more serious build.

That kind of space will allow you to fit a pair of large radiators (420mm in the roof and a 360mm in the front) – ideally with mounts that are offset to help you clear the mainboard – as well as quality cushioning for your power supply and Velcro cable straps for better management. Enter the Fractal Design Define S.

The design team on the Define S have really given a lot of thought to high-end builds, with plenty of mounting options that will make assembly a simple process. KitGuru is all about balance, so we need to mention that there is no filter in the top ventilated section and that you only achieve serious rigidity when fully assembled.

The addition of a power supply cover would help here – but then we get to the price. After listing all the features that this case has to offer serous builders, we get to the £69 asking price and realise that the ‘value’ lever has already been pushed to the max. KitGuru speaks to all of the major system builders in the UK and there is one story about Fractal that stands out.

We spoke to a head of production of a famous system integrator who told us, “We have a quota system. We need to build a certain number of systems a day. Our guys always start with the Fractal chassis because they are so much quicker to work with. We can hit close to our target in no time at all if we do the Fractal Design system builds first”.

KitGuru’s choice for the Best ATX Chassis of 2015 goes to the Fractal Design Define S.

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