BitFenix Comrade Chassis Review in Black

1. Introduction2. BitFenix Comrade3. System Installation4. Performance5. Conclusion6. View All Pages

Not everyone has a lot of money to buy the most expensive components. With this in mind the folks at BitFenix have taken a look at the needs of users on a budget and created the BitFenix Comrade in black. KitGuru examines the case for low cost chassis.

Unashamedly aimed at the low end of the market, BitFenix has worked hard to tick all of the feature boxes with the Comrade. While reviewing a case like this, you have to constantly remind yourself that it's only £29. You simply cannot apply the same logic that you would if it cost £100.

Also available in white, we went with black, because the vast majority of you will side with the dark side of the force. According to the BitFenix literature, it will take a 30cm graphics card and should be easy to build with its tool-free approach to storage etc.

We'll go into the individual features on the next page, but for now we'll examine the most likely target audience – as that will colour how we see the case's attributes.

Buying a desktop PC from a high street store is a thankless task.  In all likelihood, you will end up with something like a Packard Bell iMedia with an AMD E1 processor. Cases like the Comrade make you consider a self-build, around the same budget, but with a drastically different result in terms of performance.

Let's check the spec table and then get into a detailed analysis:-

• Materials: Steel, Plastic
• Color (Int/Ext): Black/Black, White/White
• Dimensions (WxHxD): 185mm x 428.55mm x 470.5mm
• Motherboard Sizes: Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX
• 5.25” Drive Bays: x 3
• 3.5” Drive Bays: x 3
• Drive Bays: x 3
• Cooling Front: 120mm x 2 (optional)
• Cooling Rear: 120mm x 1 (1 included)
• PCI Slots: 7
• 1 x USB3.0, 1 x USB2.0, HD Audio
• Power Supply: PS2 ATX (bottom, multi direction)
• Extras Front Dust Filter, PSU Dust Filter, Tool-Free Drive Locking

Like the manufacturer says, this case is aimed squarely at builders on a budget, Comrade aims to deliver high-end features for not much money.

When they talk about a sleek, no-nonsense design, you can see where they are coming from. Why go to the effort of making a complicated moulding when you're busy trying to his a specific price point?

External packaging is good enough to survive all but the most severe abuse – so BitFenix has not cut any corners there.

Exactly as BitFenix described the case, it has a simple, no nonsense look from the front and rear.

  

There are no top or side panels here soaking up any of the budget that you could be using for a better processor, graphic card or Solid State Drive.

A place for (almost) everything and for everything a place. Painting the inside was a nice touch and adds a little feel of visual quality that is not matched by the physical feel of the chassis construction in its unbuilt state – i.e. It looks better than it is, which is not a bad thing at the ultra-budget end of the market.

  

Sure, we would prefer the front ports to be at the top, but look how stylish this panel is. Definitely would not be out of place on a case costing twice as much.

Tool-free access will making assembly straightforward in the BitFenix Comrade and having dual dust filters will help ensure the longevity of your final build. The aluminium-finish BitFenix badge is a nice touch. BitFenix claims that you can fit a 30cm card and that there are plenty of bays for storage products.

Let's go have a look.

The cost savings here are apparent from the moment you open the packaging, but you can't have a Rolls Royce mind set when you're about to try and create a pocket rocket on pocket money.

In terms of specification, we built an AMD 6800k system into this chassis on a Gigabyte mainboard. This is a typical system set up for someone who needs a basic gaming rig without spending too much money.

We then added an affordable MSI Radeon R7 250 graphics card, the kind of upgrade you might fit later – allowing you to experiment with Dual graphics for around £58 or a cooler 2GB version for £68.

Unfortunately the metal is rather thin, so it can be indicative to cutting skin if you aren't careful. Also, be careful with any screw threads – just in case you turn the plastic part of the thumbscrew too hard and it comes off in your hand.

Another thing we noticed early on is the length of the front panel audio cable. If you follow the suggested path from BitFenix, then it didn't reach. It was easy enough to re-route, but even then it only just made it. This is something that BitFenix might want to look at if they refresh this design in the future.

Here at KitGuru, we like to keep our hard drives cool and quiet. It's a good policy for your data in the long term. Inside the BitFenix Comrade, the tool-free drive mounts are all plastic, so they are likely to be quiet, but the lack of metal-metal contact will mean your drives can warm up a little more than with a metal-metal connection.

Overall, cabling could have been easier.

Routing without a modular power supply will be a bit of a nightmare, so we do recommend a modular power supply for this specific build.

That takes us onto the card installation and, again, the slightly sharp edges at the back of the PC (after removing the PCI slot blanking plates) again need a little caution.

There is plenty of room for a decent graphics card. Basically, if you're in the market for graphic cards that won't fit in this chassis (>30cm), then you probably won't be looking at the BitFenix Comrade in the first place.

Getting the side panels back on quickly is easy, but to get them perfectly flat needs a little attention as there are a number of ‘holders' that you need to engage when completing your assembly. We advise you to lay it flat on the side and put a little pressure, which makes re-assembly much easier.

While the airflow through the system is fine for a well constructed build, perfect cabling is going to take a while as space is tight in some areas.

Should the front fans need replacing in the future, the removable front panel will make that easy.

Overall, the BitFenix Comrade is far from being the worst case to build with and, as long as you exercise sensible caution, you should be able to integrate a solid system. The integrated dust filters will help keep your internals clean, helping ensure a long life for your new build, and the overall design is neat and simple.


Given the budget nature of the BitFenix Comade chassis, we built the rig around an AMD 6800K APU, with the following specification:-

Hardware

• Processor: AMD 6800K APU
• Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X
• Cooler: AMD Stock
• Memory: 8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600MHz
• Graphics Card: MSI Radeon R7 250
• Power Supply: Seasonic S12II-620
• System Drive: 1TB Seagate

Software

• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• Benchmark Software: CPUID Harwdare Monitor, Prime95, 3DMark

We tested the thermal performance of the BitFenix Comrade chassis under load using Prime95 and 3DMark – recording the maximum temperatures reached.

After the benchmarks completed, we then left the system for 15 minutes and checked for idle temperatures.

The ambient room temperature was 20 degrees during testing.

Reasonable temperatures for an AMD 6800k APU-based system with an R7 250 graphics card.

While you may get what you pay for in most cases (pun intended!), there's a chance that you're actually getting more than you pay for with the BitFenix Comrade.

Simply put, even though you can line up the small niggling things that you would like changed on a Version 2 Comrade, this case packs in a ton of features for ~£29 and that is difficult to ignore.

For builders on a budget, it looks nice when fully assembled, has removable dust filters, tool-free assembly and the powder coated interior adds a feeling of visual quality. The USB 3 port is a good touch and will give you high speed access to suitable peripherals.

Ambitiously, the designers have included holes for water cooling, however the larger w/c kits would need to be externally mounted, due to restrictive space constraints. Negatively, the storage cages are a permanent fixture which would require a power tool to remove (and superglue to put back).

EDIT 9th May: Bitfenix have told us that windowed side panels will be coming later this month!

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Pros

• Low Price.
• Simple styling.
• Full feature set – including dust filters.
• Painted inside and out.

Cons

• Tight for cabling.
• Finish could be smoother.
• Plastic used in some places where metal would be better.
• Basic airflow with fan provided – adding another would help.
• Drive cages are a permanent fixture.
• Sharp edges when you snap off the PCI Express access covers.

KitGuru says: This is the ‘gateway drug' to a world of serious modding. Cutting through lightweight panels will be easy enough and the price of the chassis means that it would not be the end of the world if you did make a mistake. Perfectly adequate for most budget builds and we keep coming back to the price. It is seriously inexpensive. 

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