Xigmatek Utgard Review
Initial Impressions
Published: 1st April 2010 | Source: Case King | Price: £65.74 |
Initial Impressions
Starting of with the basics... Its a mid tower case, and quite pleasingly from my point of view is that its lines are very clean and simple, the designer was definately not taking anything stronger than Valium. Our case side panel has a large mesh section that can have up to 4x 120mm fans fitted or a 1x 200mm fan and all the mounts also have rubber grommets to help with keeping the noise down, but you can also buy a version with a clear windowed side panel should you prefer it.
There are 9x optical bays covering the whole of the front of the case which all have dist filters on the back. At the top of the front panel you'll find 4x USB ports, 2x eSATA, a headphone and a microphone port. The obvious power button is there but no reset button. With the wonders of Windows 7 you can set the power buttons secondary use to be rest if you use it so often you can not live without it. The top panel also has a pair of fan controllers each control 3 fans a very welcome addition to a case at this price point.
On the top of the case there is a large meshed panel which can be removed. It exposes an area that a a 2x120mm or 2x140mm radiator up to 46mm thick can be fitted. This is nothing new in todays day and age but lets remind ourselves that this case only costs £65... Finally manufacturers are giving us what we want without the need for mortgaging kidneys. Kudos.
Cracking the side open reveals yet more surprises, the first one being the internals are all powder-coated black, and the case ships with a Xigmatec 120mm exhaust fan, a 170mm roof fan, and another 120mm fan attached to the removable 4x hard drive mount that takes up 3 drive bays. The motherboard tray is not removable but it is covered in cable tidy holes, and a large cutout for fitting heatsinks on even the funkiest design of motherboard.
All 9 of the drive bays have tool less mounts, but its worth reminding you all that you could technically fit another 240mm radiator in the front of the case should you need to *wink wink*. The bottom of the case has a tool free mount for another 120mm fan and its always nice to see an additional dust filter for the PSU vents aswell.
All this talk of watercooling lets not forget to test this with our air system, we normally test our Q6600 with a Nexus HOC-9000 but yet again a case with a roof fan it doesnt fit. When tested with a Cooler master V8 temperature did not go above 50. Its hard to compare because of the new heatsink but with our pair of HIS 4870's at 50% fans they did not go above 73c. Thats the same temperatures that the In Win Maelstrom has just acheived even though the Utgard doesnt have any side fans!
Lets head over to the conlusion and wrap this up.
Most Recent Comments
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Originally Posted by name='Fat Tony'
I have just received this case and am having trouble fitting in a Asus P6X58D-E mobo ... it seems that the protusions on the motherboard (on the rear side) do not match the cut out on the case. Or is it me? I am a complete novice. Can anyone help?
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Thanks for your help.
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/7416/dsc00051xg.jpg
However, I am going to receive some new goodies for my PC tomorrow, so I am going to have another look into it.
It's not the soundcard (Xonar DX), because it worked in another two cases just fine.
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Originally Posted by J0s3e
I've had this case for a while now, and what really annoys me, is that the front audio jack has reversed R/L channels. Whatever I do, I can not make it work properly. I found a temporary solution, though However, I am going to receive some new goodies for my PC tomorrow, so I am going to have another look into it. It's not the soundcard (Xonar DX), because it worked in another two cases just fine. |
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Originally Posted by AlienALX
Get the solder iron out. |
£63.00 from http://specialtech.co.uk mind you im all so getting them to add a window as well which will save me some time.when i get the time im gonna mod the hell out of it.
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Originally Posted by Rastalovich
£65/£63 is crazy cheap. |
on the top section on mine 3 stand off broke with in seconds. The metal is fairly thin on the side panels, how ever these are all minor things to be honest. Another problem though is the Fan spacing on the top for were you fit a rad are not correct they are not 15mm but 17mm how ever you can mess around a little and make it work quite well.
You need to be careful when moving it about as the plastics are a little on the flimsy side but alas what do u expect for the money.
I personally dont like the fans it came with as i found them to be quite low cfm with to much noise so i chucked in a couple of NZXT's which do the job better. How ever its not a complaint in any way cause getting 3 fans at this price is a bonus.
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Originally Posted by AMDFTW
so can u justt fit 1 rad in it |
The reason why only 1 rad is fitted in atm is to check the efficiency of the fluid. As its not only cooling as over clocked CPU quite well but its all so a over clocked chip set and on-board GPU and that double rad with the fluid is handling it easily with out any problems. All so the fans are only running at 1/2 speed though out the whole system so its close to virtually quiet.
This pretty much proves that the case air flow is working very well with its windows side panel but with the 4 x 120mm side panel it would run even cooler.
as for the over clock on a £45 MB , CPU and Ram (thks to stephy for that) well this is it ->
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1470565
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Originally Posted by mayhem
No if i played i could get a 2 x 120mm in the top, a 3 x 120mm in the front , 1 x 120mm in the bottom and 1 x 120mm on the back. |
Also that wont be getting hot...... Its an AMD matey.
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Originally Posted by Jujumonkey
the review states that the xigmatek is the best sub 100 quid case available. Surely its not better than the cm 690 II advanced?? you can fit 2 liquid rads in that and its only 73 quid |
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Originally Posted by Todd
I know it's probably asking too much but could you test-fit one for me if you've still got the Utgard around?  |
Didn't mean to sound like an arse but now you've quoted me.. 
I sure hope it fits. Would CCL be willing for me to return it if it doesn't?|
Originally Posted by Todd
2 slow granddad, I edited it already Didn't mean to sound like an arse but now you've quoted me.. I sure hope it fits. Would CCL be willing for me to return it if it doesn't? |
It should be fine mate.
and the fact it has those fans included and the fan controllers sold it for me, I also think it's a good looking case getting the standard non windowed vers (may get the windowed side panel in the coming months). This is for my first pc build ever, making the jump to pc gaming (first ever gaming pc ) I can't wait to start the build rather excited. Anyway that is all oh and thanks for the review.But I can not find it on any site. Any body help?
So possible the Xigmatek UTGARD (Window version) or the Cooler Master Haf-X will have to do.
But another good review TTL
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Originally Posted by CSB30
One more thought, when buying a new case should a USB3 (in the front panel)be considered Vital/Necessary/nice to have? |
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Originally Posted by CSB30
One more thought, when buying a new case should a USB3 (in the front panel)be considered Vital/Necessary/nice to have? |
Possible build so far...
Case: Xiggy Utgard
Motherboard: Intel P55
CPU: i5 750 (possibly)
Cooler: Xiggy Thor's Hammer (Thanks Tom!)
GPU: HIS 5770 1gb (Again, cheers Tom!)
HDD: Samsung F3 1TB
PSU: Possibly a Corsair TX650
RAM: 4GB Mushkin RAM
I'm going for a nice black and orange theme to go with the inside of the case. I've got some orange SATA cables and I'm looking at some Xigmatek Orange Fans too, possibly some Orange LED's to set it off a little.
Should be nice.
Thanks again, TTL!
strangley enough i never used the fan controller lol
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Originally Posted by Aurus_OC
I would say nice to have. There aren't that many USB3 devices out there yet. So if you don't own one that you are going to carry with you and plug in and out of your computer daily, I wouldn't say it is necessary. Also remember most cases do not have the USB3 header as a connection, just a regular plug that you route to the back of your IO. |
One thing I have noticed that lot of manufactures are stating/indicating size of motherboards-GPU’s the case will take. Note Xigmatek haven’t done that.
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