Tech Reaction

A few months ago, In-Win decided to hold a promotion where they gave away hundreds of free products; from power supplies to cases, they were extremely generous. I had luckily acquired an In-Win Maelstrom from the frenzy. They were also so kind as to pay the very expensive oversea shipping fees! Yay! Anyways, this will post will briefly talk about some key points of the Maelstrom, so let’s start off with some pictures.

The Maelstrom was shipped in a very large and durable cardboard box. The box itself makes a great seat for lightweight children and can be used as a coffee table. Well, until it breaks, that is. With the packaging that In Win used, it seems quite difficult to damage the actual case unless it was intentional and you knew where to attack it.

The instructions, which are in varying languages to support multiculturalism, are very clear in where, and how to install everything in the Maelstrom. Included in the accessory bag are screws and standoffs, molex adapters, power supply spacers, luckily for you, an additional thumbscrew if you manage to carelessly lose one. There is also a small PC speaker.

The actual Maelstrom looks very… not-too-good. The sole reason for this is due to a pair of grotesque handles on the front. They’re shown as the green thingamajigs. They cannot be used as actual handles, and because of that, they’re useless. There is no way to remove them normally unless you have a saw to cut it off manually. Though you can use it for support, odds are, you’re going to pull the front cover off and drop the Maelstrom. And that is most likely going to end in disaster. Then again, if you do like it, all the better. I guess this is just my opinion.

However, if you look past the dead weight handles, it’s pretty normal. Nothing fancy, nothing ugly.

The Maelstrom has a lot of great features: the front panel cables included are nice and long, it’s sturdy, the enormous side fan is pretty quiet, it’s tool-less, and it has great air flow. Overall, it’s pretty well equipped.

One flaw in the Maelstrom is that there is no filter for dust intake on the bottom PSU. Dusty room? Probably going to need to do something about that then. Another flaw is that there no 2.5″ mounting capability for SSDs and smaller HDDs, which may or may not be a problem for you.

I would recommend the Maelstrom if you’re looking for a full-tower case, as it seems to retail for nintey-ish dollars. If you’re looking for specific tests and benchmarks, don’t look here. Go find a real review. You can find the specifications at their official page and clicking specifications. Am I being lazy? Yes. But if you really wanted to know, you shouldn’t be.