Air Flow:
For fresh air intake, there is one 120mm fan in the front, which will blow over the hard drive area to help cool things off. The side window comes with a 120mm fan and mounting points for an 80mm fan if you wish to add one.
The bottom of the BX1 provides an intake for your power supply to bring in fresh air, as well as an optional 120/92mm fan installation next to it. Sentey has also cut a hole out beneath the hard drives in case you wanted to rig an 80mm fan there or just let fresh air come in naturally. These extra “bottom feeder” air inlets are a nice addition, and are a feature that we hope other manufacturers pick up on (especially when they’re covered by good filters).
On the back of the case, there is one 120mm fan to help eliminate the hot air from the vicinity of the CPU. There are also two 120mm mounting points at the top of the case to help heat dissipation as well. If you don’t mount any fans, the natural tendency of warm air to rise will, hopefully, allow it to exit your case silently of its own accord.
LED Lighting:
The red LED fans add an extra dimension to the red and black color scheme of the BX1. Sentey could have gone one of two ways with this, but opted for the LED fans. We were curious as to how good the red-bladed fans on the back exhaust would look if the BX1 was decked out in these. This may be something to think about for a possible V2.31 revision, Sentey. Possibly have the red-bladed fans with red LED’s on them, with an option to turn the LED’s off and just have the red blades showing off. Just a few quick idea for the future Sentey, but we must say the aesthetics overall looked good with how it was setup.
Conclusion:
The Sentey BX1-4284 V2.3 came with the same quality and classy look we have come to expect from Sentey. The high-gloss black paint job always helps make a case look distinguished. The big acrylic window that takes up most the side panel is a great idea for showing off all of your hardware inside the case. The fan controller installed on the front of the case is another good addition to help give the user more control over their system when they need it. With the BX1 being able to hold an Nvidia 580 video card, this case can be considered by most people as a mid tower contender, because you can run one of the best cards out there at the moment.
The wire management turned out to be OK for a mid tower. With our big power supply and massive amount of wires, it made for a tight squeeze. However, like we said before, if you have a low wattage or a modular PSU, you will be fine with the wire management. The dust filters were great, when they were used. The side panel intake fans will bring in dust, which somewhat undermines the other dust filters. Installation was quick and easy for the most part because the majority was tool free installation provided by the BX1. The red locking mechanisms on the PCI expansions slots did seem a little too loose for heavy PCI cards. Although you can remedy this with a couple screws, which is a solution we would like to not have to mess with. However, with a retail price around $50, it makes this case a real contender in at this price point in the marketplace!
The Sentey BX1-4284 V2.3 receives the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!
You can find the at various online retailers, including Newegg! To find out more information on this case and other products from Sentey, please visit their website.
3 Comments
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I agree, case manufacturers have put out some ugly cases this year, but the mirror finish looks great.
I really see what Sentry was doing and I think they are making some steps to be a real competitor in the Case Manufacturer field but THIS case will not bring it there. The Case has joined the Ranks in a very long line of Very Ugly cases from all of the Case Makers this year. The case is made well and has a really nice finish and again it has everything in the right place, but its not appealing. At least not in my eyes, but may I say, that even Lian Li is building some real dogs this year of 2011. But don’t take you eyes off Sentry. I think if they could take care of the Ugly this would be a great case.