I have been doing a lot of case reviews lately and now it’s time for another. Koolcases sent this case to me as well, it is called the Panther. This is the first full tower case that I have reviewed here on OCmodshop and its about time cause I love full towers.
I picked this case out myself from their website because it looked like a great case because of all the features that it had and because of the way it looked. Full towers are really good for a lot of reasons, they hold more drives, have a lot more room to work with, and usually have better mod potential. This case is made of steel rather than aluminum which is becoming more and more popular today. It’s a tool less and screw less case with a removable motherboard tray, quick mount drive rails, and 80mm side blow hole plus many other things which we will look at more.
This case did not come double boxed from them which was a little surprising because the last two cases that I had received from them were. Anyways the case is protected by some styrofoam on the top and bottom of the case and some bubble wrap, along with some plastic which covers the case so it doesn’t get scratched. The Panther also comes with two 80mm fans not including the one already attached to the side of the case which we will see more of later.
I removed the case from the box and was really impressed with it right away. Not only is the paint on the case really great but the case is just simply impressive. The front bezel of the case is a translucent black plastic, it’s just black enough so that you cant see the metal behind it. As you can see there are four exposed 5.25″ drive bays and two exposed 3.5″ drive bays so you can fit a lot of drives in this case. From the back view of this case you can see that it does not come with a power supply which would have been nice but it would have also raised the price. Above where the power supply goes is a spot for an 80mm fan to improve cooling, there is also a 60mm spot on the motherboard tray.
The side of the case is really nice; the paint has an excellent finish to it. The side panel comes with an 80mm blowhole which should blow into your case right over your CPU or video card. The blowhole is cut very well and does not have any sharp edges to it so if you ever take off the fan you will not cut yourself. The side panel has a handhold so that you can take it off case without any trouble, which is nice because I have had to struggle with some cases before.
The power button is nice and big and has a good click to it, this is no sissy button thats for sure. I do not like the reset button because it’s so tiny, you basically need a pencil to reset your computer. The case also has a spot for a case badge which is nice, it seems that most new cases these days do not have a spot for a case badge leaving you with no recessed area to put it. The case looks bare so I gave it an OCmodshop case badge you can buy these for only $3 each! All of the money made from sales go back into the website to pay for hosting and other costs, so please support us.
The case comes with two thumbscrews for the side panels, one is attached to the panel with the blowhole. The other thumbscrew is in the case with all of the other parts which you can see on the next page. You can also see a closer shot of the 80mm fan which is above the power supply, I would suggest cutting this out for better air flow. I like that two thumbscrews were provided for getting in and out of the case faster. More could have been provided but it is not necessary, one will hold the panel on.
I unscrewed that thumbscrew and pulled off the side panel which came off with no struggle at all. As you can see from the below picture this case has a ton of room in it and should be able to take care of just about anything you want to put into it. If you are watercooling or plan to in the future this case would be perfect because of all the room that it has. There are four 5.25″ drive bays and four 3.5″ bays which is cool because you will be able to have a lot of drives or accessories installed.
Koolcase’s also provided two Cyber Cooler case fans which are model SF-800, they are not included free though. I was unable to find exact specifications for these fans because there is no specific model # for them, they are basically generic fans but will do the job just fine. Inside the case is your normal box of extras, with this case you get two bags of screws, one of which has the other thumbscrew and drive rails for the 5.25″ and 3.5″ drive bays. We will look at these drive rails later but I can already tell you that they are cool!
This case has one of the best features that a case can have in my opinion, a removable motherboard tray. This particular removable motherboard tray is cool because it does not require any screws to hold it in place. On the back of the motherboard tray there is one clip which secures it into place.
To remove the motherboard tray all you have to do is push on the clip and the tray slides right out. The clip mechanism is very cool, this has to be the best removable motherboard tray that I have ever seen on a case. The tray has all the necessary holes to accommodate any motherboard including a server board which is cool because this case would work great as a server. The back of the motherboard tray has the standard I/O panel and a place for a 60mm fan which has been cut out pretty well. The expansion slot covers are also nice because they are reusable and do not require a screw to hold them in. There are only two missing covers which is where you will probably have a cards installed so I don’t find this to be a negative aspect of the case.
The power LED, HDD LED, and reset switch jumpers are all fused together, the power switch and speaker jumpers are not connected to any others. Though they are only jumpers I like these better than the kind that are all twisted together simply because they look more professional. The inside front of the case has a place for another 80mm fan which has a pretty good cutout and doesn’t block much airflow. You could cut it out to make it better but I don’t think it will be much of a problem if you don’t.
So far this case has been nothing less than amazing and this next feature just adds to that fact. The front bezel also requires no screws or tools to attach or detach it. The bezel is held in place by eight little claw like metal pieces, they attach to the holes in the case. To remove the bezel all you have to do is pull it off, you don’t even have to remove the side panel to do it. After you are done and want to put it back all you have to do is push it back into place. I really love this feature because it will save you time when you are trying to get to something behind the bezel or want to add or remove a drive it will be much easier.
Behind the bezel there is a little housing which holds the LEDs for the power and HDD activity as well as the power switch. It is attached to the case so that you can easily remove it and take out the LEDs and switch if you want to change them out. When I pulled out the LEDs I was surprised to see that they were not soldered to the wire. Instead of being soldered to the wire they have a terminal so that you can just pull them out and replace them with another color in a few seconds with no hassle. I am assuming this was done by design but possibly by accident, either way its awesome.
Finally we get to the last cool feature of this case which is for the 5.25″ and 3.5″ drives. The case comes with drive rails which are really cool, all you have to do is push them into the holes on your CDROM or hard drive and they stay, you don’t even need to screw them into place. After you have them attached you just have to slide them in through the front of the case and your done. You dont have to take both side panels off, screw them in, then work to get the drive flush with the bezel, then put the side panels back on. I have used these kind of drive rails before but I had to screw them into place, These rails are much better because you don’t have to screw them in which makes them much faster.
Conclusion
As you could already guess I love this case because of all the features that it has and the great price. For only $39 you get a full tower that has a removable motherboard tray and tons of other features. I love the removable motherboard tray because it’s a great feature to have, but this one is even better because it doesn’t need screws.
I also really like that the case has drive rails which makes installation of CDROM and hard drives very simple and fast. The precut side blow hole is nice because its right over the CPU and video card so will help cool both of those things. The bezel has a great design which makes it easy to take off and put back on because no tools are required yet again.
There are also some smaller features to this case which are really cool like the case badge spot, three fans included, two thumbscrews, extra expansion slot covers, and the LEDs can be changed out in seconds. The only negative aspect to this case would be that it does not come with a power supply and that the edges inside are a little sharp.
I don’t think that the fact that the case is lacking a power supply is bad because if it did have one the price would be higher. For $39 you really can’t go wrong with this case, it would work great for a server, home system, and has a lot of potential for modding. Also if you are watercooling or plan to do so in the future this case would be perfect because of all the space inside.
Overall I am very impressed with this case and am going to give it a 10/10 and award it the OCmodshop Seal of Approval. I would head over to Koolcases and pick one up now before they are all gone.
Pros
- Only $39!
- Full tower
- Precut side blowhole
- Spot for a case badge
- Lots of drive bays
- Removable motherboard tray
- Extra expansion slot covers
- Thumbscrews
- No screws or tools needed for the bezel
- LEDs can be changed without soldering
- 5.25″ and 3.5″ drive rails for fast installation
Cons
- No power supply
- Inside edges are kinda sharp