Kingwin KT-424 Aluminum Midtower Case

Reviews: Cases

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
Case-Mod
Oct. 25, 2004

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Inside the Case

Overview

Looking inside the case you will see four 5.25" bays, two external 3.5" bays, four hidden 3.5" bays, two 80mm front intake fans, a speaker, a bundle of wires coming from the front of the case, the motherboard tray, a single 80mm exhaust fan, and seven PCI slots with covers held in placed via thumbscrews.

External 5.25" and 3.5" drive bays

Kingwin has decided to implement a toolless feature in the external drive bays. The way to secure your bay devices in this case is by a plastic sliding lock mechanism. The locking mechanism is fairly easy to use after fiddling with it for a minute, but if you have any trouble you can take a look at the User's Guide for help. I personally think that using the locking mechanism is enough to hold your device in place, but the User's Guide says that you should also use the included screws to secure your devices (requiring you to first remove the right panel). The only time I would personally use screws to hold a device in place with this case is for things like fan controllers and other miscellaneous devices that are too short to be fastened securely with the locking mechanism alone.

One thing I would like to note is that I was unable to install my CD drive in the very top 5.25" bay. Even with moderate force, I was unable to get the CD drive all the way into the bay. I was able to successfully install it in all of the other 5.25" bays though.

Hidden 3.5" drive bays

The hidden 3.5" bays are ordinary in that they are rear-facing, but as an extra feature they have rubber grommets which absorb vibration, effectively reducing noise. To install drives in these bays, simply slide them in, and while supporting with one hand, screw the drive in on both the left and right side. Special screws are included that compensate for the thickness of the grommets.

Motherboard tray

The motherboard tray is an awesome feature which makes installing and replacing hardware incredibly convenient. You will notice that the motherboard tray has quite a few rectangular holes cut out of it. These holes are for the boxy-looking clips which function as motherboard stand-offs. This is arguably more effective than your typical screw-in motherboard stand-offs which may loosen over time.

The front panel connections are very well designed. The bundle of wires for the power buttons, LEDs, speaker and I/O connections can be disconnected from a single lead. This allows you to pull out the motherboard tray without having to unplug all those wires from the motherboard. While this is a great feature, unfortunately it was not implemented for the front USB and Firewire ports. For this reason I would not personally plug in the front USB and firewire ports, as I would be using the motherboard tray very often, and I don't particularly like plugging the individual USB leads into the motherboard.

Extracting the motherboard tray is as simple as, you guessed it, removing some thumbscrews on the rear of the case, and sliding it out. Once I had the motherboard tray outside the case, I noticed that something was missing. Unfortunately Kingwin apparently forgot to add angle support brackets to the corners of the motherboard tray. What this means is that you will need to be careful when playing with the tray. If you aren't cautious, you may end up bending the motherboard tray. After only installing a motherboard one time in this case, the back of the tray has already bent a little bit. Had Kingwin made the motherboard tray just a little bit wider, they would have had the room needed to implement a couple of support brackets, making the tray much sturdier.

As for sliding the motherboard tray in and out of the case, it could be easier. The tray tends to stick just a little bit, so you have to sort of wiggle it a little as you pull it out.

PCI slots

The PCI slots are rather ordinary, although Kingwin does include thumbscrews for fastening the PCI brackets. Some may prefer to have toolless PCI card installation; however I have never seen toolless PCI clots implemented in an effective way.

Cooling

The KT-424 has pretty decent cooling. With two 80mm intake fans up front and a single 80mm rear exhaust (two exhaust fans if you count a power supply's fan), you should have adequate cooling for almost any system.

The intake fans are wired into a small fan controller which is hidden behind the front panel of the case just to the right of the fans. There is a power connector cable trailing from the fan controller, which you will need to plug in to get those front intake fans running. With the fan controller set to "low' the fans are still audible, but not so loud that they are bothersome. The fans are not as quiet as, for example, a Panaflo of the same size would be, but for included case fans they are as good as I would have expected them to be. With the fan controller set to "high' the fans are still not disturbingly loud, but I prefer to keep them on the lowest setting. Please note that the rear exhaust fan is not connected to the fan controller and requires its own 3-pin connection to receive power.

Covering the intake fans is an air filter, a grill, and finally black mesh which is part of the front panel. The filter is probably not necessary, as the mesh on the front panel will likely collect a lot of dust. So if you would like to get a little extra airflow, you can remove the air filter.

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Page 4 of 6

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions
Page 3: Opening the Case
Page 4: Inside the Case
Page 5: Quality Check
Page 6: Conclusion & Extra Photos

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Add Comment

5 User Comments

1 - Posted by flip-mode on October 27, 2004 - 7:21 am

I've had this case for over a year and I love it.

My complaints:

1. The front usb port door should have been black aluminum and not the cheesy clear plastic. I removed that plastic crapper on day one.

2. The fan adjuster should be accessible without removing the front panel for crying out loud.

3. The fan adjuster does not go low (quiet) enough.

This case is a keeper though. I haven't even thought about replacing it.

Oh, yeah, this is my first post in these forums, Hello World!

2 - Posted by handrail on October 27, 2004 - 10:58 am

crappy USB doors seems to be a theme lately...even on higher level cases. i prefer just a hole in the bezel for my USB ports, thank you very much.

welcome flip!

3 - Posted by Kurtis on October 27, 2004 - 12:18 pm

Welcome to the forums flip-mode! :) Did you ever have problems with the "Danger Zones" I pointed out? :P

The fan adjuster probably only goes to like 7V instead of 0 or 5V, but I didn't find it to be a problem since I think it is such a big plus that it is integrated. I also like that it is hidden, personally. Even if you have to adjust it, pulling off the front of the case is so easy, that for me it isn't a big deal.

Anyways. Thanks for your comments, and once again welcome to our forums! :D

4 - Posted by EmoMakesMeCry on October 27, 2004 - 12:19 pm

woah, at first when i saw the picture i thought it was a lian-li.

5 - Posted by Guest on October 27, 2004 - 11:45 pm

Nice review of a nice case...
I would like to see more details about the hidden fan controller, though... how does it work? Knob-style?

Congratulations and keep up the good work!

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