| Rosewill Armor EVO E-ATX Computer Case |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |
| Written by Tom Jaskulka | |
| Tuesday, 29 January 2013 | |
Rosewill Armor EVO Case Review
Manufacturer: Rosewill, Inc. Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Rosewill. Rosewill has a wide range of computer accessories. Anything from tools, fans, cases, external enclosures, keyboards, and printer toner. Primarily Newegg's in-house brand, they've been expanding their product lines and reach; some of their products have recently started to show up at other retailers. I've found many of their products to provide an incredible performance per dollar ratio in the past, as one of my favorite computer chassis of all time is the Rosewill Thor v2. A beast of an enclosure, my only complaint was the Thor was a bit on the large side. When I saw the ARMOR-EVO E-ATX case announced, I wondered if my wish had come true - could the Armor-EVO provide the advantages of the Thor v2 in a smaller package? At Benchmark Reviews, we have a chance to find out. Lose the fins, the extra "garnishes," and a couple inches off the top - and it would appear at first glance the Armor-EVO is a good follow-up to the Thor v2. Will the same approach to air cooling, with provisions for radiators if necessary, show the same result as a bigger chassis? While I unfortunately do not currently have access to a 240mm radiator to test the water cooling claims, I DO have access to a Thor v2. I proceeded to build an overclocked, crossfired system into this chassis to compare its cooling performance directly with the bigger Thor. First, let's take a look inside to see what we're dealing with.
Armor-EVO Features
Support up to SSI CEB(12"x10.3")/ SSI EEB(12"x13")/E-ATX(12"x13") Motherboard Armor-EVO Specifications
Model ARMOR-EVO Specifications taken from the manufacturer's product page. Closer Look: ExteriorThe 230mm side fan is the defining feature of this enclosure. Prominent from almost every angle, this fan arguably is the secret to aggressively cooling a pair of hot GPUs (on air). While Rosewill opted for some style choices to the Thor v2, the Armor-EVO sticks to a very conservative design. If it weren't for the raised side and top panels, it would essentially amount to a black box with straight edges. Although somewhat "boring" in pictures, I have to admit the design was surprisingly attractive in person for something so visually...staid.
I was disappointed to see the 140mm rear fan did not carry over from the Thor v2 chassis - 140mm fans generally move the same amount of air at lower RPMs (therefore less noise), and there has been a general shift among many manufacturers towards 140mm fans. If anything, a bigger mounting area reduces possible clearance issues when mounting a 120mm radiator, or a large air-cooled CPU heatsink and fan. Thankfully, the included 120mm is subjectively quiet, even at full speed. Seven PCI slots, along with four grommeted holes (typically for water cooling hoses, although I've rarely seen them used for this purpose...still, it is nice that the space is utilized) complete the rear of the enclosure.
The top of the Armor-EVO is simple - a combination 120mm-140mm fan mount, allowing for two fans or a 240-280mm radiator for water cooling. The I/O ports are typical, and in a good location with USB2.0 and USB3.0 options - although you may experience some issues with certain wireless adapters or bigger USB thumb drives due to the orientation of the ports. Not much of an issue... What could potentially cause other issues are those soft rubber grommets holding the fans. While experimenting with different fan configurations, I had decided to remove the top fans - in the process, after removing three screws, the fan itself fell into the enclosure! The weight of the 120mm fan had caused the screw to pull the grommet with it. See those oval grommets, in the center? They allow for a convenient fit for either a 120mm or 140mm fan, but in the process compromise a bit of structural rigidity. A simple fix for the tinkerers out there, and in all reality not much of an issue (a radiator could cause some damage falling out - but, a 240mm radiator's weight should be spread out over 8 holes, possibly negating the issue). Still, something to watch out for, and something that may need revising.
The bottom is pretty standard for ATX enclosures. The feet provide enough height to keep the PSU supplied with cool air regardless of the surface it is resting on. The easily removeable PSU filter keeps the dust level down, and another 120/140mm fan mount is there as an option to supply even more cool air to the GPUs. You can also see the button used to turn the LEDs on and off for the front fans, located underneath the front panel.
In my fervor to discover if the Armor-EVO was just a smaller Thor, I had assumed it would carry many of the same design characteristics. I am very unhappy to discover that wasn't the case with the side panels. The Thor had used a type of "pivot" system, where the only edge to line up was the front edge. The panels would then just swing into place - making installation and removal drastically easier.  Not so with the Armor-EVO. The Armor-EVO uses the typical "raised line of tabs" mechanism that requires completely even pressure and a careful hand to line up properly. Any bend or flex in the side panel will result in a frustrating experience trying to get them back on. Above, you can see the fit of side panels - it seems as if they had the same experience preparing the chassis for shipping, as it came like this from the factory. Although it is possibly due to handling during shipping, there weren't any other marks or dents on the box or case - and the metal tab itself was actually bent back onto the side panel, causing the fit above. After I had used a screwdriver to bend the tabs back to the normal position, the panel went on a little easier...but why not use the same system as the Thor? A decision like this can make working in a case a good experience or a frustrating one. Detailed Exterior FeaturesSince I am writing this review in the context of comparing the Armor-EVO to the Thor v2, I thought it would be helpful to see what we're up against. From this angle, you can tell the width of the two chassis are about the same, along with the depth.
With a different angle, we see the Armor-EVO actually besting the Thor in at least one dimension. While a little longer, it certainly isn't as tall - which might make the difference between placing this under a desk or beside it.
Here we see another view of the twin 120mm fans up top. Each of these additional fans (with the exception of the rear 120mm) has a molex connector that can easily be daisy-chained, or 3 pin fan adapter. Not every motherboard has six fan headers, so this is a simple and effective solution.
Finally, a view of the 230mm fan itself. You can also see in this picture the system of tabs along the edges used to attach the side panel - otherwise, not much to see here. The side panel provides for the option to subsitute the 230mm fan for four 120mm fans if desired.
An interesting note about the side fan: it isn't the same design as the one used in the Thor v2. The blades on this fan are more "sickle-shaped" than the blades on the Thor 230mm fans. It will be interesting to see if this changes the cooling performance... Closer Look: InteriorThe interior of the Armor-EVO is pretty standard as well for an ATX enclosure - with the exception of another row of grommets to accomodate the larger E-ATX sized motherboards. While the E-ATX dimension might be relatively rare (and therefore useless for most builders?), longer GPUs definitely benefit from the increased space.
I'm glad to see this enclosure reduces the amount of 5.25" bays compared to the Thor v2. An enclosure this size doesn't need to save space here, but allowing for more 3.5" devices is an acceptable tradeoff, in my opinion.
Here again we see the rear 120mm cooling fan, along with the PSU foam grommet and rubber standoffs.
I was excited to see a nice, large, grommeted hole for the CPU 12v line up in the top left corner of the case. Routing this cable is a chore in most chassis, and some make it impossible. I appreciated the increased size here, but as I found out later this hole isn't as big as it looks.
In the pictures above and below, we see the raised portion of the top panel allows for a little more room for watercooling clearance. Some cases have offset this portion, attempting to eliminate clearance issues in that manner. Again, I would have liked to illustrate this by mounting a 240mm radiator, but even stacking two fans results in enough clearance. You still may run into issues depending on your motherboard, but the extra space is appreciated regardless.
The depth of the motherboard tray is sufficient for stashing cables (even the 24-pin ATX cable), and there are a decent number of tie-down points as well. If you look towards the top of the frame, you can see what I referred to earlier regarding the 12V AUX line. The top frame blocks half of the hole, effectively reducing its size for anything but flexible wires in half. Fan cables and wires themselves are no problem for this hole, but you may run into issues routing the plastic connectors to an 8-pin CPU connector. Otherwise, this looks like a nice, roomy case to build in. Let's see what that looks like. Detailed Interior FeaturesBefore the build, I wanted to show a feature that should be more common. While their use might be limited, I feel the tapped holes behind the drive trays (for mounting two additional 120mm fans) should be on every case possible - why not use this area? It doesn't get in the way, and provides for another option for cooling if desired. A smart use for a space that is underutilized, in my opinion.
So let's get to the build. The following system is probably typical of the type normally installed in these types of high-air-flow enclosures, and is what I'll be installing in both the Thor and Armor-EVO for comparison.
CPU: Intel Core-i5 2500K @ 4.4GHz The following is the system installed in the Thor v2 chassis, included for comparison.
A spacious enclosure to be sure, and the extra PCI slots allow for a little more airflow around the GPUs relative to the Armor-EVO. With a 230mm fan directing cool air straight to the GPUs, does it even matter? Here is the same system (minus the optical and HDD, for the careful observers...) installed in the Armor-EVO.
The above systems are the two being compared, while the system below swaps out the 6870s for a single Radeon 7970 and two 120mm fans installed on the back of the drive tray using the included mounts. Hopefully this shows even with longer GPUs, there is still more than enough room to install a group of fans for additional airflow.
And for completeness, a picture of the cable managment area when everything is wired up (notice the daisy-chained molex fan connectors):
I ran each chassis through a 3DMark 11 (Extreme Preset) benchmark run and recorded the max temperature reached for each video card and the CPU. I then ran five "tests" of Prime95 and recorded temperatures, following up with max temperatures reached while mining Bitcoins (for those unfamiliar, this is a complex calculation that essentially maxes the compute capabilities of graphics cards - and therefore produces the greatest amount of heat). The two machines were tested in a climate controlled room, where the ambient temperature at the time of testing was approximately 23 degrees Celsius. Since the Armor-EVO does not have a fan controller like the Thor v2, all fans in both cases were tested at their highest settings.
I discovered the Armor-EVO was a worthy opponent to the mighty Thor. All temperatures were essentially equal, with the Armor-EVO keeping CPU and GPU temperatures the same or one degree under the Thor. The only exception was the bottom Radeon 6870 stayed 3 degrees cooler in the Thor - whether this is a product of fan placement or the extra clearance between the PSU and GPU in the Thor chassis, I don't know. Out of curiousity, I added two 120mm Cooler Master R4 series fans to the back of the drive trays in the Armor-EVO and ran the test again - the fans dropped GPU temperatures for both cards one degree, but the additional noise wasn't really worth the performance gain in my opinion. The choices of fans here might make a bigger difference. E-ATX Case Final Thoughts
Maybe it isn't fair. Perhaps I started on the wrong foot by comparing a tried-and-true full tower with a brand-new mid-tower. The performance speaks for itself, but it seems that is about the only thing that carried over from the Thor v2. It is hard to forgive some of the frustrating design choices made with the Armor-EVO, since we know Rosewill has delivered some excellent computer cases in the past.
Rosewill Armor-EVO ConclusionThere is no doubt the Rosewill Armor-EVO is a good performer. It cools just as well as one of the better air-cooled enclosures out there, but fails to deliver the same price to performance ratio. At the time of this review, the Armor-EVO was listed for sale at $99.99 (NewEgg / Amazon) - perhaps they came to the same realization. However, this is a competitive category; frankly, the competition offers similar performance, better build quality and more features. It is always difficult to judge appearance - I've mentioned before the (arguably useless) actuating fins on the Thor are one of my favorite features. Obviously, things like that are very subjective. Hopefully, the pictures give you enough of an idea to decide for yourself, but I can admit the Armor-EVO does look quite nice in person. The simple lines and "black monolith" look work very well. Clean lines and simple designs are usually pretty timeless - the mesh front does a great job of combining form and function, while the side and top meshes are solid and decent looking as well. I suppose all I can really say here is this case looks better in person than in a picture - as to whether it fits your tastes is up to you. The Armor-EVO is constructed well, made almost entirely of steel with very little plastic. I simply cannot forgive those side panels though - if Rosewill would have carried over the same hinged panels from the Thor, this review might have gone just a little differently. Honestly, it perplexes me: why have a proven system that works well, and go back to a poorly implemented inferior version? The "tab" system only works well when every tab and hole is lined up perfectly - an unnecessary inconvenience and something that could be avoided entirely. Unfortunately, the side panels weren't the only issue. Most of the other quirks are pretty easy fixes (use a washer or a little glue for those top grommets, and problem solved - should this be necessary?), and would be acceptable if this was the only case available at its price point. However, there are other computer cases for the same price or less that don't force the user to tinker to get an out-of-the-box solution. The Rosewill Armor-EVO has average functionality for an extended-ATX capable enclosure. It's easy enough to build in but made more frustrating than necessary by the side panels. It doesn't use a fan controller, although one could easily be added (again, something that is provided in some of the competition...) The omission of a fan controller doesn't by itself change the rating here; the fact that the price doesn't reflect the omission hurts the score. The Armor-EVO provides ample space for additional fans or water cooling, but moving massive amounts of air is about the limit of this enclosure's functionality - again, this by itself is impressive; when it is virtually the only "function" compared to the similarly-priced competition, it becomes an issue and reduces the rating accordingly. If all you need to do is move massive amounts of air, this case will do it. Therein lies the value problem - there are lots of other cases out there that will accomplish this as well while adding a couple more features (either hotswap bays, fan controllers, latching panels, etc.). For the launch price of $119, I simply would not be able to strongly recommend this enclosure over the available alternatives. Pros:
+ Great air-cooled performance Cons:
- "Expensive" compared to the competition Ratings:
Final Score: 7.4 out of 10.COMMENT QUESTION: Would the Rosewill Armor EVO score high on your wish list?
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Comments
My Blackhawk Ultra case has all of these features and more room inside. It's proven to be my best PC Case ever, so far. Good airflow, quiet fans, and it looks good too.
I would buy another Rosewill case at this point. It's good quality for the low price.