| Sentey Arvina GS-6400R Computer Case |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Austin Downing | |||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 25 August 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||
Sentey Arvina GS-6400R Computer Case ReviewWhen it comes time to build a new computer, many people look at changing their current case. Some want a case that is very subtle, others want a brightly colored case that, like Jeremy Clarkson, screams "Powwweeeerrrr". If the latter sounds like what you want, then Sentey may have the case you have been looking for with the Sentey Arvina GS-6400R. But external looks should not be the only thing you look for in a case. More importantly, you want your case to support your components in a way that will increase longevity and provide protection from external influences. With its five internal quick load HDD bays supporting 2.5" and 3.5" drives, quick locking ODD bays, along with many other features, the Arvina has the possibility of being a wonderful mid-ranged Full ATX case.
As Benchmark Reviews takes an in-depth look at this case, we will review the build quality and effectiveness of the designs used on many of the features on this case. These aspects combined answer a very important question: for $130, are you getting an effective case or lots of color and lights but nothing substantial under that?
Manufacturer: Sentey Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Sentey. Sentey Arvina FeaturesFeatures and Specifications provided by Sentey: State-of-the-art ventilation system: Sentey Arvina has been developed to provide an extreme cooling performance. It features six Fan Coolers -three of them are to ensure proper air flow inwards, while the remaining three are to remove the hot air produced by different components of the system. Fan Coolers include
High Performance
GS-6400R Specifications
Closer Look: Arvina ExteriorLike cars a cases exterior is a matter of opinion some like a luxury look like that of a Bentley or Rolls Royce; Others like their cases to look like they have as much power on the outside as they do on the inside much like a Lamborghini. If the latter sounds like the perfect case for you then you will enjoy the aesthetics of the Sentey Arvina, with its Ferrari red finish and the red lighting on its fans. On the left you have a quick release side, with vents for the dual 80mm fans situated right behind it. These fans are come pre-installed with a connection to the fan switches on the top of the case so that you can easily turn them off when not using them. These vents corresponds very nicely with where my ATI 4850 vents, making them effective at removing some of the hot air that would otherwise have been recycled into the case.
On the right side you have another quick release side that gives you easy access to the wire routing features built into the Arvina
The front of the case is very functional with a multi-card reader built into the top along with, three traditional 5.25" drive bays, and the top two 5.25" drives bays have a hinge that closes when the disc drive behind them closes. On many other cases this design for the primary 5.25" bays would have bothered me, but with the large grill that the front the Arvina sports it really does help keep a uniform look.
On the back you have one 120mm fan which like the others is prewired to the front so that you can easily turn on and off the fans with switches on the front. Also included are two grommets for water cooling setup. Along with that you have 7 expansions slots with tool-less locking mechanisms to hold your cards in.
The Arvina case has some nice features and if you like the looks it provides very nice feature set on the outside for only being in the $130 price range. Detailed Exterior FeaturesWith many different types of connections now being built into devices it is nice to know that Sentey is trying to keep as many of those connections as they can in a easy to reach location. When not in use a sliding door can be closed to make sure foreign materials do not find their way into this area. Included are four USB 2.0, E-SATA and, even a full fledged internal SATA power and data port. Sentey also included a integrated switch system to turn off all the fans and lights within the case with a simple button press.
Yet again the Arvina has put more connection in a convenient location and at the same time saving you the money that would otherwise have had to be spent buy a separate piece of hardware to take its place. When I used the CF and SD slot they both had very solid feeling unlike some of the third party connectors I have used before
The grills used for the closing mechanism on the CD/DVD drives are also made of metal giving them a very solid feel and overall helping keep the front of the case looking uniform with no CD/DVD drives showing.
The Arvina contains some features that $300 cases I have worked with before have not included as default. The value provided by these features is quite a wonderful surprise coming from a case that only costs $130. Closer Look: Arvina InteriorThe interior design is very clean with a large cutout provided for easy access to the rear of the motherboard for oversized coolers that requires bracing. Also provided are cut outs for cable management although they can be a bit small to fit the 24 pin connector through or a large amount of cables. The openings small size can make it difficult to fit extra cables through once you already have a few routed through. The inclusion of the two 80mm fans next to the expansion slots is a nice addition as it helps keep hot air from single slot video cards from recirculating as much throughout the case.
Compared the the Antec 900 the rear of the Arvina has plenty of room for cable management the end result is when you start running all the cables through the back you wont have the side of your case bulging or difficulty closing the case. One thing to think about when building in the Arvina is the design of the HDD bays, the design used makes it so that when using 3.5" drives in these bays you will want to use right angle cables or have a very difficult time getting normal SATA cables to fit.
Unfortunately with such small cutouts for cable management the number of cables that can be routed is almost entirely limited to the most basic of connections to the motherboard. This is a particular hindrance if you have a non-modular PSU as the extra cables may not be able to be fit effectively through in order to be hidden behind the case. Fortunately unless you use a large number of 5.25" devices these extra cables can be easily hidden in the open 5.25" bays without negatively effecting airflow.
The lighting provided by the fans is actually quite nice, giving a red hue to everything in the case without being overly bright once the case closed.
Overall the interior is well designed although it would be nice to see Sentey including larger cutouts for cable management or include more cutouts so that the routing of cables does not have to run through only four openings. Detailed Interior FeaturesInstead of using a traditional locking mechanism for the optical drives Sentey instead has gone with a tool less design. The designed used is effective at keeping the drives in place although I would like companies using tool less locking mechanisms to incorporate it on both sides of the case instead of only using one lock.
The system used for HDD storage on the Arvina is quite nice, with a good mixture of being well constructed and very functional. For 3.5" drives you can simply line up the drives and then click the locks into place on the other hand if you are using a 2.5" drive then you can just screw the 2.5" drives into the bottom of the cage and slide it in. Surprisingly unlike many quick access HDD cages I have used before these feel very solid especially with the bottom being made of metal which helps keep them rigid.
The openings provided on the bottom give your PSU fan plenty of air breath and also have provided the space for one extra 140mm or 120mm fan. Also included is a removable filter on the bottom so that air being pulled in is not filling your case with dust and other debris while at the same time making it easy to clean so that air flow can be kept at its optimum.
Much like the exterior of the Arvina it is clear that Sentey wanted to get the most value out of this line as it could, providing many features that other cases of this price range may not have provided and at the same time making sure these features are well built so as to not feel gimmicky. Sentey Arvina Final ThoughtsWhen it comes to cases many people only look at the exterior and therefore some companies cater to this. This leads to some cases having some very nice exteriors but otherwise bland interiors. Fortunately Sentey bucked this trend with the Arvina and provided a very flashy exterior with many nice features but at the same time made sure that the interior of the case provides a place that you would want to keep your components and work inside of if need be. With features like tool less optical drive locking, easy to access HDD storage, and decent cable management the Arvina provides quite a lot of value for the $130 you payed for it. One feature I would say needs some help is the amount of air the fans included move, although quiet the amount of air they moved was quite anemic. The end result was that I found my CPU running about 10-12c warmer then in my Antec 900, and even worse my GPU was running upwards of 20c or more warmer. Although this can be remedied with after market fans I would be nice to see some higher performance fans included with the future Arvina's Sentey GS-6400R ConclusionAs the job of a case is to provide protection and cooling for your components I would say that the Sentey Arvina does a very good job with protection of your components. Unfortunately the cooling performance is let down slightly by the underwhelming performance of the pre-installed fans. Appearance is very much subject to personal preference, although the Arvina is not my cup of tea many people who have seen it as I write this review have said that they really like it looks. If you want a subtle design then this case mostly like will not fulfill that need, but if you want flashy brightly colored design on your case then this may be exactly what you are looking for. I find the construction to be superb with no sharp edges that could catch cables left, well designed locking mechanisms, and very little plastic used. With lots of steel used this case has some heft to it and feels like it could take quite a bit of abuse without sustaining any permanent damage beyond some scratches to the paint. The functionality of this case is quite high with the features that are included not feeling gimmicky and being well constructed. One area of functionality I would like to see brought up would be cable management which could use larger holes and more openings for more efficient management. Overall the value of the Sentey Arvina GS-6400R is very good. Having a price tag of only $139.99 at NewEgg, the Arvina provides good overall performance with some well designed features and well made construction. If you are looking for a full ATX case and only are looking to spend $140, then I would definitely recommend the Sentey Arvina GS-6400 series. Pros:
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