| Xigmatek Gigas uATX Computer Enclosure |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |
| Written by Bruce Normann | |
| Thursday, 16 August 2012 | |
XIGMATEK Gigas Micro-ATX PC Case
Manufacturer: XIGMATEK Co., Ltd. Full disclosure: The product used in this review was supplied by XIGMATEK
Mention the term Small Form Factor and most people think of a PC case that you can hold in one hand. The term first came into use when the PC giants HP, Compaq, and IBM were all trying to shrink the corporate desktop computer down to size. Everything inside these Mini-Me versions was proprietary back then, until the BTX standard came out. BTX saw only limited adoption, especially if you compare it to the hugely popular ATX standard that was developed around the same time. Now, the genre is dominated by mini-ITX systems, which put an amazing amount of capability into a truly tiny package. Left out in the cold for the most part, are the micro-ATX systems that are smaller than a full sized tower, but bigger than the true SFF miniatures. Back in the 60's, if you were playing a game called Twenty Questions, you might ask, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" I'll wait for you to Google that... The answer, for the Xigmatek Gigas is, just barely. In the IT world, we have the "Pizza Box" form factor, so why not the Bread Box? I think one loaf of whole wheat, one loaf of white bread, one rye, and one cinnamon raisin ought to fit easily in there. So this is a big breadbox, a family size version. Since the ODD opening on the front of the case is the only visual cue to its size, here are the actual numbers: 278(W) x 322(H) x 396(D) mm (10.94 x 12.68 x 15.59 inches). The question that came to my mind when Benchmark Reviews first saw the Gigas was, "Why this design?" I think it's because consumers want sleek, fashionable components in their life, and big tower cases are past their expiration date, as far as industrial design goes. There is an increasing focus on small, svelte boxes that work with a mini-ITX or a micro-ATX motherboard. The tiniest boxes give up some measure of performance in exchange for space, and at the other end of the spectrum are the mid-sized models like the Gigas. With a more muscular form factor that can handle the most powerful components available, and only a self-imposed limitation of a micro-ATX motherboard. Of particular importance is the ability to handle full-sized graphics cards, up to 320mm in length and full power PSUs up to 300mm long. XIGMATEK Gigas Case Features
XIGMATEK Gigas Case Specifications
Closer Look: ExteriorIf someone shows me a new PC case, the first thing I look at is the front panel. Sometimes it's plain, with just a few design features, and sometimes its over-the-top with buttons and lights and doors and logos and fins, and the obligatory mega-death comic theme. My preference is for the elegant, understated designs, which is exactly what we have with the XIGMATEK Gigas. There's something about an all-aluminum case that seems to inspire designers to make the most out the material's aesthetic properties. Kind of like a furniture maker with a fine piece of wood, you want to make something special with it. The Gigas takes the XIGMATEK trademark "X" logo and implements it in a finely spaced hole pattern on the lower half of the front panel, where it serves as the primary cooling air intake. Two 120mm, 1,000 RPM fans sit directly behind the front panel to pull fresh air into the case. There are no dust filters installed on this, or any of the ventilation points on the chassis. 
The 3/4 view of the front and left sides of the case shows off the smooth curved surface on the front corners of the Gigas. Eliminating joints seems to be a popular design theme for aluminum cases, and this one makes good use of that technique to really dress up the front of the chassis. In addition to the front air intake, with dual fans, there are ventilation holes on a major portion of the left side. Once we have a look inside, you'll be able to see how they contribute to cooling the graphics card and the power supply. From the outside, they provide a nice visual balance to this side of the case. Too much blank canvas can get a little tedious, after a while.
Around on the right hand side of the case there are no cooling vents, or anything else, for that matter. Once we look at the cooling scheme a little more closely, it will make more sense. In effect, putting ventilation holes on this side of the chassis would short-circuit the air flow inside the case, and starve the major components of fresh air. As I said on the opening page, you can easily assemble a max-performance PC in one of these cases, and XIGMATEK is wise to make sure the internal airflow can support that kind of build. 
The rear view of the case is where some suspicions about the internal component layout are put to rest. Given the location of the motherboard I/O cutout and the four expansion slots, you can confirm that the motherboard sits on the bottom surface of the chassis. Right above the I/O plate are two 120mm, 1000 CFM fans, set up to push air out the back of the chassis. That gives an equal number of fans blowing in and blowing out, all the same size and type. That's usually a good recipe for efficient cooling, and it's great that XIGMATEK included all four fans as standard. They've also included a fan controller in the accessory kit, for those situations where it makes sense to dial back one or more of the fans. The power supply bolts to the back panel and hugs the upper left side of the case. The mounting holes only allow one orientation of the PSU, and with most units that will put the PSU intake fan right next to the ventilation holes. This is far and away the most popular way to cool the PSU these days, provide a dedicated air inlet and exhaust the heat out the back of the power supply at the rear of the case. Note that the rear panel is riveted into place, and is non-removable. More on this later...
The bottom of the XIGMATEK Gigas is also fabricated from aluminum, and is fairly simple. Four large feet occupy each corner, finished with a gold colored trim ring, which seems a little out of place. The entire case is silver, except for these four small trim rings. Fortunately, they are under the case and not really visible from most vantage points. A variety of standoffs are swaged on the surface and a number of rivets tie the four sides of the chassis to the bottom panel. Note that this panel is not removable. Starting to see a pattern?
The top of the case is removable, and is held in place with six thumb screws along the outside edge. The top panel sits flush, inside the outer edge of the chassis. There are no ventilation holes in the top panel, which makes sense, since all the major heat-producing components are at the bottom of the case. The XIGMATEK name and logo are etched in the very center of the top panel, in a very restrained size and color. There are a lot of usage scenarios where the top surface of the case will definitely be visible, and this is just another example of how this case was made to blend in, and not stand out.
We've seen all the major design features, now let's focus in on a few of the exterior details in the next section. Detailed Exterior FeaturesLooking at the top panel again, this shot of the front corner shows how the panel sits flush in a recess, all the way around the top rim of the case. The thumb screws holding it in place have multi-slot grooves, so if you strip the Philips portion, you can still use a straight blade screwdriver. Actually, it's so you can just use the first screwdriver you happen to pick up.
The controls on the front panel have their own little fascia that sets them off from the rest of the panel. Some like a flush-mount design, but this works for me, too. The buttons have a heavy matte texture that will never show fingerprints, which is a good thing. The markings for the USB ports is a little confusing; the USB 3.0 port is labeled in clear text and the USB 2.0 ports are labeled with the standard USB symbol. I'm eternally grateful to whoever pushed hard in the beginning for all USB 3.0 ports to be colored bright blue, though. That's what I always look for, and I haven't been wrong yet. The markings for the microphone and headphone could be bigger, because they are one of the few connectors on any PC where multiple jacks all look the same, and they do totally different things. OTOH, once you get used to using them, it gets easier to remember. In my dream world, as soon as you touched the raised panel, the symbols would light up with appropriately colored backlights. Then they would automatically turn off after 20 seconds, in order to keep them from becoming annoying. How much do you think that would cost?
On the other side of the front panel, the cutouts for the external 5.25" drives have a little surprise. The upper opening has a false front that includes a hinged aluminum door. It's not a replacement panel for the drive, that would move in and out with the disk tray, it's on a fixed hinge (at the bottom), and it gets pushed open by the action of the ODD tray. We'll see a picture of it in action when I document the build process. Below the trick trap door is another 5.25" bay, with a plain aluminum panel. Visually, this one just looks out of place to me. There are very distinct finishes on the different parts of the front surface of the case, and IMHO, it would all integrate better if the hinged door was the same finish as all the rest of the small parts, which is a somewhat darker hue. The door is finished the same color as the larger surface, which is brighter, and it stands out in the center of the darker parts surrounding it. Look at the picture, it's harder to describe than it is to show. Basically, the upper bay and the lower bay look like a mismatched pair of shoes. My recommendation is to install a card reader or fan controller in the lower bay; it will look completely different than the bay above it, which will be better than the current near match. FWIW, this issue is less noticeable on the black case than it is on the silver one.
Around the back of the case, the four expansion slot openings are located along the bottom edge of the case. The full width of the case is basically determined by the dimensions of a micro-ATX motherboard, plus a bit on either side for structural members. The expansion slot covers are brushed aluminum, and well matched in finish. I spend a lot more time looking at the back of cases than most people, so I appreciate when just as much effort is put into the appearance of the rear panel as the front. Peering inside the case, through the I/O panel cutout, there are a couple of standoffs visible. These are not the standoffs that the motherboard sits on; these are round, stainless steel, threaded standoffs that the "normal" motherboard hex standoffs screw into. This raises the motherboard a good distance off the bottom panel, which makes it easier to run cables in that space, if you have to. It also keeps the bottom surface of the case smooth, which may be an issue for some.
We're just about to take the top panel off and dive inside, so here's a little teaser. The bottom surface of the top panel has foam strips at the front and rear which prevent the top plate from rattling. I always appreciate small touches like that, especially as it means you don't have to torque every screw down to the max in order to have a case that doesn't rattle and hum. With six fans buzzing around on the inside, it's pretty easy to set up some kind of resonance, which can be really annoying.
From the exterior, there is no doubt that this is a stylish case. The fact that there aren't a whole lot of external features to look at or talk about, pretty much sums up the whole point of the exterior design of this case. Less is more, in this design ethic. Similar to a HTPC case, the task is: how to fit a motherboard, a full size video card (or two), and a bunch of drives in there? Let's take off the top panel and look inside, shall we? I sense a challenge waiting. Closer Look: InteriorOnce the top cover comes off, the first glimpse of the interior looks like this. There is a stiff center rail that runs front-to-back, and provides support for the drive cages. It's the only major component of the chassis that's made out of steel. There are a number of square tubing members scattered throughout the case that provide structural rigidity; those are all made from aluminum. Sitting on top of the center and the right-hand side rail, and occupying almost the entire upper right quadrant of the case, are two drive cages. The one in front can hold two 5.25" drives, which are generally going to be optical disk drives. Towards the rear, one of two 3.5" HDD cages is visible, with three anti-vibration mounting positions available. On the bottom of this upper cage is a set of mounting holes compatible with 2.5" drives. The ¾-lenght rail on the left hand side of the chassis does double duty stiffening up the side panel and providing support for the power supply. You can see that there is plenty of room for almost any length PSU, as there are no obstructions in that area. The manual says that units up to 300mm in length are usable.
Taking a look from the other end of the case reveals that there is another 3.5" HDD cage mounted below the 5.25" cage in front. We'll get a better look at it later, but it's another 3-slot affair with a spot on the bottom for mounting another 2.5" drive. In terms of overall packaging, the lower drive bay occupies a spot above the motherboard where all the components are pretty low profile, so there's little chance of interference. The upper HDD cage sits on top of the CPU area, so it has to sit high enough to clear a typical heatpipe CPU cooler. The small green PC board is for the front panel, and the large blue cable near the center of it is the USB 3.0 connection. The entire front panel is reinforced with a backing plate, and we'll see a closeup of that later. Obviously, all of the drive cages are removable, as there is only one way to get the motherboard in and out of this case. The center brace is also removable, leaving a clear shot to drop the motherboard down into the bottom of the chassis. Let's see what that looks like, next.
Once the drive cages are removed, the inside of the case looks a lot more spacious, and it's easier to see how a micro-ATX motherboard might fit down there on the bottom. The steel crossbar still has to be removed; there are screws and L-brackets at each end that hold it firmly in place. The two lower fans in the front of the case are exposed now, and you can see that they cover almost the entire width of the case. It looks like the motherboard will have a nice breeze running across its entire surface. That should help keep all the VRM modules cool, as well as the chipset. A lot of cases don't have good airflow over these support chips, which generate a lot of heat.
This view allows you to finally see the lower rear exhaust fan, which was hidden below the drive cages in previous images. In terms of thermal management and airflow, this is the fan that gets hit with all the heat from the CPU. It's critical that the CPU cooler you use has the ability to be mounted so that it blows air towards the I/O panel. Even though your cooler may theoretically be capable of being installed this way, you still need to check for clearance with other components on the motherboard. The last thing you want is for the CPU cooler to be blowing hot air right at the blank side panel. In a traditional tower case, that spot is where a "top-mounted" fan would be located, and for many installations, that's the best place to send the air. So, make sure the fan on your CPU cooler doesn't hit the DRAM cooling fins. Micro-ATX boards generally have tighter spacing between CPU and DIMM slots, especially if you are lucky enough to have four memory slots on your motherboard.
As promised, the center support rail does come out, and the L-bracket that it sits on can now be seen on the inner front surface. The one in back is there, it's just harder to see. This is a good shot of all the front panel cables, including the substantial blue one for the USB 3.0 connection. All of the annoying little header connections for the buttons and lights are wired up with twisted pair cables that are quite long and much easier to manage than the old fashioned two and three conductor ribbons. These were much easier to route and connect because of their construction. If you wanted to add your own sleeving, it would be much easier with these wires, as well. 
We'll get into it in more detail during the build discussion, but you've probably noticed that there's only one way in and out of this case. Everything gets loaded in the top, and it's a long way down to the bottom plate where the motherboard is mounted. Making all those final connections to things like fan headers and SATA connectors is potentially going to be a lot more challenging than normal. Let's take a quick peek at some of the detailed internal features before we start our build process. Detailed Interior FeaturesThe front Panel of the XIGMATEK Gigas looks like a simple thing from the outside. It's once you look inside the chassis that you get an appreciation for what it takes to present that smooth, sleek exterior surface. The upper external drive slot has a spring-loaded trap door that works with any standard optical drive to provide a uniform surface finish on the front panel. It's not a replacement door that needs to attach to the disk tray, and would move in and out. Instead, the existing disk tray passes through the flap door, pushing it open as it passes through. Once the disk tray retracts, the door flips back up with its spring-loaded hinge, and the front panel returns to its normal appearance. Just below the door is a pass-through push button to actuate the control on the front of the optical drive.
The 5.25" external drives are held in this drive cage, with traditional screw holes providing the retention. The tray itself is made from aluminum, and has some seriously rolled edges to both increase the stiffness of the assembly and eliminate as many sharp edges as possible. Two different sets of screw holes are provided, to accommodate the hole spacing on drives from various manufacturers.
The 3.5" internal HDDs go into one of these two drive cages. The one on the left sits towards the top of the chassis, while the one on the right hangs down below the ODD drive cage. Each of them is able to hold three HDDs in soft elastomeric mounts, and each one also has a set of mounting holes on the bottom that are compatible with 2.5" drives. There are no special vibration reduction measures for the 2.5" drives, which makes sense if you figure that most people will be using SSDs in a case like this. On the off chance that you want to use a 2.5" HDD, like one of the Seagate hybrids, I recommend putting it on an adapter plate and using one of the soft mounting points for 3.5" drives. Also, as we'll see later in the build process, the 2.5" mounting points are oriented 90 degrees from the regular drive bays.
Each of the drive cages sits on one of these spring-loaded mounting points that are embedded in the side rails. If you've ever had a case that buzzed or rattled occasionally, then you can appreciate this little extra detail that XIGMATEK designed into the Gigas chassis.
The four 120mm internal case fans supplied and installed by XIGMATEK are their own models (A1225L12S). All of them are identical, and are marked with ratings of 12VDC, 0.30A. The specs in the manual list the max speed as 1000 RPM, which is a good balance between output and noise, in my experience. Twin fans on the front and rear should provide a good airflow for component cooling. There are no particular high tech features on display here, but XIGMATEK has a huge amount of experience with case fans. They're all 3-wire, tachometer output devices, which will work fine on almost all motherboard fan headers. Even the 4-pin headers will default to tachometer operation if only the first three conductors are connected.
There was an extra little bonus in the accessory kit. I had forgotten that the Gigas case comes standard with a XIGMATEK CSF-CBK33-U01 Mono-Cool Fan Controller. It mounts in a spare expansion card slot, gets its power from a standard Molex connector, and has a fantail connector that allows the one controller to adjust the speeds of three fans at the same time. The maximum load is 10 Watts, so three of the included fans just edges past the max current rating (3ea x 0.30A x 12V = 10.8W. That's at full speed, though; anything less than full speed will reduce both the voltage and current going to the fans. Since many motherboards don't have four fan headers (in addition to the one for the CPU fan), this is also a handy way to get power to at least two of the case fans. The only potential rub is that the case only has the minimum number of expansion slot locations to support the uATX form factor - four. That's not a lot, and it's not unreasonable to expect that some people will need all those slots for other components. A front panel fan controller would work best for those people, and the XIGMATEK freebie can be used on another build.
Building a new PC with the XIGMATEK Gigas looks like it might be a bit more challenging than slapping parts into a full tower case, but the puzzle pieces might go together easier than I'm thinking. Only one way to find out, let's build it..... XIGMATEK Gigas Build NotesGetting the motherboard installed in the bottom of the Gigas chassis isn't too tough; it drops in with lots of clearance on all sides. All the standoffs lined up properly, and in minutes it can be locked down into place. That's not the whole story, though. Because the case is built like a well, you really need to attach as many of the header connections as you can, before you drop it into the hole. Here's where those nice long, braided front panel control cables came in very handy. There is no access hole on the bottom of the case to allow installation or removal of the CPU cooler after the motherboard is in place, so that has to be done beforehand as well. Fan headers and SATA connections weren't too hard to get hooked up, but I'm dreading the ATX CPU 12V power connection. It's always tucked away in a tight inside corner anyway, now it's going to be at arm's length, down inside a pit. One other thing to look at before we start adding parts on the top layer, is the wide open space for video cards. Max supported length is 320mm and there's no reason that SLI or CrossFire can't be installed, either. I've installed an old HD 5770, because that's what I need to test with, and you can see that there's several inches of clear space left for longer cards.
Now it's time to start adding drives. There are two separate drive cages for 3.5" and 2.5" drives and they are located in two different areas of the case. The cage closest to the motherboard is mounted below the main cross brace that runs from front to reap panel, and is directly below the 5.25" external drive bays at the front of the chassis. Right off the bat, two things tripped me up when I started installing the drives. The first surprise shouldn't have been a surprise at all, because it's just a continuation of my frustration with the SATA power connector standard. The bottom mount for the 2.5" drive puts the drive all the way down on the flat plate and inset some distance from the edge. Take a look at what happens if you try to connect up one of the intermediate power taps from the PSU cable. A bent, stressed connector is what you get, and if you're unlucky that day, a broken SATA connector on the drive is a distinct possibility. Add in the fact that the 2.5" drive mounts in a direction that's 90 degrees off from the 3.5" drives directly above it, and you end up with a situation where it's almost impossible to daisy-chain SATA power connections from this drive location. In the end, I dug out some 2.5" to 3.5" adapters and mounted everything in the 3.5" bays. The final configuration had two drives in the upper cage, one drive in the lower cage, and one ODD in the 5.25" cage. That turned out to be the best way to optimize the SATA power cabling.
I ended up choosing all 2.5" drives for this build, two SSDs and a hybrid HDD from Seagate. I know I was going to need at least one mounting adapter for the build, and the hybrid was already bolted into one, from a previous build. Here's where the second surprise got me: the mounting holes on the Gigas drive cages are set up for the "short" set of mounting holes on a typical 3.5" drive. I've been burned on this, the other way around, when the adapter brackets that were included with an SSD were designed for the short set of mounting holes and the drive cage of another case only worked for the long set of holes. So, I had to undo the bracket that I had used previously and find a different one in my parts box. The image below shows the "short" hole spacing on the cage, the three holes available on a typical 3.5" HDD and the "long" spacing on the bracket that I attempted to use at first. Bottom line: doing this build with 2.5" drives was challenging, to say the least. I admit the HDD could have been a 3.5" unit and will be for most builders, but I commonly build systems with two SSDs in them nowadays. The "extra" 2.5" mounts on the Gigas weren't that useful because of their design, and when I abandoned them for the 3.5" bays, I got more frustration. I know that every case can't have the luxury of hot-swap, pre-wired drive bays, but I really struggled with this part of the build.
With everything finally installed, most of the cabling is hidden below decks. This was definitely what I call a "3D Build", where you have to think in all three dimensions while planning and executing the build. With only the top panel being removable, it also meant getting in up to your elbows on more than one occasion. Similar to most HTPC builds, getting access to one component usually meant removing another one in order to see it, and/or work on it.
With the DVD drive in place, you can see how the spring-loaded door actually works. It's an advantage that you don't have to remove the disk tray's front fascia strip, or any other part of the drive's front panel to make this work. It's a well-designed system that works very smoothly and positively and shouldn't cause problems down the road.
No build process would be complete without a quick reference to the manual. Some product manuals tell you how to do the most boringly obvious things in 27 different languages. Some manufacturers do it strictly with pictures, so they don't have to worry about all those different languages. In most cases, the manual has maybe five pieces of information that you might need - that's it. The XIGMATEK Gigas User Manual provides some important information on the build process. Namely, the sequence of activities that are needed to get everything out of, and back into the case at the end. The Gigas chassis is complex enough that it's a good idea to refer it to it at least once, before you are up to your elbows in sheet metal, taking things apart. It's available online, where you can zoom in a bit, but the printed version that came in the accessory kit was well printed and very legible. One of the things I didn't have to check this time was component clearances; the Gigas can handle a 160mm tall CPU cooler and 320mm long graphics cards. Those are hardly any restriction at all, in terms of modern components. Building out the interior of the XIGMATEK Gigas involved a few unexpected twists and turns, and populating the drive cages was unnecessarily painful. Once I worked through those issues, it all worked out rather well in the end. Now that it's all assembled, let's fire up the system and run some thermal tests. XIGMATEK Gigas Testing & ResultsTesting the cooling performance of a case is not that difficult, but it is time consuming. It takes a long time for component temperatures to reach steady state. They'll get to within a degree or two within 10 minutes, but they continue to climb, almost imperceptibly, for 3-4 times that long. It's not that any one component is getting that much hotter; it's the combined effect of all the components feeding off one another that causes the slow rise to the final maximum temperature. For the load tests, I used a mix of applications that I've used for benchmarking in the past and I'm familiar with how they stress individual components. No one application gives the maximum load for all components, so the load temps reported here are the maximum each piece of hardware reached during the testing. I only have one set of comparison results, but potential users of this case are not the ones looking for the last few degrees of cooling, at all costs. They just want to know if it's reasonable to run "X" hardware in a case this small. Test System:
Benchmark Applications:
Test Support Products:
Results:I have as close to an apples-to-apples comparison here, between the XIGMATEK Gigas and the Lian Li PC-A04, as I could get with recent test results. Both cases are for micro-ATX motherboards only (or smaller), both are smaller than a regular tower case, and both are all aluminum construction. The PA-A04 is a small tower and the Gigas is a small "cube" type case. I used the same components for both tests, including the same CPU cooler. The Gigas is able to take a taller CPU cooler, and that would improve the CPU temps even further. All temperatures are reported as measured, in degrees Celsius, and the ambient temperature for all tests was 25C. Let's look at the results:
The idle results for the both cases are in a very typical range for all of the components I measured: the Northbridge, the CPU, and the GPU. The only thing I noticed during testing is that the Gigas took less time than the Lian Li to get that last degree of temperature, before it reached absolute steady-state conditions. I think it's a consequence of the greater airflow through the Gigas, and the fact that the Gigas has ventilation holes in the side panel that feed cool air directly into the GPU cooling fan. Graphics card tend to soak up some of the heat internally, so they take longer to top out. Since most people's PC spends a lot of time idling, it's good to see that having a small, quiet case doesn't mean that you have to overcook your components every night while you sleep, leading to an untimely death.
Load performance is the real test, because modern processors have gotten very good at throttling back both clock speeds and voltages under idle conditions. They have also been getting better at keeping load temps under control, but the manufacturers continue to push for maximum performance, so the load temps aren't going down as much as the idle temps have. The additional airflow of the Gigas really helped with the system under load, and I think the straight line airflow helped, too. The PC-A04 case has a top exhaust and front intake fans, so the air has to change directions before it passes through the CPU cooler. Tower cases also have the video graphics card located below the CPU, and some of the heat from the GPU invariably rises up. In the cube format, the motherboard sits horizontal and the video card is beside the CPU, not below it. The Gigas has a nice tight airflow pattern for video cards that have a blower wheel and rear exhaust; fresh air comes directly in the ventilated side panel and then gets pushed out the back of the case. This is the same layout that works so well, and has been almost universally adopted for, the power supply cooling on most new cases. There are a few tower cases that have bottom inlets designed to supply cool air to the video card, but only a few. One thing I didn't test, but is an option, is liquid cooling. The layout of the case and location of the fans lends itself very well to the typical all-in-one liquid cooling solutions available today. That's not always a given with tower cases, especially ones that have been shrunk down a bit to match the smaller size of the uATX form factor. The Gigas can also accept CPU coolers with a height of up to 160mm, which opens the entire range of coolers with 120mm fans and almost all of the models with 140mm fans, as well. So, if your motherboard can handle it, throw as much CPU power at this system as you want. Note that the results above were achieved with a 92mm fan on the CPU cooler, because that's the cooler that fits best on the case I compared the Gigas with. I took a decidedly different tack with this build, using components that might not seem like obvious choices. The XIGMATEK Gigas is a classy cube that has a lot of curb appeal, and while some will just care about the exterior, I wanted to show that it is very capable of handling all of the high-end parts you might throw at it. I didn't have the latest hardware installed, but the ATI 5xxx series GPUs and the overclocked Wolfdale processor that I used are well known thermal loads that are comparable to the very latest components. No jokes about Ivy Bridge.... We're done with the actual review part, so let's get down to business, where I give you my Final Thoughts and Conclusions. Micro-ATX Final ThoughtsWhat's in a name...? Micro. It sounds appropriately like a computer tem, and it gives the impression of "smallness". When you think about it, almost every good thing that has happened in the PC industry in the last 20 years has been a byproduct of making things smaller. So why is it that the Build-It-Myself (AKA DIY) market has shunned micro-ATX form factor motherboards and stuck resolutely with the ATX standard? The first computer I ever built was an AT clone with a motherboard that measured 305mm x 350 mm, or 1068 cm2. My next system was a Baby-AT form factor of 330mm x 216mm, or 713 cm2. Shortly after, I built a machine with the new ATX style motherboard, measuring 305mm x 244mm, or 744 cm2. Wait, you say; that's bigger than the Baby-AT it replaced. True, and this moment in history was an inflection point, where the emphasis switched from making it smaller to making it more powerful. A lot of this is related to the excellent packaging design Intel achieved with the ATX. Any complaints we have today about component layout pale in comparison to the miserable mess of cables you ultimately ended up with, whenever you finished a Baby-AT build. The ATX specification, and products that met it, appeared in 1995. For a while, its future was unsure, as there was a large installed base of baby-AT systems out there, and upgrading was as popular then as it is now. Many new cases sold at the time could be adapted to accept either style of motherboard. Eventually though, the superior packaging of the ATX won over all the system builders, and the remaining 17 years is history. The micro-ATX (uATX) specification was released in late 1997, and products started appearing in 1998. The new board came in at 244mm square; or 595 cm2. This time, there was less of an evolutionary emphasis, and more of a branch in the design tree. ATX would continue for the mainstream segment, and uATX would be used for specialty products. There was still a market for smaller and more attractive systems, the same as today. Ultimately, Apple won over that market, and the large OEMs like IBM, HP, DELL and Compaq competed by using proprietary motherboard designs, or a variant of the emerging BTX spec, in order to squeeze the overall footprint of the system down to the smallest possible size. This left the uATX product lines high and dry for a long stretch of time. In the last several years, uATX motherboards have made a bit of a comeback, as the Home Theatre PC (HTPC) market has taken off. For some strange reason, this market has not been catered to as aggressively by the OEMs, so home builders have been stuffing uATX boards into attractive little HTPC cases and showing off their talents to members of the family who, until now, never had much appreciation of their resident computer geek's construction skills.
BTX was supposed to be the next generation, but it was too restrictive a specification for adoption by the DIY market. Its fatal flaw was reliance on the PSU fan for case airflow. The ATX form was updated to split the airflow for cooling the PSU and components mounted on the motherboard. This flexibility allowed ATX to meet a wider variety of requirements, and secured its future, as well as the future of its offspring and all the peripheral components that support the system. The power supply section of the ATX spec has been updated many times in 14 years, with two major revisions. Again, the theme for ATX has been adaptability, and it has been a successful one. Until now, performance of uATX boards has been fractionally lower than their full sized cousins. The inclusion in recent years of on-board (integrated) graphics processors (IGP) have made them ideal for low cost systems that don't have to meet the higher performance requirements or gaming, image processing and graphics production. So, they got a reputation as weak sisters, unable to do the heavy lifting. Well, now that's all changed, with the continued number of offerings from all the big names in motherboards. For a good while now, there are uATX boards that make no excuses. They may have been developed to meet the narrow requirements of gaming at LAN parties, but there are fewer reasons for overlooking a format that has lived in the shadow of its larger brother for a long, long time. A little extra planning is required before starting on a build like this, one that doesn't follow the standard tower layout. Once everything is set into place, you'll also pay a substantial penalty in time and effort to make even minor changes. That's nothing new for this market space, which doesn't cater to the enthusiast who changes components on a regular basis. XIGMATEK Gigas uATX Case ConclusionPerformance for most any computer case usually comes down to thermal management. How cool does it keep the internal components and how much noise does it make while doing so? On that score, I have to rate the XIGMATEK Gigas highly. The combination of four 120mm fans and the straight in - straight out airflow design provided a very favorable thermal environment. The passive ventilation on the side panel supplies plenty of fresh air for the video card, which means the case fans can be focused on the motherboard. The ability to use virtually any 120mm CPU cooler also helps keep temps down. While not exactly commonplace, you can also run a SLI/CrossFire arrangement in the Gigas. You would use up all four of the expansion slots, assuming the video cards are double slot designs, but lots of people have no other cards installed in their systems besides the video card. Noise was low, with all four fans running at full speed. It wasn't silent, but if you want it to be, just use the supplied fan controller to reach that happy medium between fan noise and cooling. Appearance is the strongest suit of the Gigas, and appearance is probably going to be the main motivation for buyers of this XIGMATEK case. I think it looks fantastic, and if I had one, I would keep it out in a prominent place, on display. It belongs on top of the desk, not buried down beneath it. The bare anodized aluminum finish is very attractive and visually striking, and the black version offers the option for blending in a bit better with typical home or office surroundings. The only points I can knock off on the exterior design are for the mismatch on the various finishes around the external drive bays, and the strange choice of gold finish for the feet on the bottom. On the interior, XIGMATEK had to rearrange the elements a bit in order to fit everything into this slightly unusual form factor. With the way the case is laid out, a version with an Acrylic top panel might be interesting. Even without slick cable management features, most of the clutter is below and hidden by the drive cages. It's a unique opportunity to show how the interior matches the uncluttered exterior design of the chassis. Case modders, take note. Construction of the XIGMATEK Gigas was top notch. With the exception of one steel cross brace, the entire case is made from aluminum. Despite the lower stiffness of the lighter construction material, the Gigas was very solid and rigid. The design is fairly lightweight, which is an advantage if you want to place it somewhere besides the floor, something I imagine many people will want to do. It's a piece of industrial art. It's not something you take into battle with you, or toss into a typical teenager's room. Most of the panels and structural elements are riveted together, providing a tight and secure connection. Screw threads and aluminum are almost always a bad combination. The anti-vibration measures used throughout the case show good attention to detail, which was reflected in most areas of the case. I really liked the front panel wiring; the braided cables were much easier to manage than most and were long enough to cover any conceivable location on the motherboard. The four fans that were included are of good quality, something XIGMATEK is widely known for. Altogether, construction is another strong point for the Gigas.
The Gigas isn't necessarily a feature-rich product, but let's go down the list of what you do get. Four high quality fans are included, as well as an accessory fan controller that fits into a spare expansion slot. Almost any size CPU cooler and graphics card can be accommodated, including SLI or CrossFire multi-GPU setups, if your uATX motherboard supports it. PSU size is nearly unlimited, as well. USB 3.0 is available on the front panel, and the new standardized USB 3.0 connector is employed on the interior cable. The spring loaded door for the optical drive cleans up the appearance of the external drive bays a bit, and works with any standard ODD without modification. Normally, airflow and cooling are only covered in the performance section, but the ability to credibly run SLI or CrossFire setups is a feature that deserves mention; many uATX cases don't support a multi-GPU configuration very well. On the down side, I didn't have much success integrating 2.5" drives into my build, and either I just didn't "get it" or a rethink of the mounting points is called for. Full aluminum construction and wrap-around front corners are not things you'll find in a budget product. Likewise four installed fans and an included fan controller. The elegant design is free of course, as many an impoverished industrial designer will attest. But therein lays the real value, IMO. What this $149.99 (Newegg/Amazon) Xigmatek case does, that no $75 steel and plastic construct can, is make the transition from the floor to the table top. The Gigas is potentially the cheapest piece of art you will ever buy and put on display in your home. As a bonus, you get a fully functional computer case that can handle a complete selection of today's hottest and most powerful PC components. I admit it; I like pretty things that go fast. Whether it's a McLaren 8F, one of Butzi Porsche's 90x series racers, a Bimoto V Due or an enthusiastic Olympic hurdler, there's something about a sleek visual design that inspires wretched excess. We've just established that I'm a poor choice to offer judgment on the value of this case, but I'm still obligated to do so. For my money, I'd willingly pay the extra 10, 20, or 30 extra dollars over a more pedestrian and cost-effective choice of hardware. There are competitive offerings in very similar form factors from several premium case manufacturers, and if you're looking at one, it's the design and features that will probably drive your decision, not the number in the tens column. In the Great Hackintosh Debate on our site, someone called PCs "ugly", and they have a valid point. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I think the vast majority of consumers would never use that term to describe the Gigas. Pros:
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Comments
Back to the case(!) at hand. If a system has a mix of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 interfaces, which most PCs do, it makes a lot of sense to color code them, since they're mechanically identical.