| Xigmatek Utgard CPC-T90DB-U01 Computer Case |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Steven Iglesias-Hearst | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 30 June 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Xigmatek Utgard CPC-T90DB ReviewXigmatek have a few cases in their collection now, the latest is the Xigmatek Utgard CPC-T90DB-U01 which is the focus of this review. The Utgard is in many ways very similar to the Midgard chassis and it has many differences too, some are good while some are not so good. There is real support for water cooling with the Utgard as well as 3 design choices - Classic (U01), Windowed (U02) or mesh (U03) and all come with the option of additional 500w power supply. This review is for the Utgard Classic without PSU. The Utgard comes with three fans pre-installed, the fans installed in the front and rear are XLF-F1253 120mm LED fans and installed in the top of the case is a new fan from Xigmatek - The XLF-F1703, 170mm LED fan, more on these later in the review. The Xigmatek Utgard is a reasonably sized mid tower chassis, has room inside for tall CPU coolers (18cm) and long graphics cards (30cm) but only 7 PCI slots so no support for triple SLI / CrossFireX.
The Xigmatek Utgard weighs around 10kg empty and around 12.5kg loaded which isn't too bad considering you wont be lumping it around in a satchel all day, but should the need arise (say for a LAN party) it isn't going to be too heavy to carry a short distance. Now that I have captured your interest please read on to find out whats good and whats not with the Xigmatek Utgard. Xigmatek Utgard Features
Xigmatek Utgard Specifications
About the company: Xigmatek
Purpose and targets of becoming one of the worlds leaders in thermal PC Industry were set for Xigmatek Co. Ltd in 2005, the founding year! To ensure reaching this project aims, Xigmatek's management followed up with hard work, experiences and customer friendly business style. Closer Look: ExteriorIn this section we are going to look at the design of the Xigmatek Utgard and discuss the various features. The Utgard is following in the footsteps of many other mid tower cases by going for the full mesh front which is a rather nice design and certainly has appeal.
The front I/O panel sits at the top on the Utgard which is a design first for Xigmatek, who normally place it halfway down on the front, around where the badge is. The badge is held in place by double sided sticky tape and is easy to remove should you find the need to, either that or remove the 5.25" bay cover it is stuck to and swap it with the one at the top that you would remove when installing an optical drive. Each 5.25" bay cover is made from steel mesh and has foam backing to act as a dust filter.
On top of the Xigmatek Utgard there is a recessed area at the front and a raised meshed panel that is hiding a nice surprise that I will discuss later in the review.
Looking now at the side access panel there are two cut-out's in which to install additional fans. The top cut-out, which is directly over the CPU, can accommodate either an 80mm, 90mm, 120mm or 140mm fan. If you have a tall CPU cooler than this may be out of the question. Below that is the next cut-out which is directly over the PCI slots and can accommodate either a 120mm or 140mm fan. The side panels are on very tight and require a good tug to remove for the first few times as is usually the case with new cases.
Moving round to the back and its nice to see that the paint job extends here too, although the paint has started to come off of the rivets a little. As I mentioned earlier this chassis shares the same design as the Midgard and the difference here are the vented PCI slot plates, a little upgrade but it all adds up to better airflow and therefore cooling.
The rear access panel also has ventilation cut-outs the top one sits right where the CPU backplate will be and the bottom vent doesn't really seem to serve a purpose. This side panel is exactly the same as the one fitted to the Midgard chassis, at least the bottom vent had a purpose there as the HDD rack faced from side to side rather than front to back as is the case with the Utgard.
On the bottom are two large feet at the front and 2 smaller feet at the back, this isn't a problem however as the Utgard stands very sturdy, the feet give the chassis a ground clearance of 1.8cm. The ventilation that you see in the middle is for a 140mm or 120mm to be fitted inside, and the vent at the back is for the PSU. Detailed Exterior FeaturesLets now take a closer look at the exterior features of the Xigmatek Utgard mid tower chassis.
The Xigmatek Utgard is not unlike many cases currently on the market with an all mesh front panel, Top mounted I/O panel followed by a recessed area and then more mesh. this is by no means a bad thing, and as previously mentioned the Xigmatek Utgard also has 3 styling choices for the side panel - a feature that a lot of case manufacturers don't offer. The recessed area makes a lot of sense seeing as not all cases that offer front e-SATA and/or USB connectivity actually offer you somewhere to put your connected device.
Looking at the front I/O panel I don't really need to tell you whats what here as it is more than clear. Quantity is the main focus here - four USB ports and two e-SATA ports are more than you get with most cases and the addition of two fan controllers that control up to six fans (three on each) means that you wont need to fork out for an aftermarket solution. The power LED is blue and the HDD activity LED is red. The Utgard sports the brightest blue LED I've seen to indicate power status, and it really catches your eye. The front panel has a protective film in place and is glossy black when removed.
Looking towards the top at the back of the Utgard case a little clip is visible. Simply push the tab upwards and the top panel will slide backwards and lift off...
Revealing a very large area that will capacitate dual 120mm or dual 140mm water cooling radiators that are less than 46mm thick. There are two brackets to attach to your radiator to keep it from moving around, the rear bracket has two possible locations and the front bracket has just one. By my own measurements the dimensions for this area (with top cover on) are 4.5cm deep x 32cm long x 16cm wide. There is also a cutout towards the front of the case for cable/pipe routing.
A close up here of the PSU dust filter that simply slides out to the back for easy cleaning. Closer Look: InteriorLets now have a look at the inside of the Xigmatek Utgard and see whats good and whats not so good.
Xigmatek have used the same securing method to attach the front panel to the chassis as they did with the Midgard, which works, but in my opinion is very cheap and requires you to tug quite hard in order to remove it. I had first thought that the only possibility for mounting a front intake fan was in the HDD caddy but upon closer inspection I noticed that there are fan mounting holes for two intake fans size options are 120mm, 90mm and 80mm. The metal brackets are removable and have tabs on the ends that allow you to re-attach it to the chassis. The mesh bay covers are also removable and therefore swappable so if you want a nice clean look then you can do away with either the 5.25" to 3.5" adapter piece or the badged piece too.
The Xigmatek Utgard has room inside for ATX / Micro ATX motherboards and has a super large cut out for easy CPU backplate access. The important inner dimensions of the Utgard are as follows; 18.5cm from Motherboard tray to side panel, 30cm from the PCI backplates to 5.25" bays. The orange is a very nice contrast to the otherwise dark black chassis. There are a total of six cut-out's for cable routing, they don't have rubber grommets, but they don't need them as the finish around these cut-outs is very good as are all edges inside the chassis, no danger of cutting yourself in here.
removing the back panel gives you the access required to route all of those wires out of sight, Xigmatek have had the foresight here to give a 1/2 inch gap between the motherboard tray and side panel for the thick bundles of cable you might want to hide behind here.
Installed in the second from top 5.25" bay, is this 5.25" to 3.5" adapter. Intended for floppy drives or flash card readers or any other 3.5" devices you may have. Unfortunately this isn't intended for use with a HDD as the mounting holes are just slightly off. You may ask why I would want to install a HDD here, so read on to find out why.
Here we have the HDD caddy which converts three 5.25" bays into a place to hold four 3.5" HDD's. This is the worst point about the Utgard case, allow me to explain. After installing all my hardware in the case I tried to remove the HDD caddy but found that the motherboard blocked me from withdrawing the caddy to the inside of the case, this meant that I had to take it out the front, which in turn meant that I had to remove three of the 5.25" metal plates, which was very difficult to do as thay are attached to the plate above and the plate below as well as attached to the chassis at each side too. In the end I resorted to using tin snips to remove the first one, after that it wasn't too difficult (good job I can screw them back in place). In short I had to deconstruct the front of the case to withdraw the caddy. Once the caddy was removed I tried to insert a HDD into it, this proved very difficult as the rubber grommets installed to reduce vibration made it an extremely tight fit. Once i had managed to force a HDD in I came across my next problem - securing it in place, the screws provided with the Utgard are just that bit too short to go through the grommets and screw into the HDD, so now my HDD is sitting inside the caddy (while very tight and snug) unsecured until I can source some longer screws. All in all I was messing around for half an hour which was longer than it took to put in all my other hardware into the case. Also should you fill this caddy with drives you will also be restricting air intake to your case as this is the only intake fan, which is probably the reason behind the design change from the Midgard HDD rack to the current setup seen here in the Utgard, and will require you to install a second intake fan to provide efficient airflow.
This is the bundled accessory package that comes with the Xigmatek Utgard which consists of a black and white illustrated instruction manual in various languages, three cable management clips, one of which you can see in use on the first photo on this page, two rubber grommets for use with the water cooling knock-out'son the back of the case and last but not least a selection of different screws and standoffs all contained within the black carboard box. Detailed Interior FeaturesNow that we have had a look inside the Utgard case its time to examine each part in more detail. Xigmatek have some interesting tool free features that actually work so lets take a closer look.
Installed in the top of the case is one of Xigmatek's newest fans - The XLF-F1703 which is a 170mm white LED fan with a max RPM of 800, 65.3 CFM an a noise level of <18 dBA. If this isn't enough for your needs then you can remove it and install two 120mm or 140mm fans in its place.
Moving down the back of the Utgard case Xigmatek have installed an XLF-F1253 120mm white LED cooling fan (same as front intake fan) max 1500 RPM and 61 CFM and also with quiet level <20 dBA. Above the fan are the first two water cooling knockouts.
Below that are the seven PCI slots, they are using the same tool free clips that were used in the Midgard-W, the original Midgard came with different tool free clamps that got bad feedback and so Xigmatek came up with this design. These clips work very well as they have a little bit on the end that actually goes through the screw hole and the clamp itself clicks into place and gives a nice strong hold on the PCI back plate of the installed card. Xigmatek have also took another step in the design process by making the PCI blanking plates vented rather than just solid peices which is a plus for design and performance. Also the second pair of water cooling knock-out's can be found here.
Below the PCI slots is the PSU installation area, anti-vibration rubber has been placed where the PSU makes contact with the back and bottom of the case. The bottom is also vented and has a filter underneath the case. You can install your PSU either face up or face down in the Utgard chassis.
Moving to the right of the PSU is a pre-installed fan bracket with built in dust filter, this is screwed in from underneath the case and will allow for a 140mm fan to be simply clicked into place, or if you would rather install a 120mm fan then there is also the option to install that here but it would need to be screwed into place from underneath.
Moving towards the front of the case are the tool free clips for your 5.25" devices, like the PCI tool free clamps, these were also seen previously in the Midgard chassis. These also work very well and allow you to still use a screw for piece of mind. Simply place your device into the chosen bay and line up the front most screw hole on your device to the front most screw hole on the case, push in the orange button and slide it forwards and it locks into place. These tool free clips also have a part that inserts into the screw holes of your device for maximum hold.
Here is a picture of a quick install of hardware inside the Xigmatek Utgard. As you can see there is a fantastic amount of room to work with and the cable routing is efficient. There was sufficient room under the HDD caddy to tuck away any unused wires even though there was plenty of room behind the motherboard tray also. I wanted to show that wires from the PSU needn't interfere with the bottom fan mount as noted in a review I read on another website. As with all cases that have a bottom mounted PSU, people with older power supplies will run into the problem of the 12v CPU power cable not being long enough to route behind the tray and back in and round to the board. There are a few options you can choose in this situation, 1) Use the method illustrated above and run it over the board, 2) Run the cable under the motherboard before you secure it in place or 3) Buy an extension for your power cable - You can pick these up for as little as £3.00 for a basic option from Akasa, or £8.00 for a really neat individually braided option from NZXT. Xigmatek Utgard Final ThoughtsThe Utgard is Xigmatek's flagship case and improves upon the Midgard in many ways. For such a cheap case you really do get what you pay for, a very sturdy and well built case, fully painted interior and exterior, dedicated water cooling support, tool free options that work and three different options of side panel. The window and mesh side panel options cost slightly more but it still doesn't break the bank. Just take a look at the box in the picture below this alone must cost a pretty penny to reproduce. It is a much needed marketing tool though, until Xigmatek has secured its place in the PC case sector along side brands like Antec, NZXT, Cooler Master, Lian-Li and Silverstone. Xigmatek needs to shout to potential buyers and the box does a very good job of it, and provides more than enough information about the case on every panel.
With the following hardware installed, temperatures were monitored and recorded.
CPU and GPU were both using stock coolers, the system was allowed to idle for half an hour and the temps recorded were; CPU - Core #0: 33C Core #1: 37C and the GPU sat idle at 48C. Next the CPU was loaded with Prime95 and max temps recorded were; Core #0: 55C Core #1: 56C. Next the GPU was loaded with FURMark v1.8.2 in stability test mode and max GPU temp recorded was - 59C. When this same hardware was installed in it's previous case (iCute 0301SL) the CPU would never idle below 50C and the GPU never below 60C and the noise level of the fans was way too loud for my liking. All in all the airflow in the Utgard is very good and a big improvement has been seen. Xigmatek CPC-T90DB ConclusionIn this section I am going to write a brief five point summary on the following categories; Performance, Appearance, Construction, Functionality and Value. These views are my own and help me to give the Xigmatek Utgard a rating out of 10, a high score does not necessarily mean that it is better than a PC case reviewed by another writer here at Benchmark Reviews, that may have got a lower score, it is however a good indicator of whether the product is good or not. I would strongly urge you to read the entire review if you have not already, so that you can make an educated decision for yourself. The Xigmatek Utgard performs as expected for a case with so much room and premium fans installed, while the fans are not silent at full speed they are by no means loud or distracting. With space dedicated to watercooling the case is given the potential to perform even better. Appearance is very important at Xigmatek, and it really shows in this case. The Utgard is fully painted inside and outside and the nice contrast of orange accessories goes very well with the Xigmatek brand and gives this case its own unique style. The finish is rather easy to spoil with your fingerprints, so you will need a cloth handy for when you have completed your build. Overall construction is very good, the case is very sturdy and all edges are finished very well, the plastic clips that hold the front fascia on are, I think, very cheap. While they do the job of holding it in place, Xigmatek may like to look at maybe using a hinged door with future cases, as tugging at the front panel to remove it is less than ideal. Removing the metal plates installed in front of eight of the nine 5.25" bays was rather difficult as I started in the middle, if I had started from the top then I may not have had so much trouble, but then I would have removed more than I needed to anyway.... Functionality is also very good, The tool free options actually work as good as using screws, and if you need that extra bit of security or piece of mind you are still able to use screws. There is plenty of room behind the motherboard tray to accommodate any wires you might see fit to hide there and there are also plenty of cut-outs in the motherboard tray to route wires there. There is also a very big cut-out for CPU backplate access. Two fan control knobs on the front I/O plate allow for control of up to 6 fans using 3 pin plugs. The only bad point is the HDD caddy which caused me some hassle but isn't detrimental to the case overall and only requires a little 'out of the box' thinking to overcome. You can purchase the Xigmatek Utgard at Caseking from €69.90 (euro) and with all of the above features considered; efficient cable routing, full interior and exterior paint job, three premium fans, filtered intake for PSU, filtered front mesh panels, option to install up to nine fans and deicated space for water cooling. I consider the price of €69.90 to be very very good value for money. Although it's difficult to locate the Utgard for sale in North America, the Xigmatek Asgard is available for $40 while the Midgard sells for $45 at NewEgg. Just like any other case currently on the market today, the Xigmatek Utgard is not perfect, but for any bad point there are many good points to outweigh them. It is very good value for money and I would, without a doubt, recommend this case to anyone looking to build a DIY PC or simply as an upgrade, whether they are on a budget or not. Pros:
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Comments
As said though the HDD caddy is a bugger to work with, very difficult to pull out and actually fitting HDD's in it can be a pain too.
The front panel on the other hand is appalling, the power button had a cheap feel to it, the knobs are poorly made and on mine, has a faulty contruction. For starters there was no cable for the HDD activity LED, attaching USB devices causes the power connection to the B set of fans to become unreliablek, it also becomes extremely hot where (I guess) the resistor is.
Shame really as otherwise for the money this is a very good case.
Xigmatek seem to be having problems with quality control.
So far, quite worrying, but hopefully there won't be any more problems!
surely the makers of this case should take into account that the power connector on certain motherboards are not all in the same position, or is there an extention that's available to allow me to secure my power supply into position?.
However, I have never had a problem with the main (24-pin) cable and connector. Where is it located on your motherboard? Can you bypass the behind-the-tray routing and gain some length that way?
There are extension cables available to buy, if you don't want to go to the trouble of makiing one:
performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2512
frozencpu.com/products/3224/psu-174/12_24-pin_ATX_Extension_Ca ble.html
Subsequently, it fails no matter how i try to configure my 'Realtek HD Audio Manager', also tried to use different headphone without success.
The controlling fan speed knobs are very hot to touch, hopefully it wouldn't fail later on due to heat stress.