In-Win GT1 Case Review: Fighting an Uphill Battle
by Dustin Sklavos on March 8, 2013 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- In-Win
- ATX
Assembling the In-Win GT1
In-Win's GT1 gets to be the first benefactor of our shiny new testbed motherboard. Our old Z68 micro-ATX board ran into a serious problem: it wasn't splitting CPU PCIe lanes to the second PCIe x16 slot for SLI, which is the "next level" of testing. Even though I tried just as hard as I could to find another comically undersized board to install in our enthusiast cases, unfortunately I had to get a full ATX board that would be more representative of what users might build with. Rejoice, my year of spiting readers complaining about the micro-ATX board is over! (Actually, you guys were right. The added flexibility of using a micro-ATX board wasn't worth the downsides. Mea culpa.)
Because In-Win included motherboard standoffs effectively extruded from the motherboard tray, installing our new test board was actually a very simple affair. They do include additional standoffs if you're using a smaller board like the previous test board, though. Wiring the motherboard was also easy enough to do, but In-Win includes two power LED leads: one for three pin spaces, another for two, instead of just splitting the positive and negative leads.
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The toolless drive installation also went absolutely swimmingly. For 5.25" drives, the toolless clamp is secure and the bay shields themselves pop in and out easily enough without being frustratingly loose. 3.5" drives fit snugly into the trays; the trays themselves are a pretty sturdy plastic with exactly enough flex, and pins snap into the side screw holes of the drives. 2.5" drives can be bottom-mounted to the trays, but In-Win also includes two dedicated installation points for 2.5" drives. The second is in the bottom of the case, beneath the last drive tray, but the first is actually at the bottom of the top drive cage. There are two wedges that slot into the side screw holes of the 2.5" drive; you angle the drive in, then screw in the other side, and it's held into place securely. You do have to remove the left panel of the cage first, though; that's held in place by a single screw.
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Mounting the power supply went easily enough, but when we get to the expansion cards we see another place where In-Win cut costs. The expansion slots are covered by perforated steel instead of actual slot covers, so once you pop 'em out, they're open for business forever unless you buy some aftermarket covers. The steel In-Win used for the case is actually pretty damn sturdy, too, and I was surprised at how much force I had to apply to eventually remove the covers.
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Where installing our testbed into the GT1 goes haywire, though, is the cabling. There are a couple of major problems going on here. First, there's no routing hole for the AUX 12V line, so you'll have to run it across the motherboard. Second, the routing holes that feed into a channel around the motherboard aren't just small, they're actually already mostly occupied by the case's leads.
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The third problem is the biggest, in my opinion. Our review unit came with all the fans and fan controller connected incorrectly. The fan controller used in the GT1 isn't like the ones I've seen in other cases; it's a single three-pin lead connected to a molex adapter, and if you plug the chain of fans into the wrong side of the sequence, all the fans just run at full speed. That's exactly how the GT1 shipped to me, and if it hadn't dawned on me after a deep and restful sleep to go back and recheck the connection order, this review would be missing an entire set of results and the fan controller declared bunk.
Putting together the GT1 was ultimately fairly easily, but was heavily marred by the cable routing issues and the incorrectly-assembled fan control. I will tell you that with both video cards installed (along with everything else), this case gets cramped in a hurry, but that's to be expected from a mid-tower.
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MadMan007 - Friday, March 8, 2013 - link
This thing was beaten with an ugly stick from the future.I'm not against angular and showy designs existing even if they aren't for me, but this one is just too inconsistent as if the design team was actually four different teams, each assigned to one section, whose designs were then mashed together.
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - link
Awesome case, this is the one to buy.All the stupid little complaints are just that, stupid and little.
If it wasn't all black I'd buy two.
The unnotched spot in the drive bay is for any custom install one needs- perfect.
One usb3 up front is fine, there's 2 usb2 and that's what most people have a ton of, depite the elite smarm face the techies here get when they cry and whine about every dollar, indicating usb3 items are something they have NOT AT ALL.
Great case, great price, I really love the whining about it, it's just such excellent entertainment.
I'd wager 90% of the people here see much uglier when they look in the mirror, compared to looking at the case, and yes that does say something about them, lol
Hypocrite, self flagellating.
AWESOME case - if you need more than 6 internal drive bays, you're a stupid freak.
CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - link
Oh goody, it comes in storm trooper white...http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/CES-2013-Antec...
BOUGHT !
CeriseCogburn - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
Major advantages over the crappy antex gx700:1. Good metal, sturdy
2. Hot swap sata bay on top
3. On off on top not middle
4. Top 5.25 accessible not filled with wiring
5. Good 3.5 drive trays just the right flexibility
6. Clear side window ( for all the crybabies about how a motherboard or video card looks, this HAS to be a 300%+ WIN. (of course whiners are not consistent and are so braindead, they usually don't notice how they completely contradict themselves all the time)
7. Removable mid internal tray for long video cards.
8. wins stock cpu temps
9. better on drive temps
Yes, I don't see really what the problem is other than the lemmings who go along with the reviewer like blind rats.
If any complaint is valid, it's the lack of lots of space for cable hiding - that's it.
This case stomps the stupid gx700 into the ground.
hbycr1 - Saturday, April 11, 2015 - link
i bought this case and there's nothing wrong with it.. Everything fits properly if you buy compatible parts.. I think you're just looking for something to complain about.lwatcdr - Friday, March 8, 2013 - link
Lets face it drives are huge today. Unless your building a NAS you do not need 7 drive bays, Frankly you do not need 6 3.5 drive bays.If you someone was going to build a really hot machine today they would probably go with two SSDs in RAID0 for the System drive and maybe two 4Gb HDDs in RAID 1 for data.
I agree about only one USB 3 is a deal breaker.
If I was going to make a version 2 of this case I would
Drop the hot dock on top.
2 USB3 ports
Room in the top for an H110
140mm exhaust fan
shaolin95 - Friday, March 8, 2013 - link
You dont need 7 drive bays, really? So because YOU dont need it the rest of the world is the same right?Skidmarks - Friday, March 8, 2013 - link
This case is targeted at gamers. Do you know any gamers that need 7 drives?CeriseCogburn - Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - link
I have some nutball stupid friends that drool because they have harddrives - and always have to show how they add them over their home lan, it's like a retarded addiction.One example, like 5.6 terabytes of HD space, with 4.2 terabytes free, and the doof wants more harddrives - people have an insane sort of addiction there - a lot of them do - and the older wackadoos think cookies and internet surfing takes up all their memory (that's harddrive space to them, memory - since it "remembers" stuff when the computer is turned off.
I agree though, whining about 6 internal bays is rather crazy.
Omega215D - Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - link
You really are a retarded fuck.