Bitfenix Prodigy Alternatives

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board2death986

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 13, 2005
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I was almost hell bent on getting the Prodigy. I currently use the Coolermaster HAF XM and while it is an amazing case, it's simply too bulky where it sits in my room and for travel it's simply. . inconvenient. I've flip flopped between towers, mid towers and small form factors for years but the Prodigy caught my eye.

I understand it is a bit on the big side for an ITX form factor, but it allows for some great cooling which is why I like it (especially coming from an air cooled monster like the HAF XM). I would be able to tuck my H100 in the optical bay with a 200mm up front and a 140mm in the back. Also the first case I've seen where the motherboard lays perpendicular to the floor.

For whatever reason though it's been out of stock at newegg for a few weeks now, and on top of that I've never been fully sold on the better ITX boards. Limited memory, SATA ports are in odd places. . . .meh.

To the point then, can anyone suggest an mATX case with similiar cooling features? I would need to fit a dual 120mm radiator and would love decent air cooling. Size doesn't need to be tiny, but at least around mATX mid tower or so.
 
Fractal Design Arc Mini can fit a Corsair H100 on the top.
 
I'm probably going to wait it out, I'm kind of set on Newegg because of my credit line with them.
 
for sure dont go ITX, you really have to have the mindset for it. And you I can tell would not be happy with it.. a decent practical MATX case to work in for me would be the TJ08E by silverstone. Great quaility and layout that can fit everything you need.http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=303 Just the hard drives block the memory if you ever swap that stuff out.

The future Arc Mini v2 or something I believe i saw a link for somehere... and that looks very promising indeed.
 
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board2death986 said:
I was almost hell bent on getting the Prodigy. I currently use the Coolermaster HAF XM and while it is an amazing case, it's simply too bulky where it sits in my room and for travel it's simply. . inconvenient. I've flip flopped between towers, mid towers and small form factors for years but the Prodigy caught my eye.

I understand it is a bit on the big side for an ITX form factor, but it allows for some great cooling which is why I like it (especially coming from an air cooled monster like the HAF XM). I would be able to tuck my H100 in the optical bay with a 200mm up front and a 140mm in the back. Also the first case I've seen where the motherboard lays perpendicular to the floor.

For whatever reason though it's been out of stock at newegg for a few weeks now, and on top of that I've never been fully sold on the better ITX boards. Limited memory, SATA ports are in odd places. . . .meh.

To the point then, can anyone suggest an mATX case with similiar cooling features? I would need to fit a dual 120mm radiator and would love decent air cooling. Size doesn't need to be tiny, but at least around mATX mid tower or so.
Click to expand...


Heh, I'm in the same boat as you. I've been pondering the Prodigy for a while now, but it's been out of stock. After seeing a few more reviews though and how wobbly the plastic legs really are, I'm really starting to second-guess it (no, really - in some of the video reviews you can see the presenter barely touch the table and the Prodigy will wiggle pretty noticeably).

board2death986 said:
This looks to be a start, but the quality sounds iffy and the cable management = no.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146065
Click to expand...

Yikes that things hideous!
 
So I just found a black prodigy last week on performance-pcs.com, I was refreshing the page from having it open the previous day - it appeared and I snatched it quickly.

I've gone through so many cases in all different form factors looking for something not too giant yet flexible and for myself the prodigy nails it perfectly.

My case family tree:
5+ cheapy cases not even worth mentioning
Antec P180
CM HAF-X
Thermaltake Armor A30
Silverstone FT03T
Fractal Design Define Mini
Back to heavily modified Thermaltake Armor A30
CM Elite 120
CM 690 II Black and White
Bitfenix Prodigy

I did something I hadn't done in ages when I came back to the prodigy that most people would probably ask "what's the point!?"... I went full air cooling.

I've gone from all in one, or closed loop, coolers to full custom loop back to a mixture of the two back full swing to full air cooling again. I honestly got tired of every-time I wanted to modify my system having to drain my loop or add in a part without draining and bleeding the system etc.

Sure the benefits were great but I didn't find it to be worth it, the prodigy allows watercooling options galore, I could go simple with it and do a CLC on the cpu, full loop on cpu and gpu or whatever.

Honestly though, this is one of the best air cooled cases I think I've ever used and it's near silent - I picked up a CM TPC-812 for the 2700k which is OC'd to 4.8GHz and I have a huge 230mm fan in the front, 120mm up top and push/pull on the 812, this thing keeps CPU at ~50-60c and the gpu gets 72c max while gaming with every fan on low.

I've been tempted to try this for $69 because it's just one hell of a deal but I don't think I'd like the idea of having to pull the gpu apart all over again and not be able to just pop in a new gpu whenever I wanted without extra crap.

Personally, I believe the prodigy allows so much flexibility not found in any other case it's just amazing, GTX 690 if you want SLi - what more could you need?

As far as the feet being wobbly, I can say that I guess they are if I wobble it but that I love the fact that they are awesome at dampening any and all sounds of the case - unless you get a lot of earth quakes I would say the wobbling probably won't be noticeable.
 
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xyexz said:
As far as the feet being wobbly, I can say that I guess they are if I wobble it but that I love the fact that they are awesome at dampening any and all sounds of the case - unless you get a lot of earth quakes I would say the wobbling probably won't be noticeable.
Click to expand...

This is good to know, as I've only seen it in videos (I've yet to see it in a store anywhere).

Also, that Aseteck GPU/CPU combo cooler you linked looks badass!
 
Yeah I've seen pretty good remarks on it over at OCN, don't know if many people know about it here but it's a crazy deal on ebay and there are plenty in stock, making it extremely tempting lol.
 
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