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Kingwin KT-424

V

vivid7

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
Messages
198
im thinking about buying this case... and i was wondering if anyone had it. if you do could you post some pics of your case? ty

and also if you could tell me the pros and cons of it :)
 
Google "KT-424" and the first few search returns are pretty good reviews of the case with plenty of photos. They did a good job of stating the main pros and cons.

Just to add to those reviews ...

Like the Lian-Li's around $100, the KT-424 has these horrendous stamped fan grills that should be removed. If you care about noise, don't even bother with the stock sleeve-bearing fans. Swap them out before you even start putting components in, because you can't easily change the front fans if the hard drives are in place. If you are going to cut out the stamped grills, you might as well do that too in the beginning. If you don't want to do any cutting, you should probably go with the slightly more expensive Cooler Master Praetorian instead. They look pretty similar, but the Cooler Master doesn't have those lousy stamped fan grills but lacks the rubber hard drive grommets and drive rails.

If you use the included fan filter, it definitely does filter dust, but it restricts intake and at least in my case, caused enough negative air pressure such that my optical drive and floppy drive get dusty pretty quickly. So a few weeks ago, I removed the included fan filter. So far, the negative air pressure problem seems to be gone. I'm gonna wait a few more weeks before checking how bad the dust is on the inside. The front mesh grill already does a little bit of filtering.

The case is definitely a nice entry level Aluminum case. Removeable mobo tray, 2.0mm thick Aluminum alloy, tool-less drive installation, thumb screw access to almost everything, rubber grommet mounts for the hard drives, rheostat for front fans ... good bang for the buck.

My gripes:

- Power button and front USB / firewire build quality doesn't seem as nice as those of the Cooler Master Praetorian.

- Stupid stamped grills.

- Negative air pressure if using front fan filter and assuming your front fans push about the same amount of air as the exhaust and PSU

- Stock fans are worthless if you care about noise

- Lian-Li like pushpin fan mounts ... the front ones are somewhat difficult to remove. Also, after removing the rear stamped fan grill, I wanted to attach a 80mm wire grill but the pushpins were too short.

- Hard drive grommets are definitely nice for reducing noise, but they make installation a tad bit harder.

- Clip style motherboard standoffs (I think the Lian-Li's use these too). The reason I mention this, is because I have the SLK900U but the corner of it's backplate under the motherboard gets in the way of one of the standoff clips. So instead I had to ziptie that motherboard mounting point to the mobo tray. I actually didn't zip tie it at first, because I thought one missing motherboard screw wouldn't matter too much. But after going to a few LAN parties, I inadvertently flipped the case a few times such that the SLK900U was warping my NF7-S slightly. Zip tied it and seems okay now. Of course, this may not be an issue depending on your motherboard and HSF.

Overall, I'm still satisfied with this case.

-------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: a few more things I forgot to mention

- KT-424 front firewire does not connect to mobo directly, so there'll be a cable hanging out of the back if you want to use front firewire.

- Cooler Master Praetorian has 80mm blowhole

- KT-424 front bezel mounting clips are made of plastic so they may wear out if you frequently access the rheostat or clean the filters. One Newegg reviewer pointed out that his clips already wore out. They do make the front easy to remove though.

The Praetorian on the other hand has a sturdier front bezel but the screws require an Allen wrench, and thus makes swapping the front fans slightly more difficult.
 
can you post some pics of your case? i want to see what it looks like with parts in it :)
and also how are the plastic pieces on the sides of the bays
 
Most of those reviews had a few photos of parts installed and more neatly done than my case, so I'll only concentrate on a few specifics like the firewire cable and stamped fan grills removed.

Rear exhaust fan (poorly cut, I used a case nibbler and I never took the time to sand it down) and note how the firewire cable comes out of the rear of the case ... they really should have provided the type that connects directly to the motherboard headers.



Front stamped fan grills removed (once again poorly cut and not sanded down)



Lousy shot of the inside of the case. My camera and photography skills aren't the greatest but I guess that's a good thing since my cable management isn't the greatest also. I don't care because I have no case window.



Running without the front fan filter lets the LED fans shine brighter (I replaced the stock fans)

 
nice jello, how are those plastic things on the hdd/cdrom they look kinda cheezy, do the work well and can they be taken off...thanks
 
very nice jello, thats what i wanted to see.. i think im gonna buy this case now :)
JELLO IS GOD
 
The drive rails for the optical drives / floppy work fine as far as I can tell. That is, my optical drive never fell out when I moved the case. If you don't feel safe, once the rails are in the locked position, they line up with the original mounting holes on left side of the dvd-rom so you can secure that side with the provided screws.

I don't think you can remove the rails ... and if you did, from what I can tell you can't secure your drives on the side behind the motherboard, because there seems to be a 1/2 cm gap between the drive cage and the drive itself. You'd probably have to go to the hardware store to find longer screws for the right side, or just rely only on the two mounting holes on the left side of the dvd-rom.

But honestly, I don't see why one wouldn't want to use the drive rails. I found them easier to use than the ones on the Chieftec Dragon clones.

Hard drives are mounted with special screws included with the case. They have to be longer than the usual ones because of the rubber grommets.
 
jello one more thing.. have u cut a blowhole on the top? if you havent... do you think it would be hard? like the thinkness of the top
 
I didn't cut a blowhole ... but the thickness is the same as the side panel: 2.0mm Aluminum. Shouldn't be a problem for a dremel or hole saw. The top doesn't slide off like the side panels though.
 
is the top riveted on or what not bc im most likey gonna be cuttin a blowhole
 
You mean why the top panel won't slide off? Check the first photo, those two rivet-looking things hold the top panel on, there's probably more not visible in the photo.

I'd probably just leave the top panel attached to the frame and just cut it like that. On the otherhand, if you want a blowhole, why not just pay the extra $15 or so for a Praetorian that already comes with an 80mm blowhole?
 
I have that case as well, if you want you can check these out, I watercooled mine, its a really tight fit inside the case, and the stock fans are a bit noisy.

http://home.comcast.net/~darkraven9/IMG00005.jpg

I moved the harddrives into my floppybay since I don't have a floppy, made me realize those grommets on the harddrive rack help in removing the noise, since my raptor can be pretty annoying.
 
i had that case. i LOVED that case. it was definitely a great case for $89. the sliding drive locks were awesome. and rubber mounted hard drives are awesome too.
 
Currently have that case....though I will be dumping it as soon as I can find a cheap'o mobo tray that I can use for my new project...otherwise I will have to use the Kingwin's tray and dump the rest.

I guess I should look on Kingwin if they sell replacement mobo trays huh?

Off to do that right now!
 
I have been searching everywhere and can't find anything on getting a mobo tray....that stinks!
 
has any one done modding to this case?? if you have i would like to see pics bc im going to mod mine :)
 
I haven't seen to many of these cases modded...people usually get them because the like the build quality and the look....most on go as far as swappin' fans and maybe adding a blowhole.

I was looking at the egg's cases that they have on clearence...and it looks like if I don't hear back from Kindwin then I will sell my Kingwin and buy one of the Skyhawks in their clearence section. You might want to do that to just to get used to the modding of aluminum. Not that it is tricky or anything, just requires a softer touch than working on steel.

Have fun with it.
 
Pros:

* Price
* Aluminum construction
* Removable motherboard tray
* Tool Less design
* Front USB and IEEE 1394 Ports
* Modification friendly(build quality is good, so any modding should be a snap)
* Included removable dust filter
* Vibration dampening drive system
* Front fan control

Cons:

* Flimsy front USB door
* Removal of bezel in order to install 5.25" drives(minor-have to take the side off anyway)
* Stamped exhaust grills(can be cut)
* Single Exhaust
 
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