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Rosewill Challenger mini review/build

H

haunter

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 20, 2011
Messages
1,884
a few pics:

IMG_3983 by dougie81, on Flickr


IMG_3986 by dougie81, on Flickr


IMG_3990 by dougie81, on Flickr

There is not quite as much room as this pic implies. This MSI Z68 board is annoyingly thinner than it should be, its not full ATX. You can see to the right where the ATX Standoffs go. Its my current only gripe about the board. They still managed 4 usb headers, 6 sata ports, and 4 sysfan headers, but made it too small


IMG_4006 by dougie81, on Flickr

It gives ample room for swapping out heatsinks, which is more than I can say for the RV02 I built

IMG_4007 by dougie81, on Flickr




PROS:
sleek clean design
front panel pulls off pretty easy
foam behind mesh 5.25 bay covers
black screws included
rubber gasket for PSU mounting built into the case
fits resoanbly sized tower heatsinks, spec'd size of the Gaia is 158mm and it just barely fits(see next post)
decent amount of cable management slots in mobo tray(no rubber grommets on them though)


CONS:
no vibration reducer on the fans(but this is expected based on the price)
no way to wire front panel to the side of the case easily, you cant put an optical in the slot(even though it has the tool-less bay on top) due to the front panel being there, so there is room for a decent cable route
front and top fans(140mm)have 4pin molex. not 3 pin fan headers and no adapters were included.
no cable routing hole in the upper left corner behind top 140 fan. This is a common place for 4 and 8 pin motherboard connectors. it not being there can make clean cabling a real PITA
The bay covers are a royal PITA to remove, I lightly bent the one I did remove, but it bent back without leaving a noticable mark atleast
Not much room on the backside, have to be careful/precise when running cables

Oddities:
no power led?


Side Notes:
For $10 more there is a USB3.0 version
The rail mounts for the 3.5" bays do have small rubber washers, but they aren't very substantial
Max GPU length 11 3/8"
Fans, not bad. more than a whoosh, they do make some noise, but not as bad as I feared they might. it idles louder than my RV02 with the tri 180's on low and 2 800 rpm slipstreams, but its a little quieter than the 180's on high

cpu idle is about 45C



I'm looking forward to finishing the build, but sadly I only have till Monday so I won't get to play with it much before it goes home with my brother.

Build specs:
MSI Z68A-GD43B3
i5 2500K paired with a Xigmatek Gaia SD1283
2x4gb GSkill Sniper DDR3 1333
XFX 6870 twin fan design(HD-687A-ZD)
Antec Neo Eco 620w
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
He can add the ssd for caching later. And hopefully when southern islands hits he can add another 6870 on the cheap
 
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Dudeyourlame said:
mount the fan for the sidepanel on the outside :p
Click to expand...

I did that in an old Xclio case. I had a giant after market GPU heatsink and the fan wouldn't fit with the door on. So the fan was mounted on the outside and a hole was cut to route the wire inside.
 
thats my favorite part by far. I spent a week on my RV-02 getting it sorted, still not perfect but I dont have to the tools to shorten cables etc yet, mayube Ill get myself some for xmas.

sliding the ram, bluray, HDD and PSU in over lunch. then the wiring really begins :)


just noticed another nice little feature they snuck in

the PSU backplate has a rubber gasket on it already! very nice, saves me from making my own!

I'll snap a pic after work

EDIT: here is the pic:

IMG_4018 by dougie81, on Flickr
 
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alright more pics and some more work done.

here is the simple and effective tooless 5.25 design:


IMG_4013 by dougie81, on Flickr


IMG_4014 by dougie81, on Flickr

here is where I started at tonight:

IMG_4017 by dougie81, on Flickr

decent amount of room on the backside behind the 3.5 cage

IMG_4012 by dougie81, on Flickr

still pretty empty, xfire wouldnt make it that busy, but sadly the neo eco lacks a second set of PCI-E cables, so you have go the molex converter route.

IMG_4028 by dougie81, on Flickr

as you can see, its time to start the real cable management. a *very* small amount is done, and man do I hate what the lack of the hole for the 4pin in the upper left makes me do get the wire there.

No more time tonight, wife is on the way home and its $2 12oz margaritas at the great mexican place down the street!
 
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Thanks for the build info and pics.

Let us know what type of temps you get.
 
ironforge said:
Thanks for the build info and pics.

Let us know what type of temps you get.
Click to expand...

can do! if I had more time I would run prime with the stock HSF and the gaia, but Im spending half the weekend laying tile so play time will be limited and it goes home with my brother monday

mannyman said:
Props man its pretty clean.
Click to expand...

thanks


if you guys have any feedback or input suggestions, such as pictures I should have taken or things I should have commented on, let me know!
 
I will measure tonight and let you know! I will add it to the OP as well so you dont have to hunt for it in the replys :)

the only review for it on amazon mentions that a gtx480 fits just fine

you can see there is still decent room left at the end of the 6850

I am not sure how is up with Flikr(just started using it, mostly use photobucket) but I uploaded 1920x1200 photos but its showing 1024x768
 
NP :)

she posts and everything shows up, now to clean up cabling and install win7 and office over the weekend


and tile my kitchen and a hallway :/


notes on fans and idle temp in OP now
 
Looks pretty good! I almost bought this case, but decided to go with the NZXT Gamma instead:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UDK9U6

Also got 4 120mm Syba hydro bearing fans to go with it. 62 shipped for all that. I hope I don't regret it...
 
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I've read good things about the gamma I think, one of the NZXT's is the same basic chasis as the challenger
 
Looking at the pics, I think they are the same chassis. NZXT has dual top fan mounts, and a different front bezel. But they look basically the same. Cool.
 
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