Bitfenix Raider Mid Tower Review

Today we have the Bitfenix Raider Mid Tower chassis in our test lab. The Raider is the latest offering from Bitfenix and going on past experiences, we hope this is a quality case at a competitive price point. Bitfenix have become well known for the special surface treatment they use to greatly reduce the fingerprint problem that many other cases face today. The Raider is a Mid Tower chassis that ships with 3 x 120mm fans connected to a built in fan controller. The Raider also offers the potential for four top panel USB 3.0 ports if the correct connectivity options are available. Unlike some other vendors, Bitfenix have provided backwards compatibility for these USB 3.0 ports. Key features Four SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Ports Maximum Airflow Design BitFenix Spectre™ Cooling, 3 fans included Integrated Fan Controller BitFenix SofTouch™ Surface Treatment Superb Expansion Specifications MODEL Raider CASE TYPE Mid Tower Materials Steel, Plastic Cooling system Front: 2 x 120mm (included) or 1 x 200mm (optional) Rear: 1 x 120mm (included) Top: 1 x 200mm (optional) Bottom: 1 x 120mm (optional) Drive Bays • 4 x 5.25” tool-less drive bays • 7 x 2.5” drive bays • 6 x 3.5” drive bays Front Ports 4 x USB 3.0 Audio In/Out Expansion Slots / video card size 7 expansion slots Dimensions 210 x 500 x 493mm (ATX Mid Tower) Motherboard Support Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX The Raider Mid Tower ships in a basic cardboard outer shell that serves as the first layer of protection. The front side of the packaging has the company logo and the product name printed on it, while the opposite side has images displaying some of the key features. The secondary protection is the same as the vast majority of cases shipped today. There are 2 fitted foam pieces and a protective layer of plastic to safeguard the case during transport. Bitfenix have included an installation guide along with the necessary mounting hardware, a few small cable ties and four rubber feet for the bottom of the case. To attach the rubber feet we simply remove the paper covering the adhesive and then press firmly with them in the appropriate position on the bottom of the chassis. The Bitfenix Raider is designed in a simple, yet attractive manner. The mesh grills combined with areas coated with their special surface treatment works extremely well together when we look at the finished product. Both side panels on the Bitfenix Raider are solid with no additional areas to mount fans or allow additional airflow. This does not take away from the fact that the Raider is in our opinion, a great looking Mid Tower chassis. The Raider Mid Tower is designed for a bottom mounted power supply. Moving up the rear panel there are 7 expansion bays available, the space to mount out I/O shield, 1 x 120mm rear exhaust fan, and water cooling cutouts that are protected with rubber grommets. Next we have the top panel which is 90% mesh for optimal air flow. The outer edges of the top panel are coated with the BitFenix SofTouch Surface Treatment. This surface reduces the number of visible fingerprints, which is a nice touch. The top panel also contains four USB 3.0 ports, two audio inputs, an integrated fan controller and On/Off and Reset buttons. Here we have closeup images of the four USB 3.0 ports, audio inputs, fan controller and power buttons. We like how Bitfenix have kept all the features contained to the outer edges of the panel. Their location stays in line with the simple and clean design concept of the Raider Mid Tower. With the top panel removed we can see where the cables for the top panel pass through as well as where we can add a single top mounted 200mm fan. With the front panel removed we can see where we can mount a single 200mm intake fan, or just opt for the 2 x 120mm fans that ship with the Raider Mid Tower. There is a foam dust filter installed that should stop the majority of dust from entering our system. The bottom panel has 2 removable dust filters. The first one sits beneath our power supply while the second one sits where the optional bottom mounted 120mm fan would go. It's often simple little additions like these dust filters that help to influence purchasing decisions. The interior of the Bitfenix Raider is painted black like the majority of cases today. In it's original configuration we can use up to 7 hard drives and 3 optical drives. There are 4 areas cutout for cable management that have rubber grommets protecting them. These cutout areas are nice to have if you are concerned about a tidy system build. They allow us to hide most of that cables that would otherwise just be a visible mess. If we were going to use a full length graphics card in our system build, the Raider is designed to handle them all. All that is required is to remove 2 thumb screws that hold the top 3 drive bays in place and we are good to go. This is very convenient for those that don't have a large number of hard drives to contend with. The Raider Mid Tower is designed for a bottom mounted power supply and has a cable management cutout right next to the PSU. The motherboard tray has a large cutout for easy access to the back of our motherboard without having to remove it from our chassis. This comes in handy when changing cooling solutions, saving us the time it would take to remove the board before mounting the cooler. We can install a maximum of 7 hard drives in the Raider. Their tool free drive bays make adding or removing drives a breeze. The Raider includes all the required top panel connectivity options like 4 USB 3.0 ports, 2 audio jacks, and the On/Off and Reset buttons. We appreciate that Bitfenix added backward compatibility for USB 2.0 since not everyone has the connection available for the USB 3.0 ports. To close out this portion of our review we have 2 images that show our system fully installed and the cable routing functionality offered with the Bitfenix Raider. To test the Bitfenix Raider Mid Tower we will be using the AMD Phenom X4 FX-5000 CPU matched with a Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H motherboard. We are sticking with the reference AMD cooler to cool the CPU. Test System Chassis: Bitfenix Raider Mid Tower Processor: AMD Phenom X4 FX-5000 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H Cooler: AMD reference heatpipe cooler Memory: 3GB DDR2 Storage: Seagate 150 GB Sata II Power Supply: Thermaltake TR2-430W Graphics Card: HIS 5570 Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) Everest Ultimate Edition Prime 95 Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 To get started lets look at the out of the box air flow pattern. For our temperature tests, we used Prime95 to load the system for 15 minutes and then recorded our results. We then let the system remain idle at the desktop for 15 minutes before recording the results. The 3 fans in the Bitfenix Raider and the CPU fan are running at full speed for this test. The ambient temperature was maintained at 21c for the duration of the tests. The results of our temperature testing fell in line with what we would have expected. Our CPU maxed out at 53 degrees Celsius which is acceptable considering the stock heatsink is being used. Adding a top mounted exhaust fan would also help to reduce these temperatures another few degrees. We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built our test system to be as quiet as possible. We can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate specifically on the individual components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. Today to test the chassis we have taken it into our acoustics room and have set our Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 one meter away from the case. This represents a real world situation and gives us an accurate reading of the noise level produced by the fans in the Bitfenix Raider Mid Tower. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA – High Quality Computer fan 40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum We are using a passively cooled HIS 5570 graphics card. The noise level produced by the 3 x 120mm fans in the Bitfenix Raider was very respectable registering a reading of 34.2 dBA on our Style 2 Digital Sound Level Meter. The Bitfenix Raider is a very clever design that will be affordable by a very large audience. The case ships with an integrated fan controller, three 120mm fans, and has further options to increase cooling proficiency if needed. The cable management options are more than adequate and with four USB 3.0 ports on the top panel this case is ideal for a user with plenty of fast, external devices. Bitfenix have also included removable dust filters on the bottom panel as well as a foam dust filter behind the front panel. Another memorable feature is the removable drive cage for those of us that want to use a full size graphics card. We also really appreciate their proprietary 'SofTouch' surface treatment, to keep the case looking pristine, even after rough handling. Pros: Very clean and stylish design. 4 USB 3.0 ports - also USB 2.0 compatible via motherboard headers. Integrated fan controller. Quiet fans. removable fan filters. Tool free design. Cons: plastic drive caddies appear to be fragile. side panels can be difficult to manage. additional 5-10mm would improve cable management considerably. You can purchase the Bitfenix Raider directly from ARIA in the United Kingdom for £68.39 inc vat. Kitguru says: One of the best value for money cases in a very crowded market.