[Review] Gigabyte Poseidon 310 midi tower
Gigabyte Poseidon 310 case review
Today I will be taking a look at the Poseidon 310, a new midi tower case by Gigabyte. The case is targeted at the mainstream to enthusiast buyer group with a price tag of roughly €80,- or US$80,-. The case is available in black or silver. Today I will be reviewing the black version.
Packaging and first impressions
The case comes packed in a big box containing also a multi-language installation guide and a smaller box containing the following:
- 6 “securing runners” for mounting had drives in the 3.5” internal device bays
- 9 copper stand-offs for the motherboard
- 9 securing screws for the motherboard
- 4 screws for fastening the PSU in place
- 2 large and 3 small adhesive wire clamps
- A magnetic ring (to catch naughty screws in a hard to reach place?)
- A cloth to remove dust and fingerprints from the case
- A clear side window to replace the original black mesh one
One odd thing I noticed was that the supposedly magnetic ring doesn’t have any ferromagnetic properties at all making it useless to catch screws with. It could be that during shipping or packaging the ring endured a shock that killed the magnetic properties but I find this unlikely. More likely is that the piece wasn’t magnetized in the production process. It’s no big deal at all, but it’s a little odd so I will contact Gigabyte about it.
For describing the aesthetics of the case I can only think of one word that fits: breathtaking. Everything about the design of the outside of this case I like, a lot. The front panel is made from aluminum and the design of it is as sharp as that of an expensive tuxedo or a Lamborghini Murcielago. Gigabyte originates in Taiwan, Asia, but with this case I really wonder if they outsourced the designing of the case to Italy. I can rattle on about the design all day long, but in this part of the review I’m only supposed to talk about my first impressions :D
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In my opinion a case can’t look much better than this.
Build quality and features
Apart from the front panel the rest of this case is constructed using steel. This means that for people that judge the size of their e-penis by the material their case is constructed from this case is not interesting. For anyone else that wants a properly constructed case with low noise vibration at $80 this case could be on their list, but we will see about that further in the review.
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The case is roughly 3KG heavier than a midi size aluminum counterpart
So the case is 3KG heavier than its aluminum counterpart would be, so? I have to say that I don’t give a rats ass about this difference. What you get by buying this case is something that’s sturdier, a little heavier and it looks just the same apart from looking a bit shinier than its black aluminum counterpart. I have to say that sounds like a fair deal to me.
One thing I miss in this case is a removable motherboard tray and to me this is a big deal. It’s very handy to be able to just slide out the motherboard to change, add or remove components. On the other hand I can understand that with a $80 case you can’t have all features. The decision between a completely tool-less installation and a removable motherboard tray is a tough one. In the end I think I prefer the removable motherboard tray because it gives very easy access to the hardware. On the other hand the tool-less installation is a great feature if you are changing a components that’s easy to reach, so the decision is a tough one indeed.
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Installing optical drives in the Poseidon 310 doesn’t require tools or screws.
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The same applies to your PCI(e) cards. Installing them with this system is a pleasant experience.
The aluminum front panel of the case is just a piece of art. It is well constructed and it doesn’t feel cheap like some on some other cases that share a similar design. One major advantage of this design is that you can hide your 5.25” optical drives that don’t match the color of the case. Even if your drives do match the color of your case the front panel is much cleaner to the eyes. The panel is held in place by 2 strong little magnets when it is shut. In my opinion this is a good solution as it feels solid and it will never wear out over time. These magnets actually do work :D
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Note that the front panel is the same black as the rest of the case. The grey color in this picture is the effect of bad lighting.
A drawback of this design is that it restricts the natures airflow to the front 120mm fan. Instead of sucking the air from in front of the case the air is sucked in from the bottom of the case. Add to this that the air first goes through an air filter and then has through the internal 3.5” HDD rack and you can imagine how this may affect the cooling performance of the case.
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Air is sucked-in from below the case through an air filter. The filter is removable and washable. In this picture you can also see the rubber feet the case stands on to ensure that the case stays put.
On the front of the case you can find two USB2.0 ports, a 1394 firewire port, 2 ports for HD audio and a power button. Oddly enough the case doesn’t have a reset button while it does have an internal connector for this purpose. The reset SW connector isn’t shown in the installation guide. I think Gigabyte somehow “forgot” to add this feature which I find very odd.
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Power button, HD audio, USB2.0, firewire. Am I missing something here?
With this case you can choose between two side panels, a black mesh one that is installed when you get the case, and also a clear plexi glass one that you can install manually. The mesh and plexi glass window are secured by a dozen screws and as many little hooks. In the installation guide I couldn’t find how to change the window so I just tried it myself.
The result of this was that I installed the windows the wrong way (inside-out from the case perspective) and the installation couldn’t be completed as it was impossible to push the last hooks through the window.
So I just had to install the windows the other way around, right? Unfortunately that wasn’t the case as the little hooks are designed to release the window with little force, if you install the windows correctly that is, however they refuse to release the windows once it’s installed “ inside-out”.
So I used a little more force, but some of the hooks just wouldn’t budge. So I used even a little more force….well the result of this isn’t too hard to guess.
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The result wasn’t that pretty, but it could have been worse.
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That one doesn’t count…right guys?
After this faulty installation I then installed the window properly. One problem I encountered was that the screws wouldn’t properly catch their respective holes. Now this will never be a real problem as the window is firmly held in position by the hooks, but I still don’t like the fact that some of the screws fell out when I applied some gentle force to the window using my fingertips.
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After some trouble installing the clear window the final result is beautiful
In the back of this case there aren’t too many exciting things going on, but there is one feature that actually makes the name “Poseidon 310” make sense. At the back of the case on the bottom right there are two holes which can be of use if you have an external water cooling system like the Zalman Reserator series. The holes are cut-out in the form of the star to make sure the tubes stay in place. Everything feels and looks solid at the backside of the case.
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A 120mm blue LED fan, some ventilation holes near the PCI(e) slots and on the bottom right the two holes for use with an external water cooling system.
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For most systems this case offers plenty of space.
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The rear system fan is a brushless model that features four bright blue LEDs.
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The front system fan is basically the same in black and it doesn’t have the four LEDs. Both fans have the same internals as the fan featured on the Gigabyte G-Power PRO CPU cooler. As you can see in my other review these Gigabyte fans offer excellent acoustic performance .
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I installed my hard disks in the external 3.5” bays and I removed the 3.5” HDD rack to improve the airflow in the case.
