Yet another review: Mountain Mods H2Go Case

**SamHughe** · 12-09-2009, 12:53 AM

There was a review on the same case by IMFU a while ago HERE.

I'd like to share my own experience with this particular case.

Mountain Mods is an Oregon based company which has initially become well-known with their U2-UFO line of computer cases. Today MM offers variety of case options particularly appealing to the DIY crowd who take a no-nonsense, function-over-form approach to computing (although you can definitely up the bling factor if you wish). What I'm trying to say is, you are not going to find any plastic wings, alien eyes, or similar childish non-sense in their cases. Everything is manufactured from high quality aluminum. Very popular among water cooling community.

I'm not anyway or shape affiliated with them so I'm going to stop the commercials here. If you're curious, just Google them and check out their selection (or search this forum, there are several threads about MM cases here).

I have been using the original, first generation MM U2-UFO (Mirror black finish, original top) case for couple of years and cannot see myself going back to any traditional shape computer case again (Owned several Antec and Lian Li cases before moving onto U2-UFO).

Although I have been very happy with my original MM-UFO, I couldn't resist when I saw a Black Friday deal on their website for their, smaller size H2Go Anodized Black case (on sale for $199, from original price: $249).

The reasons why I purchased the H2Go are:

Smaller footprint.
U2-UFO is ideal for water cooling but I prefer air. (Although H2Go is more than capable of housing a watercooling system inside - Just not triple or quad rads).
Cutting down the number of 120mm fans from 9 to 6 for quieter computing and less power consumption.
Horizontal tray on H2Go will help my TRUE-Copper heatsink cool better unlike the vertical tray on MM-UFO (Constantly pulling, bending my mobo down as seen in the picture below).
Portability. A few times I tried to carry U2-UFO to my friends LAN Parties. Not a good idea. With H2Go, I'll be able to carry all my firepower around .

I'd like to start my review by talking about the packaging little bit. The case came in a huge box (at least 30% bigger than the case itself. Inside this box, there was another cardboard box. The space between two the boxes was filled with packaging material to ensure safe arrival. Inside the small box I found the case wrapped in a thick plastic wrapper. When I unwrapped the thick plastic, to my surprise, I found another layer of plastic wrap (like saran wrap). As a result, the case arrived in flawless condition; not even a single scratch on it. It was obvious the person who packed this case did everything humanly possible to ensure the case gets to my home safely. For this, thanks Ryan!

I'll continue the rest of the review with pictures. I'm not a good photographer and I have a very crappy camera hence the poor quality of the visuals.

First couple of pictures to give you a general idea how the case looks like

Even the holes in the back (for watercooling) is covered with acrylic. If that's not an indicator of quality, I don't know what is.

Finally found a flaw! The power cable is mislabeled.

The humongous Corsair HX1000W had no problem fitting in the case.

After all, I was able to fit everything in the old case into this case.

Mind you this is just a test run so no cable management, all the cables are long (from the old case) etc. Really impressive giving the size difference between the cases.

I was extremely happy with how the things were going then, just as I was preparing to screw the top lid back, I noticed this:

Yepp. You guessed it right. The TRUE-Cu won't fit in the case! Short just about a fraction of an inch (or about 2 millimeters).

This is a really big bummer as this was one of the reasons why I purchased this case in the first place. This might also mean no compatibility for TRUE-Alu or any TRUE derivatives. So, be warned people!

Having said that, this can easily be solved with couple of washers/spacers although nothing like the original fit.

There is also another major (at least IMO) problem:

Even though the motherboard is screwed correctly to the mobo tray, the holes on add-on cards won't match the mounting holes on the back plate. So I can't fasten my video cards onto the back plate.

Unfortunately, I experienced the same problem with my old MM-UFO too. Yes, I am using a workstation mobo but it still is an ATX board. It shouldn't make any difference.

This means either I have to keep the case very stable or find an alternative way to secure the cards to the backplate (zip ties).

There you go folks. I present you with my review for Mountain Mods H2Go computer case. I tried to be as objective as possible. I'll try to stick with this case despite the problems mentioned above. Overall, this is a great case worth some time and effort before giving up all hope. I'll update this thread if I can find any work around for any of the problems.

Thanks for reading.