Cooltek W2

[testman78]

Introduction

The partnership between Cooltek and Jonsbo has yielded yet another high-quality case.The latest example of the Cooltek-Jonsbo cooperation is the new W2.Simplicity and Elegance are the consistent styles of Cooltek's products, but these kind of styles are hard to combine with cool and stylishness to make a gamer case.However W2 breaks through the design of the appearance, it is designed to be a fully functional case with not only elegant and tough angular appearance but also simple style with full of metallic texture and manliness.There are four models that make up the Cooltek W2 product line.The different models are for having a black or silver exterior and with our without a window.At just 395mm tall it's still able to accept XL-ATX,ATX motherboards as well as M-ATX.GPUs up to 320mm and any CPU cooler up to 163mm will be fine.It also looks suspiciously like it might have native water cooling support in the front and at the bottom.



Now i've whetted your appetite, let's a look at the full spec.




Packaging & Contents


The packaging is just your normal brown box with black text and no other colours. This means that it is recyclable for those of you who are looking to do your part for the environment.The front of the package shows the chassis.



The rear has another simple image of the W2's separate parts.



Both sides of the cardboard box share identical bits information in the form of specifications.As we can see below, we have a specifications list, the same as that on the previous page in English, French and German.We can also see that the W2 comes in two style options, window and non-window, with two colour options available for each.



The case comes packaged inside a protective plastic bag which helps stop dust,fingerprints and light scratches from the cases surfaces.The case and bag are secured inside the shipping box with a protective foam.The foam is sturdy and is perfectly fitted to the case.



Inside the box we see these extras.A few screws for HDD's, SSD's,zip ties and lastly an installation manual.



Dust-proof filter for the psu.




A Closer Look - Outside


There's nothing quite like the slippery smooth feel of hairline brushed Aluminium(Ok, there are a few things, but none i can mention here).The W2 is an edgy case.For external structure, 1.5MM anodized aluminum alloy has been used for front panel, and 2.0MM anodized aluminum alloy has been used for top plate and side plates.W2 weighs 6.2kg.The top panel of the chassis is completely solid.



From an aesthetics perspective, the W2 is a very good looking case which I have no doubt will draw in the buyers and the anodised black finish is gorgeous.Measuring just 395X278X385 mm it's also quite small for a case that's able to accept full size XL-ATX boards as well as CPU Coolers up to 163mm tall.The removal of these aluminum surfaces is done easily - they can be "peeled off" from the case using little force.The brackets that hold everything in place make a very sturdy impression and the aluminum elements are fixed tightly against the case.



The top panel of the chassis is completely solid.If you like the W2 with its smooth yet sharp design, I think you may like it even more with a side window.The Plexiglass panel is elaborately integrated into the side panel.Thanks to the generous window, the view into the interior of the case is focused on the essential components.This is definitely the ideal accessory for water cooling enthusiasts, case modders, or for people who simply want to show off their case's internal features.



The left side of the W2 chassis.An air vent is embedded into the back bottom here.It gives the psu some much needed ventilation.



The front side of the case is very stylish.The look is decisively influenced by the minimalist front.There are no connectors, controls or LEDs.The angular design "banishes" the power and reset button, as well as the I/O panel to the right side of the case in order to preserve the uniform classic design line.Since the front panel is covered by the Aluminum piece, the air intake for W2 is from the bottom of the front panel. If anyone is concern about the air intake amount from such tiny gap,my answer for you is not to worry, if will do just fine.



The controls have been placed at the bottom part of the right side panel.The two USB 3.0 ports and the audio jacks are indeed somewhat difficult to reach in that place, but they are definately inconspicuous.



You will find everything where you would expect it to be in the rear and more.Psu vertical bay.



Just near the W2 sticker on the left hand side of the rear of the case, we have a fan speed switch.It's a three step controller(L/S/H) which acts from lowest and the bottom to highest at the rear, 5v, 7v and 12v respectively.



For simplified installation of external water cooling components, the W2 has two rubber hose outlets in the rear panel.



Here is the removable bracket for the installation of an optical drive or for one 5,25" watercooling reservoir.One air vent is near this bracket.



One preassembled 120 mm fan is located on the rear panel.



There are 8 PCI slots.Another air vent is located near them.



Now let us take a look at the bottom of the W2.This is somewhat rather disappointing compared to the rich features we've seen on the front.The filter sheet at the bottom of the W2 is thin and wobbly,i was expecting for something more - slide in filter with a frame at least, but of course this will increases the manufacturing cost.Still, it helps keeping dust intake to both your power supply and intake fans (if there are any) at the minimum.



It is removable, which makes it easy to clean.Removing it is pretty much easy but installing it back requires some effort in which i don't think is newbie friendly. Other than that, everything else looks just great - the concave design on the screws hole for mounting 120mm fans is nicely done as it will not compromise the appearance when it is covered with the filter.



You may also be able to make out the HDD mount which is suspended off the bottom of the chassis by small rubber grommets.



The W2 stands on four plastic feet hidden by the aluminum surfaces reaching almost to the bottom.They have the ability to absorb part of the vibration caused by moving parts inside the chassis that will generate noise when vibrating against the surface it came in contact with.




A Closer Look - Inside

After removing the entire outer aluminum layer,i test the inner structure with industrial standard diagonal distortion test, and i find that the entire structure is extremely strong.For internal structure,0.8MM all-in-black SGCC steel with thick coating makes it nearly 1.0MM thick.The inside of the case is painted entirely in black, meaning it will complement most component choices aesthetically.



Most of the people have a misunderstanding that full aluminum case has a better heat dissipation effect than traditional steel case because of thermal conductivity, but actually the heat dissipation is mainly depended on the cooling channels instead of
the thermal conductivity.Since aluminum alloy is expensive, thin aluminum alloy is usually used for full aluminum case, and so the drawback is that the strength of the case is not so good.



W2 is no longer designed to use shared cooling channels, it uses independent cooling channels to ensure there are separate inlet cooling channels for display card,storage and PSU.The top of the W2 doesn't seems to comes with any slot for mounting fans and it's solid as well.



A large opening in the motherboard tray should allow for easy access to the CPU cooler's underside.



3 pieces of rubber grommets.The rubber grommets included are very useful for hiding cable trails and protect your cables from the edge of the routing holes.



There's also two cable management holes up here for the 8 pin CPU and any fan cables.



The included fans were sleeved with the 3mm cable sleeves as well, Cooltek really did a wonderful job here.



Revealing what's behind the elegant front panel.



There are two 140mm standard silent fans built-in front providing cooling channels for display card and motherboard.



Here's what i personally like - The removable filters / covers can be removed from the front easily without having to take off the whole front panel like most brand did.The filters has embedded magnet in their frames so they can be effortlessly attached to the chassis without tools.They can ensure the cleanness of the hardware in a long time in order to avoid problems, such as system not starting up, caused by bad contact of hardware.



Near them are two air vents.Also you can install one 80mm fan there if heat is a problem.



There are two optional fan spaces in the bottom for two 120mm fans(so there is no dead end in the entire case and thus theoretical optimum heat dissipation can be reached),but can even be used for installation of an HDD.



Here is a closer look at the front IO panel with the side panel removed. As you can see it is just a bare circuit board screwed to the case itself.



Also, note the ventilation here.



Now we are moving at the left side of the case.In the lower part you can install high-end power supplies without space restriction.The power supply mounting zone comes with 4 piece of soft pads with the same purpose as other soft pads did - to absorb vibration that will causes unwanted noise.



In the upper part the HDD cage is located, which is geared for the decoupled mounting of up to two 3.5 inch drives.Also you have the option to install one 3.5 inch drive and one 5,25" optical drive or a 5,25" watercooling reservoir there.For a maximum variability, the modular cage can easily be removed.There aren't tool-less drive bays as screws are required to secure both 5.25" and 3.5" drives into the trays.



Pre-installed power connector for the 3.5" drive or the 5.25" optical drive.



On the left hand side of the back you can see that there is a 2.5 inch hard drive removable cage.You can fit three 2.5 inch SSD's there.Also this cage is totally removable from the chassis by removing the screws.




Installation and Finished looks


Pre-installed motherboard standoffs.



Thanks to the division into an front and a back chamber and the sensibly arranged grommets, most cables can be safely stored in the power supply segment.Thus,the front chamber remains quite tidy.



High-end graphics cards with a maximum length of 320 mm, and CPU cooler with an installation height of up to 215 mm can be accommodated in the W2.



Here is a little look at the SSD cage.This has space for three SSD's.Just for some reason, it seems that Cooltek has left out the tool free installation mount for the optical drive,HDD's and SSD's at this time.



In addition the ODD cage can be converted to a hard drive cage.In order to use it for this purpose, you will have to sacrifice one HDD bay.



Here is a little look at the power supply area of the case.Whilst I have used an 150mm power supply for this, there are plenty of power supplies that will fit down here, in fact, I will stick my neck out and say that they all should due to the unrestricted space down there.For people who would not be using a modular power supply, there is plenty of room in this area of the case to tie up the cables you would not use to keep the main compartment of the case nice and tidy.



The dust filter fits perfectly.



You can mount fans or storage on the bottom.



I know the W2 can take 140mm fans in the front, but what of about water cooling.The W2 is designed to support the majority of commercially available integrated water coolers.Any 280mm radiator will fit on the front and any 240mm radiator will fit either on the bottom.



It also means that a good many of the 240mm rad based AIOs will fit,including the Eisberg 240L and Nepton 240M.



The back of the chassis and the bottom I haven't issues with.



For a small case, the W2 is very spacious.It is very easy to mount the components.A somewhat more consistent tool-free installation would have been even better, though.




Test System and Methology

Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K
Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-Z77N
CPU Cooler:Noctua NH-U12S
Memory: 16GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1800MHz
Graphics Cards: Sapphire R7 270X
Power Supply: Corsair VS450
Boot Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB
OS: Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit



To test the thermal performance of the Cooltek W2 i loaded my test system for 15 minutes using Prime95 and Furmark and recorded the maximum temperatures reached using CPUID Hardware Monitor.I then restarted the system and left it for 15 minutes before recording idle temperatures.I overclocked the system to 4.2 GHZ for my tests using a voltage of 1.20V.Room temperature was maintained at 20 degrees C for the duration of my tests.

Temperature

My overclocked Core i7-3570K Ivy Bridge processor is running on the warm side at 71C under load, but the numbers are well within the limits and there appears to be decent airflow throughout the chassis.GPU temperature, meanwhile, is testament to the efficiency of AMD's latest Radeon architecture and Sapphire's custom Dual-X cooler an actual temperature of 66C while gaming is, in GPU terms, nice and cool.




Noise level

Running at 12V the fans produced a total of 37 dBa, which is noticeable but not intrusive.




Conclusion

I never take anything for granted when i review, however with some manufacturers there are certain things i've come to expect.With Cooltek "Powered by Jonsbo" that certain something is quality.Not just good quality, but excellent quality.This quality can be found in many areas of the case, but for me the standout areas are the superbly crafted Aluminium,the perfect panel fit,integrated fan controller and even such things as the separate inlet cooling channels.Cooltek are also known for their frequent deviation away from the conventional PC chassis layout in favour of a foray into something a bit more esoteric.With the W2 we see a case that is little taller than most M-ITX and M-ATX chassis but is still able to accommodate full size XL-ATX boards.It does this in part by locating the PSU at the side of the case behind the motherboard.Trimming down in size to offer ATX functionality in a smaller form factor does introduce a few limitations - cable management can be tricky and component selection needs thought - but Cooltek has cleverly worked its way around any major space constraints.But don't go thinking they've had to cut some critical areas to achieve this.You still get 5 HDD/SSD bays,8 expansion slots(dual ultra-long graphics cards won't be a problem),CPU coolers up to 175mm tall and even water cooling support.Going with an tool less design also gave the side panels a different look.You do not have to mess with any thumb screws or sliding the panel into some groves to make it flush.A somewhat more consistent tool-free installation would have been even better, though.Cooltek likes to keep their front panel design clean.This rear 5.25 is their way of catering for those who might need the occasional DVD/Blue ray or water cooling reservoir usage.If you ask me ,i dont mind not having the 5.25" bay.In merely just mentioning water cooling support i am perhaps doing the W2 an injustice, as for quite a low profile chassis it has a surprisingly large amount of space up in the front.In fact any rad/fan combination can be seriously considered, which it has to be said encompasses most of the 280mm rads and based AIOs on the market today.You might think that's where the water cooling story ends, but it's not.In bottom it's certainly possible to get a 240mm rad in there.All of these means you can have a 280mm rad in the front cooling your CPU and a 240mm rad in the bottom working with GPU mounting bracket cooling your Graphics card.I was particularly impressed with the low-noise credentials of the W2 as it does an excellent job of minimising the noise from the case.I was also impressed by the ability of this case to keep everything cool once I had installed a liquid cooler in place of the two front case fans.The final piece of good news with this case is the clever way that Cooltek has covered the vents with magnetic dust covers on the front and side.Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!



When i look at the competition i see that the 100 Euro's being asked for this case is a real bargain.I can say that is like no other mid tower case that I have seen in recent years, which is a good thing as innovation is the key to success.I have always been a fan of the Cooltek style that gives you plenty of features with a sleek style, and I would say that the W2 is no exception.