Raidmax Delta I

[testman78]

Introduction

Raidmax began around 2003 as a supplier of budget-oriented gaming cases. Since then, Raidmax has grown to supply an impressive line of power supplies and even dipped its toes into the liquid All-in-One (AIO) CPU cooler pool with the Cobra 120 and Cobra 240. Meanwhile, its line of gaming cases has expanded to nearly 40, so there are bound to be a few in the mix that catch your eye. Many of these stylish and functional cases are priced well below $100, which leaves a nice chunk of money on the table to put toward the internal hardware of your build.Today we have their latest PC Case, the Delta I.The Delta I is Raidmax's latest effort from the budget-friendly end of the market, promising great features at a price that is sure to leave your wallet or your bank balance happy.If you're not trying to cram huge amounts of hard drives, multiple radiators and more into your system, then it is unlikely that you need much more than what the Delta I offers and we're eager to see just how much you get for your money here. This mid tower case supports ATX motherboards, long graphics cards, long cpu coolers, up to 7 fans, and four hard drives.Let's jump in and see what the Delta I is all about.



Specifications.




Packaging & Contents

First, let's take a look at the box. Up front we have a nice graphic of the case with the Delta I text and, with the name Delta on there. The only color on the stock cardboard is a little bit of blue accent on the logo.



On the back of the box are illustrations of the various features.



The sides of the box are virtually identical, with a graphic of the case and a brief list of the case specs.



Foam spacers with a cardboard shell as reinforcement hold the fairly heavy chassis in place, protecting it from falling damage, while a plastic bag keeps fingerprints and light scratches away.



A small bag placed inside the case contains the mainboard speaker,screws,4 Velcro ties and a user?s manual.





A Closer Look - Outside

The Raidmax Delta I is available in three colors, Black,Blue or Orange.Raidmax provided us with the Black version, with the side panel window. The side panel window is protected with a sheet of plastic cling to keep it damage free. I found that the Delta I feels extremely light, as it only weighs around 10lbs empty.



The black paint job is pretty standard stuff, but blends well with the plastics of the front panel.



The left side panel features a huge window that runs almost the full height of the chassis, giving you a perfect view to show off your new build.



The right side has a blank panel and just like the left, it's held in place by two thumb screws.



The front panel is plastic but is very nicely finished. There arent any 5.25″ drive bay covers.At the top is a small Raidmax logo.Overall it looks smart enough to be placed in a home or office.



The bottom of the front panel have a strip of ventilation, allowing for indirect airflow that should help reduce noise from the front fans.



At the top of the chassis, you'll find all the usual power controls, as well as two LED indicators and a pair of USB USB 3.0 ports.



Moving to the top of the case, we see the exhaust is also filtered using a removable magnetic dust filter.



With the removal of the filter up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans can be installed under the top.



Around the back, there's a single pre-installed 120mm fan, as well as seven expansion slots. As with many budget chassis, the expansion slot covers are a snap-off design, apart from the top one which is reusable.



The bottom of the Delta I chassis has four rubber feet for vibration dampening. They lift the chassis substantially off the floor for exceptional air flow through the filtered intake port.



There's also a small removable and washable dust filter for the power supply area.




A Closer Look - Inside

The interior of the has been treated to the same black paint as the exterior, giving it a nice and uniform appearance.



There’s a rather large CPU cooler mounting cut-out behind the motherboard, and all the motherboard standoffs are pre-installed, so this should speed up the installation time.



There’s a little room above the motherboard, which should help improve compatibility while giving you the extra space needed to mount a 120mm AIO cooler on the rear fan mount if you wanted.



Nothing unexpected to see on the back panel. As we previously mentioned, the seven expansion slots have covers, with only the first one being readily removable. The other six will need to be popped out before using those slots.Raidmax did not include any additional covers though, so you’ll only want to remove the ones you need.



A look at the rear case fan.



You’ll notice that all internal cables are black, which should help keep your build looking neat and tidy when viewed through the side panel



Under the top cover, users can install 3x120mm or 2x140mm fans without any problems.



Further down, we’ve got two dedicated 2.5″ drive bay mounts.There’s room for 2 x 2.5mm drives here, which simply screw into place on the fixed bracket.



The interior has an PSU shroud.The chamber length is 20 cm, so that it will be sufficient for most modern PSU models.



Some small rubber pads on the PSU mount, which should help reduce any unwanted vibrations.



This space should also come in handy for a little extra cable management.



Here we see some areas that can be installed 2.5/3.5-inch hard drives,with the help of some kind of Hard drive rack.It’s a bit of an old-school design, but it’s perfectly functional.



Behind the motherboard, you’ll find little space for routing cables.



However, there’s a few cable tie loops to tidy up any of the more demanding cables.



Chamber position at the back of the case with two 2.5/3.5-inch Drive Bays.



This space should also come in handy for a extra cable management.



To remove the front panel, simply hold the cutout at the bottom of the front panel and pull it towards you with a firm tug.



With the chassis striped out, it’s easy to see watercooling potential.



Behind the front panel, there is enough space for 360 mm radiators or compact water cooling solutions.Users can install also 3x120mm or 2x140mm fans without any problems.




Installation and Finished looks

Installing the motherboard within the Raidmax Delta I is done with the supplied black screws.



In the next step,put the mounting tray with the attached SSD back inside the case and fix it with the thumbscrew.



You dont need to use screws to secure the HDD on the HDD-Sleds.



There’s a good amount of space in here for a multi-GPU configuration, just be sure to check that if you’re using longer cards, they’re not going to conflict with some AIO cooler at the front of the case.



The Delta I will support tall CPU coolers up to 170mm in height, we installed the Thermalright AXP-100 H Muscle cooler.The other option is to install a 120mm AIO liquid cooler on the rear of the case or an 360mm AIO liquid cooler on the front of the case.



You will still need to use traditional screws to secure the PSU.



There is plenty of space, so you could, for example, install a long unit(but you might consider the cables of it also).



It took around thirty minutes to put together our system, which is a decent enough build time for any budget chassis.Overall, a surprisingly great looking build. I wasn’t expecting it to be bad, but it’s certainly nice and tidy for something in this price range.




Final Thoughts

Sometimes we get so used to looking at the top of the line cases, we forget about the budget class. If we take a look at these budget minded cases with their target audience in mind, we should realize we will miss out on several advanced features we commonly find in the more expensive cases such as fully tool-less installation, a large number of cooling options, and a customizable interior. What we should focus is on is whether the construction is of similar quality, and the key necessary features are included.With the Delta I,Raidmax has done just that. They took a look at what the key features are that are a requirement and built those into a case designed for the budget minded consumer.The Raidmax Delta I is exceptional value for money, offering a perfectly capable mid-tower that is going to appeal to a lot of system builders who don’t want to spend a huge amount of money. Of course, it is cheap for a reason and does come with a few small drawbacks that should be considered before purchase. The panels are quite thin, so if you’re running noisy hardware, it’s possible the case could suffer from vibrations, noise leakage, or even prove easy to dent if you’re likely to kick it, by accident or on purpose.Then we’ve got the lack of pre-installed fans, sure it does help keep cost down, but if you’re putting a graphics card in here, you’ll want at least one extra fan for air intake. If you’re fitting a 120mm AIO in the back, you could easily move the rear 120mm pre-installed fan to the front to save costs. Finally, the rear expansion slots are a snap-off design, not a deal breaker, but something worth keeping in mind when you upgrade your system at a later date.All those issues aside, and they’re fairly minor issues and nothing I wouldn’t have expected at this price range, you do get a lot of great features from this chassis. Firstly and most importantly, it can house a fairly decent system as you’ve seen in our test build today. There’s a reasonable amount of storage bays and there’s reasonable connectivity on the front panel. It looks nice too, with a clean front panel and a huge side panel window that is perfect for showing off your build. Cable routing is very limited, but the space behind the hard drive bays is more than adequate for even first-time system builders to achieve something neat and tidy.



The chassis Delta I can be installed motherboard ATX form factor, Micro-ATX and Mini- ITX, as well as graphics cards up to 390 mm,CPU cooling systems up to 170 mm in height and power units up to 200 mm in length.The case has no 5.25-inch bays,and has two compartments for versatile 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives and two 2.5-inch and one 3.5-inch drive bay to accommodate storage.Of course, there is also possibility of installing the liquid cooling systems with heat sinks to size 360 mm at the front and 120 mm at the rear. All of the cable can be hidden in the lower compartment and the side wall, thereby allowing air to circulate freely inside the case.The Raidmax Delta I is available for a very reasonable $45. This is exceptional value for money and will no doubt be hard to beat for anyone looking for a mid-tower chassis.At just $45 there’s a lot of chassis here for a very small investment. If you’ve blown all your budget on fancy hardware such as a more powerful graphics card, the Raidmax Delta I is going to put a smile on your face.