XSPC H1 Cube not so good

[paulbagz]

I am not suprised a supplier pointed you in the direction of the manufacturer but when its brand new out of the box it should come under some type of DOA warranty.

Surely hope you didn't buy the $1500 XSPC Cube kit they had on special to find this out.

-PB

[ohms]

I am not suprised a supplier pointed you in the direction of the manufacturer but when its brand new out of the box it should come under some type of DOA warranty.

Surely hope you didn't buy the $1500 XSPC Cube kit they had on special to find this out.

-PB

Oh, noooooooo. Definitely not, I bought just the case. I don't need a company to overcharge me to help me make decisions on what WC hardware I want to use


Well after fixing the problem myself I finally got all my PCI devices in place.

[Captain_Harlock]

Did "fixing the problem" involve bending stuff?

[ohms]

Did "fixing the problem" involve bending stuff?

No, it required me to tap the previous holes to a larger oval size so I could move the motherboard tray backplate further out to make space.

[Utnorris]

Still sucks that you had to mod what should have worked out of the box. As far a Frozen goes, never had an issue, but I understand your frustration.

[ohms]

Still sucks that you had to mod what should have worked out of the box.

Indeed!

[BeepBeep2]

Troll more.

I'm taking pictures right now.

I just got off the phone with someone over at Frozencpu and I won't buy from them ever again. I was just told that they won't refund or exchange me a new case, until XSPC approves it. I have never heard of any business doing returns or RMAs in this fashion, ever. Anytime I have bought something from Performance-PCs and received a defective product I have had a very easy return/RMA process with them. The Frozencpu employee I spoke with was telling me was to contact XSPC directly via e-mail and maybe they could help me resolve my issue or that their boss Mark would have to approve the return (who is apparently indisposed).

FCPU hates to do RMA's...

I had to threaten them just so they'd RMA my defective $15 Logisys bulbs I could have gotten at PTS for $7. I had to bring this up, PLUS the fact that I was LEAVING on a two week trip within three days and I needed them right away to finish my build. I ended up getting them the morning I left.

[lowfat]

No, it required me to tap the previous holes to a larger oval size so I could move the motherboard tray backplate further out to make space.

I've had to tap every single XSPC radiator I've owned. But having to tap a $500 case is nothing short of ridiculous. It is hard to imaging such a monstrously huge flaw could pass through w/o being caught. If the machining has that large of a margin for error, it most definitely should have been noticed.

[OC Maximus]

Wow, really sucks dude. Heads would be rolling if I was in your situation. Hope everything gets resolved asap.

[Vicey]

Terrible service. To be honest with you when I first saw these XSPC cases unveiled on specialtech I thought they looked cheap, tacky and poorly designed/constructed. There didn't seem to be much care or well thought out design going in to them just large pieces of metal put together in the cheapest and simplest way possible. When I saw the price I thought how on earth are they justifying that?

Sorry that you got burned on this but you must have known from the pictures what you were getting yourself in to.

[ohms]

Terrible service. To be honest with you when I first saw these XSPC cases unveiled on specialtech I thought they looked cheap, tacky and poorly designed/constructed. There didn't seem to be much care or well thought out design going in to them just large pieces of metal put together in the cheapest and simplest way possible. When I saw the price I thought how on earth are they justifying that?

Sorry that you got burned on this but you must have known from the pictures what you were getting yourself in to.

You can't really see from the images and tell that it is cheap or poorly constructed. As for being poorly designed it actually isn't, it pretty much doesn't differ in the construction of a customized MM Extended U2-UFO with a horizontal motherboard tray.

So in actuality there is no way I could know what I was getting myself into as you say.

[Utnorris]

I am not defending FPCU per se, but when I had an issue they took care of me with me just sending an email. Anyway, I do not know the full story, but I wouldn't have modded it personally unless I was happy with the rest of the case, which it doesn't seem like you are. Either XSPC or FPCU should have given you a full refund including the shipping for something like that or at the very least, XSPC should be sending you a new MB tray at absolutely no cost to you. I had a broken part on my tech station and I could have just returned it, but Microcool sent me a new part after seeing a picture of the issue, all the way from Europe without requiring me to send the old part back. I for one do not like when companies mess up, especially something like this that keeps it from functioning, and then charges you to ship the part back. They screwed up, it's on them and I would make one of them fix it. That's just me.

[ohms]

I received an e-mail from Dazhong from XSPC and he basically told me in my e-mail that it was user error on my part.


Hi, Tom

From your photos, we found that there was a gap at the back. This is the problem.

Pls check the photos attached. If you can install the case correcttly, there won't be problem.

I suggest you tight the thumb screws at the back first. Then you can tight the screws from the bottom. Just make sure no gap at the back. Then, you can have the slots for PCI brackets.

We did not have complains from other clients. I don't think there is machining errors.

Best Regards
Dazhong

I made it aware to him that I had loosened the thumb screws to see if it helped alleviate the problem but after basically telling me it's user error, I had enough of it and just decided to take matters into my own hands and fix it myself.

I know that I shouldn't feel insulted since there are people out there who don't know how to read/follow instructions so it's something that has to be said, but I still feel insulted as I have been building/modding pc's for quite sometime.

[c.ruel]

Well you just posting this thread will probably put a pretty big dent in their case orders ... so I wouldn't feel too sad

[Utnorris]

Well, first i would say don't get insulted. Second I would say, did you try what they asked? If you are not going to do what they ask then how can you expect them to help? I am not saying you are not capable of putting this together, but even experts make mistakes.

[Sideroxylon]

Terrible service. To be honest with you when I first saw these XSPC cases unveiled on specialtech I thought they looked cheap, tacky and poorly designed/constructed. There didn't seem to be much care or well thought out design going in to them just large pieces of metal put together in the cheapest and simplest way possible. When I saw the price I thought how on earth are they justifying that?

Sorry that you got burned on this but you must have known from the pictures what you were getting yourself in to.

You can't really see from the images and tell that it is cheap or poorly constructed. As for being poorly designed it actually isn't, it pretty much doesn't differ in the construction of a customized MM Extended U2-UFO with a horizontal motherboard tray.

So in actuality there is no way I could know what I was getting myself into as you say.

I have to agree with Vicey on this. As soon as I saw the 84 thumbscrews holding all the panels on I knew this was poorly designed. I've always thought the same of MM. To charge such a huge price for something they can't take the time to come up with an elegant solution to holding panels on is plain lazy and screams sub-standard workmanship...at least to me.

I wish you the best of luck with your build and I wish my initial assessment wasn't accurate but it appears it is. To top it off with the crappy customer service really puts the final nail in the coffin.

[Raiden]

For the next time Xspc dont copy Mountain mods cases hahaha

Caselabs, mountainmods or this Xspc aren´t good and still need to evolve a LOT, at least for me , you can build a better case for less money and with equal finishing touches

[Sideroxylon]

For the next time Xspc dont copy Mountain mods cases hahaha

Caselabs, mountainmods or this Xspc aren´t good and still need to evolve a LOT, at least for me , you can build a better case for less money and with equal finishing touches

You're lumping CaseLabs in with MM and XSPC?!?!?! WTF are you talking about? CaseLabs kicks the crap outta the others in terms of design, workmanship, functionality, looks, and customer service. Want to see some customer service? Here's a recent quote from Jim at CaseLabs...

"We're happy to announce that we're lowering the price of the M8 & M10 by $20 (even though the price of aluminum has gone up about 10% since we started).

We're also making the front I/O panel optional, since not everyone needs/wants it and it will bring the base price of all the cases down by $20.

So what if you paid full price for a M8/M10 last month (I always seem to do that )? No worries, just let me know and we'll issue a credit for $20 (Does not apply to orders that received the 15% discount).

The new base pricing:

M8 - $359.95
M10 - $379.95
T10 - $439.95
MH10 - $439.95
TH10 - $479.95

We've also updated the packaging for M8/M10 cases to meet USPS restrictions to help lower the shipping costs on international orders.

I would also like to take a moment to offer my heartfelt thanks to all of you for making this possible - your support is so greatly appreciated! We'll continue to work hard to build the best cases we can!

I'd also like to extend a special "thank you" to our international customers in:
Australia
Canada
Denmark
Finland
Germany
Iceland
Japan
Malaysia
New Zealand
Singapore
South Africa
Sweden

end quote"

How many companies do you know that would bother to do something like that for their customers? Not many.

I'm starting to sound like I work for these guys or something. I assure you I don't. I just think they're currently making the best wc'ing cases available to us right now and they seem to really care what we think and want.

[Raiden]

You're lumping CaseLabs in with MM and XSPC?!?!?! WTF are you talking about? CaseLabs kicks the crap outta the others in terms of design, workmanship, functionality, looks, and customer service. Want to see some customer service? Here's a recent quote from Jim at CaseLabs...

"We're happy to announce that we're lowering the price of the M8 & M10 by $20 (even though the price of aluminum has gone up about 10% since we started).

We're also making the front I/O panel optional, since not everyone needs/wants it and it will bring the base price of all the cases down by $20.

So what if you paid full price for a M8/M10 last month (I always seem to do that )? No worries, just let me know and we'll issue a credit for $20 (Does not apply to orders that received the 15% discount).

The new base pricing:

M8 - $359.95
M10 - $379.95
T10 - $439.95
MH10 - $439.95
TH10 - $479.95

We've also updated the packaging for M8/M10 cases to meet USPS restrictions to help lower the shipping costs on international orders.

I would also like to take a moment to offer my heartfelt thanks to all of you for making this possible - your support is so greatly appreciated! We'll continue to work hard to build the best cases we can!

I'd also like to extend a special "thank you" to our international customers in:
Australia
Canada
Denmark
Finland
Germany
Iceland
Japan
Malaysia
New Zealand
Singapore
South Africa
Sweden

end quote"

How many companies do you know that would bother to do something like that for their customers? Not many.

I'm starting to sound like I work for these guys or something. I assure you I don't. I just think they're currently making the best wc'ing cases available to us right now and they seem to really care what we think and want.

Caselabs seems good but it´s recent so not very trusty for me..yeah they seem nice but i dont see many project´s with those due to the fact that it´s still a fresh brand.. and everyone fails remember this..

And why do they put the prices in the case pieces as extra?
It should come everything in the case , not plus 20 dolllars for a ssd cage etç

What i really meant is that if you got the skills you can do better even with half the amount of budget all handmade of course you can do errors and it´s not done with a Cnc machine but hey at least you enjoy a good experience and not a bad experience of paying for a product that isnt well developed.

In terms of Wcing i prefer Dangerden cases there´s nothing better, only need a "darkside" to hide the cable,

And yeah maybe Caselabs while hire you for Pr

[chorner]

Raiden, I dare you to go make a case better than Caselabs within a year time frame if not... ever.

Let's see what you've got The minute I saw one of the products online from CaseLabs I knew it was high quality. XSPC, DangerDen and Mountain Mods aren't that great. Actually, IMO MountainMods is crap. Guys are having to mod the case with custom brackets just to keep the MB tray from warping and flapping around. Pretty sad for a $3-400 metal box with no real design aesthetics put in place. Danger Den isn't any better. I've owned a couple of their products, and their machining isn't that great and have had my stuff chip.

[ohms]

Well, first i would say don't get insulted. Second I would say, did you try what they asked? If you are not going to do what they ask then how can you expect them to help? I am not saying you are not capable of putting this together, but even experts make mistakes.

There was nothing to try as it was not the problem. Like I said, in the picture that I had sent him and the one that I posted it looked as if they back was loosened, which it was by me to see if it would give more headway for space. I did tighten it back up and it did nothing, just as loosening it did nothing the problem was just that the holes that were tapped where the motherboard stand-offs go where off 2mm.

I just think they're currently making the best wc'ing cases available to us right now and they seem to really care what we think and want.

That's your opinion I wanted to move away from a vertical motherboard tray so a cube (MM or XSPC) was an ideal choice for me in for a horizontal motherboard tray. I just decided to go with XSPC since their packing looked 100% better then MM. I saw so many horror stories here about MM's bad packaging and customers receiving bent case parts that I did not want to risk it.

[Vicey]

You can't really see from the images and tell that it is cheap or poorly constructed. As for being poorly designed it actually isn't, it pretty much doesn't differ in the construction of a customized MM Extended U2-UFO with a horizontal motherboard tray.

So in actuality there is no way I could know what I was getting myself into as you say.

Come on seriously? All those thumbscrews just to hold the case together, the lack of LED's or case switches even the quality of the metal panels looks poor and cheap.

These cases are a far cry from a Lian Li or Silverstone case and yet they charge Lian Li or Silverstone prices. And I wouldn't say that it has the same construction as a MM Extended U2-UFO as if it was a good thing because those cases have the same poor design as these XSPC ones do.

Just step back and look at this case logically it is just cut panels with pre-drilled holes and you put it together using thumb screws all over the outside of the case.

I have to agree with Vicey on this. As soon as I saw the 84 thumbscrews holding all the panels on I knew this was poorly designed. I've always thought the same of MM. To charge such a huge price for something they can't take the time to come up with an elegant solution to holding panels on is plain lazy and screams sub-standard workmanship...at least to me.:

This is basically what I meant by my original post with regards to "you must have known what you were getting yourself in to".

[Utnorris]

The problem with most cases that claim to be water cooling cases such as Corsair, Lian Li and even Silverstone is you are limited to the amount of rads you can put in it. For most this is not an issue as a single triple rad and dual rad will cool the average computer better than air coolers. The problem is if you want to do a build with large rads, multiple loops or multiple pumps you are very limited with the standard tower type case. Granted, from a "Cool looking" perspective a cube is not great, but you do not have to worry about modding it to fit various rads, multiple pumps or several hard drives. With a tower you have to sacrifice something in order to gain water cooling room, just that simple. Look at the 800d, you have to remove the lower cage and cut the bottom in order to fit a second rad. The TJ07 has to be modded, hence is why there is Murdermod, in order to get several rads in there and you lose HD spots. With Case Labs, MM or even the XSPC case you can fit three triple rads without modding, a couple pumps and various other gear. They are not perfect, but Case Labs has definitely improved upon the "Cube" idea. Even though the XSPC case is pretty much a MM UF2O knock off, they made some interesting refinements to their case. As much as I hate wire management in my MM cases, I love the fact it has a horizontal MB tray and has plenty of room and it's modular. I like the Case Labs better, but I already have the MM case, so switching to them would be a tough choice for me. It really comes down to what is important to you, if you want to make a fashion statement then the "Cube" is not for you, get a Lian Li case or Betfinix case and have fun, but if you want room to do stuff, then the "Cube is the way to go.

[Vicey]

The problem with most cases that claim to be water cooling cases such as Corsair, Lian Li and even Silverstone is you are limited to the amount of rads you can put in it. For most this is not an issue as a single triple rad and dual rad will cool the average computer better than air coolers. The problem is if you want to do a build with large rads, multiple loops or multiple pumps you are very limited with the standard tower type case. Granted, from a "Cool looking" perspective a cube is not great, but you do not have to worry about modding it to fit various rads, multiple pumps or several hard drives. With a tower you have to sacrifice something in order to gain water cooling room, just that simple. Look at the 800d, you have to remove the lower cage and cut the bottom in order to fit a second rad. The TJ07 has to be modded, hence is why there is Murdermod, in order to get several rads in there and you lose HD spots. With Case Labs, MM or even the XSPC case you can fit three triple rads without modding, a couple pumps and various other gear. They are not perfect, but Case Labs has definitely improved upon the "Cube" idea. Even though the XSPC case is pretty much a MM UF2O knock off, they made some interesting refinements to their case. As much as I hate wire management in my MM cases, I love the fact it has a horizontal MB tray and has plenty of room and it's modular. I like the Case Labs better, but I already have the MM case, so switching to them would be a tough choice for me. It really comes down to what is important to you, if you want to make a fashion statement then the "Cube" is not for you, get a Lian Li case or Betfinix case and have fun, but if you want room to do stuff, then the "Cube is the way to go.

I think almost every build on this site is trying to make a fashion statement. No one here is braiding their cables or using expensive bitfinix fittings for aerodynamics or thermal performance they want it to look cool while remaining functional.

I agree with you that normal cases are not well suited to large water cooling builds with multiple radiators but I still think just using some really quickly cut bits of metal and having them joined together in the most basic way possible and then charging the prices that they are is taking a liberty.

What we really need is for some premium case makers to design a large water cooling case with all the finite detail we expect from a normal case I'm talking reset switches, power switches, Power and HD LED's, riveted together chassis and only using thumb screws where it makes sense instead of using them to hold the entire case together.

Of course cases are very subjective and I'm sure many people absolutely love the look of the Mountain Mods cases and they probably see a lot of potential in them for modding and paint jobs and so on. I however don't see that when I look at them I just see something very cheap with an insane price tag and in the case of the XSPC versions not even a well made end result as this thread has shown.

I think the biggest surprise is for all that money spent on this XSPC case the support is non-existent. It's like paying for a Porsche and receiving only the key fob and then calling up the company that sold it to you only for them to say hey not our problem talk to Porsche.

[ohms]

I love how this goes from a thread about my dismay on quality control of a product to scrutinizing my case choice. Gotta love all the trolls that come out of the wood work, especially by sub 100 post / non contributing users.

I think almost every build on this site is trying to make a fashion statement. No one here is braiding their cables or using expensive bitfinix fittings for aerodynamics or thermal performance they want it to look cool while remaining functional.

I think you are also assuming that people do take style over substance here when they do their builds and I can probably say that it doesn't not factor into 90% of the builders here. I am pretty sure that people still want functionality/performance over looks. I'm pretty sure that yes sleeving is probably a little excessive for cable management but for someone who never saw the point of it and then finally doing it, it does make cable management some what easier in the grand scheme of things and does add aesthetics into the mix.

Of course cases are very subjective and I'm sure many people absolutely love the look of the Mountain Mods cases and they probably see a lot of potential in them for modding and paint jobs and so on. I however don't see that when I look at them I just see something very cheap with an insane price tag and in the case of the XSPC versions not even a well made end result as this thread has shown.

Thats your opinion and you are entitled to it but i'm sure many of the builders/modders here would disagree with you. And as for the XSPC, it's bad quality control issue and not an overall crap product, where I don't want to go out on a limb and defend XSPC because of the poor customer service I received on my issue I'm not gonna lie and say that it was an outright horrible product. The panels are pretty thick albeit i'd rather have the heft and durability that comes with the steel that Cooler Master uses on the HAF-X for the metal work but I can guarentee it would probably alot more expensive.

There are a few things that need to be addressed with the case, but I don't think these faults make it a absolutely horrible case from the way you put it.

The problem with most cases that claim to be water cooling cases such as Corsair, Lian Li and even Silverstone is you are limited to the amount of rads you can put in it. For most this is not an issue as a single triple rad and dual rad will cool the average computer better than air coolers. The problem is if you want to do a build with large rads, multiple loops or multiple pumps you are very limited with the standard tower type case. Granted, from a "Cool looking" perspective a cube is not great, but you do not have to worry about modding it to fit various rads, multiple pumps or several hard drives. With a tower you have to sacrifice something in order to gain water cooling room, just that simple. Look at the 800d, you have to remove the lower cage and cut the bottom in order to fit a second rad. The TJ07 has to be modded, hence is why there is Murdermod, in order to get several rads in there and you lose HD spots. With Case Labs, MM or even the XSPC case you can fit three triple rads without modding, a couple pumps and various other gear. They are not perfect, but Case Labs has definitely improved upon the "Cube" idea. Even though the XSPC case is pretty much a MM UF2O knock off, they made some interesting refinements to their case. As much as I hate wire management in my MM cases, I love the fact it has a horizontal MB tray and has plenty of room and it's modular. I like the Case Labs better, but I already have the MM case, so switching to them would be a tough choice for me. It really comes down to what is important to you, if you want to make a fashion statement then the "Cube" is not for you, get a Lian Li case or Betfinix case and have fun, but if you want room to do stuff, then the "Cube is the way to go.

I do agree with Utnorris on this 100% he hit it on the nail head. Also from what I saw with the Case Labs M8 it costs about $395 and it can fit maybe 3 triple radiators? And if you want to install more, guess what? you have to spend another $159 to buy the pedestal which will give you space for 2 more triple radiators and if you want to run radiators up top you need to buy the extended cover top for another $65. Lets see thats $619 to have somewhere near the same amount of radiator space as the XSPC cube/MM cube and you still are limited with the options of where you can put them. I also didn't have to pay $20 for each window on 2 of my panels and $7.95 for an SSD HD tray.

@ Vicey: I'd also like to point out the fact that I own the product which puts me in a position to make realistic comments about it rather then you who sees it on a website and states it looks like crap. (Not to those exact words, but I'm sure you get the drift)