Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

We thoroughly enjoyed testing the BitFenix chassis. It was a blast to work in and look at. The features are plentiful, and then some. We love the tempered glass side panels which gives it that refined look. The RGB LED SSD panel at the front-side might work for some, but not for all taste wise. hey you can easily remove it and then have an all open look, which works nicely as well. 

Tempered glass doesn't really work in a photo studio, we had a hard time fighting off mirror effects and lights. Hence, in a real world situation, this chassis does look better then the photos show. That said, it's a lovely thing of beauty. For a mid tower the Shogun managed to impress looking at it from pretty much all viewpoints. You can house even an E-ATX motherboard in there. You'd expect that airflow would be a conundrum, yet it works out really well by having a huge air intake at the bottom while the right side fan exhausts. That the reason of the aluminum rounded top and bottom, below it are meshes for airflow.

With that said, we feel airflow is good enough, the space to work in great and features like the SSD/HDD space, ease of use and USB 3.0 ports are all available as well. Lacking however is an integrated fan controller but added was that RGB controller lighting solution. 

Aesthetics

The looks then, I do like the Shogun very much, but taste differs per person, but yeah I think most people can agree with me on this one. It has that nice dark feel and see through finish, and once again, you can't argue taste as it is the most subjective thing and does not make the job of reviewer any easier. If I may nitpick, my one quirk could be the front bezel which is plastic, why not aluminum like the top and bottom? Hey I like subtleties. But overall this is a well thought through product with okay cooling, dust filters, USB 3.0 integration and relatively tool free design. The glass side panel with door functionality is lovely and gives it its final daunting looks.

Features

The internals are pretty decent as well, normal ATX form factor motherboards will fit as well as E-ATX, the more lengthy graphics card will fit as well. Brilliant we feel are the VGA rests, heavy graphics card will not bend or put pressure on the PCI-slots. And if you do not like the rests, you can simply remove them. There's also nice, actually proper, space for liquid cooling. There is sufficient space for HDDs and SSDs. The chassis has nice motherboard cutout and there's enough space left for cable routing through the grommet holes (rubberized), all in that all-black interior. 

The Verdict

If I had to pick a mid-tower that oozes style, design and features right now I'd put the BitFenix Shogun highly on my short-list, that's the honest truth. Style wise it might not be for everybody, but I do tend to think that many people will agree with me, this one is a beauty. This kind of beauty comes at a price of 160 USD/euro. Honestly, for what you are receiving I feel this is money well spent. The magic is to be found in the see-through design with the tempered glass side panel, the all dark interior and that lovely lover compartment where you can hide your PSU. it is a mid-tower chassis that can hold 360 radiators as well. Design wise I have very little to complain, the chassis is easy to use and fairly maintenance free. You have enough yet ample storage options alongside good cable routing. Everything sits in the right place as well. The airflow is certainly decent enough for any proper build, the air intake at the bottom, front and exhaust at the back and top will take care of that. We feel that BitFenix offers a very unique product, please do add some LED lights at the top in there and you will be amazed once you see that expensive kit of yours through that side panel window. Highly recommended, very nice.

• Sign up to receive a notice when we publish a new article
• Or go back to Guru3D's front page