Enermax Pandora Case

The ambient temperature in our office was a steady, mild 24°C throughout all the testing and the in case temperature when the PC was off was a steady 25°C, probably because the case is black and black absorbs heat.

We began, as always, by checking the idle temperatures of the case – i.e. how hot it was when the PC was doing nothing, but was still turned on. When idle the CPU temperature was 38°C, while the in case temperature cooled by a single degree as the fans engaged, levelling out at 24°C to match the ambient.

We went on to stress the CPU which pushed its temperature up a whole ten degrees to 48°C, which pulled the case temperature up with it to 25°C, verging occasionally on 26°C for a few split seconds. Stressing the RAM produced the exact same results.

So, nothing to worry about yet. The case is probably performing so well thanks to its tight fit which pushes the PSU fan, heatsink and case fan all right up next to each other, the blades almost clicking against one another.

We moved on to test the graphics card, something we do using a real-time high dynamic range image based lighting test (you can call it RTHDRIBL, for short) that looks very pretty and taxes the GPU quite a lot. This nifty little program kept the in case temperature at a high of 26°C, pushed the CPU up to a pleasant 45°C and let the GPU rise to a momentary high of 61°C.


All in all a solid performance then, and the best news is that even though the fans were all clustered so close together the noise was barely noticeable. There was a persistent, quiet hum that pleasingly reassured us that everything was being kept A-OK in the case department, but it was easily ignored and turning on any music or playing any game would doubtlessly drown it out.

Conclusions

So, it looks okay, though not fantastic, there's decent potential for some good mods to the case, it has a few minor problems in terms of system installation, but these are balanced out by the way they contribute to the excellent capacity for heat and its low noise performance.

It's looking kind of good for this little beauty then, when suddenly a bombshell of joy is dropped on it, exploding joy all across our otherwise mopey faces.

Value is the key point with this case you see and at just under forty pounds we think it's bursting with value for money.


Cases like this don't come along often, and when they do they're usually forbiddingly expensive. Not the Pandora though, which has chosen to sacrifice some finish and a bit of polish in order to bring costs down and make the case cheaper.

Ultimately then the case is like a first house or a dilapidated shed; it may not look like much, but everything you really need is there to start with so that what it's lacking in appearance can be fixed. The new motto for the case should be; "Enermax Pandora – a brilliant fixer-upper" because, while those just buying the case for what it is can get decent performance out of it, the real appeal will be for those just starting out on a new modding project.

If you can afford to invest a little time into the Pandora to improve its appearance closer to your personal tastes, then you'll soon find that this is a chassis that can pay you back in spades.

• Build Quality
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• 6/10

• Features
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• 7/10

• Performance
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• -
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• 8/10

• Value
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• 10/10

• Overall
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• -
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• 8/10

What do these scores mean?