In Win Ironclad review

Performance Analysis

Despite the cavalcade of poor decisions in the Ironclad’s design, its thermal performance was fairly good, helped no doubt by the large mesh side panel and accompanying 220mm fan blowing air directly onto the motherboard. A CPU delta T of 50°C and a GPU delta T of 40°C find the Ironclad roughly in the middle ground of cases we’ve reviewed recently. While the CPU temperature is 6°C off that of the SilverStone RV02, its GPU temperature matches that of the RV02, and with plenty of potential for additional fans it would be easy to upgrade the Ironclad’s cooling.

We also found the Ironclad’s fans to be very quiet indeed, offering the rare pairing of capable cooling with ear friendly noise levels. However, the large meshed sections do mean that while the Ironclad’s fans are quiet, other noise from inside the case, such as hard disks and graphics card coolers are very audible.

Conclusion

Despite the Ironclad’s above average cooling, it feels as though this is a case that has been designed by tick boxes rather than with any consideration for the need or implementation of its features. A solitary dust filter in the front intake ticks a box, but there is a gaping hole in the side panel and two unprotected large roof fan mounts. Similarly the addition of sound deadening foam is pointless and the lack of any kind of cable routeing inside is a glaring oversight for an enthusiast case, especially considering how competitive the case market is.

While the core chassis itself is solid the unconvincing finish of the front fascia is also a disappointment. Considering the fairly high £90 asking price, we’d expect not only a lot more features, but a much more well thought out design. For the same price there are far better alternatives, from the superb SilverStone RV02 to the cheaper Cooler Master 912 Plus. While it does deliver when it comes to cooling, the Ironclad’s numerous shortcomings means there’s little to recommend taking it out of dry dock.

• Cooling
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Design
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 4/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

Score Guide