Scythe Fenris Wolf

Results Analysis and Final Thoughts

Looking at the Fenris Wolf’s thermal performance, it’s clear that our concerns over the case’s low noise cooling solution were well founded. The dual 800 RPM silent Scythe fans just aren’t enough to compete with the high airflow cases, and while the temperatures we experienced aren’t dangerously high, we expect better thermal performance from a high end enthusiast case, and the lack of any optional fan mounts doesn’t help the cause.

At idle it’s one of the hottest conventional chassis we’ve yet to test, and while the GPU performance is more promising, helped by the hard drive mounting system’s minor interference with airflow from the front 120mm intake fan, it’s nothing to write home about, and although it matches a stock Akasa Omega here on GPU cooling, the CPU temperature is noticeably higher.

However, like the Omega the key here has never been high performance cooling, but silence, and that’s exactly what the Fenris Wolf delivers. The Scythe fans really are stunningly quiet, to the point that you’d barely know the system was even turned on if you were using an equally low noise PSU and CPU. The rubber grommet based hard drive mounting is also worth a mention here, and despite being a right pain to install, is remarkably effective at nullifying the noise from hard disk vibrations – a common omission, and one we’re glad Scythe has addressed.

Value and Final Thoughts

Despite its silent performance though, we’re still far from convinced by the Fenris Wolf, with the easily dented and deformed panelling our primary concern. Scythe seems to have totally omitted reinforcing any of the case’s panelling with the usual methods and it’s clear that this isn’t a case that’s going to stand up to much wear and tear or even multiple fittings without showing some very obvious signs of degradation. It’s a shame really as the black anodised aluminium Scythe has used feels and looks great – it’s just not strong enough without being reinforced in some way.

The Fenris Wolf isn’t the easiest case to put together either, with the rubber grommet mounted hard drive rack particularly frustrating to build and the mount into the chassis. On more than one failed attempt at mounting the test system hard drive came close to being hurled across the room in frustration – it’s just a million miles away from the easy drive mounting trays used in Cooler Master or Antec chassis and while we appreciate the excellent vibration reduction it can offer, we’re not sure it’s worth the bother. Again, it’s a shame as Scythe has gotten the basics right with the roomy interior and easy PSU mounting, it’s just spoiled by the irritating hard drive mounting.

The final nail in the coffin here though is the price. Launching next month at almost £135 we feel the Fenris Wolf is, simply put, comically expensive. The Hiper Osiris, a case that’s based on the exact same core chassis and which possesses far superior aluminium alloy build quality is available for just over £80 – that’s a whopping saving of almost £55, more than enough to replace the Osiris’ three (admittedly noisy) 120mm fans with ultra low noise models and have enough left over to buy a new game or two.

There’s also the option of the Akasa Omega for £120, a case that’s comparable to the Fenris Wolf on thermal performance and excellent noise levels, but that’s both fantastically easy to work with and very solid indeed, with superb build quality.

While the Scythe Fenris Wolf is launched as a silent case to the Osiris’ high performance, there’s just no way that two ultra low noise fans, a vibration dampening hard drive mount and some foam strips stuck on the side panels are worth the sort of price premium Scythe is demanding here, especially with the notable build quality and hard drive mounting problems we’ve encountered.

It’s a real surprise to be honest, especially as the core chassis upon which the Fenris Wolf has been built has been at the heart of two high quality cases. Sadly though, that’s not the case this time out and the Fenris Wolf, while at first seeming to have a lot of potential, just carries too many flaws to be really worthy of your consideration.

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

• Build Quality
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Ease of Use
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
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• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 5/10

• Overall
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• -
• -
• -
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• 6/10

Score Guide