BitFenix Comrade ATX Chassis Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The BitFenix Comrade has been designed for a budget friendly price point, which is a nice way of saying that it’s made out of cheaper materials to keep the cost down. The end result is that the Comrade comes in at just under £30 from most major retailers and you can pick one up from Overclockers.co.uk for just £29.99. This puts it along side budget offerings from Coolermaster, Sharkoon, Aerocool and a many more, and it’s about on par in terms of specifications and features as we would expect from anything else this price.

Overview

I don’t really like this case, in fact I don’t dislike it either; it’s too safe a design to be loved or hated that much at all. It’s middle of the road and a little bland, but that’s fine, you can’t expect industry changing features for under £30, but what you can expect is a well rounded product that has almost all of the major features you need to get your system up and running. I say almost due to the lack of any front mounted cooling fans, these seem pretty essential in my book and I recommend that anyone buying this case should also invest a few pounds in a 120mm fan just to keep airflow moving.

The exterior may be a little bland, but the interior was quite surprising; the hard drive bays are nicely designed, there is a dedicated 2.5″ drive bay and all the bays feature removable trays. There is plenty of room for a good mid-to-high end graphics card and there is cable routing that is surprisingly capable, despite the limitations of the chassis size. Motherboard stand-offs are built in, there is a good size CPU cooler cut-out and a filtered air intake for the PSU. This ticks all the boxes you need for most system builds.

The build quality isn’t fantastic and the chassis is noticeably lightweight. The metalwork is thin and the plastics aren’t exactly hard wearing, but that’s what you expect in something of this price range, if you’re on the market for something more durable, then expect to pay 20-30% more for it.

“The Comrade may not be the most exciting chassis to own, but it is nice and simple to work with and will no doubt prove popular with those putting together their first system. The price is certainly wallet friendly and competitive compared to many other  budget friendly chassis on the market today.”

Pros

• Budget friendly
• Suitable for first time system builders
• Dedicated 2.5″ and 3.5″ drive bays
• Cable routing
• Dust filters

Cons

• Only one fan pre-installed
• Snap-off expansion slot covers
• Thin metal panels

Thank you BitFenix for providing us with this sample.