Enermax Ostrog Mid-Tower PC Chassis Review
Peter Donnell / 12 years ago
I’m very happy with the Ostrog, given its obscure name, relatively low price and small size. I was expecting it to be a bit rubbish, but fool on me for thinking that way, as the chassis was a joy to work with. Not only does it look fantastic, but it also has a few nice style touches that you don’t normally find within this price range.
Features such as the stylish white mesh trim on the front panel really add to the design of the chassis. It also packs a very generous feature list including its capability of holding a great selection of hard drives in its various quick release and tray mounted bays, with each bay being removable to allow for longer graphics cards or better airflow. Other key features consist of USB 3.0 support on the front panel, room for some entry level water cooling, some simple yet effective cable management, plentiful fan mounting points throughout the chassis and again the main point, all this comes for a very reasonable price.
Overall though I only had a couple of issues with the chassis, but only minor issues at that. The side panels I found to be cut a little too thin which isn’t a big issue but doesn’t do wonders for sound proofing. Though this issue exists, it isn’t something which really make a big difference though when you have so many fan mounts cut into the panels. I’m also not a fan of snap-off expansion slot covers, as when you remove your graphics card or similar devices there is no way of plugging the hole and while Enermax have included a single slot cover it doesn’t match with the rest of them. This seemed a little odd to me, but again these are minor issues given the value of this chassis and certainly not enough to put you off a possible purchase of it.
It’s always good to see a cost effective solution to chassis design that doesn’t cut out the major features you would expect to find on a more premium build. This means that for just over £40 you can have a chassis that is still capable of holding an SLI/Crossfire gaming system. You also find for the price that the chassis can handle a bit of water cooling, plenty of fans should you need them, more than enough hard drive bays than your typical user would ever need and still room for up to four 5.25″ drives. This allows you the opportunity to spend more on your internal components such as your CPU without having to worry about an expensive case being added on to your budget. It’s for this reason why I am more than happy to award the Ostrog our Bang For Buck Award, as it’s simply stunning how many features you get for you money here.