FreshTech Solutions Stealth Gaming PC Review

A Closer Look

The V300 boot SSD is firmly attached to the hard drive cage in a tidy and efficient manner. I attempted to rock the SSD slightly to check for a loose fixture. Thankfully, the SSD didn’t move at all, and was aligned correctly. Also, the SATA power and data cables are perfectly obscured and cannot be seen through the side panel window. The mechanical drive’s cabling exhibits a similar level of cable management and arrived without hanging over to one side.

FreshTech Solutions decided to hide the excess Molex power cables for the red LED strip underneath a hard drive bay. In this particular picture, it does seem quite noticeable. However, once the side panel is closed, it’s virtually impossible to detect and obscured by the LED lighting. Therefore, given the LED strip constricted length, this is a sensible decision.

Here we can see the Corsair H80i’s beautiful textured tubing which adds a luxurious finish. While this wasn’t necessary, FreshTech Solutions grouped the tubes together using zip-ties. This makes the tubing quite tight and gives the impression that the length was customized for this particular configuration. The fans are also connected via long threaded screws and there was no evidence of over-tightening which could have cosmetically damaged the radiator mounting holes.

The reference GTX 980 Ti fits the system’s theme quite well although the MSI Gaming 6G in red and black would have been a more appropriate choice. However, the MSI card opts for a beefy cooling solution and increased core clock which results in a significant price increase.

I was quite impressed with the 24-pin power, and dual 6-pin PCI-E cable runs which are neatly tied together with zip-ties and positioned through the case’s exposed grommets. This is impressive because the chassis doesn’t hide the power supply cabling with rubber grommets.

The Corsair logo on the block and RAM contrast rather well and gives a synergy to the overall build. Furthermore, you can change the Corsair pump logo to any RGB colour using the Corsair Link software. Annoyingly, the software requires a trailing Y-cable, USB lead and SATA power. Given these limitations, the block install is remarkably tidy and FreshTech Solutions managed to blend the cables into the motherboard and fan’s colour scheme. This demonstrates an excellent skill level and shows thoughtfulness during the build process.

From this wider aspect, we can see how the power supply cables have been routed and graphics card installation. Note how the GPU is flush and only droops ever so slightly. On another note, the USB 3.0 header, and case fan are connected without any trailing wires.

Near the bottom section, there is a speaker for diagnostics, SATA cables, front USB, audio connectors and the contravening Corsair Link USB cable. To be fair, the Link cable can make for a messy appearance, but its black construction doesn’t really show up once the side panel is shut. In an ideal world, I’d prefer to see the link cable routed around the back, but this simply isn’t possible on the In Win 503 case.

This perspective shows the non-modular power supply and tight zip-tie to hold a large quantity of cables together. Given the chassis’ lack of rubber grommets and cable holes near the top, the cabling job is superb.

Onto the chassis’ opposite side, the SATA power and data cables are neatly tied together and kept within the HDD cages. Even the larger 24-pin ATX cable is almost flat and flush with the case’s construction. This makes it incredibly easy to close the side panel due to the complete lack of protruding wires. Once again, zip-ties were employed to keep everything tidy while opting for tight cable runs.

Other cables such as the 8-pin EPS feed through an intent in the CPU cutout tray. Also, this selection of cables is the optimal amount without applying too much pressure on the zip-ties to hold them together. As you can imagine, FreshTech Solutions considered the cable management and didn’t make any short-cuts.

Here we can see the cable management in full which illustrates the logical cable runs and clean finish considering the non-modular power supply and chassis’ technical limitations. While it’s not the tidiest setup, I was impressed and felt FreshTech Solutions did an excellent job.

The side panel window contains a fairly brash In Win logo which sits quite nicely underneath the graphics card. I particularly like the panel’s exposed fittings and tinted window. However, I’m not convinced the large In Win logo will be to everyone’s tastes. Nevertheless, the complete system is visually appealing and adopts a subtle design.