Xigmatek Mach Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Introduction I must admit that I love a high-end chassis' that are packed full of features with a high-end rig installed, as I'm sure many of you do too. However, not everyone has a need for an extreme gaming system, nor the budget for one. For many people, a nice simple chassis that is easy to work with and wallet friendly is what they need and that's exactly what we have here today. The Xigmatek Mach isn't the greatest chassis ever, but that's because it was never designed to be and with a price tag of just £25, you could pick one up with relative ease. Even our younger readers could afford one after saving their pocket-money for a little while. At this price range, we can't expect too much from this chassis, but just like any other mid-tower, it's still got an important job to do; it has to securely house all the components needed for a low-to-mid budget gaming rig. As you can see, the left panel has a raised section and features two 120mm fan mounts; perfect for giving some extra cooling power to your CPU and GPU. The right side panel also has a raised section, although it has more benefits on this side as it'll free up extra space for cable routing behind the motherboard. The front panel is pretty straightforward, there's a few small fan intakes down the bottom half and three 5.25" drive bay covers at the top. It's constructed from cheap black plastics, but it was hardly going to be milled from aluminium at this price range. At the top, we've got a pair of HD audio jacks and dual USB 3.0 ports; it's very nice to see dual USB 3.0 on a budget chassis. Around the back, you'll find two snap-out covers for two extra routing holes at the top, a 120mm fan mount, seven expansion slots and a bottom mounted PSU area. The top expansion slot cover is reusable, but the bottom six are a snap-off design. The top panel design is pretty cool and features a bit of extra ventilation, as well as two large buttons for power and reset. There's four rubber feet on the base of the chassis, giving a good amount of ground clearance to the bottom PSU air intake, which also comes fitted with a basic mesh dust filter. Interior The interior of the chassis has been treated to an all black paint job, giving the Mach a nice uniform appearance. There's a nice quality 120mm fan pre-installed in the back. A little extra ventilation room at the top. There's easily room in the back for a 120mm AIO water cooler too. Storage is well catered for, with a dedicated 2.5" drive bay and a dedicated 3.5" drive bay; you can also screw a single 2.5" drive to the base of the chassis. There's three 5.25" drive bays, not that a lot of people use optical drives anymore, but you could always use adaptors to add more hard drive space in these bays. Around the back, you'll find a fairly limited amount of cable routing space. The side panel will give you some room to play with, but I'm certain you'll still have to bundle some cables in the front of the chassis, especially if you don't have a modular PSU. Complete System Building a system into the Mach was a very easy process, as this is a very simple chassis overall. Everything fit easily enough and while I didn't have space for another GPU due to the length of the card I used, the 2.5" bay certainly helped accomodate a larger GPU inside the Mach. There's about 10mm extra space left, although keep in mind that the R9 270X is a very long card anyway. As I suspected, I couldn't get all the excess cable behind the motherboard, but there's plenty of room to bundle it out of the way in the bottom of the chassis. Here you can also see I've mounted the SSD directly to the bottom of the chassis. No obstructions to airflow in the top section of the chassis and a rather clean-looking build overall. Final Thoughts Pricing At just £25 from OCUK the Xigmatek Mach is a very budget friendly product, but the phrase "you get what you pay for" rings true in many aspects of this chassis. If budget is an issue, there's little, if anything, better for the same money. Overview Working with the Xigmatek Mach netted some interesting conclusions for me, as the final build does look pretty neat and tidy, but it's certainly worth considering the negative sides of a chassis in this price range before you dash out to buy one. The metal panels on this chassis are quite thin and as such, they're easily deformed and dented. The thin metal is going to do nothing for noisy components either, so if you're using a GPU with a particularly noisy cooler design, you're going to know about it. The plastics are quite thin and cheap too, there's always that risk that if you accidentally kicked it, you may break it. Cooling isn't the greatest, so a high-end system like the one we built today may not be the ideal target specifications for this chassis. Airflow from the front is pretty limited and while there's a single 120mm fan in the back, you may want to invest in at least one extra fan to help with airflow - dependent on the type of system you install. If you want tough build quality, thicker panels, better cooling and everything else, you'll have to pay around £40+ for your chassis and while that sounds easily done to many of you, that's simply not an option for all. I wouldn't go out and buy this for myself, but if someone was in a pinch and they asked me to build them a system on a tight budget, it'll certainly be something to consider. Pros Very cost effective Cable routing space (although limited) Loads of storage bays Fits long GPU Dual USB 3.0 ports Cons Build quality isn't great Not a lot of cooling potential "Not the greatest chassis in the world, but certainly one of the most budget friendly. While it doesn't dazzle with build quality, it's still capable of housing a rig and it may be appealing to system integrators and resellers who are trying to keep costs to a minimum." Thank you Overclockers for providing us with this information.