Installation and Performance

Before getting into my testing I did have to bust out our test components and get everything installed into the Cullinan. I started off with our X99 motherboard with our CPU, RAM, and cooler already installed. It dropped in quickly and without any issues. The Noctua cooler had lots of room and I wasn’t concerned at all about the cooler height, especially without any side mounted fans taking away room. I went ahead and installed the RX 480 as well. This card isn’t as long as some of the others but it is very clear than video card length won’t be an issue at all. In fact, I think you could run a push pull radiator setup on the front there with today's longest cards and still have a little room. With the motherboard, I can also better see that a single push radiator setup up top would fit just as long as it's not to thick off a radiator (any of the AIO kits will fit for sure).

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Next, I installed our power supply in the enclosure. Because the enclosure is part of the case it is a little hard to get at. In fact looking back I would recommend that you wire everything with the PSU sitting behind the case then move it in at the end. Getting your hand in there to plug in a cable is nearly impossible.

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Along with all of the tabs to attach zip ties, the Cullinan also ahs Velcro ties up the one side for all of the preinstalled cables like the fans and the front panel wires.

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Remember the plastic wire cover that I wasn’t a fan of before? Well, when I started wiring everything up it became a big issue. Frankly, you can't run a 24 pin out this area at all unless the plug is in another area of your motherboard. It is a great idea for the SATA cables, but I would much rather have a grommet on the hole and be done. In the end, I left the wire coming out of there but dropped the cover altogether. The other option is to run the 24 pin up from the big hole out of the top of the PSU box but that won’t look good as well.

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With everything wired up (minus my sata cables, oops) the Cullinan looks good but because of the missing cover, there are a few big gaps in that area. The enclosed PSU looks amazing though and we clearly have a lot of room left for water cooling, eve with our relatively big motherboard.

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Powering everything up, the LED fans behind the glass panels look amazing. I will admit that I think the fans are a little bit of a step back from the all simple and clean look the case has and not everyone is going to like them. But I do still think they look good and they give the build a unique look. Swapping those fans out to an RGB fan would be a great way to theme out a build in any color you would like as well.

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With everything installed I spent a little time using the build, focusing on how I would use it day to day and what would bother me. First off, remember that the case with the glass panels installed is 26 pounds and that isn’t counting anything inside of it. If you install a custom water cooling kit in the Cullinan the entire build is going to become a huge brick that you can’t move around. That isn’t a huge issue, but keep that in mind if you plan on taking it to any LAN events or if you move a lot. Beyond that the case looks great with today's hardware with lighting on nearly everything like our test motherboards orange lights. The tinted glass panels hide a little while still giving you a peek inside.

Cooling performance was great but that isn’t a huge shocker with it coming with four fans. I was a little concerned with the overall airflow on the two 3.5 inch drives in the bottom of the case but the holes in the front did get a little air in there. The best part about the case is the solid glass panel and the overall design does a good job keeping the noise down. There is still a little room for noise out the top of the case but it was better than a lot of the other cases that have 7 or more potential fan locations, those normally aren’t far off from a completely open case. The other thing I had an issue with was just keeping the glass clean. I have fought with this on my D-Frame Mini but the tube chassis is where you normally grab and hold the case so it isn’t as bad. With the Cullinan, you can’t avoid getting fingerprints all over the glass panels anytime you touch it, in fact, the case (being a very early sample) has messy glass as well. I’m willing to bet that won’t be an issue with the full production case. Pre-production cases get handled a lot before being sent out.

 

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #38219 19 Oct 2016 21:41
Today I check out Rosewill's new glass case, check it out

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