Review: Bitfenix Survivor

[slaveofconvention]

A new story entry has been added:

[drupal=625]Review: Bitfenix Survivor[/drupal]

By Colin M. Ormsby

Bitfenix are a relatively new player in the PC chassis game. At the time of writing the entire range is made up of a half-dozen variants of the Colossus case, the Survivor, and a recently announced new case, the Shinobi. Today we're looking at the Survivor - a full review of the Colossus will be here soon but for now - read on to see what we think of the this Bitfenix PC Housing...

[SXRguyinMA]

that thing is sweet

[slaveofconvention]

It really is, if it hadn't been for the 3.5" drive mounting bays, this case would have been a storming 5/5 and a contender for an Editors Choice award.

[SXRguyinMA]

they should take a page from NZXT on the 3.5" drive trays

[DynamoNED]

they should take a page from NZXT on the 3.5" drive trays

Agreed. Even the budget NZXT models, like my M59, have those simple snap-on connectors that make moving drives in and out a literal snap. Quick, simple, but well thought out.

Still, the Survivor is a very nice case, but its the little things that make the difference between nice cases and great ones.

[Oneslowz28]

Both my Cooler Master Storm Sniper and HAF X use that style 3.5" mounting and I do not find it that difficult to swap HDDs in and out. I actually prefer it over NZXT's mounting style.

[slaveofconvention]

The thing is, I think Bitfenix have gone with those caddies for a relatively good reason. The drawback with simple side-snapping attachments is that they do tend to limit you to only using 3.5" drives - the Bitfenix caddies, as fiddly as they CAN be do also give you the flexibility of using laptop drives or SSDs - it's one of those situations IMO where they've tried to cover every angle, but unfortunately in doing so, they've lost some of the convenience for the most common type of drive - it's all but impossible to keep everyone happy.... If I'd been an SSD user and not fitting a 1.5tb 3.5" SATA drive, I may never have noticed...

[DynamoNED]

@oneslowz28 I guess it's just something you get used to over time. If I used a system like that all the time, it might be different.

@slaveofconvention You make a good point; the Survivor's system is more flexible for SSD's & laptop drives than NZXT's snap-on rails. My case included an adapter for a pair of SSD's, but I suppose it's the classic dilemma of a single, flexible solution vs. discrete solutions for each part. Both have trade-offs, which is why both should exist.