Cougar QBX

[Darksaber]

The Cougar QBX costs a mere 50 euro, but offers everything you could be looking for in a compact Mini-ITX gaming rig. It sounds nearly unreal, but we take a closer look to see what you get for such little money and do not find the chassis lacking - on the contrary.

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[tabascosauz]

So, basically an SG08 without all the aluminum, with a small 92mm exhaust, a less capable intake fan, kinda pointless mesh on the cable management side, and some extra space below the board for cables. Heck, look at the HDD cage. 2 SSDs side by side on the bottom, 1 HDD in the cage itself; identical to that of the SG08.

It looked very pretty until I read the part about the top and front actually being plastic.

 

[azdesign]

More like NCase M1 rather than SG08. If you look at M1, this case is way larger, lots of wasted space, plastic material.. but for the price, acceptable.

 

[stinger608]

One really has to keep in mind the PSU constraints with this case. From the reviews that I have read one pretty much needs to have a top quality SFX power supply to have it correctly fit and still allow for high end video cards.

@tabascosauz ; Keep in mind that the SilverStone SG08 is a $200 USD case vs a $55 USD case. Huge difference in price points. If one is looking to build a somewhat budget ITX system then most likely the SG08 is going to be out of the question.

Great review @Darksaber however I felt you should have focused a little more on the power supply compatibility with this case. That would seem to be an issue for many people. If you doing a case swap the PSU could be an issue for many. Doing a new build might not be as problematic but it should still be addressed in the review.

 

[tabascosauz]

@stinger608 You must be looking at the old SG08. That one includes the Silverstone 600W PSU. The SG08-Lite allows you to bring your own PSU and it costs $70-90. The NCase M1, however, does cost about $200, and to the other user above, @azdesign also is not suitable for this comparison because I was talking about the drive cage and general layout. An ATX PSU in the M1 warrants its placement perpendicular to the motherboard. Place a SG08 on its GPU-side and you'll see the similarities, particularly concerning the PSU and GPU placement.

Being similar to the SG08, it appears to suffer from the same problems as the SG08 (@Darksaber please chime in as you actually have the case lol) in that the top of the PSU is in line with the top of the mobo. As a result, using anything other than a SFX PSU will result in the cables and modular connectors being awfully close to the back of a graphics card. Seeing as the SG08 and M1 are already demonstrators of the layout's shortcomings, it's surprising that Cougar didn't take a page out of those two's books and make the case taller and put the PSU a bit higher as to minimize problems with the GPU.

 

[Warrgarbl]

Really nice and interesting case at that price point. I'm thinking of eventually downgrading my rather massive tower to something more diminutive in the future, and I'd like to be able to have a smaller, decent looking case at a low price point. This one goes on the short list.

 

[micropage7]

actually i like it, looks pretty solid and nice they use steel for holding many stuff there, but top loading optical drive could attract dust easily

 

[ermissao]

I'm not sure, but can I use a longer PSU without interfering in anything in the chassis? I'm aware that I'll lost space for the video card, but it is possible?

 

[stinger608]

I'm not sure, but can I use a longer PSU without interfering in anything in the chassis? I'm aware that I'll lost space for the video card, but it is possible?

Here is what one reviewer stated on NewEgg:

There are three flanges within the case that hold the body of the PSU in place, and a bracket "on top" where the PSU grill and plug outlet (inlet?) face. The "bottom" flange is the cause of the "less than 140mm" length requirement. Physically, there appears to be more than enough room in the case to accommodate larger PSUs, but the flange prevents installation. I understand that this configuration is designed to accommodate lengthier graphics cards. But, for those of us that have relatively shorter cards, this configuration simply introduces an annoyance in the case build that can only be rectified by purchasing a new PSU, or grinding the flange out of a very new and attractive case.

Then he or her went on to state:

So what PSUs will ultimately work with this case? For the sake of convenience, I narrowed down the search results for PSUs by "modular" and went down the list. I found the majority of PSUs to either exceed the 140mm length limit, have the wrong plug orientation, or both. I probably would have turned up a few more hits by going non-modular, but I think that with a case like this (or any other ITX case for that matter) you shouldn't have to suffer through a non-modular PSU installation. I've read that the Silverstone SX500 SFX-L PSU is compatible, and I'm going to assume that a majority of the SFX PSUs out there may also work. But to be honest I got tired of staring at PSU specs and thinking about potential workarounds, and realized that I've spent hours laboring over PSU selection that I just don't have to do with any other case. Cougar should just list the case as SFX compatible and make life easier for the rest of us.

Seems to kind of bring some light to this potential PSU issue.

 

[ermissao]

Here is what one reviewer stated on NewEgg:


Then he or her went on to state:


Seems to kind of bring some light to this potential PSU issue.

If I get this Cougar, I'll probably use an Sharkroom SFX-L 500W Gold. But I like to have other options, for example my old Corsair HX 750W when I replace it for another newer model.

Thanks for the info.