Cougar Conquer Review 14

Cougar Conquer Review

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Value and Conclusion

  • The Cougar Conquer sells for US$280 excl. taxes or €260 including taxes.
  • Elaborate looks
  • Excellent construction quality
  • Nothing but aluminum parts
  • Thick glass side panels
  • Intricate design
  • Includes three retail-grade fans
  • Can hold both a 240 mm and a 360 mm radiator
  • Cool fan grilles included
  • Surprisingly simple assembly and installation
  • This open-frame case comes at a price premium
  • Motherboard hard-drive placements not user-friendly
  • Cable routing requires a bit of thought due to the nature of the case design
  • I/O pretty basic
Alright, before we dive into the conclusion on the Cougar Conquer, let me make one thing perfectly clear: this case is supposed to wow you with its looks, not with an elaborately engineered interior. Think of it as a sleek race car with all the interior trim, wood, and comfort ripped out, stripped to hold only the necessary elements to allow for all those performance-specific parts to be installed, as opposed to a comfortable car with all the bells and whistles. Both may cost the same, but serve vastly different purposes. So don't look at the price tag expecting a sensible purchase. Look at the Cougar Conquer as an aesthetic choice - a desire to make a statement.

The Cougar Conquer strips away all the usual features one may find in modern cases, like RGB controllers, sound dampening, modular design, shrouds, and movable hard-drive bays. You are left with a pure focus on looks and an outstanding material mix consisting of thick aluminum panels and glass covers. There is absolutely no need for Cougar to angle the motherboard or offer CNC milled panels and pieces that end up in concert to offer the beautiful looks of the chassis. There is no reasonable, sane, down-to-earth explanation for the design of the Conquer - instead, the brand simply built this case because they could, and the result speaks for itself.

Even with the almost exclusive focus on cool, sleek looks and materials, the Conquer still allows you to install all the usual performance parts - including two radiators, long GPUs, or even large CPU coolers. All these elements are realized in a simple, but functional fashion, so you won't end up feeling as though you had to compromise on anything major once you dive into the assembly process. If there are any issues to be named, they would center around the somewhat simple I/O panel and inability to access some of the hard-drive bays without having to remove the motherboard.

That is it - the Cougar Conquer is a beautiful case stripped of any marketing fluff, offering menacingly awesome looks while keeping it real in regards to functionality.

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Nov 21st, 2024 13:07 EST change timezone

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