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Xigmatek Utgard CPC-T90DB Review
Xigmatek have a few cases in their collection now, the latest is the Xigmatek Utgard CPC-T90DB-U01 which is the focus of this review. The Utgard is in many ways very similar to the Midgard chassis and it has many differences too, some are good while some are not so good. There is real support for water cooling with the Utgard as well as 3 design choices - Classic (U01), Windowed (U02) or mesh (U03) and all come with the option of additional 500w power supply. This review is for the Utgard Classic without PSU.
The Utgard comes with three fans pre-installed, the fans installed in the front and rear are XLF-F1253 120mm LED fans and installed in the top of the case is a new fan from Xigmatek - The XLF-F1703, 170mm LED fan, more on these later in the review. The Xigmatek Utgard is a reasonably sized mid tower chassis, has room inside for tall CPU coolers (18cm) and long graphics cards (30cm) but only 7 PCI slots so no support for triple SLI / CrossFireX.
The Xigmatek Utgard weighs around 10kg empty and around 12.5kg loaded which isn't too bad considering you wont be lumping it around in a satchel all day, but should the need arise (say for a LAN party) it isn't going to be too heavy to carry a short distance. Now that I have captured your interest please read on to find out whats good and whats not with the Xigmatek Utgard.
Xigmatek Utgard Features
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All mesh design on front panel
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Removable top panel for water cooling radiator
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Screw-less tooling for 5.25" bay installation
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Screw-less tooling for expansion slot installation
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Four 3.5" HDD in three 5.25" bay adapter
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Pre-installed 170mm top orange fan with white LED
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Pre-installed 120mm front and rear orange fans with white LED
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Two RPM speed control knobs for six fans
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Back window for easy CPU cooler back plate fitting / removal
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Back holes and clips for cable management
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Anti-vibration rubber for PSU
Xigmatek Utgard Specifications
| Product Name |
UTGARD |
| Product Number |
CPC-T90DB-U01~U03 / CPC-T90DB-U51~U53 |
| Dimension |
Utgard-Original / Window: 207(W) x 515(H) x 490(D) mm (8.1*20.3*19.3 inches)
Utgard-Mesh: 222(W) x 515(H) x 490(D) mm (8.7*20.3*19.3 inches) |
| Drive Bay |
5.25" External x 9 with tool-free holders.
(Including one external 3.5" device adapter and one 4 in 3 3.5" HDD adapter.) |
| Expansion Slot |
7 slots (tool-free) |
| Motherboard Support |
ATX, Micro ATX (with easy black plant installation window) |
| Power Supply |
Standard P/S2 ATX/EPS power supply unit
1. Intake airflow hole with dust filter.
2. Available for face upward and downward installation.
3. Within anti-vibration rubber. |
| Cooling System |
Air-cooling
Front Fan : Pre-installed 120mm white LED with orange blades x 1 (80/90/140mm fan is available)
Rear Fan : Pre-installed 120mm white LED with orange blades x 1 (80/90mm fan is available)
Side Fan : Utgard-Original: 80/90/120/140mm fan x1 (optional) 120/140mm fan x1 (optional)
Utgard-Mesh : 120mm fan x4 (optional) 200/220mm fan x1 (optional)
Utgard-Window : Not available.
Bottom Fan : 120/140mm fan x 1 (optional, with 14cm tool-free holder)
Top Fan : Pre-installed 170mm white LED with orange blades x 1 (120/140mm fan x 2 are available)
Fan Speed Control:
Six fan speeds are adjustable synchronously by two knobs on top panel. |
Water-cooling
Water pipe holes x 4 (with rubber cover)
Available for 12cm*2 or 14cm*2 radiator (thickness under 46mm) |
| I/O Panel |
Top Panel: Power On/Off switch, USB2.0 x 4, e-SATA x 2,
Audio in/out x 1 (HD Audio), two knobs of fan controller. |
About the company: Xigmatek
Purpose and targets of becoming one of the worlds leaders in thermal PC Industry were set for Xigmatek Co. Ltd in 2005, the founding year! To ensure reaching this project aims, Xigmatek's management followed up with hard work, experiences and customer friendly business style.
Honing one of the world's most efficient manufacturing operations, Integration Presence in major economic regions, being tied up with most important strategic alliances between suppliers and academia and further majority investments in R&D are some of Xigmatek's aggressive incensement strategies.
Combining the cream of product designers, R&D engineers and technical people (main team in Germany) Xigmatek is proud and full of confidence to offer excellent quality products and service to cover the customers requirements and demands.
Within the standard channels as the consumer market and the distributing electrical appliances, Xigmatek will keep on focusing on development and set up even new sales channels to comply ever-changing demands and requirements.
Several years of experiences company background in Thermal IT industry provides our customer the best, reliable, environmental and performing Thermal/Cooling Systems including excellent Service to fulfill global users and customers demands.
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Comments
As said though the HDD caddy is a bugger to work with, very difficult to pull out and actually fitting HDD's in it can be a pain too.
The front panel on the other hand is appalling, the power button had a cheap feel to it, the knobs are poorly made and on mine, has a faulty contruction. For starters there was no cable for the HDD activity LED, attaching USB devices causes the power connection to the B set of fans to become unreliablek, it also becomes extremely hot where (I guess) the resistor is.
Shame really as otherwise for the money this is a very good case.
Xigmatek seem to be having problems with quality control.
So far, quite worrying, but hopefully there won't be any more problems!
surely the makers of this case should take into account that the power connector on certain motherboards are not all in the same position, or is there an extention that's available to allow me to secure my power supply into position?.
However, I have never had a problem with the main (24-pin) cable and connector. Where is it located on your motherboard? Can you bypass the behind-the-tray routing and gain some length that way?
There are extension cables available to buy, if you don't want to go to the trouble of makiing one:
performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2512
frozencpu.com/products/3224/psu-174/12_24-pin_ATX_Extension_Ca ble.html
Subsequently, it fails no matter how i try to configure my 'Realtek HD Audio Manager', also tried to use different headphone without success.
The controlling fan speed knobs are very hot to touch, hopefully it wouldn't fail later on due to heat stress.