In Win 303 Review
Category : Cases
Published by Luca Rocchi on 23.06.16
In Win has quickly become the master of high-end design cases starting a couple of years ago. Despite the exclusive design, the biggest issue of these cases has always been the price. With the 303, In Win appears to be offering sophisticated case with exclusive design and a price close to 100 euro. Is the company really able to offer a solution which is compatible with high-end components and custom water cooling gear at this price point?
Rating |
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Cooling |
Features |
Layout |
Build Quality |
Value for Money |
| Pros |
+ Good
compatibility for watercooling
+ 2x 360mm |
+ Water cooling
+ Dust filters
+ Tempered glass
+ Design |
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+ Good build quality
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| Cons |
- Not compabitle with 140mm fans
- Not fully compatible with AIO
- No space for bottom radiator with SLI/CF configuration |
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- Interior
space
- Cable management
- Space PSU and top radiator |
- Sturdiness right side panel |
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Preview
Specifications
| Model: |
303 |
| Case Type: |
Mid tower |
| Dimensions: |
215 mm (W) x 500 mm (H) x 480 mm (D) |
| Material: |
SECC, Tempered glass |
| Color: |
Black |
| Drive Bay: |
5.25": |
0 |
| 3.5": |
2 |
| 2.5": |
2 |
| Expansion
slots: |
7 |
| Form factors: |
ATX, mATX, mini-ITX |
| Cooling: |
Front: |
/ |
| Rear: |
1x 120mm (included) |
| Top: |
3x 120mm |
| Bottom: |
3x 120mm |
| Side: |
/ |
| Watercooling |
Rear: |
120mm |
| Bottom: |
360mm |
| Top: |
360mm |
| Link to the product: |
In Win 303 |
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Features
Dust filters
In total there are six spots for 120 millimeter fans in this case. All the air inlets are covered using dust filters. These can be removed easily in order to clean them under tap water. |
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Tempered glass
One of the two panels of the In Win 303 is made entirely of solid tempered glass. The panel is secured to the main structure through two pins at the lower part and a release system on the top part. There are no hinges or any other release mechanism, the window can only be removed completely. The tempered glass panel allows a quick look inside the case and provides a rather unique design. |
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Support for custom watercooling
The In Win 303 it offers good flexibility when it comes to water cooling your sysstem. Looking at the case from the left side, you see two 360 millimeter spots, where one is in the top and the other int he bottom area. |
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Product overview
Overview |
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| The 303 is a mid tower case, which is compatible with ATX form factor motherboards. Apart from that there is also plenty of space for large CPU coolers, massive graphics cards and watercooling gear. The front has been covered using the same style on the entire case and includes the I/O panel, which features two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks as well as the standard power and reset buttons. Apart from that the front-panel features backlit connectors.
The 303 is available in two versions, full white and full black - like our sample. The right side panel could be a little bit sturdier, which stands in quite a contrast to the very high-quality right side panel, which has been made from tempered glass. The rear is simple and has all the features you would expect from such a case, including a spot for a 120mm fan and the motherboard I/O panel. The 303 comes with a total of than seven expansion slots with air-vent design to improve cooling. The bottom of the case is equipped with two plastic feet which raise and stabilize it. |
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Installation
Overview |
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At a first glance it looks like on the inside the 303 is quite spacious, since the part next to the motherboard look like almost empty. Nevertheless there are a few things we’d like to mention further below.
As we already pointed out, this case is compatible with standard ATX motherboards and considering this it would make sense to offer quite a few slots for HDDs/SSDs. In total two 3.5inch and two 2.5inch drives can be installed which really isn’t too much. In the motherboard tray there is a large opening behind the CPU socket, which allows you to install aftermarket coolers without the need of removing the motherboard. Around the tray, there are a few openings for routing cables, but there are no rubber grommets. In the case of the 8-pin EPS pass-through we noticed that the cable need to be pushed through before the motherboard has been put in place, which is not that ergonomic.
The arrangement of the internal components is completely different from any other case. Inside the 303 the power supply is placed in the top, similar to cases from a few years ago, right next to the PSU there is space for a 360mm radiator. Should you decide to install a triple radiator then some of the airflow will be block by the PSU. Actually warm air from the radiator will travel into the PSU. Apart from that if you either install 120mm or a 240mm radiator at this location, then you should make sure, that the tubing is long enough. We would try to avoid placing a radiator in front of the power supply to keep the temperatures of the latter as low as possible.
A look at the bottom part of this case shows there is space for three fans for a triple radiator. If you decide to install a 360mm radiator at this spot, you will block PCI Expres expansion slots from your motherboard as well as I/O headers at the bottom edge of the motherbard. Depending on the thickness of the radiator Multi-GPU systems won’t be possible anymore, although we believe it to be rather unlikely that a customer, buying an €100 case is going to run a multi GPU system with custom water cooling. |
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Ventilation options
Overview |
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| As far as cooling is concerned, the 303 offers quite a few features. First of all inside the delivery you will find a 120mm fan placed on the rear of the case with 3-pin header. The top and the bottom offer enough space to be equipped with three 120mm fans or two 360 millimeters radiator. As previously mentioned, there are dust filters covering every intake slot and regarding compatibility with radiators you should be aware that if you place one in the bottom you will block PCI slot of your motherboard. When you mount on in the top then hot air will be blown into the power supply. Since there are a few limitations in terms of size, we recommend to visit the official site for a complete compatibility list. Despite the good compatibility with water cooling setups, we don't recommend to use this model with AiO coolers since the distance between water block and radiator can be too long for most of the system available, except you use a 120mm AiO and place the unit at the back 120mm fan slot. |
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Temperatures
Overview |
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For testing purposes we're using an MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC motherboard, an Intel Core i5-6600K CPU, which receives cooling through a SilentiumPC Fortis 3 HE1425 MCE cooler as well as a MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card. To put the CPU under full load, we're running prime95 for 10 min and in the case of the GPU we use Furmark also for 10 minutes. After these ten minutes, we're going to write down the temperatures. The ambient temperature is close to 24°C. |
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All noise dampening panels installed |
Idle (°C) |
Full (°C) |
|
Intel Core i5-6600K |
28 / 28 / 29 / 28 |
52 / 55 / 54 / 55 |
| MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G |
49 |
71 |
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Less is better |
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Conclusion
With the 303, In Win offers a new mid-tower case, which should be compatible with high-end component and custom watercooling setup. Unfortunately, the conditional is mandatory since to do these kind of setup inside the case you have to live with some compromises. Despite a significant amount of space that is available, we found several issues during the installation of the major components such as the power supply or just the radiator. First of all we have to say that the case is not compatible with 140mm fans, which are fairly common nowadays. In addition the compatibility with from 360mm radiators is strictly limited to the type of components you decide to use; to give you an example, if you decide to use a dual GPU system you will most likely not be able to place a 360mm rad in the bottom.
The overall build quality is good, despite this case is not made from aluminum like most other models from this company. Luckily this brings the advantage, that this case is actually affordable. The right side panel is fairly solid but could be a bit sturdier and for the left side panel In Win is using great looking tempered glass. Unfortunately we did not like the release mechanism. Although there is a quick release through a handle at the top you have to be very careful ensuring that while taking off the glass panel is not sliding of the bottom notch. Arranging components can require some planning and one should not just slap the components inside, since that case you might be finding yourself building your rig several times if you want it to look clean. Ventilation and cable management could be better since in both cases we found out some issues during the mounting process mostly related to dimensions and spaces haven’t been that well-chosen. This case would greatly benefit from adding a few centimeters here and removing a few there. In addition we believe that ventilation is not one of the key aspects of this case since the air is not removed from the case very effectively.
Overall this case leaves us with mixed feeling. On one hand we really like the looks but on the other it’s much like an Apple product, where you have to make quite a few compromises due to design choices. We believe that a few small changes could easily make this an ocaholic-5-star product. Checking prices we find the In Win 303 listed on Geizhals for 113 Euro, which is attractive for a case with these looks and a left side panel made from tempered glass. The In Win 303 receives 3 out of 5 stars.
