Cougar Panzer Max Review
Category : Cases
Published by Marc Büchel on 01.02.17
With the Panzer Max, Cougar has yet another case in its portfolio. This tower costs almost 120 Euro and for this kind of money you get a well-built case with a lot of space on the inside as well as an aggressive design.
Rating |
| |
Cooling |
Features |
Layout |
Build Quality |
Value for Money |
| Pros |
+ Good
compatibility for watercooling and aircooling |
+ Water cooling
+ Dust filters |
+ Interior
space
+ Good space for cable routing |
+ High quality materials
+ Rubber groomets
|
+ Well priced |
| Cons |
|
- No Type-C USB |
|
- Cheap PSU cover |
|
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Preview
Specifications
| Model: |
Panzer Max |
| Case Type: |
Full tower |
| Dimensions: |
220 mm (W) x 460 mm (H) x 450 mm (D) |
| Material: |
Steel, ABS |
| Color: |
Gun Metal |
| Drive Bay: |
5.25": |
2 |
| 3.5": |
2 |
| 2.5": |
4 |
| Expansion
slots: |
8 |
| Form factors: |
E-ATX, ATX, mATX, mini-ITX |
| Cooling: |
Front: |
3x 120mm / 3x 140mm (2x 120mm included) |
| Rear: |
1x 120mm (1x 120mm included) |
| Top: |
3x 120mm / 2x 140mm |
| Bottom: |
1x 120mm / 1x 140mm |
| Side: |
/ |
| Watercooling |
Front: |
280mm / 360mm |
| Rear: |
120mm |
| Top: |
280mm / 360mm |
| Link to the product: |
Panzer Max |
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Features
PSU Cover
In order to hide all the cables connected to your power supply, there is cover hiding away the unit. This helps creating a neat and clean looking system. |
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Fan controller
Integrated into the top of the case, there is a fan controller which supports a maximum of three fans. It requires a single molex power connector and can set fans to spin at different speeds. |
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Watercooling ready
The Cougar Panzer Max is ready to be equipped with watercooling gear. If you wish to create a custom loop, there is the possibility to place two radiators in this case. One of them can be a 360mm and the other a 280mm one. In addition you can put another small 120mm radiator in the rear part. |
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Product overview
Overview |
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| The Cougar Panzer Max is a full tower case, which is compatible with E-ATX form factor motherboards. This model features quite an aggressive design paired with gun metal paint and carbon-like looking parts. Apart from that there is also plenty of space for large CPU coolers and high-end graphics cards. The front has been covered using a large mesh, which helps realizing high airflow. The top part of the front comes with an I/O panel, featuring two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, the fan controller, headphone and microphone jacks as well as the standard power and reset buttons. Both side panels are solid, well finished and the left one shows a huge plexigalss panel. 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 Panzer Max comes with a total of than eight expansion slots that have been kept in black color. |
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Installation
Overview |
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| The inside of the Panzer Max is spacious, although it might not look like that at a first glance. As we already said, the motherboard tray is compatible with E-ATX motherboards and all the HDD/SSD have been placed behind the tray. The motherboard tray comes with your usual large opening behind the socket allowing the installation of aftermarket coolers without the need of removing the entire motherboard. Around the tray, there are a few openings for routing cables and since there is quite some space between the motherboard tray and the side panel on the right, routing cables behind it can be done easily as well. The HDD slots and optical drives can be installed in a breeze thanks to the tool-less system. The most interesting feature of this case is simply that there is a lot of available on the inside allowing to install any large cooler as well whatever high-end graphics card you'd like to use. In our setup, we used a high-end graphics card and a big Phanteks twin tower cooler. |
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Ventilation options
Overview |
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| The Panzer Max offers plenty of places for fans. Included in the delivery you will find two 120mm LED fans and one standard 120mm fan. In total this case can house three 120 / 140mm fans at the front, one 120mm fan at the back and another three 120mm fans or two 140mm fans on the top. If you are fan of liquid cooling systems you will be happy to know that the Panzer Max is also perfect for that type of cooling. Thanks to the fact, that there is a lot of space available on the inside, you will be able to mount a 360mm radiator at the front, a 280mm at the top and a 120mm on the back. |
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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 / 27 / 28 |
52 / 55 / 54 / 53 |
| MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G |
46 |
66 |
|
Less is better |
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Conclusion
The Cougar Panzer Max is a full-tower for users who want a fresh case that has been combined with a good bundle. The Panzer Max is made from sturdy steel and ABS plastic, with some carbon-like looking elements. As far as the design is concerned, we are not big fans of fancy and extravagant cases but it's definitely a subjective aspect and therefore a matter of individual taste. This case offers plenty of space for any ATX and even E-ATX motherboard and you can equip it with a total of six HDDs or SSD. There is also plenty of space for the power supply, which helps with compatibility when it comes to high-end setups. Another aspect we really came to appreciate is the compatibility with the custom water cooling loops; first of all you get three fans with the Panzer Max and the chassis itself comes with lots of slots for additional fans.
As we already mentioned you can install a 360mm radiator and that itself is good already. It's pretty clear that this case is perfect for anybody who's looking for an enclosure with a good airflow. The cable management is well done as well but we would still like to see few more extra millimeters between the motherboard tray and the right side panel. In addition there is a PSU cover which looks good allowing you to hide cables. Nevertheless we think this cover is a bit chunky and cheap, also the fastening system is a bit odd.
The Panzer Max is listed on Geizhals with prices starting at 119 Euro. In our opinion, the price is appropriate and it reflects the quality and the bundle of the product, since there are three fans and there are also quite a lot of features. Should you be thinking about building a rig to take to LAN parties the this case could come in handy thanks to the handles. The Cougar Panzer Max receives
4 stars out of 5.
