MGE Viper: Another Xtreme Gamer Creation
by Purav Sanghani on December 18, 2004 5:14 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
Who is the Viper marketed towards? In our opinion, MGE is targeting those consumers who want a wild look to their computer case, but do not want to spend hundreds of dollars in modifications. The Viper has a simple design, yet has the potential to outperform some of the more expensive cases on the market.Our thermal benchmarks showed that the Viper can compete with any high end case when the cooling system is utilized to the fullest. It comes with two 80mm fans, but adding more fans as well as upgrading the front intake to a 120mm fan can greatly increase performance, bringing ambient temperatures down as much as 5 degrees and certain core component temperatures down a few degrees themselves.
While adding fans may be good for keeping temperatures stable, noise levels will definitely increase if high quality fans are not used. The Viper produced about 46dB on average with just two 80mm fans. Adding a few more would most likely increase noise levels past the 50dB mark and possibly closer to 60dB if the right fans are not chosen.
As far as the looks go, everyone will have a difference in opinion. Either we will like the look or not. What really matters is what we really need and how much we are willing to spend on it. There is no doubt that there are other products out there that have features such as tool-less drive bays and expansion slots as well as removable motherboard trays and even a sleeker looking bezel. Adding a power supply may not be enough to bring a modified case to users' homes. Most of us just want a case that has been carefully planned in the design phase. We want a case that will tend to our needs as daily users and not have unnecessary modifications to distract us from our daily work.
With MGE's 450W Vigor power supply, the Viper has a price of about $90 at this time. For about $30-$40 less, we can get our hands on the Sidewinder, which has the same features with more fans, and as users in the field of IT, we could not choose this case over a simpler looking model.
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Denial - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
Wow, I'm at a loss for words. Who buy such a thing?Nice review :)
radx - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
Can't say i love the design of this case. But i do like one thing better with this case than my own Antec Sonata, that be the 120MM fan behind the hard drives. Rather than my case which has the 120mm fan infront of the hard drives.Other than that another cool review done by the guys at anandtech :)
Gatak - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
A few of them:http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/decobox/images/de...
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/images/story0363b.jpg
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/computex2004-4/images...
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/images/story0353.jpg
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/gramaphone-itx-hd...
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/computex2004-4/images...
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/images/story0330.jpg
Gatak - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
How about looking for quality cases which are more pleasingly designed? Instead of monsters I would like to see something that would fit nicely in a modern home. Look on how expensive home cinema receivers are designed.Look on this page for many really nice cases: http://www.mini-itx.com/
A few of them:
Locut0s - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
To make it clear Purav I'm not saying that Anandtech should look at cases on their external merits alone as you suggest many who complain about style are suggesting. In fact I don't think many of us who are complaining about style are saying that at all. Instead we are saying in many instances "What a shame that such a good case is ruined by such ugly looks". Unlike the internals of a computer where I think looks truly don't matter the chassis is really the only physical presence of the computer that you are ever ware of on a day to day basis. As such many of us would prefer not to have our chassis making a statement such as "hay look how cool I am over here Look Look Look...!" That doesn't mean that the internals of a case are not the most important thing, far from it they are the most important aspect of any case. But that doesn't mean that the external design of a case can't almost completely offset all the goodies inside, it definitely can. No matter how good the internals of a case are I am not purchase a bright yellow Pikachu case for example.By the way I happen to really look forward to most of the case reviews here at Anandtech, they are very thorough and informative. It's not the reviews I have a beef with, it's the trend in the industry to this look that I don't like.
Just my 2 cents
GnomeCop - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
sickNovaoblivion - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
should be- External visuals wont appeal to anyone
lol
Kccdx2 - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
Too true #1shoRunner - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
yeah whats up with all the cases looking like they were designed by playschool. More funky colored plastic is not better. Its a computer not an action figureLocut0s - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
*sigh*The following needs to be in bold in "The Bad" section:
- External visuals may not appeal to some
Or maybe a label on the box "For ages 12 and under"