Kolink Big Chungus Showcase Chassis Review

Hey everyone, every once in a while I get the opportunity to review something that is special, uncommon, a showcase even.
Kolink have been around a few years producing cases,  power supplies and accessories with inexpensive examples of cases following current design trends, until now.
Today I have something rather different not just sitting on my desk but taking up most of the space. Kolink have sent the Big Chungus Showcase a jaunty angled behemoth for showing off flashy custom builds, a little strange they named it after a meme.

Kolink Big Chungus Showcase Chassis Specifications & Features

Here we have a huge box, the chassis arrives in a fairly plain box with some graphics and specs written on the side.

Unpacking the huge box reveals a very big chassis and another box which no doubt contains all the additional bits.

Yes indeed the inner box contains what I am calling the Sled, This is the base that the chassis sits on made out of a pinky-red anodized aluminium. As we can see the base provides wiring looms for the power, audio and USB connections.

No manual was included in the box so I had to work out for myself which screws to use on the Sled to mount it to the PC, once done, we have a large angled case that certaining is striking in it’s design. I can see opinion being quite divided on looks however at least it’s not a boring box. This build could be very interesting.

Unfortunately I have quite quickly hit a couple of snags with this case, the first is the lack of any padding or feet supplied with the Sled, the metal scrapes along any surface and left scratches on the table. The sheer weight of this case without a build is enough to bend steel portions if the case is not picked up very carefully.

Now this is probably a one off however it does raise a quality control issue with me, there was a screw missing in the cable side glass panel, nowhere to be found in the packaging so this has not fallen out during transit.

More glass panelling on the cable side, slightly tinted and will show off both sides of the case if shown on a pedestal.

The top of the case features another glass panel with room for two 120mm fans or up to a 240mm radiator for liquid cooling.

The rear of the case has a fairly traditional layout, aside from the framework for the sides, we have 7 expansion slots to the right of which is an odd open space, there’s plenty of room for vertical slots here so I feel Kolink have missed a trick. Power supply bracket at the bottom reaches into the Sled hiding the psu away from the main chassis. We have a 120mm fan next to the IO area and that’s it.

Inside the case at the bottom there are three fan mount areas right above where the PSU goes, there seems to be space here for a 360mm radiator however I have concerns about this working with a full length ATX or E-ATX motherboard.

Looking inside at the rear the snazzy 120mm rear fan is the main presence, I am also happy to report that all of the expansion plates are screwed in individually, I have seen too many spot welded back panels lately. I do feel there is room here to allow for a 140mm rear fan, allowing the exhibitionist to even use a large rear distro plate for watercooling.

Inside the case at the top there is ample room for two 120mm fans and possibly even a fairly thick 240mm radiator.

The main work area for motherboard and components is very spacious, the cutouts are lacking rubber grommets for cable management which would make creating a stylish display with neat cabling difficult. The motherboard standoffs are quite tall and rounded, not a design I have encountered before.

Well that is incredibly annoying, the motherboard standoffs are not removable and Kolink have included all of the standoffs as standard, if you read your motherboard manual you will most likely have a page reminding you to ensure that nothing should come into contact with the board if there is no mounting hole available, I do not have an ATX board with the M-ATX holes so I have had to resort to covering up the mount to prevent shorting. This is a big problem and making these standoffs permanent is a terrible design flaw.

The included fans are hooked up to this fan and RGB controller, while this has a nice case around it, this controller is very similar to many others I have seen recently, there are more connectors on the opposite side for more compatible fans that will require the 6-pin connector wired correctly. The controller also comes with an RGB header with adaptor cables for motherboard RGB control.

Adding in a power supply is a pretty simple process although a third hand would have been useful to hold it in place so it was a little trickier than usual. A semi or full modular power supply is recommended as the case framework doesn’t offer anywhere to hide unused cables.

At this point I took the opportunity to glue on some feet, luckily I had some old ones from a switch that I managed to cut up to fit.

After mounting the motherboard, I had to remove it again to take out PCI blanking plates for the GPU, I have absolutely no idea the purpose of the notch at the end of the blanking plate, it wouldn’t go past the motherboard as that was flush with the rear of the chassis, I can’t help but think someone might be having a laugh at our expense.

I do seem to keep finding annoying issues with this case, here trying to use the outer mounts for an SSD and the holes do not line up, on either of the brackets, so other than cable tie points for cables I have no idea what would fit here. You can’t even try to mount from the other side as these brackets are riveted in to the main chassis.

Luckily the spaces behind do have the correct mounting holes so there are two places for 2.5″ drives available using the 2 x 2.5″/3.5″ locations instead of the 4 that are offered in the spec sheet.

The review build has been mounted in the case, as feared the 360mm mount space at the bottom would struggle up against the bottom of the motherboard, a wider e-ATX board would protrude over the cutout cable holes making cable management very difficult indeed. I do have issues with regard to compatibility here.

PSU and Front Panel cables only have this one small hole to thread through to go behind the motherboard, this could do with being larger or accompanied by a second hole to aid being able to cable up more components, we have a fairly minimal setup as it is.

Hiding cables well is difficult even with the glass in place, due to the large size and the tilted angle of the chassis you need very long cables to be able to manage them well, Power Supply extension cables are highly recommended.

The build is now done and I think the design is striking, it may be divisive but it’s something different, not your everyday box with RGB. The build experience wasn’t great unfortunately, having to overcome some very basic issues left me disappointed.

Powered on the lighting on this chassis is excellent, I really like the way the LED strips glow underneath. There are a fair few lighting modes available with the remote and with the RGB header connectors you could also control them from your motherboard software. What is lacking here is fan speed control, this means they are running at full speed all the time, while they’re not the loudest fans I have ever used, they’re not exactly silent. The opaque white fan blades show off the lights really well very similar in design to some others recently reviewed.

The Kolink Big Chungus Showcase Chassis Review: The Verdict

Well that was quite the experience, Kolink have set out to create a showcase enclosure which should appeal to modders, enthusiasts and component vendors with a very open and revealing chassis featuring almost all around glass panels and a pedestal, with RGB illumination to highlight the build. Problems and limiting factors hinder the enjoyment though making a build more of a chore than a pleasure.

What’s hot:

• Open design showing off components
• RGB Fans, Strips and Controller included

What’s not:

• Restrictive design with bad component compatibility
• Build quality, material quality and quality control issues
• Very expensive

With a showcase chassis such as this I expect out of the box thinking when it comes to appearance and design, appearance wise this case does look different and is set in a way that would show off a build very well, plenty of glass allowing all components and cabling to be visible. Design wise I have some reservations; ill-matched screw holes, fan compatibility, radiator compatibility and cable routing options are incredibly limited, so show off your build providing your system will fit.

Lacking many show off features such as vertical GPU mounting rear brackets I feel Kolink are missing a trick. The standoffs for the motherboard not being removable means that without some tape or other rough mod, you could short out a large number of boards that would reside in a case like this, as it stands the ideal form factor is M-ATX. The build quality was an issue with the steel being weak in many “grab” places so that it would bend under the case’s own weight. The lack of grommets for cabling and only one small rectangular hole for all cables coming from the power supply and front panel cause further worries, and the lack of feet on the Sled allowing the chassis to scratch surfaces while being worked on make me feel that this is not a quality product.

Seeing the £210 price tag attached to this makes me question the value of this even to an extreme modder who would be able to alter this to suit their needs. The competition for this presents itself in the form of the Cougar Conquer or the Thermaltake AH T600. Hopefully a revision of this could make it a compelling showcase unit.

Thanks to OCUK and Kolink for sending a sample of the Big Chungus Showcase Chassis in for review.

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