In Win 703 Case Review

[section_title title=The Build]

The Build

Without wanting to label what type of end user will consider buying this case, I decided I’d just take my own system apart and cram as much as I can into the In Win 703. I’m the kind of person who upgrades one or two items as a time rather than build an entire PC from scratch, so I’m almost always in the process of researching, buying or installing something new and then repeating. Some of the time, things like hard drives or DVD readers don’t actually die when anticipated so they end up staying in my system until they do.

In all, I managed to fit:

• CPU:
  • Intel Core i7 4770k
• Motherboard:
  • ASRock Z87 OC Formula/AC
• Memory:
  • 32GB (4x8GB) Team Group 2666MHz
• Graphics Card:
  • MSI Gaming G1 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti
• Power Supply:
  • Corsair AX 1200
• CPU Cooling:
  • Corsair H105
  • Antec H20 950
  • Intel 4770k Retail (Stock) Cooler
• Storage:
  • OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
  • Western Digital Black 4TB
  • Western Digital Raptor 160GB
  • Samsung HD204UI 2TB
• Optical:
  • Sony DVD RW AD-7280S
  • Sony DVD RW AD-7240S

Building in this case was a surprising pleasant process. I anticipated a lot of frustration but with an experienced eye I installed the power supply first along with the cable placement before the motherboard and from there it was pretty much Lego. Between the ODD and HDD cages is a huge cut-out that gives extra space for massive graphics cards up to 408mm in length, so compatibility with most components is not likely to be a hurdle.

When going through the build process, my Corsair H105 was discarded as this case has no support for 240mm radiators. I tried to squeeze in my Antec 950 but although I could have probably forced it in it was not really an ideal fit and I wouldn’t like to say that everyone will be able to do it. And so I was left with my only other alternative… the 4770k’s stock cooler.

The other limitation I came across when trying to fit all my current components into the In Win 703 was the single 5.25” optical bay as the others are blanked off by the front fascia. I accept that I’m probably the only person out there who still has more than one optical drive but it still counts in my mind as there’s also fan controllers, card readers and other components that you may have to choose between using.

That’s really it for negatives, almost every edge I encountered was very neatly folded over to ensure nobody is going to finish their build with thousands of tiny, and perhaps not-so-tiny, cuts over their arms and hands. The build quality is as superb as you would expect from In Win; there’s very little flex from the side panels, everything fits flush when closed up and the case itself simply looks stunning.