Case Review: Rosewill Conquerer WBK & Budget Gaming Build w/ Pictures

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xthekidx

xthekidx

Splendid
Dec 24, 2008
3,871
1
22,790
Ok so here is a recent Build I did for fun; its a hobby I do in my spare time and then sell the rigs for a $50 profit. I have seen the Rosewill Conquerer case several times at newegg and wanted to give it a try, as it seems to have pretty good specs (nice and wide, 3 120mm fans stock, and looks pretty cool). It was on sale with free shipping so I decided to give it a whirl, the point of this was to give this case a try, and sorta do a less-than-technical review of it. Here is a list of components, and the prices at the time of purchase:

Case: Rosewill Conquerer $60+Free Shipping

PSU: OCZ 500W StealthXStream $50 + Free shipping

Combo Deal: $250
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L
+
CPU: E5200
+
Ram: OCZ Fatality DDR2-1066 4GB
+
GPU: XFX 9600 GSO 1GB

DVD Drive: Samsung SH-S223L $27

HDD: WD6401AALS $70 + Free Shipping

Cooler: Scythe Mugen 2 $37

Antec Case Fan $13 (for the extra Blue LED lighting :))

OS: Windows 7 RC 64 Bit

Total cost was $ 524.54 shipped to my door, and we will see if those $40 MIR checks ever come, but I'm not counting on it.

The CPU is overclocked to 3.83ghz atm stable for 4 hours in Prime95 (took 1.325v on the core, but time will tell if this is enough, right now its looking like it probably is), Temps get up to 54C, average about 51C. The ram is really just overclocked DDR2-800, and I am running it at 802mhz 5-5-5-15 1T @1.8v, which is very good for DDR2-800 ram. CPU-Z reads the SPD chip as PC2-6400.

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I'll add my build notes a little later, and my impressions of this budget gaming case. This is just to give an idea to those budget builders out there who are looking to build a new rig, maybe this will pop up in a google search somewhere. Let me know what you guys think!
 
The Case: Rosewill Conquerer WBK

Ok well first of all, When I look for cases for build, I have two really big things that I look for: 1) Does it have good cooling, and 2) Can it fit a top tier CPU cooler to maximize performace?

1. This case has very good cooling, I am quite pleased with its performance so far. As noted above, the Prime95 temps are quite reasonable with my cooling solution. I did an almost identical build (only difference was ram and case) in a different cheapo case that someone wanted to reuse, which had 2 80mm fans, and under Prime95 load the temperatures were about 5C hotter at 3.67ghz, half a multiplier lower. So an A for the Rosewill Conquerer in the Cooling department. This case can handle some high end hot hardware just fine. The fans that are used are Silverstone fans as a matter of fact, which surprised me. Two 120mm LED Silverstone fans up front and one non-led fan in the rear (I swapped that one out for an Antec 120mm Tri-cool LED fan to get that blue glow inside the case too, not just in the front grill).

2. I chose the Scythe Mugen 2 CPU cooler for this build because its a very good cooler, highly versitile (I'm pretty sure it can be mounted on every socket and chipset in production, including LGA 1366, or that was in production in the last couple years), and in terms of Price/Performance, its right there with the S1283V DK, at the time it was a couple bucks cheaper so it got picked. Its a very tall heatsink at 158mm high, which is about as tall as heatsinks get. The TRUE is 5mm taller, and easily would have fit in the Rosewill Conquerer case, as I have about 1/2-3/4 of an inch from the top of the cooler to the side panel. The Rosewill conquerer should be able to accommodate any CPU cooler you chose, except for liquid.

In terms of other dimensions, it can take a large GPU as long as you plan out the placement of the HDD's. It has 6 3.5" drive bays, so you have lots of options of places to place your HDD's. The dimensions of the case are: 7.9" x 18" x 19.7"(WxHxD).

Build Quality: For an MSRP of $90, build quality is a bit lacking (it is after all a Rosewill). However for $60 and free shipping, I will put up with it. The Rear I/O panel felt a bit flimsy when I was installing the PSU and I/O Plate, so I had to be a little more careful with it that I would have normally. Once you are done messing around back there though, you are done so its not something that is a huge deal. You just need to make sure you are careful when you are putting it together for the first time. The HDD cages are not the easiest to get to, so installing hard drives took a bit more time that normal. You have to remove the front drive panel and pull out the drive cage from the front of the case. Installing the HDD's in the cage itself is also difficult, make sure you have a magnetic screwdriver and a steady hand or installing the drives will take a while.

The only part that really disappointed me was the appearance of the front panel of the case. The drive bay cover/door is plastic, and feels a little cheaply made, but its not too bad. The hinges it rests on feel a bit fragile, so don't slam the door, and it should be fine. The drive bay covers are also a pain to remove and look like cheap plastic, so I would just keep the front door closed most of the time unless you need constant access to your Optical drive.

Aesthetics: Overall its a pretty good looking case, until you look real close at the drive bay covers. The case has some basic cable managment features to hide the front connector panels, so when you look inside its quite possible to make it look pretty tidy. Using a modular PSU would of course be best since it has a side window, but those are expensive and the point of this was to make as good a PC as I could for cheap. The case looks pretty good next to my desk, the edges and contours of the case give it a pretty cool look.

Overall, I would say this case is a pretty decent deal at $60. I would probably pick the Antec 300 if it had free shipping as well (shipping usually costs $20 or so, which is a lot when considering a budget case). For people on a budget who want a case with a side window though, this case is a pretty decent option. Once the PC is together, this case gets top marks for functionality in my book, but its not for the novice PC builder to use. I would definitely have been frustrated with this case if it was my first build. On a scale of 1-10, I'd say this case is about an 8.5, 6.5 if you pay full retail price of $90 plus shipping (this case has been on sale for its current price for while though, so I think you can count on that price most of the time). If you are on your first build, be patient with this case, and hopefully you are mechanically inclined. Once its put together though, this is a pretty nice looking case, and very functional.
 
My personal notes on the other components used in this build:

CPU: E5200. This chip is IMHO, the best CPU for the gamer on a budget, as long as you get a decent cooler. It bears the Pentium Dual Core name, but this chip isn't related to the Pentium D chips in any way, besides sharing the same socket. It uses the same Wolfdale cores found in the very popular E8400 and E8500 chips, but costs $100 less. This chip is equiped with a 12.5x Multiplier, which means big overclocking potential and amazing price/performance ratio. Reliably, this chip can overclock past 4ghz with proper cooling and a semi-decent motherboard. Since it is handicapped with a smaller L2 Cache, the FSB hits a wall around 340-350 or so. I usually just set it at FSB 334 and then overclock with mutlipliers from there. All the E5200 CPU's I have bought were capable of passing 1 hour Prime95 at 4.16ghz (12.5x333) as long as the MB wasn't a limitation (those G31 boards don't overclock as well as 4 series boards). 4+ghz Core 2 Duo for $70 is a great deal.

Cooler: Scythe Mugen 2. I already touched on this a little earlier, but IMO this is one of the best coolers for the money available. $37 buys you a cooler that can handle very high overclocks, even on quad core CPU's. Its extremely versitile, and is compatible with all desktop platforms. The Fan can be mounted on any of the four sides of the cooler, and you can mount two fans in a push/pull configuration. If you get a high CFM fan to go with this cooler (the one that comes is not that fast, seems like a 30CFM fan, but its very quiet) its amazing.

MB: GA-EP43-UD3L. Pretty much your basic ATX board. It doesn't have anything fancy, but can handle overclocking demands quite well. For single GPU budget gaming systems, I think this board is one of the best options out there.

GPU: XFX 9600 GSO 1GB. I have mixed feelings here. It performs pretty well, and since it came as part of a pretty good deal in a combo I decided to get it. The fan on this this card is on the louder side, its easily the loudest thing in the build. In gaming it performs pretty well, COD, WOW, and several other current titles have very playable framerates at max details using this card. Its overpriced, but after a rebate and in a combo its worth its price. It also comes with a free game, so if you like FPS games and don't already own COD modern warefare this is a good card.

OCZ Fatal1ty DDR2-1066. Not really, this is DDR2-800 ram that overclocks well. CPU-Z reads its SPD chip at PC2-6400. It seems to pass memtest and prime95 just fine at 1066mhz, but LGA 775 doesn't see any benefit from that extra speed, so I am running it at DDR2-800 at 1.8v, CL5. CL7 (which is what its rated for) is just too slow for DDR2 IMO. This ram is a good deal if you really just want DDR2-800, many people seem to have trouble getting it to run at DDR2-1066 though according to newegg reviews.

HDD: WD6401AALS. Well known around here; its fast and reliable. My only issue is that it can be kinda noisy at times in a quieter case (although its inaudible with the 9600GSO in the case) and I have heard it gets pretty hot. 32MB buffer makes the OS very responsive and really makes your PC feel faster.

PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 500w. Its a pretty solid PSU. Cables are sleeved. OCZ StealthXStream series are reliable and good build quality. My only complaint is that it only has 3 SATA connectors, all on the same cable, which can make things a little difficult.

If anyone has any questions about this build and components used, feel free to ask!
 
yeah like gkay pointed out i think it owuld have been worth the 20$ for the performance even though you built it as a cheap gamer rig
 
It would have been for $20 for sure, but it would have actually added about $50-60 to the build because that GPU was part of a combo deal. It certainly wasn't my first choice for a graphics card.
 

The E5200 isn't a chip that can push an FSB up very high, which is probably where that MB is limited for overclocking. With E5200, it overclocks just fine because it has such a high multiplier. If you tried overclocking with an E8400, you would probably run into a motherboard limitation.
 
^ Nice to hear that because my friend was looking to build a budget PC just like that and I had suggested him the P43...But he was considering the G31 from Gigabyte...Is that mobo any good with overclock ?
 

Is he going to use the E5200? I had a build with the E5200 and GA-G31M-ES2L, and I was able to OC to 3.5ghz pretty easy. I'm sure it could have gone higher, but that was plenty high for me.
 
Nice build xthekidx great job, I'm also planning on using a Asus G31 motherboard paired with a E5200, heard they overclock great. But now I see it :lol: .
 
^ Same thing I'm wondering, how far will it go on stock. The only "good" fan I can get at my local compy store is a Scythe Ninja don't know if they are good for overclocking or not. I really want a Scythe Mugen II tho 😀
 

You could probably go 3.2 or so on the stock cooler, but more than that and I would get an aftermarket. FYI, dont get the Asus P5KPL-CM motherboard, I am using it in a budget build and overclocking on it sucks ass. The Gigabyte G31 board is much better.

Scythe ninja is a great cooler, not quite as good as the mugen 2 but definitely a good option if that is what you have available to you.
 
Hi xthekidx, do you think this MOBO :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357&Tpk=GA-G31M-ES2L


Would let me overclock above 3.0? And would the Scythe Mugen 2 FIT on this Micro ATX with the same case?

Sorry if it's a noobish question, but i'Im still learning.


=======================================================================================

And also, this baffles me a little, I hope you understand where I'm going with this, but looking for an already built rig, I found this one very similar to the one you're building with a few pros and cons:

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra Athlon X2 7850(2.8GHz) 4GB DDR2 500GB NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT -- Priced at 539$


*Both the AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition (2.8GHz) 65nm, and the Intel E5200 (2.5GHz) 45nm have the same price at Newegg , both can be OC'ed, but based on this article: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2009/04/28/amd-athlon-x2-7850-black-edition-cpu-review/2

The Athlon x2 7850 can reach 3.1Ghz and be stable with its stock cooler.
The E5200 would reach 3.5Ghz+ but with the need of an aftermarket cooler which would raise its price.

* The GPU is an NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 1GB, but not so different I guess.

* The optical drive is Dual Layer which could be a plus.

* It has 500B of HDD, 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800, and a PSU of 420W, which could be a Con, kinf of.

* Included Keyboard and mice could make up for the balanced price (this rig=539, your rig=524)

*1 year Warranty.

*Has Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit, I could get any OS free through warez, but I guess the SO alone in this rig would have added to its retail price a little.

So, I'm no expert, but reading elsewhere it seemed to me these 2 rigs were somewhat not so different from each other.

So my questions are: What would be the benefits in this case if I build up the rig by myself with your specs? what could be the disadvantages of the CyberpowerPC? Maybe its hardware such as mobo, PSU, and RAM sticks are of far less quality? Maybe it'd be better to build it by ourselves to take advantage of the warranty that comes with the hardware individually?

Sorry If I ask a lot, but I was surprised to see not a big difference between retail rigs and self-made rigs in this case, there are other CyberPowerPC ribs under 600$ with a few better specs even, but I don't know, I could be dead wrong.
 

Yes it would, I have personally used that MB and got an E5200 up to 3.5ghz (10.5 x 334, 1.3v Vcore). The E5200 is a better deal than the 7850 if you plan on overclocking since the Wolfdale cores are faster clock for clock than the Kuma Cores. If you plan on stock speeds, then the AMD chip is a better option. The mATX board won't have any restrictions on the cooler that you can use, the Case will be the limitation as far as that goes. The Socket area of the LGA 775 is standard on all motherboards (as well as for all other sockets as well).

The disadvantages of the CyberpowerPC is that you don't have as many options for parts, you have to use the ones that they have available. Also, they are vague on many things such as the ram or or HDD brands.

Pricewise, they are pretty similar and they will guarantee that the parts all work, so that is nice. The better deal is going to be going with your own personal build though.


I actually put together a much better rig recently that was a better deal than this rig above.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012
RAM: (promo code: EMCLTNS35) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298
MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128380
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072
Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233014
+ Backplate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233020

That's $495, after shipping and not counting the MIR.
 
Nice little review! This gives me hope for those fan-made articles if the quality is this good.
 
Hi, :hello:

I just purchased @ my local Fry's a Antec 900...it has a front panel cable marked HHD Led I plugged it in the Mobo header with the same name...but I do Not see any Led light I also do not hear the Post sound. This is my first build to include a new case, is this a good case, I could exchange it it's only 10 days old. Otherwise it runs great 😍

CASE: Antec 900
http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MjM=

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE Callisto 3.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core
Processor - Retail

MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Support AM3 Socket Phenom II DDR3 CPU Only

Mem: OCZ OCZ3P13334GK 4gb kit (2gb x 2) 1333mhz 7-7-7-20 240-pin ddr3 dimm w/heat spreader

PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS
Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

VC: MSI N9800GT-T2D512-OC V2 GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
Supported Video Card - Retail OC Edition overclocked to 660Mhz
This was Not my first choice for a VC but the Price was right...I can get a new one in 2 years.

HD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" - OEM

DVDROM: Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM
16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD/CD Rewritable Drive - OEM

MONITOR: Hyundai 19" 1280x1024 max res 75mhz max

OS: Windows XP PRO 32bit sp3

ps: Windows 7 for my 68th birthday this Nov 30th
 
It looks pretty good, yes the Antec 900 is a good case. Hopefully you didn't pay for XP, otherwise you wasted your money since Windows 7 is free if you buy Vista right now.
 
Hi, :hello:

WinXP Pro & the Monitor are Old.

What about the Post beep code sound I'm not hearing & HHD Led I don't see. Does this case have these two items that I might have missed when I assembled it, there is nothing in the manual about them, I did connect both cables on the front panel header.
 
No, the case does not come with a case speaker, and quite possibly does not come with an HDD LED either (which is useless IMO). If you want a case speaker, you can buy one for a couple dollars online, but you don't really need one unless you are having problems posting.
 
Sorry for bringing out a old thread, but xthekidx you mentioned not to get a ASUS P5KPL-CM, how far did you get with the E5200 and that board? There is another ASUS, a P5GC-MX.

I also see a MSI G31 M3-L, any good?
 
The only way I could find to overclock on that MB was using the pre-determined overclock settings they had which was 30% overclock (everything automatic, it just ups the FSB from 200 to 266 and then does auto adjustments on the voltages ect...it sucked). I don't know anything else about those other boards you mentioned, MSI typically isn't a good brand though. Google searching might find you what you are looking for.
 
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