This week we look at the Apex / Maxcube Vortex 3620 Case.

Vortex 3620 exterior

In a nutshell, the Vortex 3620 is a Screwless budget case with a number of high end features. Lets just start by saying at the date of this review, this case has more in common with cases nearer to the $60 mark. We found the 3620 for $35 +shipping from newegg.com.

Features included in this case are: Rolled steel edges, Painted interior, Mesh front with filters, 2 120mm quiet case fans, Screwless entry & drive system, cable management, and a top mounted front panel including 4usb, audio out, mic in, and ESATA.

3620 From Behind

Our case was listed/sold as an APEX case, however the case was packed in a Maxcube box.  After a little research we discovered that the apex variants are silver & black, while the Maxcube is all black.  Our case was all black, therefore a Maxcube.   Both case variants are identical aside from the paint scheme.

Packaging was the standard fare, front panel coated in a peel off plastic, then covered in a plastic bag and fitted into Styrofoam cutouts.   Interestingly the box says the case has 5 fans, although it contained only 2 and had mounts for 4.   The 2 fans included are both  of the 120mm variety and both are pre-installed.  The non illuminated is under the power supply mount, the other is a blue LED fan mounted behind the hard drive cage.  The remaining 2 fan mounts are both for 120 mm fans located on the door.

Lets get to the specifics.

Case front

The front of the case is made of  black gloss plastic & black metal mesh. The mesh is backed by black filter material to help keep things dust free inside.   Maxcube did a very nice job with the implementation of the mesh front of this case with every slot having its own filter that is easily removable for cleaning.   The edges of the front panel are a black gloss plastic with the edging being a flat black.  The gloss black does a great job of showing finger prints, but are easily wiped away with dry cloth.  The power button and reset switches are mounted to the left and right of the I/O panel at the top of the case and are implemented well, feeling sturdy while being easy to press.

The only thing we found somewhat annoying with the front of the case was the Power (blue) and HDD (red) LED’s which we feel were a little too bright, but really thats just a matter of taste.  The I/O at the top of the case features 4 usb ports, 1 mic in, 1 line out and 1 ESATA port.  The ESATA port was a nice touch and a much welcome addtion to the case instead of the typical firewire port found on most budget cases.

Front panel Removed

In the picture here (taken after we installed the drive) you can see behind the front panel.  Lets start by saying the front panel removal was probably the easiest we’ve ever used.  A lot of cases feel as though they are going to break (and sometimes do) when removing the front panel to access the drive bays, fans, etc.   The front of the 3620 literally just popped off with ease.  While that can raise red flags such as eventual rattle, we saw no cause for alarm as the mounts have a design that will keep the front snug against the case.  With the panel removed you can see how accessible the drive bays and front fan are.  Interestingly the I/O panel is removable, and has a 5.25 mount that you can separate from the port housing.  So the I/O is designed to fit in either the 5.25 or 3.5 bays.  So if you don’t like the panel up top you can mount it mid case in either of the 3.5 bays that have external access.  Nice touch.  Keep in mind doing so means moving one of the 3.5 bay covers to the top because the slot is 5.25, but the case’s front panel design is 3.5 between the power and reset switches .

Now lets look inside the case.

inside the case

The sheet metal inside of this case is both rolled (no sharp edges), and painted black.  All of the drive bays have a screwless design that are effective and easy to use.   The pci system is a screwless design, and was the low point of the 3620. We’ll discuss the pci design a little later. Inside the case was a bag containing motherboard screws, drive screws, additional screwless drive mechanisms, peel & stick cable routing mounts, as well as 3 to 4 pin & molex adapters for the case fans.   Another perk is the case screws & motherboard mounts are black, matching the case. Coming down from the top are the I/O to mainboard cables and all are appropriately labeled for easy connection & long enough to easily route behind the mainboard tray to keep things tidy.  One last thing to note here is this case will accommodate even the longest video cards such as a Nvidia GTX295 or the ATI 5970.

backside of the motherboard tray

Pictured above we can see the bottom of the motherboard tray showing the various holes & cable routing clips.  There is a generously sized hole below the CPU. While theres no way to install a fan in this area, it does make a modern 3rd party heat sink/cooler a snap to install.

The cable routing in this case was well thought out and one of the high points in the Vortex.  Near the top of the case there is a very convenient hole to route power cabling through.  The hole was a tad on the small side but with some mild manipulation we were able to get the majority of the power cables routed through with the exception of the 20+4 main connector.  Again, routing the main power connector wouldn’t be at all possible.

We found that routing our power & SATA cables using only the 2 clips built into the underside of the mainboard tray was adequate to keep things nice a clean topside.  More than 3 additional device cables would require the included peel & stick on cable routing clips.

HDD fan interior

Mounted in front of the removable HDD cage is an illuminated 120mm intake fan shown here.  The fan LED is blue.  Looking at the design of the drive cage, its clear that airflow past the HDD cage is not going to be a problem.   One thing to note with the drive mounting for both 5.25 & 3.5 devices:  There are  only 1 of each screwless mechanism included as extras.   This would be an inconvenience if you were to  fill  all your drive bays, and wanted to do so without using screws.  There are only enough screwless mounts for three 5.25 devices and two 3.5 devices.   Its simple enough to take the  unused extra mount off one side and put it on the opposite side.

And now the negative:

Screwless pci - unscrew and throw out

Thus far our review has been rather positive, but there are some problem spots with this case and they all surround the PCI area.  Lets start at the screwless pci system, basically its garbage.  Its a simple system that moves vertically.  Lift the slider up, insert your card, push it down and it locks into place.  Except it doesn’t keep the card firmly in place.  After we put in our graphics card, it wobbled around so much it was virtually indistinguishable from the card installed without the retention mechanism pushed down.   The flaw here is the mechanism in the down position doesn’t really lock the card in place.  Removing 3 screws you can toss it out and just use screws, which is what we recommend doing.

The second problem is the PCI slot covers.  They were honestly one of the most difficult to remove we’ve ever encountered.  We couldn’t figure out why they were designed the way they were.  The usual “wiggle them back and forth till they break off” doesn’t work here.  It ended up being a “remove the mainboard and chisel them out with a screwdriver and hammer” kind of method.   So our greatest bit of wisdom we can give you is this: REMOVE ALL THE PCI COVERS BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR BUILD WITH THE VORTEX 3620! We cannot stress this enough. Failure to do so will equal much work later.  Seriously, save yourself the headache.  Included in the bag of goodies with this case are black painted PCI covers that screw in tightly.

Finished Look

The install on the Maxcube 3620 was a real pleasure considering its budget price of $35.  Building with cases in this price bracket there are some common experiences such as a minor cuts from sharp sheet metal, headaches associated with poor design, and other hassles of a cheap case.  The 3620 was none of those things. It was like working on a significantly more expensive case.  Painted interior, rounded corners, cables routing, good airflow & screwless design was a win.  The only drawbacks to the case were around the pci area which are easy to overlook as long as you take our warning above.
Pros:
+Painted interior
+Screwless Design
+Cable Management
+Good Airflow

Cons:

-PCI retention system
-PCI Slot covers

If you’re on a budget, we highly recommend this case.

Vortex 3620 in the dark