At first we would like to thank In Win for sending out a sample of the 909 E-ATX Computer Chassis for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About In Win:

 

“IN WIN Development Inc., an ISO 9001 manufacturer of professional computer chassis, power supplies and digital storage devices, is the leading provider of enclosure solutions to system integrators worldwide. Founded in 1985, IN WIN provides high quality chassis that conform to all safety regulations, as well as unsurpassed customer service.”

 

Product Features:

 

Impressively Detailed Craftsmanship

 

909 is constructed with solid materials, and its chamfered edge design along with the sleek anodized aluminium are beautifully crafted to masterfully create a streamlined and smooth enclosure inside/out.

 

Simplicity in Design

 

909 features a single piece 4mm brushed aluminium shell and an elegant back panel that hides unnecessary rear I/O cables. The clutter-free design demonstrates the elegant aesthetics of simplicity.

 

Tempered Glass Side Panels

 

The side panels are finished entirely out of 5mm tinted tempered glass which reveals the internal LED light, and overall enhances the 909 into a truly modern and dynamic appearance.

 

USB 3.1 TYPE-C

 

909 is equipped with one all-new reversible USB3.1 TYPE-C port for ultimate speed transfers up to 10Gb/s which is twice as fast USB3.0.

 

Magnetic Aluminium Dust Filter

 

The front intake fan dust filter has an embedded magnet design for easy removal creating a convenient installation and more importantly excellent dust reduction

 

Elegant Lighting Effects

 

A high-quality chassis should look beautiful when powered on and with the 909 it has a white LED strip creating various lighting effects to illuminate the PC interior beautifully highlighting the interior components

 

Unique HDD & PSU Chamber Design

 

The separate HDD and PSU chambers provide an ideal thermal environment by allowing heat airflow to dissipate directly to the back venting holes without interfering with the motherboard and graphic card area, and significantly improving the ventilation.

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

We do rarely review computer cases on MadShrimps simply because there are very few of them which really bring something new to the table, even if there are tons of models launched each year. This model we are going to revisit is one of the high-end cases from In Win, a manufacturer which is known for quite some time now on the case market because if its unusual designs and from here we would like mention S-Frame or H-Tower which have won the CES Innovation Awards for their ingenuity. Started as a prototype, the H-Tower opens up at on command with the help of a wireless control app, like a Transformers robot, in order to expose the configuration internals, but let’s get back to Earth a bit and discuss about the In Win 909 model which is no less interesting to the general public. Its main features are its chamfered edge design and sleek anodized aluminum, along with large 5mm width tinted tempered glass panels for revealing the internal components. The box In Win 909 ships with is quite large and heavy (no surprise considering that the case weights like 17kg when empty) so help would be needed in some cases for manipulation without incidents:

 

 

 

On the lateral side of the case we will get to see a full list of specifications:

 

 

 

Product features are also available nearby:

 

 

 

The case is available in both black and silver and In Win specifies this aspect on the box:

 

 

 

Some of the features are also illustrated with pictograms:

 

 

 

 

 

Right after removing the top cover we will get to see that the main product is protected very well with foam material but is also wrapped inside a black cotton bag:

 

 

 

This case is not your run-of-the-mill midi-tower model, but a fully-fledged Full-Tower and this can be also seen from the sported dimensions (540mm height, 575mm length and 231mm width). 909 aims at design simplicity by minimizing the number of interfaces which can be directly viewed on top of other cases and the tempered glass on the sides really make this case quite unique. While the 909 can be used with success at computer shows, enthusiasts can also utilize it at home for showing off their latest high-performance components such as video cards, LED-lighted water cooling systems and so on:

 

 

 

A closer look at the frontal case area shows the brushed aluminum and the removable screw nuts on the sides:

 

 

 

In Win also made sure to place their logo here without ruining the overall design simplicity; the logo lights up with a white LED while the system is on:

 

 

 

If we look on the left side of the case, we will get to see the large glass side panel; this one is held in place with four screws and a cut-out can be observed in the bottom right corner:

 

 

 

A warning sign is also placed on the glass so people which are not familiar with the case would know how to handle the product:

 

 

 

Instead of having the interfaces placed on the top of the case or somewhere in front, In Win has thought to include these in a very unfamiliar location; here we will get to see the LED light effect switch button, no less than three USB 3.0 ports, one headphone and one microphone jack but also one last-gen USB Type-C port. On the far right we do also have a HDD orange activity LED, one Power LED along with the Power button. Right on top of these we do have a while LED light bar while on the bottom we have the only air intake of this case:

 

 

 

The right side of the case is symmetrical:

 

 

 

 

Let’s now take a look at the back side of the case; here we will be able to spot the mounts for installing 3x120mm or 2x140mm rear fans, a 360mm radiator, a 240mm radiator, one 120mm radiator so the selection is quite big; on the left side we do also have an opening for I/O interface cables which is placed quite odd because they do not align with the mobo I/O interfaces and makes access difficult without opening the left side panel; on the bottom side we can of course spot the PSU area:

 

 

 

The bottom area of the case is also made from the same single sheet of brushed aluminum and here we will also get to spot two large rubber feet:

 

 

 

As we have mentioned previously, the lateral glass panels are held with four screws on each side; for vibration dampening and glass protection, around each screw we will spot rubber material:

 

 

 

 

After the removal of the side panels, we must place them carefully aside and if we try to lift the case we will find out that it has got much, much lighter :)

 

 

 

On a first look inside the case we will get to see that the positioning does not follow the usual designs; we do have a large PSU compartment on the lower left side with an opening for routing cables, the main motherboard chamber which is surrounded by intake fans on the bottom and in front (but also one 120mm optional one on the left which we will cover later), while the drive bays are placed on top. A separate chamber can be found right after the I/O interfaces which picks up the air from the main chamber and evacuates it from the case. Because of this design we will do a small experiment to see if the warm air from the first chamber impacts the cooling and airflow of the secondary chamber by using dual radiators:

 

 

 

The cover of the second chamber can be removed thanks to the included thumb screws; this will allow radiator or fan mounting procedure to become easier:

 

 

 

 

Right after its removal we will be able to spot an opening right over the 120mm mount in the first chamber; this is handy to be used when routing water cooling tubes:

 

 

 

This opening is continued with another one which separates the storage drive compartment and the first compartment:

 

 

 

On top of the 120mm fan exhaust mount of the first compartment we will get to see an additional cut for routing water cooling tubes:

 

 

 

The shields of the expansion cards do not feature metallic separators so if we remove them all we will get one extra-large opening, very handy for driving more air to the back:

 

 

 

In the front we can mount up to 280mm radiators or two 120/140mm fans; despite the fact that direct intake flow is blocked by the aluminum sheet, the air travels through an air duct which picks up cold air from the bottom area of the case, under the Power On/Off button:

 

 

 

This case does also come with a very handy removable air filter:

 

 

 

The mentioned air filter is held in place with magnetic force:

 

 

 

 

After the removal of the air filter we can see clearly how this lower section is organized; the cables you are seeing on the right are from the lateral connectors and the fans are to be mounted on special adapters:

 

 

 

The adapters can be easily removed with one thumb screw each:

 

 

 

Mounting holes are present to accommodate both 120mm and 140mm fans:

 

 

 

Initially, the interface cables are held secure inside with a plastic cable zip tie:

 

 

 

The drive trays are made of black plastic and feature the manufacturer logo in the front:

 

 

 

 

The manufacturer has also included silicone mounts to aid with vibration dampening and really work well as we have seen during our tests with two mechanical drives:

 

 

 

This is not all! The trays do also feature holes for installing 2.5’’ drives but this operation would also mean that we need to remove one of the 3.5’’ bolts; it would have been better to have the 2.5’’ drives placed in a more central position instead:

 

 

 

The drive bays are bolted-in so we cannot remove them without performing case modding in order to install something else in this specific compartment:

 

 

 

Enough talk about the frontal area! Let’s check out the back too! We will get to see quite a bit of openings around the motherboard tray. We can clearly see the opening around the CPU socket and a smaller one on top of it for routing the 8-pin cable, the cut-out in the PSU area and another one through which the cables do travel for reaching the motherboard headers:

 

 

 

 

 

No less than six 2.5’’ drive mounts are offered in this section and between the four frontal ones we also get a cable routing hole:

 

 

 

 

These can be removed easily with a single thumb screw:

 

 

 

The compartment left behind, if we do not have a SSD installed in that specific location can be used as a routing hole:

 

 

 

A larger cut-out can be observed in the second compartment area:

 

 

 

Logically, the top drive bays to have cuts of their own for installing the SATA Data/Power cables:

 

 

 

With the 909, we do get two USB 3.0 cables for covering the four interfaces:

 

 

 

Also, we will get to see one Power LED (two and three-pin), a Power Switch, one HDD LED and one HD Audio connector:

 

 

 

The LED bar is powered on by a separate MOLEX connector:

 

 

 

A bunch of accessories are offered for us to build the system easier:

 

 

 

Here we could count in motherboard stand-offs, one motherboard stand-off adapter, PCI-E card screws, 2.5’’ drive screws, cable holders, fan screws, cable ties, glass shockproof rubbers, water-cooling system washers, a wiping cloth, one 20+4 pin adapter cable, one USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 cable adapter, one 8-pin to 4+4pin PSU extension cable, power supply screws but also two extra tempered glass thumbscrews:

 

 

 

In Win offers the handy manual with each installation step on high-quality paper but also in electronic format on the website:

 

 

 

The main objective of this review was to see if 909 can handle our dual-radiator setup properly, which was initially installed in our CM Storm Stryker case. The case did house its original fans as intake, which did also cool the mechanical drives and the AIO systems were tested with their original fans too.

 

Here are the specs:

 

-BIOSTAR Z170X GAMING Motherboard

-Intel Skylake 6700K CPU

-Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 2666MHz C16 Memory

-NZXT Kraken X60 All-in-One Water Cooler for the CPU

-AMD RADEON 290X fitted with Corsair HG10 A1 Bracket + H80i GT Cooler

-Creative Sound Blaster ZxR + daughter-board

-AMD Radeon R7 240GB SSD

-SAMSUNG HD204UI 2TB drive

-Toshiba MG04ACA400A 4TB drive

-NEXUS 1.1KW Gold PSU

 

 

 

We have mounted the exact same components inside the 909 to compare the system temperatures while running AIDA64 Stress Test for the components (except VGA), while the water-cooled Radeon 290X was stressed with Heaven 4.0 Benchmark.

 

 

 

Before showing the results, we would like to describe some of the installation steps we did take; first we did choose to install the PSU and routed the cables to the back via the dedicated opening. We have observed that because the PSU must be installed facing upwards, the cables will lose a bit of their length and in our case with the NEXUS PSU we have had to use the supplied extenders for both 24-pin and 8-pin power cables. After securing the PSUY with the cables, we have installed the mobo standoffs, secured them with the adapter, installed the I/O shield of the mobo and then the BIOSTAR Z170X GAMING mobo was next. All went smoothly so far so we have continued by removing the back cover of the secondary chamber in order to install the NZXT X60 radiator + fans; we have had eight screws for mounting the radiator but only six of them did align to the pattern. Either way, the radiator was held quite securely to the aluminum panel. Then we have routed the AIO pump through the openings on top in order to take maximum advantage of the available space; with the back panel mounted, we have had no issues installing the pump back on the CPU with fresh paste. The next step was to install the panel cables and since our board did not feature dual USB 3.0 headers, we went ahead and used the USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 supplied adapter. Next was drive installation which did require us to use some extra modular cables from the PSU but no issues occurred during this process. We would also like to remind that we did need to use quite a bit of SSD mount holes since the only dedicated cut-out was simply not enough. The “star of the show” was the water-cooled 290X, which we have succeeded to install in the dedicated 120mm fan area.

We have seen that it is not necessary to dismantle the 280mm radiator area if we do have a small screwdriver handy in order to mount the H80i GT push-pull setup screws:

 

 

 

Here is also a closer look at the VGA and sound card I/Os, which can be seen in the secondary chamber:

 

 

 

The 280mm fan cables are a bit difficult to hide but if we do have black wires or sleeved cables for them, they will go unnoticed or even invisible with the tinted lateral cover attached:

 

 

 

Here are also the openings through which the NZXT tubes went through:

 

 

 

 

As we have probably mentioned before, for intake we have used the exact same fans from the Stryker case:

 

 

 

If the cables in the back of the motherboard tray are cluttered, we may want to organize better and some of them can be routed to the back of the PSU; using the supplied power adapters was great but it would have been even better if these would have sported black wires or would have been sleeved because in some cases they could ruin the overall color scheme:

 

 

 

 

If the cables are routed correctly, we will be able to attach the tempered glass properly:

 

 

 

We have also tried as a second setup variant to mount the radiator of the H80i GT in front but after seeing that only one installation mode was possible and in this case the temperatures on the GPU were in the 90 degrees Celsius in a couple of seconds, we did discard this project. We have also tried to install the radiator with the tubes downwards but they were interfering with the card and also many of the cables routed through that region:

 

 

 

Results time!

 

 

This chart also requires the usual explanations; first, the CPU temperatures seem to have dropped a bit in IDLE because the H80i GT radiator assembly helps moving quite a bit of air into the second chamber, while in Full Load we will see a small increase versus the Stryker which is logical (H80i GT pushes warm air directly into the fan blades of the NZXT X60, decreasing its efficiency). However, we will be able to see a notable decrease of temperature for the Z170 chipset because of the better placement of the intake fans and since these fans practically blow cold air onto the VGA card, there is a noticeable drop of temperatures in the VRM area too (which is cooled by the blower-type fan). The video card GPU temperatures have also dropped a bit in IDLE, while in Full Load they have remained about the same.

Since the mechanical drives do not feature direct airflow in their chamber, their temperatures have increased, but the values are still in optimal ranges.

During testing, the ambient temperature was held at a steady 18.5 degrees Celsius.

909 is definitely a case for computer enthusiasts which can take quite a bit of time to do a decent cable management and show of the internal components properly and also offers quite a bit of customization possibilities thanks to its secondary chamber in the back. We can install cooling systems both in front, on the bottom, in the back but also in the last compartment and we must make sure that the airflow will be optimized correctly so all components will be kept in reasonable temperature ranges. Because of its minimalist design, we do not have any ports or buttons in the frontal area of the unit which is beautifully crafted thanks to a single piece of 4mm brushed aluminum shell; these have been migrated to the lower left side which tells us that the case was mainly designed to sit on our table and not hidden somewhere on the floor.

 

The all-new reversible USB 3.1 Type-C connector of the 909 makes the case even more future-proof and if we do not have two USB 3 headers available on the motherboard, In Win has supplied a conversion cable to USB 2.0 so we can use all ports anyway.

 

The magnetic fan is also a nice addition because it can be easily removed for cleaning and it is placed in a convenient position so we won’t need to remove the case from its position during this process.

 

During our build, we have also cumulated the so called “negative points” list of the product and here we could enumerate the fact that with this case we needed to use the supplied 24-pin ATX power connector extender (while on the Stryker with the same power supply it fit perfectly), both supplied 8-pin and 24-pin power extenders do not feature black-colored wires or at least black sleeve for keeping an optimal color scheme inside the case, SSD installation inside the 3.5’’ bays is not possible unless we remove the bolts with vibration dampening rubbers from one side and also it is very hard, if not impossible to utilize some of the I/O motherboard/expansion card connectors without removing the left or right side panels.

 

In Win 909 is not very accessible for the main crowd since it is priced at about 474 Euros without any included fan but it is a head turner nonetheless in any situation.

 

In Win 909 E-ATX Computer Chassis is Recommended For:

 

 

 

We would like to thank again to In Win for making this review possible!