Deepcool Steam Castle Review

Deepcool Steam Castle Review

Manufacturer: Deepcool
UK price (as reviewed): MSRP £69.99
US price (as reviewed): $99.99 (ex Tax)

We were first introduced to the Steam Castle at the Deepcool stand of Computex 2014. It's a cube-style micro-ATX chassis that should be available on these shores through Overclockers UK for £69.99.


According to Deepcool, the Steam Castle's design is inspired by steampunk. A pair of bold, vertical grilles adorn the front of the chassis, with a smaller horizontal mesh section at the top, and the roof is home to four vents with a distinctly industrial look about them. Each of these has its own LED bulb in, which you can control the colour of too. While the chassis is externally quite different to the Aerocool Dead Silence, its shape and size are very similar, and as you'll see the similarities run much deep than that. Staying with the outside for now though, the front of the Steam Castle is more ventilated than the Dead Silence, but its roof is less so (at least when using the Dead Silence's mesh roof fitting), so it will be interesting to see how cooling is affected.

Deepcool showed us the case at Computex with two finishes – a glossy plastic and a matt, soft touch rubber one. Upon removing our sample from the box, we were pleased to note that Deepcool has opted for the latter, as glossy plastic often looks cheap and is especially prone to picking up fingerprints and marks. The build quality of the outer shell is fine, particularly on the very solid roof, and the steel panels are not too flimsy either.


On the left hand side is a large window. It's bigger than Aerocool's is, and grants you a fuller view of the interior as a result. One the right side, meanwhile, is where you'll find the external I/O panel, which is well connected thanks to its four USB ports, two of which are USB 3.

There's also a single knob for controlling the LED colour, LED brightness and fan speed. Pushing this in cycles through the available LED options; there are three colours (red, green and blue) and you can set these to either a single brightness or a pulsing effecting, or you can just turn the LEDs off entirely. Rotating the knob, meanwhile, controls the fan speed of up to three fans as well as the brightness of the LEDs (if they're in single brightness mode). Having the fan speed be indicated by the LED brightness is a neat idea, but it does mean you can't have the LEDs lit dimly while also having the fans running fast.


Two fans are included by default; a front 200mm and a rear 120mm, which is again the same as we saw with the Dead Silence. A further two 140mm/120mm fan mounts are found in the roof, but are left empty by default. There's also a pair of grommets fitted to the rear so you can channel in external water-cooling configurations.

The case stands on four thin rubber strips, so there's very little floor clearance but plenty of grip. The PSU is protected by its own removable dust filter, which slots in between the metal chassis floor and the plastic stand, so it's very easy to replace once cleaned.

Specifications

• Dimensions (mm) 278 x 406 x 420 (W x D x H)
  
• Material Steel, plastic
  
• Available colours Black, white, yellow, red
  
• Front panel Power, reset, 2 x USB 3, USB 2, stereo, microphone, fan/LED control knob
  
• Drive bays 1 x external 5.25, 3 x internal 3.5in/2.5in, 2 x internal 2.5in
  
• Form factor(s) Micro-ATX, mini-ITX
  
• Cooling 1 x 200mm/180mm/140mm/120mm front fan mount (200mm fan included), 1 x 140mm/120mm rear fan mount (120mm fan included), 2 x 140mm/120mm roof fan mounts (fans not included)
  
• CPU cooler clearance 200mm
  
• Maximum graphics card length 320mm
  
• Extras Variable speed fan control, LED control, removable dust filters