Kingwin KT-436 Aluminum Case

Manufacturer: Kingwin Inc.
Supplied by: Kingwin Inc.
Price: TBA (estimated ~ $160 USD)

By Dean Barker (5/30/2002)

Introduction

Aluminum cases used to be a novelty that few of us could afford, much less find.  Now they have become common place.  And as with any other product, competition has put manufacturers in a battle of who can offer the best blend of features, cost, and quality.  Kingwin has thrown their gauntlet into the fray with the KT-436 case.  The KT-436 incorporates all the features you have come to expect in high end cases with a choice of colored front bezels!  We wish to extend our thanks to the good folks at Kingwin for sending over the KT-436 to play with.

A Closer Look

Our test unit was traditional silver (or aluminum o' natural) whatever makes you happy.  The KT-436 comes in several colors.  It does this by a clear acrylic front bezel cover.  Our unit's cover was clear.  When they are colored they give the case an entirely new appearance.  Green, Blue, and Black are offered to complete the fashion line up.  Kingwin also offers these cases with a window option for the left side panel AND case top.  These windowed cases come with one of two acrylic windows, clear or tinted.  The "Blue" case's window is of course, tinted blue while the "Silver" and "Black" is clear.  But we will comeback to our acrylic front bezel in a moment.  First let's walk around the case.

  

The case front sports several features.  The four 5.25 and three 3.5 inch bays stand out right off the bat.  The Kingwin is the only case other than a Lian Li that I've seen with three 3.5 inch front bays.  As you will see the KT-436 has an quite a bit in common with the Lian Li cases.  Below the bays, are a group of numerous square venting holes.  These clearly feed into a twin 80mm fan intake set up.  Below these venting holes are a bank of easy access ports.  These include Four (YES you heard me correctly), four USB ports, a speaker jack, microphone jack, and a Firewire port.  Four USB ports up front is much handier than you realize.  Count how many USB devices you have now and compare that to last year.  USB has caught on and with USB 2.0 coming with it's 480 mbps transfer rates, you can bet more and more products will be on the shelves in USB form. 

On the left side of the box is an 80mm blow hole, blowing air out of the case.  The placement is right to address any heat that may pocket near the processor.  The gold grill is something else entirely.  Grills are a matter of taste.  Jason loves gold stuff like this.  Me..?  Keep the gold on rings and teeth.  If this isn't to your taste it is easily enough swapped out for any number of specialty grills or a plain silver one.

On the rear of the KT-436 you can see not one but two rear 80mm exhaust blowholes.  Nice.

I am assuming that Kingwin had an engineer go crazy with blowholes because here is another on the top of the case.  The vent slits are cut directly into the case roof.  Personally, I like this more than a simple fan grill screwed on.  The vent slits look much more professional.

 

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