BitFenix Pandora

The microATX BitFenix Pandora cuts a rather svelte figure. Its curved front contrasts pleasingly with its precise straight edges and the case is wonderfully slim. There are large power and reset buttons on the top with two USB3 ports that are easy and convenient to access, next to the standard headphone and microphone jacks.

The Pandora is constructed from a combination of aluminium and steel. Although they look great from a distance, the brushed aluminium side panels surprisingly felt a little cheap. There’s a large viewing window to show off your posh components and PC building skills.

The front of the system hides a small 2.4in 240×320 programmable display that you can customise with a Windows application to display any icon you want. By default it displays the BitFenix logo, but replacing this with a custom JPG or PNG is easy. The side panels simply pop off, so there’s no need to deal with screws.

The case has some useful cable management features for your power supply cables, and we found it easy to route our cables to make the inside of the case neat and to help with airflow. The case will take either microATX or Mini-ITX motherboards and motherboard standoffs are already installed. There’s space for a graphics card up to 350mm in length, which is impressive for a microATX case and will cover even top-of-the-range models.

The Pandora has room for a large graphics card because storage disks are mounted out of the way. You can put one 3.5in drive in the top and one at the bottom, but this isn’t as efficient from a cooling point of view as having them both in a single drive cage cooled by a single fan. Hard disk anti-vibration washers are included so your disks’ vibrations don’t transmit to the case. One 2.5in SSD can be installed behind the motherboard tray, with another on the front side of the tray and one more near the bottom of the case.

In terms of cooling, the Pandora has mounting points for two 120mm fans on the front and a single 120mm fan at the top. There’s a pre-installed 120mm fan in both locations. The case also supports a 240mm liquid cooler if you really want to go wild with overclocking. There are dust filters installed in the front, top and bottom, which will help keep the internals clean and free of performance-sapping grubbiness. 

The Pandora is a good-looking case and will allow for a longer graphics card than the Corsair Air 240, but we prefer the Corsair case thanks to its better design and build quality.