InWin BL631 mATX Case

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Cases come in all kinds of sizes and shapes. There’s a case for just about every use of a computer. Today we are going to take a look at an InWin case meant for small areas, such as a home theater PC, for which I will be using the case.

Never hear of InWin before? Neither had I. InWin was founded in 1986 and started coming to the US market in 1999. It's still a really new company, but is rapidly expanding. Today we are going to look at the InWin BL631 mATX case with a 300 watt PSU. HTPC cases are usually expensive, but this one works for those on a budget. Is it worth it compared to your typical HTPC case that costs twice as much?
A look around

After unpacking the case I found something odd -- or didn't find something, more like it. There were no instructions. I know it may be simple to put a computer in a case, but I expected the company to at least provide some kind of documentation. There are some plastic parts inside which look like they might be used for funneling cool air to the CPU, but I'm not really sure with no instructions.

The front of the case is really simple-looking. It has a 5.25" bay into which I put my DVD burner, and an external 3.5" bay. The front also has the power/restart buttons, and some front panel USB and audio ports.
I like the black color of the case and the blue strip running across the front of it. It fits nicely into a home entertainment center. My only gripe is that the light that tells you the hard drive is spinning is orange. Why orange? It sticks out like a sore thumb; why not blue?

Once we open it up, things look like a mess. Where is the computer supposed to go?

              After removing everything we can finally get into putting the PC together and in there.

InWin BL631 mATX Case - Putting it Together

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The first step is putting the hard drive and DVD burner into place. One of the great points of this case is that the part that holds the drives is removable. By flipping the two levers, the whole cage removes from the case. Once it's removed, there isn't much left of the case.
Putting the drives in is pretty easy. Screwing them in is a little harder. Screwing in a 3.5" device is impossible. I'm not even sure where the screws go. I can't seem to get near the cage it's in, only the outer shell of the cage.
The 5.25" drive is a little better. I was able to get one side of the drive screwed down.

The next step is to install the motherboard. As I mentioned in the introduction, it's a mATX case, so it will only fit a mATX motherboard; luckily this is what I have. I was able to get the backplate on fairly easy, but if you look carefully, the cutout appears to be a little sloppy. It's nothing major, I'm just nitpicking.
Next we'll take a look at the motherboard mounts. I'm a little worried at the mounts. They are metal and look like they may make too much contact with the motherboard and cause it to short circuit. I didn't experience any issues, but that's not to say I won't ever, or anyone else won't.
After getting it into the case, I went to screw the motherboard down. This was an issue. The holes on the motherboard and the holes on the case don't line up perfectly, meaning that I can only put in two or three screws. It's not the best-machined motherboard in the world I guess. The holes weren't terribly off -- it seemed like it was designed for a different form factor -- but they were off enough for me to not be able to screw it down very well. Sadly, this wasn't the end of my issues either.

Now I was ready to get that cage for the drives back onto the case. I thought it would be difficult, but actually it wasn't that hard. But I encountered an issue when I tried connecting all the drives up to the motherboard. The issue was that the cords had to really twist around. The area got really cramped really fast. Adding to this was the ATX power connection.

InWin BL631 mATX Case - More Components

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The power supply is in a nice place, but as you can see, it really would have been great to make it three inches shorter. The wires have to bend up 90 degrees to make it to the motherboard.
All of these cords make the case look like a wreck. Making it look clean is impossible. I'm sure you all know how annoying SATA cables can be, and with all of these wires, it is a real pain. I had issues with them popping out and crashing the PC.

The headers for the USB and audio are a little too long for my liking. I realize that different motherboards have different locations for the headers, but I think that the cords are too long. They can easily fit to the headers, but there is too much excess. It just piles up and causes more chaos, and we already have enough of that in this case.

One final aspect I'd like to point out is the low profile expansion slots on the case. They work, but once you take a cover off, you can't get it back on, ever. Make sure that when you take one off you will always have a card in there.
When I turned on the computer, I noticed that it was really silent. Yay, finally a silent PC around here! Oh wait; there aren't any fans in the case outside of the CPU. It's nice to have a silent HTPC, but you need ventilation to keep the parts cool. There are some slots for air to move about, but none of them appear to do much. I would have loved a fan or two.
I managed to stick a fan into the case. It isn't pushing air in or out, but circulating it around the case, and hopefully it is making its way out of the opening. Overall I think that heat isn't an issue with my PC. I have an E2140 running stock and no graphics cards in it. If you have a quad core overclocked CPU, you might have some issues

InWin BL631 mATX Case - Usage

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I have been using this case for two months now, and overall it's a decent case. For the price it has held up better than I thought. The heat issues haven't been much of a problem so far. I have it stored in an entertainment center, and the only ventilation in the center is a small hole in the back that is pretty much filled with cords at this point. I have an old case fan that I wired into the case; it is outside the case, but it helps move air around there.
I would point the finger at my positioning of the case instead of the case, when it comes to the reason I'm not having heat issues. I would have really loved a case fan somewhere, anywhere, as long as it moved air.
I'm still having issues with the frontal space between the motherboard, power supply and drives. They are fighting for position and make it look like a mess. I have tried, and there is no way to get an additional 3.5" device in there. For all practical purposes the case can hold one 5.25" drive and a 3.5" drive, not two 3.5"devices. It would have been ideal if InWin had removed the bottom drive bay and put a fan or two there. There might be a future mod for this case.
Power Supply

There is a power supply bundled with the case, but many people might replace it with a better model. This is a mATX PSU, and a regular one won't fit in the case, so make sure you get one that fits. The unit that came in my case is 300 watts, and runs just fine. I am surprised, since it seems the case runs hot and isn't that powerful to begin with, but it has been running 24/7 for two months now and there is not any instability in the power yet.
Conclusion
We had the chance to take a look at the InWin BL631 mATX Case and PSU. It is one of the cheaper HTPC cases and it certainly shows. The build quality is iffy. The case feels strong, and removing the sides and sliding them back in is easy.
There are some glaring errors in the design. The first is the fact the motherboard mounting holes didn't line up very well. Maybe three of them were usable, if that. That is a huge turn-off for most users. The biggest issue is the conversion of the PSU, motherboard and drives. This is a deal killer for most people. Would it have really killed to find room for a fan?
Overall I feel this case is nothing special. It seems more like a cheap case that was engineered with good thoughts, but halfway through development they ran into some issues, and then decided just to make sure everything could fit and slapped it together and decided they were done. I would have no problem paying a little more for a solid case.
I would recommend this only if you are going for a small cheap case and have low-end hardware that doesn't get too hot, and only a few drives. All of these "ands" are what will keep this case from making any kind of big sales. Sorry InWin, better luck next time; this case isn't ready to be near the top of my list for cases.

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