Raijintek Nestor Review: A €50 Enthusiast Case
Final Thoughts
Ever since the company was founded, Raijintek’s philosophy seems to involve providing more for less with an emphasis towards more affordable products and the Nestor continues that tradition. It is a chassis with an interesting style, plenty of room and best of all, it is very wallet-friendly. As always however, budget cases tend to trade in a few expected conveniences for certain features and with the Nestor, some of those are not as obvious.
The cable management space is compact but the raised panels alleviate some clearance issues, plus there are plenty of cable management routes to take (six of which are grommeted, suprisingly). There are even plenty of openings along the edge of the PSU cover. One more cable routing opening would have been a nice addition right near the front for the front IO cables. Just a simple cut and fold like the 8-pin connector routing would make 5.25″ device clearance a non-issue.
While the PSU cover was a lovely feature to have as well, having it riveted to the chassis makes power supply installation a lot less convenient. A removable PSU cover is a lot easier for users to install into and for modders to play around with. The riveted HDD cage would also be a lot better had it been mounted by screws and had the ability to be repositioned. As it is, there is tight space for longer power supplies and having the option to move the HDD cage forward slightly will make plugging and routing cables much easier. Plus, those who are not installing an 3.5″ drives can have the option of removing it entirely and leaving that room for extra cable storage.
The cooling options are numerous and the dual 240mm radiator support is appreciated as well. Airflow ventilation from the front and the top however are restricted only to the sides. From a performance standpoint, both the smoked polycarbonate areas on those panels would serve much better if replaced with airflow-friendly mesh. It does not really make sense to provide that much fan mounting support and then restricted airflow going in and out to small areas on the side of the panels.
With the price and features, the Raijintek Nestor offers plenty to be worth considering. It looks better than most, especially the white version. As numerous as the features are however, the caveats are not too far behind preventing this case from being a great option and limiting it to receiving Modders-Inc’s Recommended Hardware award.
