Cooltek W2 Case Review

Overview

 

Earlier in the year I took a look at a case from a company new to pcG. That case happened to be the Cooltek W1 and it very nearly left me lost for words. It looked great, shared a high build quality we’d normally associate with the likes of Lian Li, was one of the quietest cases I’d ever heard, while its thermal performance during both the CPU and GPU benchmarks were phenomenal. In short, it was brilliant! It did however have a slight drawback. That being the Cooltek W1 was an MITX case meaning multi-card Gaming set-ups were out of the question. What we have here today and bearing a striking resemblance is the Cooltek W2 (JB W2 K). A case that is only a little bigger, but can accept even XL-ATX sized Motherboards, making that ultra cool multi-card Gaming set-up a possibility.

Let’s take a closer look!

 

 

 

The Cooltek W2 box is very simple by design and certainly not something that’ll take your breath away. On a typically brown box, we find in black font across the top the case name, Cooltek logo, along with a logo for Jonsbo (the original case designers). We are then told the case is a ‘Compact ATX Case’ and of ‘Aluminium Design’ and given a slightly wonky looking image of the case hidden inside.

On both the left and the right side of the box, we are given the Cooltek W2 specifications in multiple languages (see Specifications/Features below) and find there to be a standard version of the case available in black or silver, along with a windowed version available in the same colours.

So far nothing hugely exciting until we get to the back of the box only to find a huge exploded technical diagram of the Cooltek W2, making the box suddenly look a little on the busy side.

 

 

Opening up the box reveals the Cooltek W2 to be very well protected within a clear plastic bag and sandwiched between two hard foam blocks. We find any additional case accessories concealed within a small black box bearing the Jonsbo name.

 

 

The additional case accessories include a spare fan filter for both 120mm or 140mm fans, some cable ties, a case intrusion speaker, W2 user manual and various fittings.

At the time of review, the Cooltek W2 is retailing on Amazon for £118.53 or from Quiet PC for £99.24 and comes with a 2 year warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Cooltek

 

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

 

Now the Cooltek W2 is out of its box we can admire it in all its black brushed aluminium goodness! I certainly looks good, but given the slight boost in size over the smaller W1 it also loses that little something the made the smaller case so desirable. Which is surprising given the Cooltek W1 isn’t really a huge amount smaller measuring 356(H)mm x 242(W)mm x 362(D)mm compared to the 385(H)mm x 278(W)mm x 395(D)mm of the W2. Of course despite looking similar externally, they are both in fact very different cases.

 

 

From the left we can clearly see the all black Cooltek W2 case given to us for review is the non windowed standard edition. Although it is often nice to see all the Test Rig Hardware concealed inside the case, the Cooltek W2 still looks good because of its beautifully made brushed aluminium panels. Otherwise from the left there is actually very little to see.

Over on the right we find the Cooltek W2 follows a very similar design, the only two exceptions being the case I/O panel and a seemingly oddly placed air vent placed towards the rear of the panel. We’ll get to see why exactly this is there very shortly.

 

 

From a birds-eye view, the Cooltek W2 is rather unusual when compared to most of the cases we’ve recently viewed here at pcG. Simply because it is completely devoid of any features whatsoever. The case shape despite being cuboid in form, is broken up slightly by the shape of the case front panel.

Underneath the W2 we find four heavy duty rubber feet and a large removable dust filter, something that’ll be sure to come in handy should you choose to use the additional fan mounts in the case floor. Looking back at the front of the case The trapezoid styled shape of the front panel is because the panel itself is hollow, turning it into an air scoop of sorts and allowing cool air to be pulled in through the front fans.

 

 

Despite its compact size, there is something a little foreboding about the Cooltek W2 when viewed from the front. Again we get to see the luxurious finish of the black brushed aluminium, but there is nothing else really of note on this particular front panel, not even a 5.25″ mount… It does however help to lend the W2 a very clean look and if I’m entirely honest, the pictures here really do the case no justice at all.

There is however a 5.25″ ODD mount hidden at the rear of the case, as can be seen by the unusually placed removable blanking plate in the top left. Beneath this and in the lower left we find the PSU mount, to the right we find a total of eight expansion slots. With a similar approach to the W1, instead of an internal mount and the use of traditional thumbscrews, Cooltek have chosen simple Philips screws to mount any expansion cards to the W2, whilst using an additional removable bracket to cover them which also gives the case a slightly nicer look from the rear. Then towards the top we find a Motherboard I/O panel slot, to the right of which is a fan mount and above that two rubber grommeted portholes for external custom water cooling.

 

 

The Cooltek W2 features a pretty basic front I/O panel, consisting of just two USB 3.0 ports, Audio, Reset and Power on/off. This front I/O isn’t actually on the front either, but situated towards the front of the right panel (something I’m not terribly keen on, shouldn’t an I/O panel really be on the front or in the very least the top of the case?!). What is actually rather nice about this, is that the I/O panel is statically fixed to the main chassis and not the side panel, which is sure to make the final installation a little easier. The Power and Reset buttons also feature a rather pleasing blue glow when the system is on, which also has the side effect of illuminating the USB 3.0 ports.

Going back to the rear of the W2 we find the only branding on the entire case by way of a small Jonsbo sticker. To the right of this is a basic three speed manual fan control which connects to all three pre-fitted case fans and allow them to run at Low (5v), Standard (7v) or High (12v).

 

 

Rather than using thumbscrews, Cooltek have again chosen to use push pins to attach the W2 side panels, which are also damn near perfect requiring just the right amount of force to remove the panels, but strong enough to hold them on (even with poor cable management! 😉 ). As you can see around the outside of the chassis frame, the W2 also features foam padding which not only helps keep the panels flush and well seated, but will also help to provide some anti-vibration dampening. Despite the cases compact size measuring 385(H)mm x 278(W)mm, the dual chamber layout of the case internals look surprisingly spacious. The Motherboard side features a large CPU Cooler cut-out for the convenience of installation, above which we find two small cut-outs providing access to the Motherboard top headers, to the right we find two rubber grommeted cut-outs along with a third towards the case floor for easy cable access, then three smaller cut-outs towards the front to allow for easier fan cable management. As we can see, Cooltek have also pre-installed the majority of the case stand-offs. So far so good, but I am slightly concerned about the actual placement and size of the cable cut-outs themselves. The size and positioning of the SATA cut-out could prove to be a little troublesome for anyone using multiple storage drives, then it would have been nice for a second cut-out beneath the motherboard tray to allow for easy access to the rest of the lower Motherboard headers.

The second chamber on the reverse of the motherboard tray is of a similar size to the primary chamber. Over here we find the PSU mount, fixed I/O panel and two drive cages along with a plentiful supply of tie-off points for cable management (although given the amount of space back here it and the lack of need for airflow you might not need to). Rather nicely all of the case cables are very nearly 100% sleeved, where as the fan control and fan cables are also braided to give the case a much cleaner appearance. Another welcome feature comes from the fan control, which instead of using the typical 4 pin Molex power cable (that we all love to hate), Cooltek have instead used a SATA power cable.

 

 

Another ace up its sleeve for the Cooltek W2 is it’s potential for both air and water cooling. In the rear we have the familiar site of a pre-fitted silent 120mm fan and a 120mm radiator could easily be added.

The front houses two pre-fitted silent 140mm fans, both with removable dust-filters. There is also the option of switching these out for a couple of 120mm fans of your choice, perhaps even a 240m or even a 280mm radiator, but in doing so you’ll want to keep an eye on the length of your GPU. Something I do find a little strange, is that the front of the W2 features a third mount for an optional 80mm fan in the top right area. What exactly would benefit from its cooling? I’ve no idea…

Of course if you are going to be using a huge graphics card and your radiator and fan assembly proves a little too tight for front mounting, there’s not really a lot stopping you from taking advantage of the two 120mm fan mounts on the floor. Obviously this would mean a maximum radiator size of 240mm, but where the mounts are set slightly to the left side of the case, most radiators shouldn’t really interfere with your Gaming hardware and still allow enough access to your Motherboard headers.

 

 

Looking a little more closely at the second chamber again, we find four large rubber anti-vibration feet to install your PSU onto. This may appear a little narrow, but this is simply because the PSU will be mounted on its side which is also why the right panel is ventilated in this same area.

The front drive cage of the Cooltek W2 allows for up to three 2.5″ storage drives of your choice. Whilst this is always welcome, one small gripe I do have is that to fit any drives the cage must first be removed to allow access to the sides of the cage, then to affix your drives via four screws, where as personally I like the fact the cage is removable, drive sleds would also be preferable.

Which is again a similar story with the rear storage drive cage. You can affix two 3.5″ drives or just the one with a rear mounted 5.25″ ODD or other device. The cage itself seems well fixed, but with a little flex which could benefit it for a slight vibration inhibitor, but there is no other anti-vibration dampening otherwise.

Overall though, I do like the Cooltek W2 rather a lot. It looks sleek and imposing with all its satin black brushed aluminium panels, is very nicely made, despite its compact nature has the potential for a full fledged XL-ATX Motherboard based Gaming set-up with multiple Graphics cards in SLI or CrossFireX, then we have the possibilities for water cooling. Yet how does it perform? Let’s find out!

 

Hardware Installation

 

Test Rig Setup

Case	Cooltek W2	Power Supply	Corsair Professional Series AX760i
Motherboard	ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer	CPU	Intel Core i5-4690K
CPU Cooler	Raijintek Themis	RAM	HyperX Savage 2400MHz 8GB Kit
Graphics Card	XFX AMD Radeon R9 290X DD Black Edition	SSD	HyperX Fury 120GB

 

 

Installing our Test Rig components into the Cooltek W2, was on the whole very straightforward. Out come the two drive cages allowing the installation of the HyperX Fury 120GB and Seagate 2TB SSHD test drives, in goes the motherboard I/O shield followed by the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer, i5-4690K and HyperX Savage assembly. With the rear 3.5″/5.25″ drive cage removed we gain much easier access to the huge CPU Cooler cut-out which means installing the Raijintek Themis is also incredibly easy. Both drive cages are then replaced and the task of wiring up the Test Rig in its new home begins.

 

 

Which is also where the first issue begins… The case I/O panel cabling hooks up to the Motherboard without a hitch, as does the 24 pin Motherboard power cable and positioning of the GPU power cable. The 8 pin CPU power cable however needs to be set in place BEFORE installation of your motherboard or else the plug won’t squeeze between the W2 roof and Motherboard. So after a quick rewind in events a rectifying the (my) issue, we’re back on track. The SATA cables for the two test drives are then plugged into their respective drives and into the Motherboard which also causes another minor problem. You see the SATA cut-out as suspected is too low which means the only easy to reach SATA headers on the Motherboard are the lowest (or furthest left depending on your angle). Both of these issues are admittedly very minor and also surprisingly very common in cases even today, so I’m not singling out JUST Cooltek on this one.

 

 

In goes the Corsair Professional Series AX760i Power Supply, the XFX Radeon R9 290X DD Black Edition with room to spare are our Creative Sound Blaster Zx, leaving just the remainder of the cables to plug in. As you may have already noticed, for this particular build I’ve shown a rather liberal attitude with cable management and left everything more or less looking like a bowl of spaghetti. Is this because I’m lazy? partially, but the real reason is there is so much space in the secondary chamber and no components needing any real airflow (apart from the PSU which has a side vent anyway), that there really isn’t any need. 😉

 

 

Then when we’re finished with our installation, we are left with this sleek little build and you know what? I rather like it! 🙂

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

At pcGameware we use Prime95 and CoreTemp to evaluate CPU temperatures and we use MSI Afterburner to evaluate the GPU temperatures. Of course Prime95 being a CPU stress test also helps to generate heat for us to check the case thermals. We also use UNiGiNE Heaven 4.0 for GPU temperature testing.

CPU performance testing is carried out using Prime95 (Small FFT) to stress the CPU. Each run is timed for 15 mins and the maximum temperature is recorded for all cores and then the average core heat is taken. Testing was carried out with a small overclock on the i5-4690K of 4.0GHz courtesy of the ASRock UEFI.

GPU performance testing is carried out by running UNiGiNE Heaven 4.0 for 15 minutes and then by recording the maximum GPU temperature.

* All case fans (x3 in the case of the Cooltek W2) and the CPU Cooler (Raijintek Themis) are run at 100% throughout testing. To ascertain case noise levels, the GPU fans are set to their lowest setting and the CPU Cooler fan is unplugged, whilst the dB is recorded from 1m away.

 

Hardware Performance

 

 

CPU RESULTS – Cooltek W2 with Raijintek Themis and Intel i5-4690K @ 4.0GHz

Case	Ambient Temperature	Max CPU Temperature (core average)	Delta Temperature
BitFenix Colossus Venom Window	23.50	60.00	36.50
Cooler Master HAF XB	24.00	61.50	37.50
NZXT H440 Razer Edition	24.50	64.00	39.50
Thermaltake Core V51	22.50	62.25	39.75
NZXT S340	22.00	62.00	40.00
Cooltek W2	24.00	69.75	45.75

* Thermals Explained

 

Despite using different components (Motherboard & CPU Cooler) while running the CPU thermal tests on the Cooltek W1, it proved itself to be surprising very good. I’ll admit I was expecting a similar story with the Cooltek W2, but sadly I was proven wrong. With a maximum average Core temperature of 69.75C and Delta of 45.75C, the Cooltek W2 showed itself to be the warmest ATX case we’ve tested so far with our current i5-4690K set-up at pcG. This isn’t to say it is bad of course, the CPU temperatures are still pretty good, I was just hoping to be blown away just like when reviewing the W1. 🙁

 

GPU RESULTS – Cooltek W2 with XFX AMD Radeon R9 290X DD Black Edition – STOCK (Core: 1050MHz/ Mem: 5000MHz)

Case	Ambient Temperature	Max GPU Temperature	Delta Temperature
Cooltek W1	24.00	74.00	50.00
BitFenix Colossus Venom Window	22.00	73.00	51.00
Cooler Master HAF XB	24.00	80.00	56.00
BitFenix Aegis	23.50	81.00	57.50
NZXT S340	22.00	80.00	58.00
BitFenix Prodigy M	22.50	83.00	60.50
Xigmatek Aquila	23.50	84.00	60.50
NZXT H440 Razer Edition	23.50	85.00	61.50
BitFenix Pandora	24.00	87.00	63.00
Cooltek W2	26.00	90.00	64.00
In Win 901	22.50	89.00	66.50
Fractal Design Core 1100	24.00	94.00	70.00
BitFenix Phenom	22.00	94.00	72.00
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX	23.00	95.00	72.00

 

Rather surprisingly and despite its aesthetic similarities, the Cooltek W2 really can’t compare to its little brother the Cooltek W1 when it comes to keeping our XFX Radeon R9 290X DD Black Edition test card cool. The maximum GPU temperature of 90.00C (64.00C Delta) shows that although the Graphics Card is within its 94.00C throttle limit, the Cooltek W2 would certainly benefit from one or two 120mm fans on the floor of the case feeding cool air directly into the GPU.

 

Acoustic Performance

With the fans set on their highest speed courtesy of the three speed manual fan control rather handily built into the back of the case, the Cooltek W2 produced a maximum 43dB of noise, which isn’t loud by any means, but can be lowered by setting the fan control to low and gaining us a drop of 5dB to a rather nice and quiet 38dB. One minor annoyance I did find with the case acoustics involved the 3.5″ drive rack. The rack itself might be fairly springy, but the lack of any form of anti-vibration dampening on the rack or during mounting means when your HDD starts to get a little busy you’ll certainly notice it.

 

Final Thoughts

 

We previously looked at the Cooltek W1 and were left blown away by its brilliance, but also slightly limited by its MITX form factor. Can Cooltek expand on this with its bigger brother the Cooltek W2?

The Cooltek W2 arrived at pcG in a rather plain brown cardboard box. The front of which displays an image of the case hidden inside, that in all honesty could be much better… Switching to the reverse of the box suddenly the imagery improves greatly, showing a large exploded technical drawing of the case in hand and pinpointing almost every single component and accessory used within it. With the lid pulled back, the W2 was found to be very well packaged inside a clear plastic bag and held in place by two hard foam blocks, whilst the case accessories were stowed within a small black cardboard box proudly displaying the Jonsbo name.

When unboxed, the Cooltek W2 is certainly a case to be admired. The satin black and brushed aluminium panels not only look stunning, but very well finished and meet up together perfectly. The case design clean and sleek, aesthetically the W2 simply oozes with class. Then by simply popping off the pin held side panels, we find a surprising amount of space for a case measuring 385(H)mm x 278(W)mm x 395(D)mm. We find plenty of space in the reverse chamber for an ATX PSU of up to 250mm in length, 3x 2.5″ storage drives, then either 2x 3.5″ drives or a 3.5″/5.25″ combo, made all the better for the huge expansive space left over for easy cable mismanagement. Then of course the main chamber offers plenty of space for even an XL-ATX Motherboard and Graphics Cards up to 320mm. The W2 may only allow for air CPU Coolers of a maximum height of 163mm, but with enough space for a 120mm radiator in the rear, 240mm radiator on the floor or even a 280mm radiator in the front, it would seem clear to me that the W2 would be ideal for an expansive AIO or custom water cooling.

Installing the pcG Test Rig into the Cooltek W2 also proved to be pretty straightforward. Because of the clever internal arrangement, all of test equipment fitted in rather easily and fairly quickly. With only a couple of minor issues, the first of which involved installation of the 8 pin CPU power cable (install prior to your Motherboard installation or it’ll be coming out again), the second being the rubber grommeted SATA cut-out could do with being either higher up or perhaps even longer allowing easier access to the Motherboard SATA sockets.

Where all the good work Cooltek have done with the W2 does comes undone a little is in the area of thermal performance. With our Intel i5-4690K overclocked to 4.0GHz, we found the maximum average Core temperature to be 69.75C (45.75C Delta) which to be fair isn’t really too bad and something I’d be happy to live with 24/7. The bigger problem is the maximum GPU temperature of 90.00C (64.00C Delta) for the XFX Radeon R9 290X DD Black Edition. Which whilst not quite at the throttle limit of 94.00C, does start to get a little on the loud side. An obvious remedy for this would of course be to utilize to two 120mm fan mounts on the floor of the case. Even the case acoustics aren’t bad, with the three speed fan control set to high we recorded a maximum noise of 43dB, which can easily be reduced to 38dB when set to its slowest speed.

The Cooltek W2 is undoubtedly a very well made case and aesthetically I personally love it. In fact there really isn’t a lot I don’t like about the Cooltek W2, but I do feel its thermal performance could be improved and you’ll be wanting to invest in one or two additional 120mm fans for the case floor to help keep your GPU cool.

 

Verdict

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Many thanks to Cooltek for providing this sample for review