Cougar QBX Case Review

Overview

 

We’ve taken a look at quite a lot of ITX Cases over the last year, and the normal trend sees them getting smaller and smaller. Well I think the next case is quite possibly the smallest of them all, it’s also from one of the best upcoming peripheral manufacturers that I know of! What we have here is the Cougar QBX an ITX Small Form Factor (SFF) case with the following diminutive dimensions: 178 x 291 x 384 (mm).

The Cougar QBX, rather unusually supports a slim ODD only it also supports up to four 2.5″/SSDs and or one HDD, has two Front Panel USB 3.0 ports, support for CPU Coolers with a maximum height of 105mm, Graphics Cards with a length of 350mm and PS2/ATX Power Supplies with a length of 140mm. In addition to this the case comes equipped with a single 90mm fan, but has support for seven fans in total (x5 120mm, x1 90mm (fitted) & x1 80mm) as well as support for a 240mm radiator with a single 120mm fan or a 120mm radiator with 120mm fan.

 

 

 

It would appear that the full colour box is back, which is nice to see, no plain brown cardboard box for the Cougar QBX! The predominately black box shows a large image of the QBX on the front along with a little blurb, but what’s important is that Cougar are pushing the QBX as a Gaming case (we shall see!). We also find the tag line ‘Ultra-Compact Pro Gaming Mini-ITX Case’ lower left, along with Stylish Design, Compact and Powerful, The Market’s No1 in Mini-ITX cooling (really!?) and Superior Expandability in the lower right. It is here that Cougar also highlights the 350mm long Graphics Card support, Superior Cooling and the fact tat the QBX will accept a regular PS2/ATX Power Supply (of sorts!).

Looking at the back of the box goes on to show another image of the Cougar QBX using numerous other images to help to highlight various aspects of the case. The lower section further highlights and lists the Cougar QBX’s features and specifications (see Specifications/Features below).

 

 

The left side of the colourful box seems to suggest that the QBX may be used as a living room PC, which seems to make sense. The case dimensions are also provided alongside some images of the case itself. Here again we see Cougar highlighting the Graphics Card length and Power Supply length support.

On the top of the box there’s an ATTENTION notice warning us about the ODD suport – supports only slim ODD (Slot Loading Slim ODD) and an IMPORTANT notice informing us that the chosen Power Supply for the QBX (must not only be 140mm or shorter), but the power input plug must also be orientated in a particular way! Really? This is a very important point and will be discussed in-depth later in this review in the Hardware Installation section…

Turning our attention to the right side of the box we see Cougar promoting the Superior Cooling of the QBX by way of the support for up to seven fans, please note though it only comes with one 90mm fan pre-installed. There’s also various images showing us how the QBX can be cooled via additional fans and how a radiator 240/120mm can be added.

 

 

On opening the box we see that the QBX case is nicely protected within a soft foam bag and held in place with hard polystyrene blocks. On the top of the case we also find a small cardboard accessories box.

Within the box there’s a basic user guide (that’s actually just a very informative Assembly Drawing), an 80mm dust filter and a bag of screws and cable ties etc.

At the time of review, the Cougar QBX is available from Overclockers UK for approximately £35 and comes with a 1 year warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Cougar

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

 

It’s another wow moment here at pcG as when you lay your eyes on the Cougar QBX for the first time you realise how small this little case really is. It looks pretty good too, it doesn’t shout Gamer but it has a touch of class about it, it’s simple yet elegant and it appears to be well made too! If this case is easy enough to install into and it can keep our toasty Graphics Card cool then Cougar should have a sure fire winner on its hands…

 

 

Both the left side and the right side of the Cougar QBX are identical, a polycarbonate (plastic) panel with a large steel mesh grill in the centre. Each panel slides into position and is secured by way of two thumb screws.

 

 

Looking at the top of the QBX we can see that it is dominated by a brushed aluminium look plastic panel. The panel can also be slid approximately 12mm to the rear, this allows access to the ODD drive (slot type), if fitted.

The bottom of the case features two large strips of plastic with rubber feet in each corner, this helps to raise the case around 10mm from the desk surface. There’s also a removable fan filter in the middle that can be removed for cleaned by sliding it backwards. The plastic strips can also be removed by way of four screws allowing x2 120mm fans to be added to the base of the case, should you wish.

 

 

Looking at the front of the QBX we see another front plastic panel (with brushed aluminium styling) similar to the top, there’s also a stick-on silver Cougar logo near the bottom.

Built into the right side of the front panel we have the main case controls and IO. This consists of a power button with LED (white), storage activity LED (white), x2 USB 3.0 ports and audio ports (headphone/microphone).

The back of the Cougar QBX features an inbuilt power socket (connects to PSU via internal cable) in the top right, followed by a 90mm exhaust fan below. To the left of this we have the main motherboard I/O shield cut-out and below this there are two PCI brackets for support for up to one dual slot Graphics Card.

 

 

Removing the left side panel allows us to see inside, hold on a minute, what’s that? That folks is a removable bracket that can house either a couple of 2.5″/SSDs or a single HDD on the reverse side, in addition to this there’s also a cut-out for a 120mm fan. The bracket can be removed by unscrewing just three screws. I will cover this bracket a little more further down in the review…

Removing the right side panel reveals the motherboard back panel area with the large CPU cut-out on the right, the mesh area to the left of this is actually where the Power Supply lives! Near the bottom we see various cable management holes and also a single 2.5″/SSD drive bracket build into the chassis. There’s actually some cable management room here too, it not a lot of depth (around 10mm) but it might just be enough, there’s even a few cable management tie-down points dotted around also!

 

 

Removing that left side bracket allows us a better look inside of the Cougar QBX. You can now see the pre-installed 90mm exhaust fan, with its multi coloured cables (unfortunately). At the top we can see the main power cabling trailing away for the socket on the back, as well as the all black Front Panel cables near the front of the case. In the front you can see a grill where it’s possible to add another 80mm fan, just above that we find another 2.5″/SSD mount. In the base of the QBX there’s another larger grill area where a further two 120mm fans can be added. There’s also a bracket in the roof to aide in the fitment of x2 120mm fans or a 240mm radiator, but unfortunately there’s only room for one fan.

The bracket itself (remove 3 screws & slide backwards) also has support for a single 120mm fan, 120mm radiator and fan or a 240mm radiator with a single fan. Within the body of the bracket there’s also space for a 3.5″/HDD and on the there side of this further support for x2 2.5″/SSDs.

 

 

The top panel can also be removed by way of two screws at the back, the panel can the be slid backwards and lifted off! Here now you can attached x2 120mm fans, by screwing through the roof of the case and into the fan/s below.

At this point I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve seen so far with the Cougar QBX. It’s a well made case and it would appear that the internal layout has been given a good bit of thought. The fact that you could have seven fans in this tiny ITX case is, in itself astonishing. The question and the concern that I have is, what’s the build going to be like and what’s the resultant thermals going to be like? Well lets crack on and find out shall we… 😉

 

Hardware Installation

 

Test Rig Setup

Case	Cougar QBX	Power Supply	Corsair CXM 500W Modular PSU (140mm long)
Motherboard	MSI Z97I Gaming AC	CPU	Intel Core i5-4690K
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-U9S	RAM	HyperX Savage 2400MHz 8GB Kit
Graphics Card	XFX Black DD R9 290X Back Edition	SSD	HyperX Fury 120GB

 

IMPORTANT! That’s what it states on the top of the box, and it highlights that the power plug on your chosen PSU had to be at a specific orientation! So when I set about finding a PSU with a maximum length of 140mm and with a specific PSU power socket orientation an failed, I started to get a little concerned! It’s difficult meeting the maximum length requirement, but achieving both seemed to be basically impossible. At first I thought that I may have to abandon the build…

But first I thought I would see what all the fuss was about, why did this case call for such specifics. Well it’s because of the the fact that the case comes with a power socket pre-installed in the back of the case and this in turn connects to the PSU. The issue is that if your socket is up the wrong way (or not vertical) the plug has to be rotated 180 degrees to make it fit. This in turn means that you end up with a large curved section of power cable looped near the front of the case, it is this loop that becomes a tight fit!

But it’s nowhere near as bad as maybe Cougar are suggesting as it will fit with a little persuasion. Our test Corsair CXM 500W Modular PSU (140mm long) fitted without real issue. In fact if you attach the cable to the PSU first then fit the PSU top the case, it’s really quite easy. Not too sure now what all the fuss was about! 😉

 

 

With the Power Supply finally installed and cable attached and held in position by way of the usual four screws it was time to turn my attention to the motherboard assembly. In this case, as is the norm for our ITX builds this consisted of an MSI Z87I GAMING AC motherboard, an Intel Core i5-4690K CPU, a Noctua NH-U9S CPU Cooler and a pair of HyperX Savage 2400MHz RAM modules.

After this was secured to the QBX’s pre-installed stand-offs by way of just four screws it was time to think about cabling, before the task got out of hand! This was something that I was not looking forward to…

 

 

Actually the cabling of the main power cables (24-pin & 8-pin) was easier than one would think. There’s actually more cable management room at the back of the Cougar QBX than it first seems. I was easily able to route both cables from the PSU, around the back of the case and through a cable management hole and onto the motherboard. The excess cabling was lost in the spacious area just below the PSU in the front corner of the case. Well that’s two cables down, now what about the other case cables, USB 3.0, Front Panel etc?

Although it might look a little messy in the image below right, the task itself was again relatively straightforward. The USB 3.0, HD Audio and Front Panel cables were all fed through the same holes, with the Front Panel cable being just long enough (phew!), this is mainly due to the poor inbound header position on the MSI motherboard.

 

 

As you can see from the two images below, the area around that main cable management cut-out was beginning to look a little busy, but so far so good. The only worry now is are we going to have room for our SATA cabling, as the headers are looking a little obscured?

 

 

To be honest, again it was far less troublesome than I thought. Our HyperX Fury SSD was fitted to the bracket on the back of the case and the SATA power cable was ran through the same lower right cable management hole and across to the drive. The SATA lead itself was simply run from the drive and looped into the upper left cable management hole along with all of the other cables. I admit it’s not elegant but considering the size of the case, I think we’re doing well at this point.

The issue is likely to become the big bundle of cables now accumulating in the bottom right corner, below the PSU. An issue because the final part of the jigsaw will be to fit the rather long (295mm) XFX R9 290X DD Black Edition Graphics Card, and its associated cabling…

OK, so it was a little tight and yes I had to rearrange some of that cabling, but it fits, woohoo! With the Graphics Card cabled up using the required cable and connections it was time to see if this baby was going to fire up!?

 

 

Overall I have to say that the build was far better than I would have ever thought, there’s more room in the Cougar QBX that you could image, in fact it seems a little Tardis like in my mind! It’s almost that the case has been designed with all of this in mind, in fact the design and the attention to detail here is really what has made this such an easy and enjoyable build!

 

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 MSI’s OC Genie.

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 (ONEin the case of the Cougar QBX) and the CPU Cooler (Noctua NH-U9S) 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 – Cougar QBX with Noctua NH-U9S and Intel i5-4690K @ 4.0GHz

Case	Ambient Temperature	Max CPU Temperature (core average)	Delta Temperature
Cooltek W1	22.50	63.50	41.00
In Win D-Frame Mini	24.00	69.25	45.25
BitFenix Pandora	24.00	76.00	52.00
Cougar QBX	26.00	80.50	54.25
Fractal Design Core 1100	22.50	79.25	56.75
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX	23.00	78.75	55.75
In Win 901	23.00	79.50	56.50

* Thermals Explained

 

Well in our overclocked 4.0GHz test (at 1.2v) the Cougar QBX places right in the middle of all of the other ITX cases tested, with a Delta of 54.25 degrees Celsius. Not bad for such a small case and perfectly good enough for an overclock and everyday Gaming. Of course it is possible to fit another six fans in this case, so I guess the thermals are only likely to improve…

 

GPU RESULTS – Cougar QBX with XFX Radeon R9 290X DD Black Edition

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
In Win D-Frame Mini	24.00	85.00	61.00
BitFenix Pandora	24.00	87.00	63.00
In Win 901	22.50	89.00	66.50
Cougar QBX	26.00	94.00	68.00
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

 

While the CPU Cooling was good, the Graphics Card cooling was nothing short of poor! Which is a shame, the QBX could not stop our toasty XFX R9 290X DD Black Edition card thermally throttling at approx 90 degrees within 5 minutes of starting our Unigine Heaven test! This I found a little surprising, as I thought that there was enough access to cool air at the base of the case to keep it cool, but I was proven wrong! But of course as we mentioned in the CPU cooling results, another six fans can be added to the QBX, two of them sit right beneath the GPU, and I thought that it would be rude not to at least add a couple to test it out, so I did… 😉

 

 

With x2 1200RPM Cooler Master fans added and the Graphics Card re-installed, that is in fact so close to the fans it’s basically touching. I fired up the Test Rig and was greeted with a scraping/scuffing sound! I immediately (thought) that I knew what it was, the GPU fans scraping on the newly installed fans, but no it wasn’t! It was actually the x2 Cooler Master fans scraping on the bottom of the chassis! This was more the fan bearing’s fault than the fan as there’s a lot of play in the bearing allowing the fan to move down (with gravity) and touch the base of the case slightly. I used some rubber washer spacers to move the fans away (about 1mm) from the chassis, and this worked perfectly well!

Further testing then did produce better thermals, with the Graphics Card only throttling after around 15mins, but really it would seem that the QBX may not be the case for our hot potato of a Graphics Card the 290X!

In fact probably any other Graphics Card will be fine, any of the Nvidia based Blower style (aka Titan style) cards will be fine, meaning that one of these could well be the perfect choice!

 

Acoustic Performance

As there is only one fan in the Cougar QBX, the acoustics were always likely to be good, and they were. With the Cougar QBX’s single 90mm fan not producing enough noise to really register on our test equipment with the GPU at idle and the CPU fan unplugged. The end result was around 30dBA.

 

Final Thoughts

 

What a great little ITX case is the words that come to mind when I think about the Cougar QBX. No it’s not the coolest case we’ve come across, but the potential to house an extremely powerful Gaming Rig is, you just might need to add a couple of fans…

The Cougar QBX came to pcG in a smart brightly coloured (orange mmh!) box, nice as it’s a break from the regular brown cardboard boxes that we’ve become so used to! The case was also well protected inside a soft foam cloth bag and supported by two hard polystyrene blocks.

Once out of the box I was soon marvelling over the Small Form Factor (SFF) and its dinky size. I’m sure the cases that we are looking at are getting smaller and smaller, and I’m sure this is the smallest yet! It’s well built too and looks like no other case that I have seen, I once again find myself taking my hat off to Cougar for coming up with what would appear to be their own design and not just modifying an OEM design.

There’s a lot of features and support for various hardware inside the QBX too (but where you ask!), in fact earlier in my review I likened its interior to that of the Tardis! There’s support for a regular ATX/PS2 Power Supply (with some caveats, read main review), support for CPU Coolers with a maximum height of 105mm, Graphics Cards up to a massive 350mm and support for up to seven fans! There’s even support for a 240mm radiator (albeit with a single fan) or a 120mm radiator and fan, it really is impressive stuff! But what’s that all important build like James, is it a case that will have you tearing your hair out during the install?

Well at the start there was an issue regarding the Power Supply, as on the top of the box Cougar calls for a specific orientation of the PSU’s power socket, weird eh!? And tracking down a PSU with a maximum length of 140mm and having the correct orientation was nigh on impossible! So what did I do, well I just chose to ignore the warning and carried on with our regular (for ITX builds) PSU the Corsair CX 500M. And I got way with it too, so I’m not too sure what all the fuss was about (see main review for more detail)… 😉

The installation was also far easier than I would have ever thought, not only did the Cougar QBX swallow the components with ease, it also managed to swallow most of the cabling and even keep most if it out of sight. There’s actually just enough room behind the motherboard area to hide most of the cabling even the large 24-pin power cable. There’s even four 2.5″/SSD mounts within the case, although two are on the bracket that I decided not to use!

So with the build complete I went about looking at the case’s thermals, I wasn’t expecting much as interior space is low, and there’s only one fan pre-installed and that’s only 90mm! CPU cooling performance placed the Cougar QBX bang slap in the middle of of our results grid, with a Delta of 54.25 in our overclocked 4.0GHz Prime95 test. And that’s more than adequate for an everyday Gaming PC, even more impressive is that you could add another six fans if you wanted to!

Graphics Card cooling though was nothing short of poor, the Cougar QBX failed to tame our hot potato the XFX R9 290X DD Black Edition, although to be fair numerous cases have also failed this test before. But as we could easily add more fans (right below the GPU), so I decided to see what the improvement would be. Now while the improvement was undeniably there, the card still ended up throttling at 94 degrees, just that much later… To be fair even with another fan or two, I think the QBX would still struggle, it’s simply just too small a case for such a hot card. If you were to be using any other card, it would likely be fine. In fact one of Nvidia’s blower style cards (Titan style) would likely be the perfect answer. Therefore (with the right GPU) the Cougar QBX could easily house a very powerful Gaming PC.

I have really enjoyed my time with the Cougar QBX, it’s a totally unique little chassis, it looks good, it’s really well made and uses quality materials. The options it presents (for both air and water) are far better than you would imagine, and the fact that this can all be yours for £35, I think is simply brilliant!

 

Verdict

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Many thanks to Cougar for providing this sample for review