Legit Reviews

Case Labs MAGNUM M8 Case Review

Whenever you look for a new case to hold your new awesome build do you always say "I wish it had..." but live with it anyway? Case Labs, a new vendor, thinks they have the last case you will EVER buy! Legit Reviews checks out this claim and runs the Magnum M8 through its paces. This is one case review that you don't want to miss!

This case as been awe inspiring since it hit our dock given the number of options and the sheer size of the MAGNUM M8. Case Labs obviously put a lot of time into the design and listened to a lot of customer feedback and then combined that with the skill and tools to make this work of art. If you made us pick the thing we liked most about the MAGNUM M8 it would simply be options. We have never seen a case that gives you this level of flexibility both for your current build and most likely for many after.

Article Title: Case Labs MAGNUM M8 Case Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1789/1/

I think Mountain Mods has just been dethroned!

This is awesome! I love it!

Skippman wrote:I think Mountain Mods has just been dethroned!

A-men to that. I have to say the pictures and words do nothing to describe how well this case is built. Once you get your hands on one of these Case Labs cases you look at your old case and think "what was a thinking, what a POS"

I read a funny comment on one of the enthusiast boards where a guy was saying he was selling his M8 and his water cooling gear he installed in it. One of the posters asked why because he had raved about the case and how easy it was to build. His response "This case is too uber, there is nothing that needs modding and I like to cut stuff so I am going to get a lesser case and mod the heck out of it. Never thought I would get a case that didn't need modding!"

-Bill

Don't get me wrong, I still think the Corsair 700/800 series is the best you can get for a standard tower. But if you're going to the extreme, this looks to be a beast!

Skippman wrote:Don't get me wrong, I still think the Corsair 700/800 series is the best you can get for a standard tower. But if you're going to the extreme, this looks to be a beast!

Funny you say that as the 700D is currently my water cooled tower, but all the guts are going to find their nice roomy new home in this M8.




Case Labs is actually working on a single width tower style case that supports all the modularity of the rest of their line. If you can deal with the price, it will probably be an amazing case. I think if you are trying to stay in a sub $300 budget, the Corsair 800D is hard to beat for water cooling but not the best for airflow if you are sticking with air only.

That looks like a sweet ass case! My only gripe is the cost of all the little addons! I definitely would love to find a case that can nicely house my 2x Thermochill 120.3 radiators, but this one is a wee bit out of my ballpark when it comes to cost.

Agree with the issues that need to be fixed in the review. And $20 for the front panel? Wow...
Other than that though it's a nice enough case, though not really worth the price considering they nickle and dime you for extras that come standard on other cases.

My main issue though is the case only has 8 slots on the back for PCI/e cards. I thought maybe since this wasn't their largest case, the other - bigger - cases might have more. They don't. 8 is all you get.
I have an MSI Big Bang Marshal motherboard which requires a minimum of 9 slots, which my HAF X case nicely provides. If pushed, i could need 10 slots. At the moment, i have decommissioned that beast because i thought i was moving to Australia for a bit, but it is, without a doubt, an enthusiast PC, which is supposed to be the target of these Case Labs cases. Sorry, but fail. Us enthusiasts need slots.

Especially with the Socket 2011 supporting more PCIe lanes than ever before, you can bet there will be more mobos with 8 PCIe slots, or more.

*It should be pointed out that on the MSI Big Bang Marshal, the first slot on the mobo coincides with the 2nd slot on the case due to the space taken up by the chipset heatsinks, thus requiring a 9 slot case. A dual-slot card in the 8th mobo slot will require 10 case slots(recommended for folders, not gamers). This will be much more common in the coming months.

What you are looking for is the M10 here, TH10, or MX10 versions. As I said this is the smallest case and yes, 8 slot but they have 10 slot cases and one for the SR-2 even. I asked Jim about the $20.00 I/O port and he responded that due to his boutique status things like I/O ports are very expensive for small quantities so the choice was either charge $399.00 and make front I/O standard or lower the starting price to $379.00 and make it a $20.00 option. Other case makers that do 1000's of cases a week buy in bulk so their cost per case is only a few bucks for those ports.

That is the only "nickel & dime" item if you will. The vast majority of the for cost items are options that are unavailable on any other case. What other case has front 360 rad support without modding, or top and bottom 360mm ports standard. The fit and finish on this case is a leap above other cases and it is powder coated aluminum which is far superior to any standard painted steel chassis.

You should go to the case lab store and see all the options for yourself. I can say I can't move out of my 700D fast enough to use this M8 for my daily rig.

You're mistaken actually.

The M10, MH10, T10, & TH10 all come with 10 PCI slots on the motherboard tray.

They also have the TX10 & STH10 in the works which will have 10 PCIe slots and be able to house the SR-2 or SR-3 motherboards, as well as the longest XL-ATX motherboards.

NAiLs wrote:That looks like a sweet ass case! My only gripe is the cost of all the little addons! I definitely would love to find a case that can nicely house my 2x Thermochill 120.3 radiators, but this one is a wee bit out of my ballpark when it comes to cost.

That is probably the #1 problem with perception of this case that is is priced out of the reach of most people. However, like I said in the review, it IS probably the last case you will ever buy so if you take the $400.00 or so over say 5 years of use it is $80 / year. This case is obviously not for someone looking for a $75.00 budget case, but if you are considering something that can handle a 360 rad like an 800D which is $200.00 or something that is actually aluminum like the Lian Li PC-P80B which is anywhere from $359.00 - $500.00 + for the limited editions, the M8 is right in that price range with WAY more features and arguably better build quality.

As a water cooler myself I can say this is the ultimate water coolers case. I think the only water cooling option I would have liked to be included in some way is a few bits power G1/4 pass through ports on the center board but those are easy enough to mod myself

Bhench wrote:

NAiLs wrote:That looks like a sweet ass case! My only gripe is the cost of all the little addons! I definitely would love to find a case that can nicely house my 2x Thermochill 120.3 radiators, but this one is a wee bit out of my ballpark when it comes to cost.

That is probably the #1 problem with perception of this case that is is priced out of the reach of most people. However, like I said in the review, it IS probably the last case you will ever buy so if you take the $400.00 or so over say 5 years of use it is $80 / year. This case is obviously not for someone looking for a $75.00 budget case, but if you are considering something that can handle a 360 rad like an 800D which is $200.00 or something that is actually aluminum like the Lian Li PC-P80B which is anywhere from $359.00 - $500.00 + for the limited editions, the M8 is right in that price range with WAY more features and arguably better build quality.

As a water cooler myself I can say this is the ultimate water coolers case. I think the only water cooling option I would have liked to be included in some way is a few bits power G1/4 pass through ports on the center board but those are easy enough to mod myself

I agree that the price is consistant with the status level of the case. This is up there with things like Mountian Mods who routinely charges upwards of $500 for many of their cases of this size. I would like to have seen the inclusion of the I/O bay as well, but I understand it from a cost saving measure. Fact of the matter is if you're buy this case a $20 part won't even be a drop in your budget. Needless to say, it's beyond MY budget. But I can apprecaite it for what it is.

Considering it's a quality all-aluminum case made in USA and not some mass-manufactured case from a low cost country of origin I think the price is not unreasonable.

I'd love to see a mid-tower from them.

cyberneticimplant wrote:Considering it's a quality all-aluminum case made in USA and not some mass-manufactured case from a low cost country of origin I think the price is not unreasonable.

I'd love to see a mid-tower from them.

Totally agree with both of your comments

Bhench wrote:What you are looking for is the M10 here, TH10, or MX10 versions. As I said this is the smallest case and yes, 8 slot but they have 10 slot cases and one for the SR-2 even. I asked Jim about the $20.00 I/O port and he responded that due to his boutique status things like I/O ports are very expensive for small quantities so the choice was either charge $399.00 and make front I/O standard or lower the starting price to $379.00 and make it a $20.00 option. Other case makers that do 1000's of cases a week buy in bulk so their cost per case is only a few bucks for those ports.

You are correct and i retract my gripe lol

I had gone to the site before i made that post and looked at the more expensive cases. In the pictures, usually the one before the last, they show a backplate with only 8 slots in it, however reading the details, it does say it has 10. Also if you look through the case at some of the first group of photos, you can see 10 slots (or at least more than 8 ). Fair enough

Not exactly the prettiest case but all that is sacrificed for sheer options and the ability to mount almost anything.

You can get custom powder coating if you don't like black or white. If you are looking for crazy angles and plastic add ons then the NZXT Phantom might be more your speed.


In the end your right, amazing amount of options.

What a beautiful case, just a little too pricey for my needs

It is pricey, but given a Corsair 800D is going from ~$285.00 this isn't too much above that with a ton more options. I am almost done building it out with my water cooling loop and will post it up when I am done.

It has an XSPC RX360 and Swiftech MCR-360 radiators in the roof with Gentle Typhoon AP-15's in pull to an EK multi-option reservoir into a MCP-655 pump with EK v2 Top out to a Koolance VID-NX580 and then a EK Supreme HF full nickel block. And I could add more radiators if I wanted but dual 360's is total overkill already.

Stay tuned for an update.

-bill

I'm selling my m8 and pedestal