Can you guess what this PC case is, then? Any ideas? With that smart glass panel at the front and another covering an entire side, you could be forgiven for thinking this is another iteration of Lian Li’s amazingly gorgeous O11 Dynamic. Well, it’s not. Of course, once someone somewhere comes up with a classic, the imitations will always be close behind.
This one belongs to GameMax – it is from their fresh Infinity range and it is much much cheaper than the O11 Dynamics, but with anything that’s trying to take inspiration from something so perfect, there are a few problems that have slipped through the QC, but I must say that there is one major improvement that Gamemax have included on the Infniity case here – more on those in a moment though. Let’s take a quick look at pricing first, as that can be the most important factor when it comes to buying a case new from a proper retailer.
The new Evo version of the Lian Li O11 can hit an eye-watering £190 in the UK at the time of recording this, and the more normal version will still hit around the £140 mark. This Infinity though from GameMax costs under £70 which is a colossal saving for something that looks so similar. But is it worth it? Well, yes it is, but it is not without some problems that are kind of typical with a new design.
The tooling in the factory is just off when it comes to a couple of aspects. Don’t get me wrong at this stage — we love this case but the second generation should hopefully iron out a couple of dodgy measurements. This is as good a time as any to get all the glitches out in the open. My Dad actually built this one for one of his clients, so we could learn from experience what the Gamemax Infinity has to offer.
So, glitch number one – if you use a radiator vertically as we have here towards the side of the case, the gap between the edge of the radiator and the flimsy rubber grommets is so small, that it’s almost impossible to feed cables through, especially the 24-pin motherboard cable. And it’s not as if you could move it over a bit to make some space either. The left side of the radiator is out of range of any metalwork to screw it to. We haven’t screwed it to anything in our build here. Not that it matters, it’s not going to go anywhere. We just hope that this can be fixed for when GameMax releases its next iteration.
Glitch 2 – and this is not really a bad one, and just something that was picked up after having built a good number of PCs in o11 Dynamics. In the Lian Li o11 cases we’ve seen, the motherboard tray covers up access to part of the CPU backplate making any swap-outs a pain as the motherboard has to be unscrewed. In this Infinity, there is a power supply in the way thanks to some novel positioning. But that can be overcome by removing the four PSU screws and dropping it slightly out of the way.
And that brings us to the best by far design point of the Infinity. Thanks to that odd power supply position, there is literally a massive area underneath it where literally all the cables at the back can be sensibly stowed away. And as a bonus, there’s a metal plate that can cover your rats’ nests so when you open up the rear of the case, it at least looks nice and neat. My Dad, looking at this attempt doesn’t care much for cable management, but I will say he tends to swap out parts on a pretty regular basis, and as no one sees it behind a solid steel panel, what’s the point?
Anyway, this box shape is brilliant for stashing away the included six-port RGB hubs that take care of power and lighting, making wiring so simple. This PC case from GameMax comes with that hub, a remote control, and six RGB fans. Our fans arrived separate from the case though. Not sure if this is how it’s done with its retail units as this was supplied by GameMax for the sake of this review, but it does mean my Dad could install them where he felt was best and the result is what you see here.
And here comes Glitch 3 — having three fans across the bottom like this means you have to remove the case feet to install all four fan screws for the fans at the far ends of the case which is pretty bizarre if you ask me and something I’ve not actually had to do on a PC case before.
There are plenty of cutouts to feed cables through, though the grommets included are a massive pain to feed cables through with the grommets becoming unattached. I removed them in the end as they just got on my nerves, and they didn’t make any difference at all to the overall build aesthetic. There is also a tremendous amount of space at the top of the case and it can strip down just like the Lian Li Dynamic and goes back together easily enough. I did notice however that there are no captive screws on the top and side panel, so make sure you take care when opening up the case. I’ve dropped these pretty much every time as I’m so used to my Lian Li o11 Dynamic.
And just to be completely transparent about the parts we used for a quick temperature test, the PC is built on top of the Gigabyte Z590 Gaming X motherboard, using an Intel I7-10700. The CPU is being cooled by a Corsair H100X 240mm cooler with two fans, and it’s got an EVGA FTW3 3060-TI in the PC too. For storage, we’ve gone with a Kingston PCIe 4.0 M.2 drive and the PSU is again by EVGA and it’s their 600-watt 80 Plus Certified power supply. Hardware monitor during a 10-minute single-core test saw the CPU hit a high of 64 degrees, while a multi-core test for 10 minutes saw a max temperature of 82 degrees. Of course, this is highly reliant on the cooler being used, but the fans have been set up with intakes on the bottom and side for the cooler and then vented out the rear. There are no fans on the top as we were only provided with six fans with the case, but if you did want to vent hot air from the top of the case, this is entirely possible too, you’ll just need to purchase a few extra fans.
Now for all you number fans, some general specs about this case which comes in black and white. The chassis is made from 0.8 to 1.5mm steel making it surprisingly light at under 8kg and there are those two tempered glass sides. It takes the usual motherboard sizes, ITX, micro ATX, and ATX though the former might look a bit silly in such a big space. On top are the power switch, headphones, and USB 3.0 Type-A but no reset switch. You can fit four 2.5-inch SSDs on that removable box cover which is a nice use of space and keeps the wiring clutter down once more.
There are seven expansion slots covered that snap out. And you don’t have to fight them to get them out, which is nice. There are up to 10 positions for 120mm fans. Three on top, three on the bottom, one on the back, and three vertically on the interior panel. The maximum radiator size on an AIO cooler is 360mm and can be positioned at the top, though vertically you can fit up to 240mm because of the fan space limitation. Graphics cards can stretch to 360mm and CPU coolers are limited in height to 170mm for those of you using more traditional radiator and fan coolers. Overall the chassis is 420mm deep, 272mm wide, and 399mm tall. The GameMax Infinity is an incredible case overall, and something we enjoyed building in. The cost is pretty good too, and if you want something that looks decent, and has enough space to really make things nice and neat with cables, then this is definitely a great option to go for. For more information, head over to the GameMax website.
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