MGE Sidewinder: A Look at a Gaming Chassis

Final Thought

Is the Sidewinder a case worth purchasing? Let's take a look at how this chassis performed against our standards. In our thermal benchmarks, it performed a few degrees cooler than the similarly designed Enermax Sea Hawk, mainly due to the inclusion of a few 80mm fans on the left side panel. Again, the Sidewinder has a greater potential to outperform cases like Thermaltake's Tsunami Dream and SilverStone's Temjin 5 if a couple more 80mm fans are added to the back of the chassis.

Adding a few more fans, however, will increase the sound levels produced. With three 80mm fans, the Sidewinder produced sound levels at about 47dBA. Adding more fans would likely increase this level into the 50-60dBA range. Do we add more fans to decrease component temperatures by a few degrees or do we accept component temperatures at their current levels and live with a much quieter case? It is obvious that we would go with a case that produces a lower level of sound than cutting a few degrees of heat dissipation.

The Sidewinder is priced at about $55 at most retailers, and that includes the V-Power 400W power supply, compared to the Enermax Sea Hawk, which has the same basic design and sells for about the same price without a power supply. The Sidewinder design is ridden with sharp edges because of its steel construction; and it is sometimes difficult to work with the expansion slots and drive bays, since screws are required to mount components. Even the side panels are held on by simple Philips head screws, which put the Sidewinder in the average section of our charts. We wouldn't exactly say this case is the worst of all, though. For its selling price, we give it an average rating and recommend it for novice users.