Review: Deepcool Steam Castle

by Parm Mann on 25 July 2014, 12:00

Conclusion

Build quality is solid throughout, the smooth-rubber coating provides a quality look and feel, and we appreciate the fact that Deepcool is trying something a little different.

For £69.99, Deepcool's Steam Castle succeeds at offering PC builders something a little different to the norm. Styled with steampunk ambitions and designed with various high-performance components in mind, the chassis will turn heads and can be used to put together a powerful mini- or micro-ATX build.

The Steam Castle is the first Deepcool chassis to appear on our radar, and for the most part, we've come away pleasantly surprised. Build quality is solid throughout, the smooth-rubber coating provides a quality look and feel, and we appreciate the fact that Deepcool is trying something a little different.

That said, there are a few rookie mistakes in evidence here. Side panels with no handles are an obvious oversight, as is a front 3.5in bay with no external access, and the jumble of cables attached to the side I/O panel make the build process more arduous than it ought to have been.

None of these issues should be considered deal-breakers, however, and if you're a fan of the way it looks or a builder looking for low-cost modding opportunities, the Steam Castle offers performance potential in a reasonably compact and eye-catching frame.

The Good

Quirky steampunk-esque aesthetics
Room for potent mini- or micro-ATX builds
Built-in fan controller and LED lighting
Available in a choice of colours
Total of six storage bays
Solid build quality

The Bad

Side panels have no handles
Access to front 3.5in bay is blocked
I/O panel cabling is very awkward

HEXUS.awards

Deepcool Steam Castle

HEXUS.where2buy*

TBC.

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It certainly won't be to everyone's taste but I like it, I always feel there are far too many boring square boxes out there and not enough chances are taken design wise.

I still fail to see any “steampunk” in that case, I don't think it looks bad, just don't see any “steampunk” there, Deepcool seems to of just used the name in the marketing as it's “cool” atm, that or their designer just heard the cool term without the first idea of what it meant.

I watched Bill Owen's review/look at this case on youtube, they pulled up a couple of points you seem to of missed.
Although you cannot really use psu's longer than 160mm, it becomes far worse if you want a modular psu, then even a standard 140mm deep psu becomes tricky.
Allot of this could of been alleviated by simply swapping the psu and 2.5“ cage positions over, allowing the majority of the cables to clear the 3.5” cage that's in the way.
To remove the 2.5" cage you have to get the bottom bezel off and to do that you have to peel off 3 of the rubber feet as they hid the 3 screws that hold the bottom bezel on.

I'm off the opinion that that is truly ugly!

It's not crying “steampunk” to me either. When I saw the first picture, I thought “Mehh, maybe like an engine, sort of thing?”, but the more I've seen it, the more I think it's just off-base. A string of LEDs running down the little grovves and you get away with cyberpunk, perhaps (modders at the ready!)?

I can't help but feel that, given the size of the case, there shouldn't be any clearance issues for anything. It's too “big” to be so constrained (Pob255's PSU comments in particular).

Deepcool need to go back to the drawing board on this one. For what fundamentally looks like a wider Bitfenix Prodigy with some bling on the roof, they've missed the mark.

On a side-note, can we get some thermal testing done in the smaller chassis that you review? A case can look as good (or otherwise) as it wants, but if its cooling ability is naff, it can stay on the shelf.

I'm really not into the whole “steampunk” thing at all, but I do quite like the look of this case. That said, the IO panel cabling is a bit… meh.