A solid effort, but let down by a confused
interior
Unboxing Enermax’s Ostrog (which is Russian
for ‘fortress’, and also the name of a small village in Slovenia - we assume
the case is named after the former), it looks and feels like a much more
expensive case than its $66 price tag would lead you to believe.
Enermax
Ostrog
There’s plenty of gear behind the guise
too, as the Ostrog boasts a pair of 120/140mm fan mounts in the roof, a 120mm
mount to the rear, a 120mm mount in the floor, a 120mm mount in the front, and
both an 80/120mm and 120mm mount in the side-panel window itself. Just a single
rear 120mm fan is included as standard, although there’s certainly a lot of
room to expand. Enermax also includes a pair of excellent external dust filters
for you to attach wherever you fit intake fans, alongside a slot-loaded external
PSU filter.
There’s
plenty of gear behind the guise too, as the Ostrog boasts a pair of 120/140mm
fan mounts in the roof, a 120mm mount to the rear, a 120mm mount in the floor,
a 120mm mount in the front, and both an 80/120mm and 120mm mount in the
side-panel window itself.
Sadly, the interior is rather a mess,
thanks to an inconsistent approach to drive bays. The Ostrog has three
different ways of mounting 3.5in drives: a lower tool-free cage holds two
drives; a middle removable cage holds three drives using mount rails; and a
removable cage sports a pair of external 3.5in mounts, again using tool-free
clips. The quality of the fittings varies too; the rail mounts are firm but the
tool-free clips and external mount cage are decidedly wobbly. There are four
5.25in drive bays too, although one is occupied by a 5.25-to-2.5in adaptor for
SSDs.
Enermax
also includes a pair of excellent external dust filters for you to attach wherever
you fit intake fans, alongside a slot-loaded external PSU filter.
There’s a fair amount of cable-routeing
space, although the 12mm of room can make sliding on the side panel a squeeze.
However, trying to cram an 8-pin EPS12V connector through the provided top-left
hole proved futile, so you’ll need to route this via the motherboard tray’s CPU
cut-out prior to installing the motherboard.
Despite shipping with only a single exhaust
fan, the Ostrog handled our test hardware reasonably, with a CPU delta T of
52°C and a GPU delta T of 39°C. Both results are 4°C and 5°C respectively
warmer than the best chassis on test, but the CPU result is impressive for a
case with just one fan. Adding an extra pair of fans as a roof exhaust and side
panel intake saw the Ostrog’s CPU delta T drop 4°C to 48°C, while its GPU delta
T dipped by only 2°C to 37°C.
Adding
an extra pair of fans as a roof exhaust and side panel intake saw the Ostrog’s
CPU delta T drop 4°C to 48°C, while its GPU delta T dipped by only 2°C to 37°C.
Conclusion
With its smart looks and side panel window,
the Enermax Ostrog looks like it should cost a whole lot more than its $66
price tag. There are some lovely touches too, including the bundled pair of
external magnetic dust filters. However, other cases offer better cable
routeing and cooling for around the same cost, without the baffling drive mount
setup.
