Outside

The In Win D-Frame Mini is a little hard to classify. Is it a mid-tower case? Is it an open air test bench? I don’t really think it falls into either of those categories, but it can fill those roles if you need it too. The overall design is a aluminum tube frame chassis with tinted glass panels on each side that somewhat enclose everything. You can get the case in a glossy red, glossy orange, and a matt black. As you can see we have the matt black model, the orange might have been a little more fitting for us but they didn’t have them in stock at the time.

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What I think really sets the D-Frame Mini apart are the red rubber feet that are on every bar. These feet allow you to position the case in any direction that you would like. This means you could run it as a test bench flat, with the long side on the bottom like In Win has in their photos or if you want you could put the short side on the bottom and give yourself a small footprint and a taller case. 

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Like a few of their other cases, In Win took advantage of materials that most other manufactures use to create a unique and high quality design. On the side panels they use tempered glass. The glass panels on both sides of the case are the same size, with four holes in them. The holes line up with four mounting tabs on the case with rubber pads to keep from scratching things. Black thumbscrews hold things down. What I really like is the slight tint that both panels have, this gives the illusion of an enclosed space while still giving you full view of the inside of the case when you look. When you combine this with LED lighting you can do some unique things. It also means that on the front and back of the D-Frame Mini you have to keep your wiring perfect. You can’t just shove everything behind the motherboard tray and be done with it, not when people can see through your back panel!

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Beyond the side panels, most of the rest of the case consists of the aluminum tubing frame. This to me is the most impressive part of the whole case. Most cases are made of stamped steel or aluminum, this takes almost no time to produce. The D-Frame Mini on the other hand is completely hand made. Lucky for us In Win even sent over a few photos of the entire production process. It’s really no wonder why these cases are priced where they are and why they do limited production runs of them. I think what would really set it all off for me would be to number the cases or at least come with a little card showing who manufactured it.

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It’s a little hard to see on the black case, but each side of the D-Frame Mini has horizontal and angled cross bars that add strength to the case. This really is more like a roll cage for a race car than a PC. The overall strength of this case has to be in a different world when compared to any traditional case design. On the top of the case, in addition to the regular cross members, In Win put in one S shaped bar to make the case easy to carry. To help they even knurled the bar in the center to give you a good grip.

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In a design that has the rear I/O right out of the top of the case (when in normal position) there isn’t a need for a crazy front panel. You get two USB 3.0 plugs, microphone and headphone connections, and a power button with built in status LED.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #35832 07 Nov 2014 20:18
A few of you may have seen me LANing with this case, now you can find out what I thought about it. Have a great weekend!

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