Hardware Bistro

Product: Allure
Manufacturer: In Win
Supplied by: In Win
Price: 110USD/RM400
Launch Date: NA

 

After reviewed In Win Xtreme and AL-13 series PC cases, today we will review another In Win case; Allure of OR series. OR series PC case is targeting for home decoration users and you will understand why Allure is fitted in this series once you have gone through this review. Let us deep dive this case further and you will definitely love it; at least your wife or girlfriend does.

 

Company Profile

IN-WIN Development Inc., an ISO 9001 manufacturer of professional computer chassis, power supplies and digital storage devices, is the leading provider of enclosure solutions to system integrators worldwide. Founded in 1986, IN-WIN provides high quality chassis that conform to all safety regulations, as well as unsurpassed customer service.

In Win was well trained to become a top-notch manufacturer of core technology to enhance internal core competence to meet what customer and market needs constantly. Top Management has been executed four major elements to reach our growing goal: Innovation, Service, Speed, Value, Safety, Warmth, Faithful, Diligence in order to remain our leading edge position and differentiate with other players.

 

Features

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Unlike In Win X-Fighter and B2, Allure is packed inside a much smaller box but it is much bigger when compares with other micro ATX board case. In Win Allure packaging box is very similar with its case design; with printed purple flowers which is definitely eye-catching especially for a lady. User's manual and screws are packed in a smaller cardboard box.

 

As you can see, In Win Allure is secured by two thick foams and an additional cotton bag as plastic bag may induces scratches on the fine finishing surface of Allure. For the user's manual, it is a colorful and useful guide with diagram assistant. Besides that other accessories that come along with In Win Allure are a pack of screw and a power cord which is kept inside the case.

 

In Win Allure Exterior

Allure stands for fascinate or attractive and we absolutely agree with it for In Win Allure, don't you? We strongly believe that your wife or your girlfriend will definitely love it unless they are overclocking freaks then this case is not suitable for them. Our first impression when we knew about this case is "oh my god, it looks fascinating" and we do have the same feeling after received the review sample as it is as good as what it is shown on In Win website; built with great quality and fine finishing. Let us move on for more detail structure of this case.

 

Allure is In Win OR series PC case and there are two more cases from this series which are Alpha360 and Matrix. Alpha360 is totally identical with Allure but just comes with plain painting without the eye catching additional coating while Matrix is also having similar design concept which is for home decoration users but it comes with simple design. In Win Allure is a mid tower PC case which only support micro ATX board; sorry for those are having standard ATX board as well as high end graphic card, PSU, CPU cooler as it will not compatible with Allure; maybe In Win will release another tower version of Allure in future if the respond is good.

 

Here are the closer looks of In Win Allure; the soul of this case. In Win Allure is sparkling with 70 pieces of Swarovski crystals and all of them are placed on the front and right panels; take note when installing the hardware when this case is in horizontal position as these Swarovski crystals might be accidentally dropped. As we mentioned previously the painting finishing of this case is extremely fine and there is an additional coating to protect the beautiful drawing.

 

For the left panel of In Win Allure, there isn't any special drawing on it but it comes with plenty of air vents which is purposely designed to be used with UniDuct and the overall design of In Win Allure is come with 360-degree oval shape with rounded edges & distinct floral design. Further detail will be discussed in later chapter; 360-degree oval shape in next few paragraphs while Interior chapter for UniDuct. The overall dimension of In Win Allure is ~ 370 x 190 x 470 mm (H x W x D).

 

Here is the top portion of In Win Allure front panel. It is good to have a front panel door as it is not only looks nicer but also able to prevent dust collection on the optical drive, floppy drive and the rest of the exposed drive on the front panel. The way to open up this front panel is different compare with other cases and the design is patented; flaring up the front panel with a single push and the front panel will slide upward automatically.

 

In Win Allure supports total four 5.25" and 3.5" exposed drives for ODD, FDD, fan controller, external HDD cage, card reader and etc. However since Allure comes with front panel door, so when installing unique drive such as fan speed controller must take note as the knob might be blocked. The white switch is a power button and below it, there are two USB ports, single Firewire port, and two line out & mic jacks. Everything looks perfect but we still prefer all these front I/O ports are covered by a small front panel I/O door.

 

The top panel of In Win Allure is a black ribbed surface which is ideal for placing some gadgets on top of it such as mobile phone, digital camera, wallet, and other stuff. This plastic rubber has its own advantagess as well as disadvantages where the good thing is it won't get worn so easily compare with rubber surface but the bad thing is this kind of surface can't hold the stuff firmly like rubber type. Four grey rubber feet are attached at the bottom panel so that the case can be placed stationary on the floor or desk.

 

You may wonder and surprise when you see this back panel of In Win Allure and this is why this case is called as 360-degree oval shape. This white back plate can be disassembled easily from the back panel by just simply press the button and slide it down while slide up to assembly back this back plate.

 

This white back plate can be further disassembled by removing the PSU, PCI, rear I/O plates. The PCI plate can be ignored as not many people will have any additional PCI slot for a micro ATX board since it has integrated network, video and audio. However for the PSU and rear I/O plates, it is great for In Win to make couple of smaller windows so that power cord, USB, network, video cables can be passed through without removing these two plates as they are compulsory items for a working system; a bit sad to remove out such beautiful plates from the case and no point to have such plates if they are needed to be removed.

 

For the rear panel of In Win Allure, it comes with standard peripherals such as I/O panel, rear air vent, four PCI slots, PSU vent and a left panel ejection button; black button. The left panel ejection button is a great tool as the left panel can be easily detached from the case. However careful handling is required as if the ejection button is malfunction then it will take some time for you to remove the left side panel.

 

In Win Allure Interior

 

After gone through the exterior design of In Win Allure, let us continue with its interior design. As we mentioned before In Win Allure is only support micro ATX board but at least standard 12V ATX PSU is supported else it will take some time to look for suitable PSU. In Win Allure is a tool free mechanical case which helps to simplify the installation process; we discuss it in later portion. As you can see, the interior portion of In Win Allure is not spacious as other tower cases but it should have no problem for installing a basic/simple setup.

 

This semi transparent black ducting system is not a normal CPU duct as it is purposely designed for Intel sockets to maximize its cooling efficiency (pairing with left panel which comes with plenty of tiny air vents). This ducting system is Intel certified TAC1.1 and In Win named it as Smart-3D UniDuct. This Smart-3D UniDuct can be opened up 90° for easily motherboard installation. For AMD users, this Smart-3D dust can be removed out if it is not suitable with the setup.

 

Both of the 5.25" (two) and 3.5" (one) drives comes with special locking knobs in sharp green color (pull out to release the drive while push in to fasten the drive). Only single side of the drive need to be fasten with these knobs (2 knobs per drive) as In Win Allure right panel is not removable or can be opened up.

 

HDD cage is located at the bottom of the 5.25" and 3.5" drive cages and maximum two HDD can be supported; more than enough for a mini system and furthermore large capacity HDD is so cheap nowadays. The HDD cage is a swerving case which is can be swerved into 90° for easily HDD installation by pushing up the handle. Such Swerved HDD cage is really great as it helps to reduce the installation hassles as the HDD may get blocked by the graphic card.

 

Same with other In Win cases, Allure is equipped with charming rear 92mm fan but if a fan is added as front intake then it will be perfect. Besides that its PCI slots are powered with tool-less device but there is a disadvantage of this tool-less tool; as it is a single tool to controls all the PCI slots and all the PCI card will be unlocked once it is released; causing the empty PCI fillers fall down.

 

At the right bottom of the HDD cage of In Win Allure, there is a very interesting shaped handle which comes with sharp green color. No where what is the benefit for having such creative and interesting handle but it is used to removed the front panel easily by just pulling the handle toward user. We quite happy to see such useful handle as most of the time front panel is the hardest component to be removed from the case body but it is absolutely no issue for Allure.

 

Here is the front panel of in Win Allure after it is detached from the case; very simple design without much thing we can talk about it since all the front I/O ports, power buttons are appended on the case body. Last but not least the included cables are USB, firewire, audio, power button, HDD LED, power LED, speaker and IR cables; all these cables are long enough to connect on all kind of micro ATX board.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 2.33GHz
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-VM
Heatsink: Stock CPU Cooler
Memory: 4GB 800MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM Fujitsu
Hard Drive: 80GB 7200RPM Western Digital
Graphic Card: On Board
PSU: Seasonic M12D 850W
Chassis: In Win Allure
Optical Drive: DVD RW HLDS
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Operating System: Microsoft Vista Home Premium
Benchmark Software: Prime 95
Ambient Temperature: 28 Degree Celsius

 

Now let us talk about the installation portion of In Win Allure as it is one of the important factors when selecting a suitable PC case. Since Allure is a small case then our hardware installation was adjusted as below to smoothen the process; PSU -> MB -> CPU -> CPU Cooler -> ODD -> FDD -> HDD -> DIMM -> VGA.

One of the major installation difficulties of In Win Allure is the Smart-3D UniDuct as it is a big piece of plastic that blocking the PSU and motherboard installation so removing it is a good idea in order to speed up the process. For the PSU installation, please ensure larger than ATX PSU casing is not used (usually for those are having high wattage PSU; 1K and above) as space will limit such large casing PSU. Having modular PSU is good so that those unwanted/unnecessary cables can be removed out.

Other peripheral installations are not a problem as well but tower or giant CPU cooler should be avoided as it is not compatible with In Win Smart-3D UniDuct unless this duct is removed. Graphic card installation also needs to take note as high end graphic card will cause problem with the HDD installation.

For the cooling performance, In Win Allure is not bad but it isn't that outstanding since it only comes with a 92mm rear fan. However we noticed that the Smart-3D UniDuct does a good job here where it is able to bring down the processor temperature 1-2° although the system cooling performance is just moderate. Since In Win Allure is targeting for home deco users, such cooling performance and equipment should be enough as we doubt anyone is going to install Nvidia GTX 295 or Radeon 4890 inside.

 

Conclusion

Once again we are satisfied with In Win product as Allure is not only a quality product but also comes with elegant design; 70 Swaravski Crystals which is very eye catching and ideal for home decoration usage. In Win Smart-3D UniDuct is a simple but great passive tool to enhance processor cooling efficiency. The rest of the advantages of In Win Allure are tool-less design, oval shaped design with unique back plate and etc. The retail price of In Win Allure isn't cheap as it costs around 110USD which is a bit pricey but regardless In Win Allure is still worth for it if you are looking for such charming design casing.

 

Pros:

* Elegant design which is ideal for home decoration usage
* 70 Swarovski Crystals
* Tool-less design
* Patented front panel design
* Comes with back plate to enhance its perfectness
* Smart-3D UniDuct for Intel sockets

Cons:

* Only for micro ATX board
* Not cheap
* Space constraint
* No front fan mount

Thanks to In Win for providing this sample for us to review.

 

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