in Win Win CJ712.AU265TB3 Black Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case 8L Small Form Factor with 265W Power Supply

This is a great little case. Solid and compact and enough room to work inside it. Choose parts correctly and install them in proper order and it’s a breeze. It’s a little pricey but the included PS makes it a fairly good value.

I got this for a home theater pc. I needed a slim case because of limited space. The case looks great, and the 265 Watt PSU is a good size for my use. I have a 65 Watt CPU with a NVidia 1030 graphics card. My main knock is that I don't think any stock fan would work because the drive cage sits directly above the CPU. I got a Noctua low profile cooler that's a bit pricey ($40) but works great. Other nits: - Little documentation -- the in win site has one-pager that was actually really helpful. - Cable management was tricky. I'm not an expert, so it wasn't easy routing them so they wouldn't hit one of the fans (the case, the CPU, and the graphics card all have fans). - Lots and lots of tiny screws. But in terms of value and quality for the money, I still give it 5 stars.

Here I review the InWin CJ712 case, which I use to house a DIY home/office network attached storage (NAS) device. It is my second InWin case, since for 8 years an InWin EM048 case has housed my DIY HTPC. Recently the electronic innards of the HTPC were massively renovated, but I kept the InWin case because it still was perfect for the job. The CJ712 case that I review here is almost perfect for its job as a NAS. Compared to other case choices on the market, the CJ712 has understated elegance in appearance, not the name of the case manufacturer in lights. The small 265 watt power supply is great, since my NAS consumes little power compared to other builds. Also, the CJ712 isolates its interior more than do mesh cases. Hence, the CJ712 avoids becoming too much of a dust trap yet still remains perfectly cool for NAS operations. I also like the front panel opportunity for a USB Type-C port. The black plastic case front is molded with a plastic insert that can be punched out, leaving behind a nice slot for a Type-C port. Given that offsite backup around here works via USB, I am ecstatic to have a 20Gbps port accessibly placed on the front of the unit. But this Type-C port also caused headaches. I could not find a way to use the hardware provided by InWin for connecting other hardware to the Type-C gap in the front of the case. I ended up drilling a small hole on either side of the front case Type-C gap so that I could screw a cable meant for a rear-computer PCI bracket into the front of the case, working as if the plastic front of the case were itself a bracket. Although using a plastic case front as a bracket generally is a bad idea, this ad hoc solution seems solid for now. That said, I shouldn't have to be using the front of the case as a bracket. InWin provides dedicated front USB 2 and 3 Type A ports; it should supply a physical front Type-C port, too. It's the year 2021, not 2000, after all. Type-C ports have become much more in demand than old USB 2.0 ports. Before ending this review I should address the close proximity of the CPU fan to the drive tray that is mentioned by other reviewers. I am steeped in the idea that CPU fans should discharge their hot air freely, so that having the drive tray just millimeters from the top of my Celeron 5925 stock fan did make me uncomfortable at first. But the objective facts are that the unit does not run hotter than other PC-like things in my universe and the SSD storage drives that are attached to the drive tray do not seem excessively hot after use. I've seen no apparent performance degradation due to heat, with the highest CPU temp reading at 51 celsius and the motherboard at 45. Thus, objectively speaking, there seems to be nothing wrong with the "CPU fan/drive tray" setup that gave me concern in the beginning. Nonetheless, this setup highlights a fact: although a great small form factor box for a NAS and probably also a HTPC, this likely is not the case for heat-creating gamers. **UPDATE** I found one specific heat problem. The drive tray hosts one 2.5" SSD on top at the rear and one 2.5" SSD on the bottom near the front. The drive on the bottom began to overheat, but only if I tried to move more than 500GB of data in one batch and did so at relatively high speeds (450 MB/s between internal drives). I don't try to do such things often but still I made a switch. I moved the SSD from the drive tray bottom bracket to the top, the part that is an optical drive bracket, since I have no ODD in this unit. I drilled a couple of holes for secure mounting via screws and moved the SATA wires, thus giving the SSD a new home. I tried the same data moving chore as a test and found that the overheating problem had gone.

It's an amazingly performant product occupying a niche of its own. You just can't get a case and power supply unit for the same price -- and the quality of both the case itself and the PSU is excellent. I used it to build a 10gbe SFP+ custom router for my home office, and I leave it running 24/7. It's been running nonstop for several months now, with no problem whatsoever. As another reviewer mentioned, it would be great if there could be a way to lock in place the front of the case without the drive holder (which is useless to my build, and might indeed be an obstacle to cooling your CPU if you require something more powerful than a small cooler). But for a knowledgeable buyer that does his/her research, this is truly an excellent product.

First kudos for including an 80 plus Power supply (flex ATX) in this case, it helps explain the overall cost and shame on the vendor for not specifically calling out this features (or even being able to answer my question on it prior to purchase). I like this size/form factor for a basic (office) PC as its compact/small but not as tedious or difficult to build as a tiny iTX based system case that often costs more money overall to build. Also no shortage of ports on mATX as can sometimes happen with iTX. Anyway the quality of this case is better than average I'd say, the steel feels solid enough and put together well. It has one slim chassis fan at the front which seems OK but I find the slim fans tend to fail sooner, and if the case cooling was better design would not be needed at all. The biggest problem with this case and why I will not order it again is the cooling. It has a metal and plastic tray on top that is designed to hold a slim DVD drive or 2.5 or 3.5 inch disk. Not only does the tray sit right on top of the CPU cooler greatly obstructing it from cooling your CPU, the tray is such that the font plastic bezel doesn't snap in at the top all the way if you remove it because you don't need these obsolete devices in your small PC (optical drive and external disk). All you need is to use is an M.2 NVMe that is included in nearly every motherboard and throw out this tray but then you will need to glue the front bezel to secure it so the top doesn't flop out. This was easily solved with a couple drop of glue in the upper right corner of the bezel to glue it to the metal chassis and on a plastic nub that pokes out under the optical drive and sets into a hole in the metal to line the bezel up correctly. Once this is glued you can toss out the useless tray that hold obsolete accessories most don't care about to allow your CPU cooler to do its job. This is probably sufficient for a 65W or less CPU. The case really should have holes punched in the removable case cover to allow the CPU cooler to push air directly out of the case rather than relying on that slim case fan. For this reason I will not purchase this case again but rather will seek an updated model with perforations in the case lid.

The cable to connect to power switch, led ... is a tad short. Had to extend the power cable. Could not figure out what DVD to use, the standard laptop DVD does not fit. Otherwise i love the size.

This case is VERY poorly designed. Unbelievably, I was unable to remove the lid. The operation couldn't be more clear: remove two rear screws, slide a little lever and then slide the lid back. It's so obvious, no instructions are necessary (or included.) Unfortunately, it just doesn't work. You remove the two screws, slide the spring-loaded switch and then try to slide the lid back and... the left sides very easily, but the right side will only move just enough to not quite get free from whatever is holding it in place on the inside of the case. I could probably spend an hour and make it work (not without scratches and other damage, though.) I don't know how any of these other reviewers got any further than I did. I suspect it's because they actually didn't. Amazon reviews have really gotten bad. It's to the point where any 5-star review should simply be ignored.

Great budget case. But note that the speaker in the pictures does not come with the case. It does come with enough screws for everything it'll hold plus extras. The only downside is the power switch/panel light bundle has pretty short wires. My setup has a front panel pinout located on the PCI side of the board, and only the power light and power switch lines will reach (and one of them is taut). Update: Quite literally, after submitting this review, and mid-way through an OS install, the power supply caught fire. It arc-flashed, had a lick of flame kick over the back, then a bunch of smoke blew out of the case. I'll still support the case, but consider buying a new mini ITX/flex ATX PSU for this.

I like these cases as they are complete with power supply and a true SFF (Small Form Factor) size. Easy to install mATX motherboards. I have built over 50 PC's using these cases, only a few have had a bit of twist to them but I was able to straighten into square. Alden Concept appears to be a reliable seller of theses cases so far. It would be nice to get a break when ordering more than a couple of these cases, either with the case or with shipping.

This is a great compact case. It’s well built and offers good utilization of the small space. I am using it for a micro atx board, Intel cpu with stock cpu fan. I was concerned initially about ventilation but the front fan appears to do a good job of moving air. It could be replaced with another if that is a concern for you. I highly recommend this case if you are looking for a micro atx case.

I am using this case to house a downclocked all core Ryzen 2600 @ 2.8ghz on a b450m mATX motherboard OPNsense router. Its perfect, and the temps are pretty good. Mind you, cpu isn't doing much, but I'll take 36C

The enclosure is well built, very small, but still good enough for a micro MB, simply beautiful. However,.. the power supply is a cheap one, gets hot quickly with about 150W average power output and will most probably die soon. A 400w power supply for example would have increased the cost with $10-15, but would have operated much more reliably. Ordered a 600W one from aliexpress to replace it. The biggest issue is the cooling of the CPU. A low profile cooler is almost touching the lid and the airflow for its fan is completely blocked. If the manufacturer provided some vents on the lid's enclose above the CPU then I would have rated this enclosure 4+. Had to drill vents on the lid by myself them pain it and unfortunately it is not looking so pretty now. Got rid of the useless tray because it was interfering with the CPU cooler. After all these modifications the CPU temperatures at full power are now below 70C which is reasonable. The majority of the people would have returned the enclosure after facing the CPU cooler issue, but I decided to spent time and modify it because the built quality otherwise is very good (the best for SFF enclosures I've seen for the last 20 years).

250W PSU, small size. It is a trick to dissipate enough of warm. Use 13700, not 13700K CPU. no main switch.