Page 9
The Verdict
Clever. It's really very clever what Spire did with this chassis. Face it, the minute the name Pininfarina was on that chassis I was already sold. None the less I'll try and stay as objective as I honestly can be.
The Pininfarina SP-ATX-PALU/U case is a little gem. I mean surely taste differs and thus a good number of you will not even slightly like the design, but the ones that do like the design will likely also immediately fall in love with it. From A to Z pretty much everything was done right with the casing. It's gorgeous to look at, easy to install, offers exceptionally good cooling and the aluminum design definitely helps with that. Facts are that you'll have plenty of space to work with, get a spare parts tray (hey that's cool), good cooling functionality and pretty much a tool-free installation of your components. I love the stealthy design of the front panel and I adore the ease of use thanks to the side-doors. It's like opening up the engine hood of your car, and getting direct access to all your components.
The one small remark I have about the casing are the fans. In my opinion for such a classy chassis it makes a little too much noise. Now do not get me wrong here as you can consider the noise-levels to be similar to a standard PC. But the chassis is near perfect yet not perfect due to that noise-level. Well, you can always decide to disable a couple of fans, simply replace themor connect a fan-controller to them. Considering the rest of the chassis this is easily forgiven.
Oh and hey, last but not least... it's a Pininfarina. The name "Pininfarina" was actually what scared me the most as I expected this case to be extremely expensive due to just that simple name. Hey it's an exclusive design, brand and trademark.
But even that was not the case. A good aluminum chassis usually sells at 150 EUR. Yet you can pick up this Pininfarina SP-ATX-PALU/U case for roughly 100 EUR. I've already seen it at on-line retailers for roughly 95 EUR. And that's a really acceptable price as far as I'm concerned.
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Everything about the case was good, it felt like it indeed was well designed with aesthetics in mind. With it's distinct design, ease of use, proper functionality I dare to say that the SP-ATX-PALU/U is one of the best cases we have ever tested. It's worth every single Euro or whatever your currency is.
Now frack it, I'm taking this thing to a wind-tunnel to check out its aerodynamics. Oh you'd just love to see that wouldn't you ;)
We give them away rarely as it's difficult to receive our editor's choice award, but the Spire Pininfarina SP-ATX-PALU/U will receive our best hardware award. Very impressive.
Spire Pininfarina SP-ATX-PALU/U
Price: 110 EUR
Info: Spire
