XigmaTek GIGAS review

Final words and conclusion

As stated on the previous page, the Xigmatek GIGAS is a chassis that manages to impress. It is of course targeted at a very specific audience with an even more specific set of hardware  requirements. If you are that gamer that needs to travel light or the end-user that simply likes a small chassis or you have the intent to build a powerful HTPC with a beefy graphics solution, then yeah this might be nice alternative.

See, the box looks pretty good (and sure taste differs very much). It is very unobtrusive, quite silent whilst offering good airflow and properly equipped with features. The all aluminum design makes it light-weight, very light-weight in fact. When we focus on the innards, it's all done relative simple, yet has been designed with subtlety. You can mount six HDDs in there, all protected with rubber inserts. Then the position of the PSU might be awkward, but it makes a lot of sense to be seated so high. That way lengthy PSU will fit, and you get clearance enough for large graphics cards.

A little tricky will be to mount the motherboard, as the bottom in fact is your motherboard tray. But there is enough room, and Micro ATX motherboards, well they are not the most beefy ones to install really. BTW I have to mention it, installing a CPU cooler should not be an issue either as the clearance is there even for heatpipe based coolers up-to 160mm in height.

Downsides? Sure there are some, there's only one USB 3.0 port, why not make the other two 2.0 ports 3.0 compatible as well? Cable routing, there isn't any. Sure it's a closed box, but I am a bit of a wiring freak and some sore of included cable tie mounts would have been nice.

The biggest negative however are the lacking fan meshes, the chassis does not offer have any kind of dust protection, so over time dust will get into the system and fans. It's no biggy, but it would have been nice to have seen that included.

Other then that, really its all good. Fairly easy installation and a lot of option make this chassis very interesting for the Micro-ATX (or ITX) aficionado. A nice touch is the included fan controller so you can regulate airflow versus noise levels yourself.

Typically a chassis that is this well designed and being all Aluminum is very expensive, here again... it's all good as the price is set at it around 110 Euro, which converted is roughly 140 USD. So if you like the looks and the features are plentiful enough for you, then we'd have hesitation recommending the chassis to you. Again a Mirco ATX chassis that supports 2x5.25” ODD, 6x3.5” HDD and 2x2.5” SSD, and total length of 320mm or 12.5” for your graphic cards. It's just good stuff.

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