The Infineon 1000 is a cheap $55 glass case with an unexpected feature. A cheap 225W PSU built in. We have bought several of these cases in order to gauge the overall quality and value. What we found was good news.
The case only supports micro ATX and mini ITX size motherboards, however it is very versatile in its design. As a result of the tinted glass panels, the perceived quality of the case is very high, and does not look out of place even in mid-range builds.
Performance
The airflow inside the Infineon 1000 is very similar to that of the Magic 201 case. It is not designed for systems that require a high level of air flow to maintain a good operating temperature in gaming or rendering loads. It also does not come with any fans built in, other than the PSU fan which does not help cool the main chamber of the case. For a low end built, a single exhaust fan should be enough in this case to maintain a good air temperature inside the case. If higher performance parts are added, it may be necessary to add intake fans or to simply run with the glass side panel removed.
For reference, running this case with a GTX750Ti or GTX950 gave us no issues. An overclocked RX570 however did run a little hotter than we would have liked in this case, but still did not overheat. Anything with a higher TDP than an RX580 would definitely struggle to cool itself on this case without major modifications or the addition of powerful intake and exhaust fans.
Aesthetics
The way this case looks with the glass panels installed, and especially with any sort of internal lighting, where it is from fans or from other components, is excellent. It is hard to get this level of simiplicity and cleanness in design even from much more expensive cases. The other advantage of is that the glass panels will be much less likely to scratch than the acrylic clear windows or panels used in some gaming cases.
The level of tint on the glass is also a good balance between showing off internal components, and inhibiting the view of any ugly details such as loose cables which are present especially in most budget orientated gaming builds. Overall, the very inoffensive, clean and high quality look of this case would appeal to almost anyone who has an eye for good design.
Features
The obvious main feature of this case are the glass panels and the included power supply. It has well placed cable management holes for the most part, but is missing a hole to route the CPU power connection above the motherboard. An easy workaround is to connect the cable before you screw the motherboard in and use the CPU backplate cutout to route the cable cleanly behind the motherboard.
The glass panels are thick and high quality, and despite some instances where they were exposed to some minor drops and knocks, they never shattered or cracked. The power supply included in the case is definitely a weak link. Although it is advertised as having a 6-pin PCI-e power connector, it only has Molex, SATA, 24pin, and 4pin connectors. We were able to successfully run basic GPUs that required no PCI-e additional power such as the GTX750Ti with no issues, as well as even a 100W card, the GTX950, with no issues. In one case where we tried to run a RX570 however, the PSU gave out a loud bang and stopped working after a couple minutes of full synthetic load on the CPU and GPU. We definitely recommending upgrading the power supply if you intend to use a graphics card that is anything above 75-100W TDP depending on what other components you use. The PSU after all is rated at 225W only, and doesn’t seem to have any safety shut off features when forced to run higher wattage parts.
One downside of the case is that it cannot support full ATX motherboards, however this is easy to overlook considering there are plenty of ATX compatible cases if that is what you’re looking for. Instead, the Infineon 1000 is a very space optimised case, taking up minimal space even for a mATX style case.
Build Quality
The build quality of the Infineon is great for a budget case. The glass panels are thick, and the metal sheeting is of adequate thickness for what I would consider in this price point. The PCI slot covers are a “snap off” style, which is one downside, but almost all cases at this price range use this method.
Conclusion
The Infineon 1000 is a great case for a budget gaming PC that can really showcase what’s inside. It has the advantage of having a relatively small footprint, even for a mATX style case, while boasting attractive features such as the included PSU and tempered glass panels.
Performance 3/10
Aesthetics 8/10
Features 5/10
Build Quality 4/10
Overall 5/10
Despite the low overall score, I would easily give this case a 7.5/10 when taking into account the low price.