HARDWARE REVIEW

Kolink Rocket Mini ATX Gaming PC Case Review

by Luke Walsh, April 2nd, 2018

The Kolink Rocket is a mini-ATX case that is priced for gamers looking to get something on the higher ends of budgets for a case with a smaller footprint than your usual gaming cases. From the get-go, the Rocket is a nice compact case but is a little complicated in places from a build point of view. It costs £159 here in the UK and is being sold via Overclockers UK and comes in the single colour.

Looking into the build, the Rocket is covered in a brushed gunmetal aluminium for the casing which is 1.75mm thick and the inside made from anodised steel. As with a lot of mini cases, there is not a lot of space to work with and usually, building cases mean cuts. Luckily, the Rocket shell does not have anything which would be deemed too sharp but does somehow manage to slice skin pretty nicely. I managed to get away with building the whole thing without a single wound until I picked the case up and slide my finger along the bottom.

There are two USB 3.0 ports on the front, along with the illuminated power switch which is a set colour. It’s not breaking any new ground with ports and honestly, I believe it should have 4 USB inputs on the front and some audio inputs would not have hurt either.

The casing from the front is one complete unit from the front until the top and then had two side panels which are grilled, presumably for extra ventilation. Taking the two side panels off is easy enough with four screws holding each. From there you’ll have access to each side with one side for the GPU and the other for your mini-ATX motherboard.

For the PSU there is a gap where the motherboard ends where you attached it using a mount that you need to unscrew and then attached it to the PSU. Frustrating is an understatement when it comes to installing the power supply. The instructions are not the best, almost useless actually, but then it’s not overly complicated as the bracket only goes one way. This means that installing it and trying to route the cabling for the PSU did not fit correctly in my first attempt. In the end, I had to unscrew the bracket again and feed the cable through a small opening to make it possible to place the mount back in.

Installing the GPU however, was a lot easier than the PSU as it just needs to be connected to the mounted PCI slot. It’s quite smart how the extension cable connects through one side to the other, cabling is long enough for it to be effortless to connect up to your chosen motherboard. Not all GPUs are created equal which means check your card dimensions before you buy this case as it could be too big. It will fit cards like the Nvidia GTX 1060 or the AMD Radeon RX570 but for cards like 1080 it will struggle. Some of the wider cards but smaller in length will also struggle because of the depth available.

Two 2.5 inch hard drive can be mounted to the bottom of the case which sits underneath the panel. It works just by sliding out and can be unscrewed by a single thumb screw that is accessible from the inside of the case. It can be done without taking the top or bottom apart but is much easier to access if you do. If you do install the hard drives by taking the top and bottom piece away, be sure to add them back before you install the PSU or GPU as there are screws that get covered once both are in place.

In terms of an overall system design it’s not bad but could be better, stock CPU coolers will most likely fit without an issue but more advanced systems will struggle to fit. This clearance is quite tight to the board which would not only affect what sort of kit you can put into it but also the airflow around an important component. Do be careful when installing the GPU ribbon as it looks like it should be over the top of the motherboard but Overclockers and the manufacturer have commented that it should actually go under the board and wrap around into the slot.

As mentioned earlier it could also be better sanded for the metal, it’s mentioned as being quite thick and 1.75mm is really but still like a knife when handling metal that thin. There should at least probably be a warning to make people aware. Also worth noting, that like the mini-ATX you also need a special PSU which is not mentioned called an SFX or SFX-L Power Supply that is the correct size.

Finally, with only one possible fan that comes pre-installed (which is nice), it could be seen as a lack of cooling. Looking at the case, if you were only using one of the two HDD bays, they could have done better by allowing you to install an additional cooler underneath, you could then control the airflow a bit better. Additional fan aside, the case was pretty cool when running, but with the card and motherboard back to back, there were some hot spots.

Overall, the Kolink Rocket is a sleek looking case which would make an ideal gaming PC for your lounge or spare room. There’s not loads of space inside to keep the case small so it can get a little hot in places and won’t fit all the latest graphics card, but has enough to build a PC you’d be happy to game on.

The price tag might be a bit much at £160 for some gamers given the lack of additional bays, slots and space for water cooling but the case was not designed for that. If you are looking for a secondary PC, living room Steam machine or a suped-up Netflix box then this case will look nice and fit in small spaces. Just watch your fingers…