In Win Diva Case Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Without exceptions, when we think of a computer case with a unique design invariable we think of a macho-themed product, usually military-inspired. Sensing that girls were being left behind by the case manufacturers, In Win decided to release Diva, a very (very!) small case and very (very!) girly front panel, featuring a big Swarovski crystal as a power button. While straight guys will hate this case, girls (and probably er… “very happy” guys) will love it. Let’s see why.

When we are kids, we guys get 12-color crayon boxes (maybe 24 or 36 if your parents want to spoil you). Girls, on the other hand, the small crayon box they get has maybe 120 colors. That’s why they usually know name of colors we didn’t even know they existed. With Diva it couldn’t be different. What we guys would call pink, “beige almost golden” and black, girls will call “fuchsia red,” “champagne gold” and “starry black.” As you can guess, these are the color options for the Diva front panel. We are going to review the pink – excuse me, fuchsia red – version.

To better understand how small Diva is, nothing better to put it side by side with a standard mid-tower case. In Figure 1, you can see the Diva product box compared to the box of a standard mid-tower case and, in Figure 2, Diva compared to a mid-tower case.

Figure 1: Comparing Diva to a standard mid-tower case.

Figure 2: Comparing Diva to a standard mid-tower case.

Diva measures only 10 7/8” x 5.25” x 10 1/8” (27.6 x 13.3 x 25.7 cm) and weighs 7 ½ lbs (3.4 kg), supporting mini ITX and mini DTX motherboards. On Figures 3 and 4 you can have an overall look from Diva. There is a small mesh on the left panel, but it can’t be used for installing a fan.

Figure 3: In Win Diva.

Figure 4: In Win Diva.

[nextpage title=”Introduction (Cont’d)”]

The front panel of Diva really draws a lot of attention, with its intricate design. As mentioned, the power button is a big Swarovski crystal.

Figure 5: Front panel.

Although small, Diva has room for one standard-sized optical drive, which is hidden behind the front panel (you can also install a slim optical drive or an external 3.5” device on this bay using the included adapter, as we will explore later). Two USB ports and the traditional mic in and headphones out jacks are available behind a small door on the bottom part of the front panel. These features can be seen in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Optical drive bay and front panel connectors.

The top panel from Diva is meshed, featuring the only fan that comes with the product, an 80 mm model. We will talk more about this fan later.

Figure 7: Top panel.

The rear panel from Diva is unique, as you’d expect on a unique case. The rear panel is painted black, having a big mesh above the motherboard area, helping the case ventilation. Two low profile expansion slots are available. The bottom mesh is for cooling the hard disk drive, which is installed on the bottom of the case. Diva also features a retractable tab for installing a padlock or warranty seal on its left panel.

The product comes with a very small 160 W power supply, and will make an in-depth evaluation of this component.

Figure 8: Rear panel.

Now let’s take a look inside In Win Diva.[nextpage title=”Inside In Win Diva”]

The left panel is fastened to the case using two big black thumbscrews, but the right panel is fastened using regular screws. The right panel is entirely made of plastic, while the left panel is made of steel with a plastic cap applied to it. This was done to acoustically insulate the computer – the right panel doesn’t need this steel sheet because on this side of the case we have the motherboard tray, which already provides this insulation.

In Figure 9, you can see the interior of the case right after we remove the left panel. As you can see, even though the rear panel is painted black, the interior isn’t. The big steel plate that you see “closing” the case is the optical drive bay. This plate is attached to the case using two silver thumbscrews located on the rear panel from the case.

Figure 9: Overall look.

In Figure 10 you can have a better look from inside Diva with the optical drive bay removed.

Figure 10: Overall look.

In Figure 11 we have another overall look, where you can see the top 80 mm fan. This fan uses a three-pin connector, so you need to install it on your motherboard, installation that allows you to monitor the speed from the fan. No technical specification about this fan is given.

Figure 11: Overall look.

Space inside this case is scarce. You can install
a slim video card up to 6 19/64” (160 mm) long, but this case is definitely targeted to motherboards with on-board video.

[nextpage title=”The Disk Drive Bays”]

As you know by now, Diva has a 5.25” external bay. This bay can be seen removed from the case in Figure 12. It comes with an adapter that allows you to install a slim optical drive (units originally targeted to laptops), an external 3.5” device (floppy disk drive or memory card reader) or an internal 3.5” device – i.e., an extra hard disk drive. The case comes with a plastic bezel allowing you to fit these smaller external devices without leaving a “hole” on the front panel.

Figure 12: 5.25” bay with adapter installed and front panel bezel.

On the bottom part of Diva we have a hard disk drive bay that supports one 3.5” drive and one 2.5” drive.

Figure 13: Hard disk drive bay.

[nextpage title=”The Power Supply”]

In Figure 14 you have an overall look of the power supply that comes with Diva, a 160 W model (IP-AD160-2) from In Win’s own brand “Power Man.” This unit features active PFC and automatic voltage selection.

The included power supply has the following cables:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector (10 ¼” or 26 cm long).
• Cable with one ATX12V connector (12” or 30 cm long)
• Cable with two SATA connectors and one standard peripheral power connector (5 1/8” or 13 cm to the first connector, 2” or 5 cm between SATA connectors and 7 7/8” or 20 cm between the second SATA connector and the peripheral power connector).

All wires are 20 AWG, but being a 160 W product we really can’t complain.

Figure 14: 160 W power supply that comes with Diva.

Figure 15: 160 W power supply that comes with Diva.

Since we have the necessary equipment to make in-depth power supply tests, we decided to test the 160 W power supply that comes with Diva to see whether it is a good unit or not.[nextpage title=”The Power Supply: Load Test”]

Please read our article Hardware Secrets Power Supply Test Methodology to understand our power supply testing methodology.

We tested this power supply with five different load patterns, trying to pull around 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% of its labeled maximum capacity (actual percentage used listed under “% Max Load”), watching how the reviewed unit behaved under each load. In the table below we list the load patterns we used and the results for each load.

If you add all the power listed for each test, you may find a different value than what is posted under “Total” below. Since each output can vary slightly (e.g., the +5 V output working at +5.10 V), the actual total amount of power being delivered is slightly different than the calculated value. On the “Total” row we are using the real amount of power being delivered, as measured by our load tester.

The +12VA and +12VB inputs listed below are the two +12 V independent inputs from our load tester. During this test both inputs were connected to the power supply single rail (+12VB input was connected to the power supply ATX12V connector and all other cables were connected to the load tester +12VA input).

Input	Test 1	Test 2	Test 3	Test 4	Test 5
+12VA	1 A (12 W)	2 A (24 W)	3 A (36 W)	4.5 A (54 W)	5.5 A (66 W)
+12VB	1 A (12 W)	2 A (24 W)	3 A (36 W)	4 A (48 W)	5.5 A (66 W)
+5V	1 A (5 W)	1 A (5 W)	1.5 A (7.5 W)	1.5 A (7.5 W)	2 A (10 W)
+3.3 V	1 A (5 W)	1 A (5 W)	1.5 A (4.95 W)	1.5 A (4.95 W)	2 A (6.6 W)
+5VSB	1 A (5 W)	1 A (5 W)	1 A (5 W)	1 A (5 W)	1 A (5 W)
-12 V	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)	0.5 A (6 W)
Total	43.5 W	67.5 W	95.7 W	125.4 W	159.2 W
% Max Load	27.2%	42.2%	59.8%	78.4%	99.5%
Room Temp.	25.7° C	27.6° C	29.5° C	32.0° C	32.8° C
PSU Temp.	26.0° C	30.9° C	34.9° C	40.9° C	42.2° C
Voltage Regulation	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
Ripple and Noise	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass
AC Power	56.2 W	82.2 W	114.8 W	149.9 W	191.2 W
Efficiency	77.4%	82.1%	83.4%	83.7%	83.3%
AC Voltage	116.9 V	117.3 V	116.5 V	115.7 V	115.6 V
Power Factor	0.986	0.993	0.991	0.987	0.986
Final Result	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass

In Win Diva comes with a good power supply, that can really deliver 160 W. Efficiency could be better under or first test, when we were pulling 43.5 W from it, but we don’t think this power is realistic even for a PC with very low power consumption. On all other load patterns we saw efficiency on the 82-83% range.

Voltages were always within 3% of their nominal values – i.e., they were closer to their “official” values than required, which is good (ATX12V specification allows a 5% tolerance for all positive voltages and 10% for -12 V).

And noise and ripple were always below the maximum allowed, even though a little bit higher than we like to see during test five at 159.2 W. You can see noise levels during test five below. The maximum allowed is 120 mV on +12 V and 50 mV on +5 V and +3.3 V. All numbers are peak-to-peak figures.

Figure 16: +12VA input from load tester at 159.2 W (90.6 mV).

Figure 17: +12VB input from load tester at 159.2 W (90.6 mV).

Figure 18: +5 V rail with power supply delivering 159.2 W (21.2 mV).

Figure 19: +3.3 V rail with power supply delivering 159.2 W (11.4 mV).

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

In Win Diva case main specs include:

• Style: Small Form Factor (SFF)
• Application: Mini ITX and Mini DTX
• Material: Zinc-coated steel (SECC)
• Power supply required: In Win Power Man IP-AD160-2 (160 W).
• Available colors: “fuchsia red,” “champagne gold” and “starry black.”
• Side panel: Meshed.
• Dimensions: 10 7/8” x 5.25” x 10 1/8” (27.6 x 13.3 x 25.7 cm) (H x W x D).
• Net weight: 7.5 lbs (3.4 kg)
• Gross weight: 9.5 lbs (4.2 kg)
• Bays: One external 5.25” (can be converted into a slim 5 ¼,” external 3.5” or internal 3.5”), one internal 3.5” and one internal 2 ½.”
• Expansion slots: Two (slim type).
• Fans: One 80 mm on the top panel.
• Optional fans: None.
• Extra features: Swarovski crystal as power button.
• More Information: https://www.inwin-style.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 90.00

* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

We were quite impressed with Diva from In Win. We liked not only for the idea of coming up with a case targeted to girls, but it turned out to be a terrific product: it is very small, stylish and comes with an excellent price tag (keep in mind that it already comes with a power supply, so you won’t need to buy one – of course if the power supply wasn’t included we would complain about the price). For its great value we are giving it our Golden Award seal.

Strong Points

• Very small and stylish.
• Good number of drive bays for a case this size, supporting one 3.5” hard disk drive, one 2.5” hard disk drive or SSD and one 5.25” optical drive (this bay also supports slim 5.25” optical drives, external 3.5” devices or another 3.5” hard disk drive).
• Rear panel painted black.
• Comes with a very good 160 W power supply that presented efficiency around 82%-83% in most load patterns in our tests.

Weak Points

• No noise-prevention mechanism for the hard disk drive.
• No screwless installation mechanism for the disk drives.
• No eSATA port.
• Interior could be painted black.