Rosewill B2 Spirit Full Tower Case Review
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
Overall, I am impressed with Rosewill’s B2 Spirit case, it supports all the hardware anybody could pack into a system. If you are looking for a case to support any motherboard, the B2 Spirit supports up to the largest HPTX motherboards. For storage options, it has you covered as well with support for up to 13 3.5″ hard drives, and four 5.25″ devices. Even the cooling options are numerous, with spots for up to eight fans; AIO liquid cooling is supported up to 280mm radiators, however I feel up to a 420mm radiator could fit at the top.
The B2 Spirit is made of high quality steel, making it very heavy but also very sturdy. The top and front panel have a special “Soft Touch” coating on them, giving them a rubber type coating, I like this coating; however I would prefer the entire case be coated in it rather than just the top and front. The fans included with the B2 Spirit are also high quality, the blue LED’s were bright and vibrant, while all five of the included fans weren’t overly loud or annoying.
The scratches on the windowed side panel would be highly annoying if I was purchasing this case. It is easily avoided if the cables were secured properly, or pre-routed to behind the motherboard tray; which is very common. The dent on the side panel would upset me as well, I’m sure Rosewill didn’t ship it this way from their warehouse, so I’ll assume it is from shipping. Both of these issues I assume are due to the multiple shipments this specific review sample went through, from the time it left Rosewill, it was shipped at least five times before it got to me to review it; because of this, I am not going to hold the scratches and dent in the panel against Rosewill.
Physical issues aside, there are a few concerns I do have about the B2 Spirit. The top I/O cluster is the biggest one, the way it is hidden behind a door is nice, however opening the door can be tricky as the door sticks sometimes. Also, the way the top I/O is recessed into the case top panel, I had issues using the Kingston MobileLite G3 media reader in the panel, and the Corsair Voyager GS (about 1 in wide) barely fit into the USB 3.0 port; again, not everybody is going to run into this issue.
Two other areas of concern include the air intake from the front fans, which are hidden behind a solid door with no good openings to pull in air. The solid door does help reduce noise from the fans, but with no vents on any side the amount of airflow can be limiting. Finally, the concern about cable length on the fans and power supply. The B2 Spirit is a very large case, it requires longer than normal cables to really do things correctly, while not required, it would be nice if Rosewill would include an 8-pin MB power extension cable, and change the power connectors on the fans from including both 3-pin fan and 4-pin molex, an adapter from 3-pin to Molex would be preferred and make for a cleaner install.
If you are looking for a full tower case that can support the largest HPTX motherboards with a huge amount of hardware capacity, there aren’t that many options. The Rosewill B2 Spirit can be purchased for $169.99 with free shipping (a $30 mail in rebate was available at the time we completed this review, making the final cost $139.99), making it the lowest cost options in the Super Tower case category that will support Micro ATX, ATX, E-ATX, XL-ATX and HPTX motherboards. If you need a case for these huge motherboards, the Rosewill B2 Spirit is a great option, even with the limitations that we pointed out. Those that are looking for a case like this will be familiar with many of the spacing issues and will be prepared for them.
Legit Bottom Line: For those that are looking for a case to support any motherboard up to a HPTX, a large amount of hard drives or just a very spacious case, the Rosewill B2 Spirit is a great option, even with a few concerns.