The ATX
The ATX, aka my Gaming Rig, proved to be MUCH easier to handle though it wasn’t without a quirk or two. Firstly I want to mention how easy it was to build on this half of the chassis. Without a power supply and hard drives to contend with there’s virtually no cable wrangling that needs to be done and the minimal amount of components means that you can really focus on making it look as nice as possible. The chassis can handle a 120 or 240mm radiator on this side of the house and installation was just as easy with the Gemini X as any other case I’ve used. One thing to note is you don’t have as many options for radiator location as with traditional cases. You can mount on one side or the other and I fully recommend mounting on the fan area close to the pump or you’ll be fighting the tubing when trying to do anything with your GPU. In addition, you should pop in your 8-pin CPU connector before mounting the radiator - just to make life a little easier.
)
An oddity I did run into with the ATX half come with the front IO. Right next to the motherboard area is a space to mount a reservoir and pump for a custom loop, however, the cables for the front I/O run right across it with no visible way to route them behind the chassis. There are no cutouts next to the front I/O and the cables are too stiff to route immediately after they connect to the I/O panel. I had no choice but to have them cross over the mounting area to the nearest cable management port, which I can only imagine would make it hard to mount the hardware for a custom loop. It’s completely possible I’m missing something glaringly obvious, however, as does happen sometimes.
)
Front I/O has to cross over custom loop reservoir area.
A unique challenge that Cougar faced with the Gemini X comes from the fact that cables have to be, essentially, routed between two different computers. With the power supply and hard drives existing on one side, there need to be multiple options for routing the cables to the other side. After all, CPU power connectors are in a different location than the 8-pin CPU connectors and GPU power. When it comes to the solution for this issue I am left a little disappointed. I would have hoped for more ‘straight through’ routes for these cables. As it stands there are two towards the front of the case that goes straight through one side and out the other. In order to route to the other areas, I had to go behind one side, attempt to route between the two sides and come out the other. This proved particularly hard when using cable extensions on the power supply, which otherwise wouldn’t have been able to reach.
)
Some Other Notes
When it comes down to brass tacks, the fact is that this case serves the purpose it sets out to and does so with style. Sure I had a lot of difficulty with cable management, but once you’re don’t building the PC you don’t really have to worry about that much anymore. What I’m left with is an absolutely DELICIOUS streaming and gaming set up. I was able to get completely get rid of my second tower which, for me personally, freed up a sizeable chunk of foot space.
When it comes to temperatures there is nothing to scoff at for my Gaming components. Initially, I had the radiator fans pulling cool air in through the radiator and the opposite fans venting - the configuration that was a selling point of the case - and would notice pretty high temperatures on my 2080 Duke. After switching all the fans to intake for full-on positive pressure I think Cougar should be advocating for an all-intake configuration. I now have two fans blowing cool outside air directly onto my GPU and have never seen a temperature over 68c in even my most intense gaming sessions. Cougar was also kind enough to send their new AIO cooler, the Cougar Helor 240, which you’ll see reviewed later this week and has done an admirable job keeping my CPU cool so far.
Final Thoughts
The Gemini X is attempting to sell itself to a very, very niche market. There’s not a lot of streamers that are successful enough to afford having a separate streaming computer and of those how many are going to be able to drop the hefty price tag on the case? It’s definitely not something I would recommend to someone just looking to getting into dual computer streaming, however, for the well-off enthusiast or established streamer? Definitely. The Cougar Gemini X was, despite some cable management shortcomings, a lot of fun to build in and even more fun to look at. It’s already become a talking to point when people come over because it’s truly unique to behold. So if you find yourself in the dual-computer streaming crowd and you’re looking to consolidate towers it’s definitely worth giving a glance Cougar’s way.
Pros
- Holds two computers!
- Premium Build Quality
- Good Airflow
Cons
- Cable Management Solutions are limited
- Really expensive
The product discussed in this article was provided by the manufacturer for the purposes of review.
