Inter-Tech S-3906 Renegade Review

At the beginning of November, Inter-Tech Elektronik Handels GmbH presented two new gaming towers with RGB lighting and side windows. These are named S-3901 Impulse and S-3906 Renegade and are currently available for a price of € 76.64 * or € 64.99 *.

With the product slogan “RGB meets Design”, Inter-Tech promotes both enclosures with the tinted glass side panel and pre-installed RGB lighting as ideal enclosures for high-end systems with elaborate lighting. Additional features will complete the offer. What other features are these and how the S-3906 Renegade will perform in general we will find out in the following test for you.

Scope of Delivery

The Inter-Tech S-3906 Renegade comes well and safely packed in a brown and printed carton. It should be particularly emphasized that Inter-Tech does not use the normal hard polystyrene, but a softer plastic foam that cannot break. In addition, there are two protective foils on the glass side window. The accessories were stored in a clear plastic bag. This bag contains all important screws, four black cable ties, an instruction manual, an MB-Speaker and a tool to screw in the spacers. The housing also contains a pre-installed housing fan with controllable RGB function and a control board for up to seven RGB fans.

Design

Visually, the Inter-Tech Renegade is one of the more eye-catching enclosures. Especially the three-dimensional asymmetrical front contributes to this look. In addition to this unusual shape, a C-shaped RGB strip is located in the front panel, which is controlled via the integrated circuit board. This RGB strip and the pre-installed RGB fan are a real eye-catcher and have many different modes such as rainbow, pulsating or a fixed color when using the pre-installed controller. The control via mainboard with the corresponding lighting modes of the mainboard manufacturer is also possible through an addressable 3-pin RGB LED connector.

The appearance of the lid is dominated by a large fan opening. In order to hide the laterally offset mounting rails and to protect the components from dust, Inter-Tech has implemented a dust filter for the lid. Last but not least there is the well-equipped I/O panel in the front cover area. Two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, a microphone and headphone output and three buttons for power, reset and lighting are available.

The right side panel is made of real glass, is slightly tinted and is screwed to the body with four screws. These screws have small rubber washers to protect the glass window from scratches. The left side panel is completely closed and has knurled screws or a recessed grip.

The remaining areas are not very different from other midi towers. At the rear there are seven PCI slots, the mounting area for the power supply unit and the pre-installed case fans with a frame width of 120 mm. The manufacturer has implemented a magnetic dust filter for the power supply unit.

Like the exterior paint, the interior of the S-3906 is painted completely black. All in all, the interior is very open and is divided into two chambers by a simple power supply cover without logos. In the upper chamber the mainboard and the rest of the hardware find a place as usual. There are several openings around the mainboard tray for better cable routing. These openings do not have rubber coatings.

In the case of 2.5″ HDDs, hard drives are mounted to the right of the mainboard tray or, in the case of 3.5″ HDDs, directly under the power supply cover in a special hard drive cage.

Workmanship

With a price of € 64.99 * the S-3906 Renegade moves between the entry level and the middle class. The general workmanship inside is good. The paint is uniform in all places and no runners are visible. All edges are folded and offer no risk of injury.

What is unfortunately a little unfortunate for the estimated price is the thickness of the material used. The left side panel is not particularly torsion-resistant and therefore appears somewhat wobbly. The mainboard tray could also be more stable in some areas. Here we have already seen cheaper enclosures that have a higher material thickness.

Equipment

The Inter-Tech S-3906 Renegade is a midi tower with seven PCI slots. With the given dimensions and a total volume of 47 litres, the tower is of normal size. The Renegade supports motherboards up to ATX size and CPU coolers with a maximum height of 175 mm. A maximum of 275 mm space is available for graphics accelerators. Inter-Tech does not specify the maximum length of the power supply unit. However, our own measurements have shown that the power supply should not be longer than 200 mm in order to be able to lay all cables properly.

Model:	S-3906 Renegade
Housing type:	Midi Tower
Dimensions:	215 mm (W) x 475 mm (H) x 465 mm (D)
Weight:	6.26 kg
Material:	Steel, Plastic, Tempered Glass
Color:	Black
Front connections	2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, 1x loudspeaker, 1x microphone
Drive bays:	2x 3,5″, 2x 2,5″
Extension slots:	7
Form factors:	ATX, mATX, mini-ITX
Ventilation:	Front: 3x 120 mm, 2x 140 mm Rear: 1x 120 mm, 1x 140 mm cover: 2x 120 mm, 2x 140 mm
Radiators:	rear: 1x 120 mm side: 1x 240 mm bottom: 1x 360 mm
Max. CPU cooler height:	175 mm
Max. Graphics card length:	275 mm
Max. Power supply length:	approx. 200 mm
Cable management space:	12 mm up to 25 mm
Price:	€ 64.99 *
Special features:	dust filter, glass viewing window, RGB control board

In order to realize the RGB effects, the housing has a 120 mm RGB fan, an RGB strip integrated in the front panel and a corresponding control board. The control board has a 4-pin PWM connector, a 3-pin connector for a digitally addressable RGB header on the motherboard, four 3-pin connectors for normal fans, eight connectors for RGB fans and two connectors for RGB strips. Unfortunately, the eight connections for the RGB fans and for the RGB strips do not correspond to any standard.

To protect against dust, Inter-Tech has implemented three dust filters in the Renegade. The filters in the lid and base have magnetic strips and are therefore easy to remove. Behind the lateral fan openings in the front panel there is another dust filter. However, this is permanently installed and cannot be removed.

Water cooling components also find a place in the S-3906. A maximum of one 280 mm radiator can be installed in the front and one 240 mm radiator in the lid. However, make sure in the lid that the VRM coolers and the RAM coolers are not too bulky.

System Construction in the S-3906 Renegade

Now we come to system installation. As hardware I use a Intel Xeon 1230v3 on a Gigabyte H87M-D3H with 16GB RAM. The Xeon is cooled by a Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer 240 All-in-One-Wasserkühlung with two Fractal Design HP-12 PWM*. An HD 7850 2GB from Asus is responsible for the image output. The power supply is done by the non-modular be quiet! Pure Power with 400W*

The installation of the main components was completed quickly. Four spacers were already pre-assembled and one of these spacers has a slightly higher edge so that the mainboard stays in place for a short time without having to be screwed down. The other spacers could easily be screwed in due to the included nut for the screwdriver.

Altogether the Midi Tower offers enough space for hardware. With a maximum supported height of 175 mm, currently all common CPU coolers should fit this case. When installing graphics cards, however, the buyer has to do without some space. Built-in graphics accelerators must not be longer than 275 mm, so various custom cooling systems are out of the question.

While we are at water cooling, the used Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 could be mounted in the front of the Renegade or in the lid. Due to the offset mounting rails in the lid, there is no conflict between the components used and the VRM or RAM coolers.

The wiring of the whole system looks tidy at least on the front and looks tidy. The openings for the cables are well placed. Unnecessary cables can be easily hidden under the power supply cover. If you look at the picture of the wired back, you can quickly see that most of the cables are rather in the left area. The reason for this is relatively simple: directly behind the mainboard is unfortunately with 12 mm relatively little space. This is enough for the thin fan and SATA cables, but the 24pin ATX cable only fits into the deeper slot on the left side.

The Renegade supports a maximum of four hard disks. Two 3.5″ data carriers can be placed under the power supply cover. Four long screws and rubber decouplers are used for mounting. The HDD can also be attached directly to the cage with a screw for easy transport of the housing. Two further data carriers in 2.5″ format can be placed vertically over the hard disk cage on the rear side. Inter-Tech also includes thin self-adhesive rubber rings for decoupling. Unfortunately, it is a bit unfavorable that the hard disks have to be screwed from the front. If you plan to install a radiator in the front, you first have to install the hard disks, otherwise you can only screw them on one side.

Finally, we come to the temperatures reached in the S-3906 Renegade. During the load test, a total of 15 minutes of Prime95 and FurMark were carried out at a room temperature of 14.5 °C. The test was carried out in a room temperature of 14.5 °C. The test was carried out in a test room. The pre-installed fan could not be controlled despite the connected PWM connection. This means that the fan can be heard especially in idle mode. The fans on the radiator and the pump were operated with the Silent profile. This resulted in temperatures of 71°C for the CPU and 70°C for the GPU when the radiator is mounted in the lid. If the radiator is located in the front, this resulted in 65°C for the processor and 74°C for the graphics card.

Conclusion of the S-3906 Renegade Review

The Inter-Tech S-3906 offers for a price of € 64.99 * a good workmanship, a real glass side window and pre-installed RGB elements including a control board. The space for radiators and all-in-one water cooling is also good. Where there’s light, there’s often shadow. Negative features of the Renegade are the thin metal and the proprietary connections of the control board. Although accessories are planned according to Inter-Tech, they are not yet available. The space available for cables on the rear could also be a little more generous.

In view of the well-known competition, the selection of enclosures with glass viewing windows and RGB functions in the price range between 50 € and 80 € is very high. However, due to its lower profile, the Inter-Tech housing could have a much heavier weight than manufacturers such as Cooler Master, Sharkoon or Thermaltake. But the case doesn’t have to hide at all.