The German company Silent Power Electronics GmbH distributes numerous PC components in Europe under the name LC-Power. The portfolio includes cases, CPU coolers and fans, as well as power supplies and other gaming equipment. By 2020 LC-Power has already introduced nine new cases. These belong to the gaming series and are intended to impress above all with features such as tempered glass, RGB lighting and a spacious interior.
One of the new cases is called Gaming 701B Badge_X and represents a relatively simple midi tower. In addition to the features already mentioned above, this model has four USB ports on the front, an aluminum front panel and two vertical PCI slots. The Gaming 701B Badge_X is already available and costs only 43 euro (currently: Price not available *). Thus it offers a good price-performance ratio, at least on paper. Whether this is true in reality, you can read in this review.
Technical details
| Model: | LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X |
| Case type: | Midi-Tower |
| Dimensions: | 209 mm (W) x 454 mm (H) x 424 mm (D) |
| Weight: | approx. 5.93 kg |
| Material: | Steel, plastic, tempered glass |
| Color: | black |
| Front connectors: | 2x USB 3.0 type-A, 2x USB 2.0 type-A, 1x microphone, 1x headphones |
| Drive bays: | 2x 3,5″ (internal) 2x 2,5″ (internal) |
| Extension slots: | 7x horizontal, 2x vertical |
| Form factors: | ATX, mATX, mini-ITX |
| Ventilation: | front: 3x 120 mm or 2x 140 mm Back side: 1x 120 mm Cover: 2x 120 or 2x 140 mm |
| Radiators: | front: 1x 240 mm or 1x 280 mm Rear: 1x 120 mm |
| Max. CPU cooler height: | 160 mm |
| Max. graphic card length: | 350 mm |
| Max. max. length of power supply unit: | up to 200 mm (without HDD cage), 160 mm (with HDD cage) |
| Place for cable management: | up to 20 mm |
| Price: | Price not available * |
| Specials: | dust filter, cable management, RGB, tempered glass |
Scope of delivery
The LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X comes well and safely packed in a brown box with black writing. Inside the box the tower is covered by two blocks of normal styrofoam and a plastic foil. However, the styrofoam blocks are borderline thin. A sketch of the tower and all important technical data are printed on the cardboard. The supplied accessories are in a bag and are fixed inside the case with a cable tie. But there is not much to see here. Included are only all important screws, five black cable ties and a mainboard speaker. Also included are the pre-installed spacers and a magnetic dust filter for the lid.
Outside impression
If you remove the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X from its outer packaging, you can marvel at a simple but very chic case. Especially the front is a real eye-catcher due to the slightly curved, thin plate made of real aluminum. The rest of the front element is, as expected, made of plastic. To be able to guarantee a good air supply, the Gaming 701B has large air inlets on both sides. Unfortunately, there are no dust filters behind the air inlets ex factory. If you pull the front panel off to the front, the view to the fan slots becomes clear. Either three 120 or two 140 millimetre fans can be mounted here.
The lid area of the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X is dominated by a large fan grille. This offers space for two 120 or two 140 millimeter fans. To prevent the PC from getting too much dust when it’s turned off, the manufacturer has also given the Gaming 701B a magnetic mesh dust filter. The I/O panel is also found in the lid. Features include two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, two connections for headset and microphone, and three buttons for power, reset and RGB control.
The right side panel of this midi tower is completely made of steel and has knurled screws and a pull-out aid. The material thickness is for the price class OK. The left side part is made of a four millimetre thick glass (Tempered Glass) and is connected to the body by four flat knurled screws. In order to protect the glass from scratches, the window is covered on both sides with a protective film.
The LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X stands on four solid, round plastic feet. To protect sensitive surfaces and for decoupling, these feet are additionally equipped with a rubber strip. The silver HIFI look of the feet also improves the general appearance significantly. The power supply to be positioned on the floor is protected by a coarse mesh filter mat. However, since the mat does not have a frame, removing it for cleaning is likely to be somewhat complicated. Finally, if you take a closer look at the front area of the bottom side, you can see various holding points and four screws. This points to a removable HDD cage.
The back of the Gaming 701B deviates slightly from the usual standard. The basic construction is identical to many other cases. The power supply is mounted at the bottom, above which there are seven horizontal slots for expansion cards and, in the upper area, a mounting place for a single 120 millimeter fan. On top, this midi tower offers two additional vertical PCI slots. Unfortunately, none of the nine bezels is reusable and no replacement bezels are included with the accessories.
The general workmanship or the quality of the painting according to the price. There are no conspicuous lacquering flaws or sharp edges. In places, however, the material thickness is quite thin. Especially on the back side some areas can be pressed in relatively easily.
Internal impression
The interior of the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X corresponds to the appearance of many current midi towers. LC-Power now also uses a construction with two separate chambers. The larger area is designed very open. Due to the lack of hard drive bays in the front, mounted front fans can transport cold air into the interior unhindered. In the left area a mainboard in ATX format and the expansion cards find place. To make the system look tidy after assembly, a total of ten cable management openings have been punched into the mainboard tray.
The upper chamber is separated from the power supply chamber by a cover. This cover has three further openings for laying cables and a small cut-out in the front area. This is to allow the installation of deeper radiators.
In order to be able to look under the cover better, we continue with the review on the backside. On the back there is up to 20 millimeters of space for laying power supply cables. In order to be able to lash all cables properly, the Gaming 701B must of course also have the obligatory cable tie points. Under the cover there is space for a power supply unit, which unfortunately is not decoupled, and there is also an expandable HDD cage.
HDD is a good keyword at this point. A total of four data carriers can be installed in the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X. The hard disk cage allows the mounting of two 3.5″ HDDs or one HDD and one SSD. Two additional 2.5″ data carriers can be screwed directly to the mainboard tray. However, this position is not really well thought out as it covers four of the six cable management openings. On the back side one could theoretically even mount two more 2.5″ SSDs. The necessary mounting frames aren’t part of the scope of delivery, though.
System construction in the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X
Now we come to the system installation. As hardware we use a AMD Ryzen 5 1400 on a MSI B350 PC Mate with 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT grey DDR4-2666. The Ryzen is cooled by an EKL Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure and is overclocked to 3.9 Ghz. For the image output a GTX 1060 6GB from Gigabyte AORUS is responsible. Power is supplied by the fully modular LC-Power LC550 V2.31 Platinum* with an efficiency level of 80 Plus Platinum.
The installation of our test system was easy to handle and quickly done. Six of the nine spacers were already pre-installed and the space in front and behind the mainboard tray is good. The cabling did not present itself as a challenge either. All cable management openings are sensibly placed and dimensioned. The finished system can be seen in our eyes.
The general space for hardware is good due to the spacious interior. A maximum of 160 millimeters of space is available for CPU coolers. This is sufficient for many, but not all, heatsinks. Even with a maximum possible length of 350 millimeters for graphics cards, hardly any wishes should remain unfulfilled. The power supply built in at the bottom can be a maximum of 160 millimeters long with an installed HDD cage without causing complications. If the HDD cage is not needed, the maximum possible length increases to 200 millimeters. In terms of an AiO water cooling, the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X supports at most a 240 variant in the front.
Finally, we’ll come to the temperatures that were reached in the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X. During the stress test, Prime95 and FurMark were run for 15 minutes at a room temperature of 23°C. Since the Gaming 701B Badge_X comes from the factory without a fan, we carried out the stress test in two different scenarios (standard equipment, 2x 120mm fan).
Scenario |
Temperature |
| CPU: 50% PWM (1100 rpm) GPU: 50% PWM (1650 rpm) without case fan (series) |
CPU: 94 °C GPU: 78 °C |
| CPU: 50% (1100 rpm) GPU: 50% PWM (1650 rpm) 2x Arctic P12 to 50% PWM (1050 rpm) |
CPU: 82 °C GPU: 72 °C |
The LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X comes completely without a fan as standard equipment. This reduces the price, but provides for higher temperatures. Our system hasn’t crashed or clocked down, but especially the CPU comes dangerously close to its temperature limit. If one installs a rear and a front fan at the same height as the graphics card, the situation relaxes considerably. Especially the rear fan helps the processor stay cooler. The achieved rates aren’t a best performance, but we’ve already seen worse rates in our reviews. The purchase of additional fans is therefore mandatory if you want to install a gaming system in the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X.
Lighting options in the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X
The LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X has a chic RGB illumination ex works. For this purpose, a total of two LED strips have been attached to the rear of the fan grids on the front panel. These indirectly illuminate the visible area of the fan grills. This principle is somewhat reminiscent of the illumination of the Kolink Refine RGB. The different colors and modes are controlled only by the LED button in the I/O panel and an old-fashioned 4-pin Molex connector for power supply. An addressing via a current mainboard is unfortunately not possible. Finally, of course we don’t want to withhold some impressions of the lighting from you.
Conclusion of the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X review
Was the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X able to meet our initial assumption regarding a good price-performance ratio? In our eyes yes. But you can also feel at one point or another that the manufacturer had to make savings. For example, all PCI slot bezels are not reusable and no replacement bezels were added to the accessories. Moreover, the material thickness is borderline in places. But the most negative aspects are the complete omission of case fans and the omission of a dust filter for the front.
But if you invest in one or two fans, acceptable temperatures are reached in the Gaming 701B. What speaks for this midi tower is clearly the look. A chic aluminum front, tempered glass and RGB lighting should make the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X a real eye-catcher on every desk. In addition, the interior offers a lot of space for hardware and allows for proper cabling. Last but not least, there is the price. At the time of the review, the lowest price for the LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X is only 43 € (currently:
LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X
Workmanship
Structure
Features
Cooling
Value for money
80/100
The LC-Power Gaming 701B Badge_X offers aluminium, RGB and tempered glass at an attractive price, but comes ex works without a fan.
