MSI Barricade Mid Tower PC Case Review

MSI Barricade Final Thoughts

The MSI Barricade chassis is a type of chassis that will accommodate just about anyone who is constantly on the go. It is fairly light weight, and has a small enough footprint to make toting this chassis from house to house quite easy. MSI has also included some features that we have seen only in full tower chassis’; that being the dual 120mm front fan intakes, and adding the ability of installing the top 120mm exhaust fans to the top of the chassis, instead of the underside of the interior, which will allow us computer users to use a multitude of different motherboard configurations while using the MSI Barricade chassis. Another thing that gets my attention about this little chassis is that MSI includes a 3 year warranty, which is a rare commodity to have in the computer industry, especially when it pertains to chassis’.

As I recently discovered, I have a nephew that will take/carry his computer anywhere he goes. Even if it means he just going to visit friends and family members just for a day or two, he will always drag his computer right along with him. These types of people need to have a computer chassis that is light weight enough to make moving their computers from house to the next easily and effortlessly, while at the same time remain compact enough so that the computer system does not take up a lot of space at the same time. While not having to make a lot of sacrifices on what these types of portable gamers can use with their computer systems, they can retain portability, and have a powerful computer at the same time, so that the only thing that is limiting them on their gaming sessions, is themselves.

There is one area that MSI needs to work on with this particular chassis, and that is the wire management capability behind the motherboard tray. I feel that MSI could have added some more space behind to the backside of the motherboard tray area. Lets face it, not all computer components are getting any smaller; in fact, some keep getting larger. That also includes the length of the power cables from our power supplies. This makes it tough on case designers as we need a chassis that can handle variety of different sizes and configurations of PSU power cables. Whether these PSUs are modular or non modular, a chassis should be able to give us computer some flexibility on how to hide these power cables and keep them from blocking precious air flow with in the chassis it self.

Now myself, I prefer the use of non-modular PSU in my chassis, and the reason for this is because when my computer configuration changes (as it does quite often) the last thing I want to be doing is scrambling around trying to find that ever elusive power cable I need to run my new computer; while a non-modular PSU all of my power cables are right there at the ready when I need them. I can see that using a non-modular PSU with a ton of connections would be tricky as you’d have to hide all the cables.

Looking over at Pricegrabber for a pricing for the Barricade chassis, Amazon lists this chassis for $79.99 USD with free shipping. Not a bad price for an enthusiast oriented case, but with a $20 rebate right now that bring this case down to $59.99 shipped and for that price it is a pretty good deal. When your biggest gripe about a case is about half an inch of space behind the motherboard tray then you got a solid case. There are over 100 cases in the $50-$80 price range, but not all of them have a 3-year warranty, side panel window, SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, fan speed controls, an SD card reader and good build quality.

Legit Bottom Line: The MSI Barricade is a nice case that has the key features you need at a price that is hard to beat.