InWin Alice: Dreamed up in Wonderland?

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Oh boy. I don’t really know where to begin with this review, as it is just “that weird.” I suppose, firstly, shout out to InWin for trying something different. The Alice case is definitely different, with its understated yet stylish design.

At its core, the Alice case is a metal motherboard tray. Surrounding it is a plastic frame reminiscent of a milk crate, only bigger, wrapped in your choice of a fabric sleeve either in gray or white with black “InWin” logos. That’s not to say it looks bad – just really different.

Unboxing

The Alice chassis comes wrapped in a plastic bag in a cardboard box, with a small foam insert to protect the plastic top. Inside the Alice is an extra fabric sleeve and a small baggy of accessories like standoffs and zip-ties. Our unit also shipped with an extra box that included four of InWin’s Sirius Loop RGB fans. Although they are quite awesome, they aren’t standard when you order the case.

Here’s Looking at you, Alice

The Alice is a bit odd looking; when I went upstairs with it my wife was excited because she thought it was a laundry hamper and thought I was cleaning the house. Ever since then, I can’t not see “laundry hamper.” It is marketed as a gaming PC chassis, and it might well be for some folks.

However, I feel that this design lends itself better to a business running a PC as a kiosk, or digital signage out in a lobby – or perhaps a functional piece of stylish art in a living room where it can be blended in with modern decor? Or in any setting where you need a PC, but don’t necessarily want to have something blocky, flashy, or mechanical-looking in your environment. Exterior cable management is a breeze. The PSU cable enters at the bottom in one of the chassis feet. All other cables are routed out the top, but hidden by the “lid”.

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Fans

I’ve opted not to put the Sirius Loop RGB fans in the Alice, because in my mind it doesn’t fit the look/feel of the case. However, they are incredibly quiet and look very amazing. They are as quiet or perhaps even quieter than my go to fans, the BeQuiet Silent Wing 3. And they have addressable RGB rings that add a great look to my personal rig.

The Alice does allow for three 120mm fans on the bottom as well as a single 120mm on the top. I would recommend running the bottom as intake and the top as exhaust.

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Building in the Alice

This is where the Alice shines, if you approach it as a test bench. The Alice is super easy to build in, and given its fabric material it has great air flow. Installing components was mostly a breeze and cable management was incredibly easy.

I did have a couple of issues with this case. First, getting at the GPU/PCI-E screws is difficult, if you don’t have a long enough screwdriver. You have to approach them at an angle. That problem is fairly easy to resolve, though. A bigger issue for me is how incredibly tight the fabric sleeve fit on our unit. It was a bit tough to put on and take off. However, in InWin’s defense, had they made the fabric sleeve loose we likely would have nitpicked that harder yet. The intent of the sleeve is to allow air to flow freely, and also acts as a bit of a dust filter.

InWin has a great video up on their YouTube channel showing a build process in the Alice case.

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Final Thoughts

The InWin Alice comes in at just $55. It may not be the first thing you thing of when you think PC case. It’s weird, but it has its place. I think I might use this in a PC build for a local non-profit I am working with as it would work well in a lobby managing a kiosk and digital signage, and the average passer-by wouldn’t even know there was a PC there. I chose to install InWin’s Sirius Loop RGB fans in my personal rig; not only do they look amazing, they are also amazingly quiet. If you’d like to grab one as well as support Hardware Meta, use our Amazon affiliate link here.