Cougar Challenger Case Review: Is Competitive Performance Enough?

Conclusion: Entering a Crowded Marketplace

Undoubtedly you've detected a certain tone of ambivalence through the course of this review. That's because I'm placed in an uncomfortable position with the Cougar Challenger. The Challenger is by no means a bad case, but the problem is that it's not a great case, either. Let's break things down.

The upsides are pretty obvious with the Challenger. The included hotswap SATA tray is a welcome feature, thermal performance is excellent, and the case is easy to build in. Easier than most, in fact. Noise is fairly middle of the road, but coupled with the thermals, it's certainly tolerable. Build quality is solid, too, if unexceptional. Cougar has managed to deliver all of these things at a reasonably competitive price point, and I actually think it's positioned right where it should be.

So what's the problem? Unfortunately, the Challenger does very little to distinguish itself in a crowded market. They're not offering anything new, and in some places they seem to actually have regressed a bit. The placement of the screws on the removable drive cage is baffling, and while the magnetic filter on the side panel is secure enough, it feels unnecessary. The fascia and its glossy plastic seem to be relics of a bygone era, too.

Cougar needed to offer some kind of killer feature or something distinctive to make their mark on the mainstream case market, but the Challenger is an amalgam of things we've seen before arranged in a very conventional way. Case design is something that's progressing at a fairly regular rate, and there's still a lot of room for innovation and improvement. Neither of these things are present here; this is a "me too" product that lands squarely in the middle of the road.

If the Cougar Challenger appeals to you I wouldn't dissuade you from buying it. The price is appropriate and the performance is there. My only issue is that it's serving customers who have already been taken care of by established products like Corsair's Carbide 300R and the BitFenix Shinobi. If Cougar wants to start grabbing that kind of mindshare, they need to produce something more aggressive and more distinctive or risk being an "also ran."