Review
- Introduction
- Specs and Packaging
- External Impressions
- Internal Impressions
- Installation hands-on and Conclusion
The design is pretty standard- except that there’s a cut-out on the top enough to slip a 4/6 pin ATX connector.
What’s something new (for a case that this costs this much) is the angled panel where you route your cable through for cable management. Usually the space between the HDD bay to the right side panel is more than the space between the rear of the motherboard tray and the right side panel- so that “fold” is kept in a position where you route your cables through. Not sure if it helps during installation but that’s what we’ll see later. But there is a space between that part of the tray and the 3.5″ bays- and that will surely help
There’s something extra that comes alongwith the screws: a small add-on where you install it on the corner of the PSU from the inside, this way it helps in some way. I don’t see why its necessary, especially if you secured all the psu mount holes from the rear I/O panel. There are 3 mounting holes for 3 specific power supply sizes. The Corsair TX750 that I use takes the last one if you’re wondering.
There are very few brass standoff provided with the case, that’s because there’s one preinstalled and the rest are mounted directly to the case all that to these protruding standoffs. The space between the PCIE slot and the HDD bay is 12 inches. BUT if you have enough hard drives to occupy the space then its best if you don’t install cards longer than 9-9.5″. If this is going to be a problem for you, its not a case designed for your needs.
Remember: such cases usually appeals to those who probably wont go anything more than 3-4 HDD bays at max but want to buy a very good (more than the usual mid end) GPU that’s usually 10″-11″. That’s anyone: a gamer who maybe moderately overclocks the processor, wants decent enough space to mount a graphic card and by max he’ll go for couple of more 120mm fans- or someone who wants a case that doesn’t take that much money+ space. For those specific needs? Yeah this case will cater to such people. Want more space than this and you’re going to buy more than 1-2 fans and maybe need a headroom for longer cards later-if not now (not everyone changes PC Chassis on a regular basis) so look at cases that cost about more than Rs. 3,500 INR. As it is with all the fans its going to cost you that much.
And that’s why I like 90 degree tilted HDD cage- the cables are routed from the rear itself and HDD won’t be much of an obstacle. But if you do that in this case, you’ll need more depth (usable depth from the motherboard tray to the left side panel is about 6.5″) in the case overall and that it would increase a bit- afterall they did keep the PCI slots flat and used a protruding standoff from the tray itself for a reason: to keep the cost as low as possible.
No cable tie clips? Not even for the ATX cable that runs across the rear part of the motherboard plate? Most of cables is going to be in the angled area. Shouldn’t be a problem for people who are most likely going to grab a decent enough 450w-600w power supply (unless you went for a modular power supply). The reason I am saying is because the space between the rear motherboard tray to the right side panel is negligible but the space between the HDD bay and the right side panel is about 1.5″ (and the space between the angled section and the right side panel is about 2 cms.). Shouldn’t be an issue for PSU with single braided/non sleeved- and maybe sleeved 4 pin ATX connectors- but its a crunch if you’re doing it with an 8 pin ATX connector like TX750. Yeah- I need a 450-550w power supply unit.
There’s also one more thing you need to know: the front panel connectors are on the bezel itself- and the header connectors are glued to the connectors. So if you can’t nudge your cable management just enough to remove the front panel (for cleaning the front fans) for any reason, you’re going to be in a little bit of a pickle.
The case lets you install 2x 120mm fan on the front. The front plastic bezel is of a really good quality for sure. There are 3 very strong (for something made of plastic) clamps on each side to hold the case. It would be great to see some more vents on the sides of the front panel. But if you’re doing that, you need to have a distance between the fans when installed and the vents, this way the fans can suck air in.
I am beginning to like the 3 pin header fans that Bitfenix bundles with their case- especially if you’re looking for something quieter than a cheap set of fans in the long run
Merc comes with a 120mm fan. According to the UL number and the model number (Model: A1225L 12S/ UL: E225507) its made by Chinese company called “Dong Guan Hengli Hong-sheng”- also the same model is something that is used by Thermaltake as well. According to Thermaltake’s site (they use a different colour for the blades) this fan has a speed of 1300RPM and 54.4CFM of air.
