Review
- Introduction
- Packaging and Specifications
- About the Case Packaging
- External Impressions Part 1
- External Impressions Part 2
- Internal Impressions Part 1
- Internal Impressions Part 2
- Complete Setup
- Conclusion
There’s nothing really special about the sidepanel design which has a recessed area from the inside, but it does aid in providing little bit of a space when you do the cable management work on the rear motherboard tray. However at the same time, it makes the side panel to be flimsy as well. The side panel isn’t sturdy as most case have around this price range. Care needs to be taken you’re sliding the panels in and out and make sure any cable isn’t an obstacle. I am not sure if increasing the thickness would help, but that will either force one to increase a cost or throw away some features. All the more reason the packaging needs to be stronger.
The other sidepanel has a mesh clippled from the inside. If you haven’t read the external impressions, the mesh does not have any dust filter so there’s a chance that the system will accumulate a lot of dust in the long run.
The thumbscrews of both the side panels have thicker threads peventing it to come out. This is nicely done. Its one of those little things that help.
The front has 2x 120mm White LED fan. There’s no way you can install 140mm fans. You would require to pull off the front panel to install the upto 4 5.25″ drives. The front panel connectors do not occupy any of the 5.25″ bay and neither its possible to shift to any of the 5.25″ bay.
Event the internal case fans have rubber grommets.
The most catchy part is the L shaped (from the rear view) recessed area will lot of cable tie clips. There’s a cutout section for re-routing 12V ATX/EPS connectors.
Once you install the motherboard, there is a space of around 1.5″ the top panel and the motherboard. Standard 120mm case fans are about an inch thick so if you want, you can install the on top or below the top panel- its upto you.
The case is made of steel, however it does feel flimsy, especially once you remove the sidepanel. Removing the front panel as well It just not the side panel, but case’s frame as well. I’ve noticed this when I was sliding out the hard drive cage.
There’s a thick rubber rubber grip above the vent for the power supply- and the vent is big enough for a 140mm fans on many power supplies. You can install either a 120/140mm fan on the base next to the power supply. Since there is a dust filter that covers both the vents nicely you need to worry much about the base fan sucking the dust and air together.
The space between the floor and the case’s frame is about 2cm, enough for you remove/insert the base vent’s dust filter and to reach out to the bottom of the front panel to remove it.
8 PCIE slots are secured using thumbscrews. Personally I prefer to use screwdriver over thumbscrews to secure the hardware in its place- suffice to say it helps me to secure it properly. So there’s a small curve at the corner of the case that lets you to use the screwdriver properly.
The hard drive cage lets you mount upto 6 3.5″ hard drives/ 2.5″ SSD drives- 3 each on 2 hard drive cage. The top hard drive is very tightly between the 5.25″ bays and the bottom hard drive bays. Good thing there’s a small strip of metal on both sides because you will require to pull it out with both your hands.
You can remove the top Hard drive cage to accomodate longer cards, but I wouldn’t really do it for 2 reasons (1 of them is something you’ll figure out when you read part 2) and the second part is that if you’re having anything more than 10inches non reference cards that occupies 2-3 pcie slots with 2x 120mm fan for cooling the GPU (like Asus EAH 6950 CUII) will be best if there’s some sort of a support bracket for longer cards. The entire weight of the card rests on the PCIE slot of the motherboard (all the more reason to secure the motherboard properly on the motherboard tray and the PCIE slot).
The hard drive’s tray is strong enough and flexible with a space of 2cm between the trays.
You can mount 3.5″ and 2.5″ for your SSD, do note that you will need to remove a clipped support to hold 3.5″ drive on the tray.
