A Closer Look

The three gauges of the case stand out the most. The top one displays the volume and can be adjusted by a dial on the side of the case. The middle one shows the temperature of the diode hooked up to it. The bottom one shows the speed of one fan and can be adjusted as well.


The side of the case sports a window with two interesting features. First off, there is the air duct, which is kept in a nice semi transparent light blue. The second feature is a number of air holes toward the bottom of the case. These provide outside air flow to a graphic card inside the case, but will let dust pass through as well.


The power and reset button are made out of silver plastic, with the two LEDs for power and hard drive access just below them. Notice the square piece off to the right of the power button? This is a small piece of magnetic metal inside the front of the case. There are three such squares which are used by three screws inside the back of the door, to hold it shut tightly. A very simple setup, but it works quite well.

The side of the case features the usual outputs: One FireWire, two USB, microphone and headphone jacks. The afore mentioned dials for overall volume and fan speed are located just under these connectors. Either you have a hard time reaching them when the case is placed on the floor under your desk or you get very proficient and learn to adjust the volume and fan speed with your toes.


The hinge of the door is quite sturdy, so you will not need to worry about the door breaking off, as it can take quite some strain. The bottom of the case has a fan grill. While it looks like a 12cm fan may fit, this is not the case. You may place two 8 cm fans next to each other behind the fan grill if you wish, but they are not included.


The top of the case features a blue LED fan which blows air upward out of the case. The back of the case has the same model of fan pre-installed.


The drive bays are completely standard, as any drives need to be secured with screws. Both fans come with 12V 4 pin Molex connectors. It would have been nice to see 3 pin header connectors with possible adapters to Molex as this would give the user a choice between plugging them into the mainboard or the power supply.


The PCI brackets in the back of the case do not deviate from other OEM cases at all. The cables to front FireWire, USB and audio as well as the mainboard connectors are no different either. The entire interior of the case is essentially the same in design like any other OEM case. Even though the case comes with a window, you will have to impress the viewers with hardware, as the inside of the case has nothing special to offer.


The cables powering the front gauges are labeled with "input", "output". This makes it easier to piece these connectors together. The left picture shows the temperature diode as well as the fan connector. Up to five fans can be connected to this header at the same time. This means that the user can set the speed of all five fans simultaneously. The second image illustrates the power connector for the entire front.