A Closer Look - Outside

The chassis itself looks very simple - in a good way. With the exterior out of aluminum, the main shell is comprised of a single 2.5 mm thick aluminum sheet that wraps around the top, front, and bottom, which adds to its overall feel nicely. While we got the black version of the chassis, you may opt for silver, and both can also be had with a windowed side panel.


There is as little as possible in the front to disturb Cooltek's clean design, with the front's brushed aluminum going up in a straight line, which makes the UMX2 look a bit sleeker. The back is where this single sheet of aluminum is adjoined by another flat bit with the traditional expansion slots and openings for a motherboard. Instead of rivets, the chassis uses screws, so you could take it apart if you really wanted to. Both our sample's side panels are completely solid and constructed of slightly thinner aluminum sheets that are only 2 mm thick. They wrap around the bottom of the frame, so you could opt to reach through the opening there.


You will find the usual I/O at the front. It includes a pair of USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, and the usual audio I/O. While this is just dandy, it would have been cool to have four USB 3.0 plugs with the ability to connect them to a USB 2.0 header instead as this is a fairly expensive designer chassis, after all. In the top is a slimline ODD bay without an eject button - a fairly common omission within the industry as there is no standardized location for such a button or drive.


In the back, the seven motherboard expansion slots are embedded into the black aluminum panel, with a power connector right next to them, which is necessary as the PSU has been moved to the front of the UMX2 frame. Above these expansion slots are two openings for 80 mm fans.


There is a single 140 mm opening for a fan in the ceiling - it is supposed to push hot air out of the chassis.