Assembly

As this is one of three cases which can hold the HPTX form factor, we placed an EVGA SR-2 board within the case. As you can see, it fits perfectly, while still allowing access to the outermost openings in the mainboard tray.


A normal ATX board dwarfs within the chassis. Needless to say, the HPTX-Tank can hold any components you can throw at it, be it graphic cards, CPU coolers or mainboards. Even the Radeon HD 6850 looks tiny within the chassis.


As you need to remove the entire hdd cage to gain access to the pair of 2.5 inch slots, I have installed an SSD at this location first. Be sure that all the cabling has been applied, as these bays become unreachable once the 3.5 inch drives have been installed. This means that the 2.5 inch ones are intended to be used in a permanent fashion - for a system drive for example.


The 3.5 inch drives sit on rubber rings, which kills any vibrations from these storage units. Slide them into the slot, push the metal bar in and screw down the thumb screw to hold things in place. This system works well and is an evolution of the version Lian Li uses in their enclosures.


While you do not need to pull off the entire front to gain access to the drive bay cover, I have still taken the time to do so. A large dust filter in front of the 230 mm fan stops any dust from entering the chassis. The optical drive slides in just fine and is secured with the afore mentioned thumb screws. This is a simple and traditional approach and works well.


Once all the components are in place, the power supply is the last of the pieces for a fully running system. You may place any such unit here, no matter how long it is. It is held in place by four traditional case screws. Last but not least, the card support beam is applied. While the rubber mounted "stop plug" as I call it, will do the job fine, and it does reduce strain on the mainboard, but the card could still slip down if you handle the chassis roughly.


Once everything is installed, the interior does not really make quite the clean look until one places the black side panel on the side behind the mainboard. Then the black cables disappear somewhat. I have also powered up the chassis on to show you the strong light emitted by the four fans.

Finished Looks

Once everything is assembled, the chassis makes a very good impression. Even though it does not come across as quite as sturdy as the Lian Li V2120, nothing vibrates and the red LED fans look quite sexy. Sadly the fans are very loud, so odds are you will end up replacing them anyways.


Cubitek has the same problem as Lian Li does: the front power/HDD activity LED bleeds through the cracks of the front, Turning things around, everything is clearly accessible and the red LED fan can clearly be seen.


To give you an idea about how the case will look at night, here a shot with the surrounding lights off. I could have increased the exposure time of the picture, but the above is an accurate representation. You will not see too much light coming from the front of the chassis, as the dust filter blocks most of the lighting.