A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the chassis, simply remove two thumb screws of each panel and pull it back and up. As you can see, the case has to be opened on the other side, as the board is flipped upside down. There are several holes on the mainboard tray, so your chances are good, that you can access the cooling backplates without having to remove the entire board.

We should point out at this point, that this configuration will do no good for mainboards with heatpipes. The topic has been on the table ever since manufacturers started using heatpipes to cool their mainboards. While you will still be able to operate your PC with such a configuration, it depends heavily on what type of heatpipes are on your board. Ones that use wicks to draw the coolant back to the hot zone tend to work pretty much just as well when flipped upside down, while ones that rely on gravity will tend to get hotter. Nonetheless, all this time, many of us have used cases with such a configuration - without problems.


Starting with the front and the unique location of the power supply: the bay is located on the very bottom. A cable has been included to route the connector from the front to the rear of the chassis. Above that, you will find a hard drive cage, which can take three drives - all of which will be rubber mounted to stop any vibrations. We have seen this system before and know that it works really well, but more on that later. The hard drives are actively cooled by a 120 mm fan, which comes with a mainboard connector and a Molex plug, so it is up to you how you want to power the unit. Moving our focus to the top area of the front, this is where you will find the external drive bays. Nothing out of the ordinary here, besides the fact, that the same clips as in the Lancool series of cases are used to hold the drives in place.


Now the rear is a very simple matter. The bottom half holds the exhaust fan and the power plug, while the top is intended for the expansion slots. The covers are held in place by screws instead of thumb screws, which would have been a nice little feature.


The front of the enclosure may be removed with a firm pull, as it is held in place by high quality plastic clips. The one interesting aspect is the power supply bay. The frame is removable and may be rotated to point the PSU upward or downward. Either way, it should not make a big difference in temperature or airflow, as both options are fairly restrictive. This is something which cannot be avoided in a chassis this small.


Before we move unto the power supply in this review, let's take a quick look at the cables. The power cable is angled, so that it will fit within the confines of the front panel, while all other cables are of the standard variety.