Exterior

From the front this case looks menacing. Located on the center of the doors is the power on LED, this is of course blue. One of the things you notice the second you pull this chassis out of the box is the fact that the finish of the front door and the rest of the metal plate work on the chassis differ quite a bit. The front door is made of what seems to be brushed aluminum whereas the rest of the case is plain aluminum painted black. Some would argue that this is a very odd choice and I have to admit that I thought the same first, but after a little while I began to appreciate the rather different looking paint job.


The back of the case looks pretty much like that of any case on the market today. The only thing that sets this back apart from any other is the easy PCI card mounting system. Towards the bottom of the case the back is perforated allowing air to pass by into the case. This is a good idea especially in this case due to its imbalanced airflow (two fans pulling cold air in and only one pulling hot air out). This case is environmental friendly according to the sticker on the back of the case.


With the front door open you gain access to all of the drive bays and the on/off switch along with a restart button. Besides that this chassis features front USB 2.0 ports and the usual audio in and out plugs. The fact that these plugs are covered by the door makes them less usable. It would have been so much better if the USB 2.0 connectors had been located on the outside of the door for easier access like on the Antec P180/P182/P190.


Because the power LED is located on the door there is a visible cable on the inside of the door. Depending on how clumsy you are this could turn out to be a problem since the LED is only held in place by some epoxy. Also if you have the door open it doesn't look as clean because you have a power cable dangling around.


As I mentioned earlier the paint job on this case is quite good compared to most cases on the market today. The piano black finish makes this case look like a million bucks. My only problem with the paint job is that it seems to be a bit flakey and will probably crack if you drop the case or bump it with a hard object. One of the things that I find a bit annoying is that the case isn't painted on the inside, the paint stops right where the side panel begins.


The clear 120 mm fan mounted on the side panel of the case is lit up by four high brightness LEDs. When the side is attached to the case the 120 mm fan sits directly above the CPU socket on most normal ATX motherboards. This is really neat if you have a hot processor or are fond of overclocking like me. The fan is mounted on the side with four screws. I like the way the outside of the hole looks, a black edge with a round mesh plate to prevent curious fingers from getting slammed by a fan blade. Overall the 120 mm fan is a nice addition to the cooling performance of the case and the positioning couldn't be better.