A Closer Look - Outside

Fully exposed the Raidmax Blackstorm certainly has style with its white exterior and blue accents. The blue trim around the front is a nice touch and helps blend the transition from the top bays to the bottom fan.


Looking at the Blackstorm from the front and back we get a better view of the nice blue accents. These subtle color touches really make the case pop. The rear PCI-brackets are a nice example other chassis manufactures could learn from.


The side panels of the case are rather interesting. A unique mesh window is placed on the access panel that holds a single, blue LED 200 mm fan. This fan provides cool air for the CPU and GPU areas. While the other side panel is seemingly uninteresting from this perspective, we'll find out its secrets soon enough. Lastly pictured is the case handle, which is a welcome addition. They come in handy when moving the case around because when pressure is applied straight up the latch does not engage; pulling the handles outward does release the panel.


Here we zoom in on the front of the case. Our top four bays are standard 5.25" optical bays, the inserts are simply removed by pressing the tab on one side and pulling out. Dust filters have been placed on each of these but are not the easiest to clean. Below the bays is a single 120 mm fan to provide cool air across the internal hard drive rack. To get a better picture of things I pulled on the front of the case and released the plastic cover to reveal the fan and the interesting hard drive activity and power LED details. Just above the 120 mm fan there is a small flat area that holds the LEDs, these activity lights are discolored from the case appearing as green and red. I would like to mention that the front 120 mm fan does have a dust cover but it is screwed into the mesh and not removable for proper cleaning.


At the bottom of the case are seven expansion slot covers, which are perforated and painted with the case's accent blue. The center shows the second 120 mm fan coated in Raidmax blue, along the included, generic I/O panel. At the top of the rear is the power supply mounting area. A top mounted power supply may cause the case to become top heavy thus is more likely to tip over rather than a bottom mounted unit.


The case is fairly standard in terms of external connectivity: two USB 2.0 ports, a single e-SATA port, and one mic and headphone jack each. Unfortunately the bottom is all black and does not have any pre-manufactured openings for additional fans or dust filters.