Test System

Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done by simply using traditional spacers and screws. There is plenty of space above the board, so you may route cables or install a radiator without issue. With no 3.5'' drive bays in front, not even a thick radiator will interfere with the vast majority of GPUs out there.


SSDs require the use of tools as you have to secure them to these metal trays with traditional screws. Once mounted, you can put the tray into one of four positions and use the thumbscrew to keep it in place.


The Rosewill Meteor XR comes with flexible plastic trays. They are quite sturdy even though the drive is held in place by plastic pins. Rubber rings around these act as a measure against vibrations. Once you have placed the drive into the tray, slide it back in until it snaps into place securely.


Adding an optical drive is tool-less as well. Simply remove the cover, slide the drive into place, and watch the plastic locking mechanism snap into place. It has quite a bit of tension, so odds are you won't need to add screws to the mix.


Installing the power supply is quite straightforward as well. Slide it into the chassis underneath the shroud and secure it with traditional screws. There is enough space to fit most units out there, but very long PSUs will not fit unless you sacrifice the HDD cage.


Once everything is installed, the Meteor XR makes a clean impression because of the shroud. Only the audio cable and two leads from the fan in front disturb the look a bit. All the cable mess is hidden behind the motherboard tray, but I had to get a bit creative with securing the cables properly as there is very little space and an inadequate number of hooks for zip ties, which could cause some issues if you install SSDs there.


The HDMI cable may be routed through an opening in the rear of the chassis and will then connect directly to the output of your graphics card. This reminds me of the days when USB 3.0 headers were unavailable on motherboards, which had case manufacturers opt for this solution as well; however, it would have been nice had Rosewill also included a bracket cover to make things look a bit cleaner. I am sure more and more GPU brands will end up including an internal HDMI header on their boards as time goes on. Of course, if you already happen to have a modern video card with an internal header, just plug the cable in and you are ready to go.

Finished Looks

With everything put back into place, the Rosewill Meteor XR looks quite nice. Thanks to the flat design, none of the plastic elements feel cheap overall. The power LED under the red button lights up in blue, which is a bit of a color clash. Having a white LED here would have been nicer. The large HDD activity LED in front lights up in red, which also happens to go well with the overall design. I can see some simply using this one for power and the smaller blue one for HDD activity instead.


Due to the solid nature of the front, you won't be able to see anything inside the chassis. In the rear, the red LEDs can be seen, thanks to the fan in the rear. A quick peek through the glass window reveals it as the sole lighting element of the chassis, in addition to the LEDs on the MSI motherboard and the RGB lights of the ADATA memory.


Looking down on the metal mesh top, you can see some of these elements through the two layers, which means any fan you may install here will be visible as well.