Inside the Case

With the front panel off you can clearly see the internal layout of the inside of the Vertex. The case allows room for Micro-ATX, Flex-ATX, or Micro-ITX style motherboards. The power supply sits in a standard location inside the case. You can also see both the intake (bottom) and exhaust (rear) fans. Both fans come with 18" long cables sleeved in black sleeving and heatshrink. In the top of the case you will notice the hard drive mounting cables. These are designed to suspend the hard drive to keep it cool and to minimize vibration. The cables are held in place by Nylon thumbscrews.


On the inside of the front panel you can see the wiring for the three LEDs that can be used to indicate hard drive activity or to show that the machine is powered on. You also have access to the Bulgin Vandal-style power/reset switch which comes equipped with a substantially long set of cables that are sleeved in black, same as the fans. The bottom of the Vertex also acts as the motherboard tray. It has the standard motherboard stand-offs pre-installed. Here you can also catch a better look at the Scythe fan that provides fresh air from underneath the case. Eight small V shaped brackets hold the four side panels to the bottom of the case with the included onyx M4 Allen head screws which keep the case together nicely and look great as well. Extreme Velcro is used to mount the power supply to the motherboard tray. While it sounds like it would possibly be weak and problematic, the Extreme Velcro does an excellent job of keeping the power supply in its respectable place.


The left side of the Vertex comes equipped with typical "front panel" ports found on many cases today. Here you will find one 1394 (Firewire) port as well as two USB ports, one Headphone/Line out and one Microphone audio jack. These are nicely mounted so that they are flush to the exterior of the case. On the inside of the case, the cabling for these ports are extremely long. They are the length of which a full tower case would require. I have spoken with the manufacturer and he has informed me that later models of the Vertex will in fact come with shorter cabling to rectify this problem. The headers on these cables are well labeled, block type connectors which make it easy to attach them to your motherboard quickly.


The four side panels of the Vertex are held together with twelve onyx M4 Allen pan head screws. Once removed, you can access the entire inside of the case for installation or maintenance you may need to endure. The five individual panels that make up the Vertex are made of durable laser cut 1.6 mm thick aluminum which is powder coated in one of three colors of your choice available at this time. Color choices are gloss red, gloss black, and blue sparkle. The blue sparkle does cost $10 more but makes for a very astounding finished product when fully assembled. The power supply included with the Vertex is a high quality 80 PLUS certified 270 Watt Flex-ATX unit by Sparkle. It comes equipped with the standard 20/24pin, 4 pin for CPU power, 2x Serial-ATA, 4x 4 pin Molex, and 1x 4 pin floppy style connector. The cables are plenty long enough for any configuration you would possibly run inside this case however are not the ideal length for good cable management.