Sharkhan may be a new brand trying to break into the US market, but it feels like the X500, while looking pretty cool on their website with the renders and real-world close-ups, doesn't really deliver 100% when viewed in person. The biggest visual issue I have is the fact that the glass side panel tint in no way matches what you see on their website, which shows a nearly clear glass panel. On top of that, the plastic employed in the front is not of the same quality as the majority of mainstream brands out there, and, once again looking at their product site, even the surface structure of the front is different between their own images.

All this is just cosmetic and not functional, so some users may not notice all the discrepancies, but unfortunately, the interior also brings along some mistakes that could have easily been avoided. Better use of the space on the shroud and lack of rubber grommets, meaningful hook placement for cable management, and basic dust filters are just some of the smaller issues, while the inability to use E-ATX boards and SSDs without loosing most if not all the cable management possibilities, the somewhat useless fan placements on the shroud blocking the bottom edge of any full size motherboard, and the fact that all front fans come with Molex plugs should be considered the bigger missteps.

Most if not all of these could have been fairly easily avoided, which is is even more unfortunate as the design and general metal frame structure are solid and worthy of $80. I am a big fan of the four fans within the chassis and the built-in ability of cycling through the RGB effects, but none of that makes the Sharkhan X500 unique to any of the establishes brands out there.

Overall, the X500 is a good start for Sharkhan, but looses out to the vast array of choices due to a number of preventable mistakes.