The Case

The side window is large and shows off everything you would want to see from the outside. The hard drives can be seen, while the mostly ugly optical and floppy drives are covered. The space above the power supply cannot be seen and thus can be used for storing excess cables. The frame around the window is perfect for some CCFL lights to illuminate the interior and its contents. The back of the case is painted with the same color as the case itself, so if you were to get the black or blue version the back would be painted accordingly. That way even the back looks good. The frame for the power supply can be turned around, giving you the choice to mount the power supply any way you want. Below that, there is a fan grill for a 12 cm fan while the side panels are secured with thumb screws. All in all, very impressive.


The front of the case looks just like the well known Chieftech cases, but definitely does not have their strong feel to it. The door can only be opened from one side, so you may want to get used to it.


The use of fairly light weight plastic has its advantages - one being weight and while it may keep cost down, there are a few weak spots. The hinge that holds the door in place is made completely out of plastic and that may be the first thing that breaks. Another small problem I had with my case was that door, when closed, did not line up perfectly with the rest of the front. The culprit is the single hook that holds the door closed, which resides right in the middle of the door. If two hooks were used at either end of the case, this would not be a problem.

Features

The side window comes equipped with two features to reduce temperature of your parts. The CPU duct can be removed to make room for a normal 8cm fan. Below that you will find a rather large air vent. It is located right above the expansion slots and gives access to fresh air for your graphic card. The noise level would suffer a bit, due to this vent as all the noise of the loud graphic card would not be encapsulated inside the case. Imagine a loud X1900XTX with an open side, not a very pleasant thought.


The external drive bays are covered by a brushed aluminum plate with the Ultra logo embedded into it. It looks absolutely stunning and hides the ugly drives and cables. The paint job of the entire case is perfect as well. Even though it is glossy, you will have a hard time leaving visible finger prints on this case.


To access the drive bays the entire front can be opened. A 12cm fan can be placed at the same height as the internal hard drives. The door is held in place by metal hinges, much better than the drive bay door. The entire front is actually lime green plastic. The covers are screwed on and then the front is spray painted in the needed color. That way even the screws which hold the drive bay covers in place are painted. The use of actual plastic in the needed color would be a definitive plus here.


As seen from the outside, the back can be equipped with a 12cm fan as well and the PCI slots have separate covers, but are screwed on. The mainboard tray can be removed by unscrewing two thumb screws. It even has handles so there is no need to grab any component to place it back inside the case.


The hard drive bays are turned 90 degrees to give the user better access to them. There is a lot of space between each drive bay, giving enough room for the airflow to pass through. The feet of the case are screwed on and can be turned outward to give the case a more stable hold.