Closer Look

The first association you get when you see this case is probably the Alien monster from the well-known movie. The second one will most likely be the Star Wars theme?/P>

And of course, since the model we got for review boasted aggressively red color, we couldn’t resist bringing up the evident connection with the Ferrari team from the Formula 1 competitions. And when I checked out the front view of this case it also reminded me of the Half-Life 2 locomotive. :) Well, this is definite masterpiece.

The same case is also available in blue and green color. However, I personally would stick with the red one, especially if they finally manage to make the color of the front panel match the color of the rest of the case (at least the model we had suffered from this evident mismatch).

There is a special door on the front panel of the case covering the area for five external 5-inch and one external 3-inch devices. I was very pleased with the bank plastic covers for these bays, which can be easily removed without applying much effort. The covers feature small clips. If you press them in, you will be able to remove the cover easily. You install them back just the same way.

To the right of the 3.5-inch device bay there is an emergency clear CMOS button. I didn’t see it at once, as it is fairly small: you can press it only with a tip of a pen or pencil. The door covering the external drives section is connected to a pair of hinges and is locked with a clip. The paint under the clip has already come off, and so has the paint on the sides of the covering door. So, you have to be really gentle when opening the door, by pressing the clip spot, and make sure that you don’t let it go and hold it until it opens completely; otherwise it will fall down onto the top of the case with a loud knock. I don’t actually know how many hits like that the painted case surface and the covering door mechanics can stand, but I personally didn’t feel like checking it out.

Being very concerned about the robustness of the pointed surfaces I took a closer look at the case and to my great disappointment found a typical graze mark where the front door meets the front panel. This is where the locking clip is situated and where we apply certain effort to open the cover door.

Maybe if they hadn’t painted the front panel at all, but designed it of solid colored plastic, the marked wouldn’t be so visible.

There is a Power On button at the bottom of the front panel, and beneath it in a small niche there are four USB ports. The mic and headphones jacks are also there. There are five cables going inside the case from these connectors, each ending with two rows of pins. This connector design is very convenient for system assembly, but unfortunately the connectors are not marked in any way, so you will have to either guess which one is the sound cable, or to dive into the case and try to follow the cable to the front panel, to see which port it leads to.

There are ventilation holes on both sides of the case, in the lower part of it. These holes are decorated with transparent plastic insertions, which will glow when the system is powered on.

The sides of the case are designed as metal base with decorative plastic panels attached to it. The first side panel of the case is fastened in a traditional way, with two screws. The left side panel is a more sophisticated part. There is a special lever outside the case that is connected to the internal lock holding the panel attached to the case frame. Since the left panel design implies the use of only one screw, this locking lever serves as one more fixation means. By the way, this level makes it real simple to open the case too.

Also there is a ventilation grid outside the left case panel, which is covered with decorative metal grid. If you look at this panel from the inside, you will see a plastic flaring piece attached to the ventilation grid that directs the airflow towards the CPU.