Enermax Hoplite case review

Cases & PSU/Cases by leeghoofd @ 2011-06-19

At CeBIT 2011 Enermax already showed us some insights in their latest case designs. Sporting their infamous Vegas fan as a real show stopper. For those that don't know the Vegas fan. Think Las Vegas, think loads of Neon lights, think flashing in all sort of ways to illminate the skyline. But there's more to the Hoplite series then just a cool fan. Enermax included some nifty features that are mostly only found on high end cases. Cases that only will be yours at a premium price.  The Hoplite is available in three different versions. Did Enermax pull it off and did they create a build/feature rich quality case at an affordable price ? Time to open the box and explore the ECA3220 review case.

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Innards explored

Time to take a closer look on the innards. The 4 5 1/2 inch bays are semi screwless. One one side you can turn the knobs, on the other side if required you can still fix the optical drives via a screw.

 

 

All front plates are easily removable. Their mesh design includes a dust filter to keep the inside components clean.

 

 

 

The rear fan is a no LED version to expel the heat out of the case. Below the fan you can see the two holes to facilitate watercooling hosing.  The black backplates are sadly non screw designs; So once you pop them off there's no way to put them back. A shame really, as if you intend to build in another motherboard that might put your graphics card higher or lower then you got a gaping hole.

 

 

 

There's more than enough room  for your mass storage. Up to 4 Hard drives can be mounted via Enermax's Tool-less design. The hard drives are protected via a quick access door.

 

 

 

Only 4 hard drive capability ? There's more via these two hot swappable drive bays. So in total you got up to 6 Harddrives, that should suit most users. The swappable design is well executed. It's very easy to mount the hard drives via a few screws and via the big lever the removal is childs play.

 

 

 

 Some detailed shots of the green PCB that allows for the hot swappable function of the two drives.

 

 

 

In the front we find the 12cm Vegas duo fan. This fan is based on enermax own patented Twister Bearing technology. A total of 11 modes are selectable to combine some cool light effects with the Blue and Red LED.  The Vegas fan is speed ajustable and this is no luxury as running full blast it creates quite some noise.

My biggest concern is the limited airflow this fan can direct into the case. The hard drive cage seriously hinders the airflow, we wil see on the test page how it all performs.

 

 

 

 

 

The below image nicely sums up the most important features of this case :

 

 

 

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