The second stage of the review would be installing the Prescott system to this new “home”. The Prescott was housed in Aspire X-Dreamer II case with 2x80mm intakes, 2x80mm exhausts and 1x80mm top-blower with the side panel fan blocked off. Before I proceeded, I once again recorded some critical temperatures for comparison. With the Prescott high thermal output characteristic, I felt an intake fan should be appropriate. Since the Standard XPIDER II does not include the intake fan, the same 92mm front intake fan supplied with the "Plus" model was sent to me separately.

The System:

P4 2.8E Prescott Socket 478 @3.5GHz

Asus P4P800 Deluxe

JMC Phoenix 70 (cooler)

Western Digital 120 GB SATA

R9000 Pro 128mb

Fortron 350 W PSU

Leadtek TV2000 Expert

CD RW

DVD 12X

Siemens PC-3200 2x256

Windows XP SP1 with latest updates

All reported temps were taken at ~21.5 to 21.8 C room temp and with case panel closed

Before we proceed, I like to point out the manual that comes with every XPIDER II. I know some of us feel about manual. “I could put together a system “blind-folded”. Yes, I believe you. Trust me, this manual is written in a manner that you may well change your “perspective” of manual you’ve had read before. It is concise with illustrative that might put the “old IBM” manual to “shame”. So, if it is your first or second time in putting a system together, I encourage you to read the manual and a veteran may benefit from it too.


The finished good


The optional front 92mm blue LED fan (included in the “plus” model)


Here is some detail of the installation:

With the hard drive cage removed, the motherboard went in pretty smoothly. Next came the CD/optical drives. For whatever reason unknown to me, I installed the CD into the second bay first. It turned out I was having difficulty to slide in the second drive on top of it. Installing the drive from top down went in nicely.



CD Drive Railings used on both sides





The Fan Master came in not with a surprise; like the X-Dreamer II, there is no mounting provision. I installed it anyway without “bolting on” to anything so that I could adjust the fan speed for noise evaluation. I placed the XPIDER II on the same spot where the previous case was so that the temperature and noise comparison would not be distorted. However, there are screw holes for both the 5.25” and 3.5” bay providing mounting point for full caged or half caged mounting.

My 3.5” floppy is in beige which I did not install not to ruin the look. Railings are supplied for mounting.

The “new” system booted up with no delay whatsoever.