Installation:

Normally installing a new case should be no more than 15 minutes or less for most enthusiasts. I, on the other hand, like to take my time and enjoy the ride. Plenty of space around for the motherboard installation; the Optical Drive, hard drive and floppy drive rails went in easy. Although the right hand side panel is removable (very tight fit), it is unnecessary to remove for any drive installation. The 5.25" drive bay also provides slotted rail for those planning to install half size components such as fan bus and front USB ports. I was very satisfied with the process insofar until I got to the expansion PCI/AGP slots. The back plates were so difficult to remove and once removed, they could not be reused; because they are designed not to be, what a bad idea? Otherwise, I enjoyed the process.




The hard to get to and cannot be reused back plate.


Motherboard installed ....


Last look at the "old" case.

Lazyman's Test Setup
CPU	Athlon XP-M 2600+ @ 2,450 Mhz – 1.7v vcore
Mainboard	Abit NF7-S
Memory	Samsung PC3200 2x256 3-3-3-11
Video	ATI 9600XT @ 582/355
Cooling	Thermalright SLK800U + 80mm @2900 RPM
Other	- Samsung 8X RW, 12X DVD - I-IDE CDrom - Western Digital 80 GB IDE - Fortron 350W PSU

For comparison purposes I've included the Aspire X-Dreamer II with following fan config:
- 2x80mm intake
- 2x80mm exhaust
- 1x80 top blower
- side panel fan blocked off

Prior to this exercise I ran the system using Prime95 for 30 minutes; played a couple sections on Far Cry; several runs with Flat-out and about 30 minutes Doom3; and I obtained the following temps on the previous setup.





The temperatures I am interested in for comparison are:

CPU load
System High
Video High
Hard drive

So on to the system tests ->