Unpacking the goods

The package itself contains the case (duh), lots of screws and other tiny metal thingies and a manual. The screws are grouped together by use, for example all motherboard related screws are in 1 bag, and all drive related in another and so on. Not included is the optional LED Tubes, more about these later in this article.



One little minor detail about the unpacking process: the front cover, which is made out of aluminum, was protected with a plastic foil. This foil was glued onto to case with quite strong adhesive that was pretty hard to remove. I had to use special cleaning products to get rid of the glue.

A closer look



Although this case is profiled as a workstation or server case, the designers clearly thought about the casemodders among us. The case looks strong, simple and stylish (which is a good thing, if you ask me!).



There are the massive intake and outtake holes in de front, side and back of the case. The front panel is ready for the optional LED Tubes. Basically, these LEDs are slid up the front panel and connected to the plugs inside the panel, giving the case a nice colored glow in front. I think it is great that they made this an optional component, as not everybody wants to pay extra for *bling* *bling*. The side door has a lock. Although it's a pretty basic lock (like the ones found on the well known Chieftec cases), and thus pretty easy to break, I like the idea of having my computer locked up. Too bad the front door cannot be locked though.



The front panel door can be slid alongside the side of the case, and it’s more versatile than having a 90° door which you have to open and close each time want to access optical drives. Another small yet useful feature is the twisting USB/Firewire/headphones panel in front of the case. Depending of your position you can turn the jackets towards the front or towards the side of the case, also altering the looks of your case.




A last interesting though less useful feature is the flip-open optical drive tray on top of the front panel. This panel allows you to open your CD/DVDROM without opening your front door. Unfortunately this system does not seem to work with all drives, a LiteOn CDwriter was unable to go get its tray back inside without extra help, a LG DVD drive however worked perfectly.

Let’s get some hardware components installed inside and see if this case can keep them cool ->