The exterior of this case is very appealing, and actually
comes in two styles. What we have is a silver metalic like
finish with a blue front. The other option is all black.
Both versions contain acrylic with a tad of crome to finish
it off.
The blue and silver version to the left, and the black on
the right.
As you can see from the pictures,
the case has barely any plastic. In fact, the only plastic
in the whole case is the colored piece that is underneath
the acrylic and a few chrome painted buttons. Even the bay
covers are steel which unfortunately could make it harder
if you plan on screwing through them to mount a baybus,
switch, or anything else you can imagine.
Two USB ports, a headphone
port, a mic port, and an IEEE1394 port all built into the
front of this case really make things easy. Transferring
pictures from my digital camera no longer requires me to
get on my knees, crawl behind the computer and plug a cord
into whatever available USB I have. The headphone port is
great for the next lan party. Although I'm still not quite
sure how to hook it up to my soundcard, a visit to my manual
will let me know. The microphone port is also great for
anyone who chats while playing games or teleconferencing.
While I do not have anything that supports an IEEE1394 connection,
it's still nice to know it's easily accesible.
Connections are always a good thing.
The case's power button is
a large chrome-like button. Below it are two LEDs, one for
the power and one for hard drive activity. The LEDs were
not overly bright, nor were they too dim. Below those we
have the all important reset button.
As you can see, the buttons do hold fingerprints, but they
come off easily.
This case is definitely well
built. The metal is thick and in no way flimsy. The acrylic
really is a nice touch and looks good, but acrylic does
scratch. After we removed and put the acrylic back on a
few times we noticed the screws (which hold the acrylic
on) scratch it if they are overtightened. However, the scratches
are not viewable as they are under the screw. While we're
talking about screws we cannot forget the two thumscrews
for each side panel!
Under the acrylic we found
a thin and textured blue piece of plastic, which gives the
front of the case its color. Being plastic is a good thing
since it is easily removable in case you want it to be spray
painted. Thus, you can make it any color you want.
The front of that case also
has a series of air holes near the bottom. The only problem
is the front fan is not mounted over them, it is mounted
above them. This is a problem we will address later in the
review.
