By, Me! 
The first thing I noticed when I picked up the box that the FedEx fellow left by my door was, ?This thing is light!? But, bear in mind, it does not come with a PSU, and I have only dealt with steel cases before. So, your mileage may vary.
I opened up the box, and the nice all aluminum from bezel looked up at me. It really is a good-looking case. But then again, I have only looked at those plastic fronted ?posers? before. I took it out of the box, and unwrapped it. I was eager to see if it really was ?tool-less? construction. I flipped it over to look at the back, and sure enough the two side panels were held in place by a pair of thumbscrews each. In between the four PSU screw holes are a pair of threaded holes on each side that housed their own thumbscrews for the PSU as well. From here, I looked at the back panel to see just how much work was involved with making my motherboard fit. I am sad to say that even this panel is aluminum. Thin aluminum at that. I think they could have left this one panel steel.
But I pressed on. To the right of this panel I saw the exhaust fan pressed grill. It was an ample ?bulls-eye? pattern, with an ?x? shaped support posts and three concentric circular holes that make up the grill. Not bad, but it would have to go when I had the time. Then I noticed my second disappointment. The stock case fan was press fitted in. There are four plastic, slightly oversized, pins that are just pushed into the screw holes. Ah well, just encourages me to upgrade the fans faster.
Now I am eagerly removing the thumbscrews to the left panel. I noticed there is a little ?key? panel that sticks out through the side panels back flange. I presume that is where you could attach a lock to prevent someone from opening the case?. But I do not see the point really. The panels are aluminum after all. A pocketknife could cut through them. But I remember when key locks on the power supply were all the rage. I figure this fad will pass as well.
Now the side panel is removed, and I am very impressed. There is quite a bit of space that greets you when you open this case. The motherboard shelf is a good size. No need to worry about the memory sticks getting in the way of a CD player here. (Like it is in my current ? soon to be ex ? case.) There is a nice sidewall the runs along the top, that drops down to just below the PSU on the back side, and curves around to the bottom of the 4 5.25? bays. There is a nice plastic safety sheath already in place. A nice touch. This sidewall is perfect for hiding all your wires up behind. There is even a nice big wire clip with an adhesive pad on it for just this purpose. It may make things a bit difficult for adding in a blowhole, but I do not think this case would require one. More on that if I find it necessary to modify the case that way.
Beneath the 5.25? bays, are the 3 external 3.5? bays. Beneath that is a removable shelf ? that has its own pair of thumbscrew ? that can hold 5 3.5? drives sideways.
It is about now that I realize that the case is not completely ?tool-less? as the ad I read states. The expansion ports are held in with normal screws. The drives do not have their own thumbscrews provided. And there are no additional thumbscrews anywhere. But I can live with out the thumbscrews in a few places. Besides my thick fingers would have a hell of a time trying to get a good grip on a thumbscrew holding an expansion board in. So it is just as well, as far as I am concerned.
Behind, and below, the removable shelf is a built in channel that you can run all the necessary cables along. There are two 80mm case fans mounted in front of the shelf that are press fitted in as well. The front case grills are a nice staggered pattern of holes, so from directly in front of the fans you do not see much of them. There appears to be about ½? between the front of the case, and the inside of the bezel. The front bezel seems to be held in with four, double prong, plastic clips at each of the far corners. So it would seem that putting a replaceable filter in between the two grills would be a difficult endeavor for a ?quick? chore. But I will have to play around with those clips and see just how difficult it is to reach all of them.
All in all, I am quite pleased with the case. I think it will do a fine job of improving my hot tamale of a motherboard/CPU combo. I will post more details after I make the transplant, and gather some data.
If I have missed anything you would like to know about, please ask the questions. I will try and answer as best as I can.
The first thing I noticed when I picked up the box that the FedEx fellow left by my door was, ?This thing is light!? But, bear in mind, it does not come with a PSU, and I have only dealt with steel cases before. So, your mileage may vary.
I opened up the box, and the nice all aluminum from bezel looked up at me. It really is a good-looking case. But then again, I have only looked at those plastic fronted ?posers? before. I took it out of the box, and unwrapped it. I was eager to see if it really was ?tool-less? construction. I flipped it over to look at the back, and sure enough the two side panels were held in place by a pair of thumbscrews each. In between the four PSU screw holes are a pair of threaded holes on each side that housed their own thumbscrews for the PSU as well. From here, I looked at the back panel to see just how much work was involved with making my motherboard fit. I am sad to say that even this panel is aluminum. Thin aluminum at that. I think they could have left this one panel steel.
But I pressed on. To the right of this panel I saw the exhaust fan pressed grill. It was an ample ?bulls-eye? pattern, with an ?x? shaped support posts and three concentric circular holes that make up the grill. Not bad, but it would have to go when I had the time. Then I noticed my second disappointment. The stock case fan was press fitted in. There are four plastic, slightly oversized, pins that are just pushed into the screw holes. Ah well, just encourages me to upgrade the fans faster.
Now I am eagerly removing the thumbscrews to the left panel. I noticed there is a little ?key? panel that sticks out through the side panels back flange. I presume that is where you could attach a lock to prevent someone from opening the case?. But I do not see the point really. The panels are aluminum after all. A pocketknife could cut through them. But I remember when key locks on the power supply were all the rage. I figure this fad will pass as well.
Now the side panel is removed, and I am very impressed. There is quite a bit of space that greets you when you open this case. The motherboard shelf is a good size. No need to worry about the memory sticks getting in the way of a CD player here. (Like it is in my current ? soon to be ex ? case.) There is a nice sidewall the runs along the top, that drops down to just below the PSU on the back side, and curves around to the bottom of the 4 5.25? bays. There is a nice plastic safety sheath already in place. A nice touch. This sidewall is perfect for hiding all your wires up behind. There is even a nice big wire clip with an adhesive pad on it for just this purpose. It may make things a bit difficult for adding in a blowhole, but I do not think this case would require one. More on that if I find it necessary to modify the case that way.
Beneath the 5.25? bays, are the 3 external 3.5? bays. Beneath that is a removable shelf ? that has its own pair of thumbscrew ? that can hold 5 3.5? drives sideways.
It is about now that I realize that the case is not completely ?tool-less? as the ad I read states. The expansion ports are held in with normal screws. The drives do not have their own thumbscrews provided. And there are no additional thumbscrews anywhere. But I can live with out the thumbscrews in a few places. Besides my thick fingers would have a hell of a time trying to get a good grip on a thumbscrew holding an expansion board in. So it is just as well, as far as I am concerned.
Behind, and below, the removable shelf is a built in channel that you can run all the necessary cables along. There are two 80mm case fans mounted in front of the shelf that are press fitted in as well. The front case grills are a nice staggered pattern of holes, so from directly in front of the fans you do not see much of them. There appears to be about ½? between the front of the case, and the inside of the bezel. The front bezel seems to be held in with four, double prong, plastic clips at each of the far corners. So it would seem that putting a replaceable filter in between the two grills would be a difficult endeavor for a ?quick? chore. But I will have to play around with those clips and see just how difficult it is to reach all of them.
All in all, I am quite pleased with the case. I think it will do a fine job of improving my hot tamale of a motherboard/CPU combo. I will post more details after I make the transplant, and gather some data.
If I have missed anything you would like to know about, please ask the questions. I will try and answer as best as I can.
Facebook
Twitter