ClearPC is a Canadian company which makes completely clear cases. The case is made of 3/16″ Cast Clear Lucite, this particular model is an ATX mid-tower, with the dimensions of 18 3/8″ x 8 11/16″ x 16 13/16.” The ClearPC has 4 x 5.25″, 4 x 3.5″ (4 x CDROM, 3 x HDD, 1 x FDD).
There is a precut 80mm intake and 80mm exhaust for a fan in the case, which is very cool. You can’t purchase the case directly from ClearPC you can only get them from the resellers listed on the main page. This case retails for about $175.00 which is no bargin case for sure, but as you will see the price is well worth it. It was quite hard to take pictures of this case, seeing how it is completely clear. I did the best that I could, and I really must say none of these pictures do it justice.
The ClearPC case comes in a very large box, I was wondering why it was so big until I opened it. The case is double boxed with packing peanuts in-between the 2. It’s really nice to see that they spent the time and extra money to correctly protect this case. Then I pulled out the main box monogrammed with ClearPC
I opened the main box, and it had a lot of plastic covering the case to make sure it does not get scratched. It also has styrofoam on all of the corners to protect it as well. There is a Ziploc bag which has all of the screws and pieces that you get with the case taped to one of the flaps.
The Ziploc bag contains all the screws, standoffs, LEDs, switch, and a normal 80mm fan grill. I would have liked 2 fan grills to be included with the package since there are 2 holes, however they only cost about $1.
You get a bay cover which covers 3 bays allowing 1 CDROM drive, it would be much better if 4 individual bay covers were provided so that if you have 2 CDROMs you would have an open space, or if you had none you could cover them all.
Here is a shot of the side of the case there are 4 cap nuts which hold the side panel on. The back of the case has the I/O plate area, an 80mm exhaust fan hole, the power supply cutout, and where the cards go. I put it on the box so that it was easier to see the case in detail, like I said before some of the pictures are hard to determine.
The front bezel is held on by 4 cap nuts as the side is, even though it’s a Lucite case you can still remove the bezel, which is very easy I might add. There is an 80mm hole for an intake fan, and you can see to the right that there is a spot for the power button and 2 LEDs.
Even though the case is made of Lucite, and the chances of cutting yourself are not very likely, they took the time to round and smooth all the edges of the case so they are perfectly smooth. You can also see the clear rubber feet on the bottom of the case.
To install the motherboard to the case, you have to thread 6 screws through the backside. You will need to use some tape to hold the screws in place so they don’t fall out. Then put a standoff on each screw so that the motherboard will be at the right height. Also tape the I/O back plane to the case if you have one so that it will be in the right place.
After you have the screws in and the standoffs on, you will need to slide your motherboard onto the screws and into the I/O back plane. I found that getting everything to fit together right was a little bit of a task. After giving it a few trys I finally got it in. You will then need to put a nut on each of the screws and tighten it down.
I then installed my video card and NIC, they went in no problem, however when I went to secure them with a screw it was a bit tight. The screwdriver did not have enough room to allow me to screw it in strait.
I also installed the power supply to the case, again it went it no problem. It had a lot of room around it and the screws provided with the case fit my Enermax PSU fine.
Here is a picture of the back of the case with the motherboard, cards, power supply, CPU, heatsink and RAM installed.
Like I mentioned before the front bezel is removable, all you need to do is unscrew the 4 cap nuts on the front and pull it out. You can see also where you install the power button and the power and HDD LED.
The first thing I did to the front bezel was to install the power button and two LEDs. To install the power button you just need to screw it on, and to install the LEDs, you just put them into the holes.
I then used the 4 screws and 4 of the standoffs to mount the hard drive, I also installed a fan to the front for an intake.
I installed my floppy drive just like I did with the hard drive.
I also installed my CDROM to the top drive, because the drive cover covers all 3 bays you can either install it to the top or the bottom bay, not the 2 middle.
Now that I have all my drives, the fan, LEDs, and power switch I can put the front bezel into the case. Simply slide it back into the case and replace the 4 cap nuts. Here is a top and bottom shot of the case from the front with it all installed. I also put the probe in the front of the case for the CPU temperature readings.
I did encounter one problem while installing, because the CDROM has to be at the top or the bottom my 24″ IDE cable was not able to reach from the HDD to the top 5.25″ bay. You will either need to buy 36″ IDE cables or put the CDROM in the bottom 5.25″ bay.
Here is a picture of the case fully installed, doesn’t it look cool? I installed another 80mm fan to the back for the exhaust. I also had enough room behind the motherboard to hide the power supply cables that I did not use. With some lighting and some mods this case would look even better.
Conclusion
I really like this case a lot, it is one of the coolest I have ever seen. It is made of high quality, thick Lucite and is very well designed and put together. There are only a few things that I do not like about this case which can be seen in the pros and cons. You can buy a lot of all the things that are not included but I feel they should be.
Even though this case is kind of expensive, if you have the money and are looking for a very cool case to show off every angle of your computer I would highly recommend this case to you. Not only is this a great case but the case mod possibilities are almost endless. I think this would make a really cool case for a water cooling system as well, since you can see inside of it.
Overall I would give this case a 9/10 and award it the OCmodshop seal of approval. I would really like to thank Frank from ClearPC for sending over this case to review.
Pros
- One of the coolest cases I have ever seen
- Great packaging
- High quality Lucite used
- Front bezel is removable, and easy to do
- 80mm intake and exhaust fan holes are precut
- Side panel easy to remove
- All edges and corners are smooth and rounded
Cons
- Little expensive
- No I/O back plane included
- No individual bay covers included
- Only enough hardware for 1 HDD and CDROM