Aluminum cases are all the rage these days, they are cool looking, light, and better for heat dissipation. There are not many companies which produce high quality aluminum cases, Cooler Master happens to be one of the few. Lian Li also produces high quality aluminum cases but that’s not of concern right now. The Cooler Master ATC-101-SX2 is the matter at hand today, it is Cooler Master’s all aluminum full tower.
This case is made completely of aluminum alloy, its dimensions are 196 x 484 x 527.5 mm, it has 7 expansion slots, 5 5.25″ exposed bays, 1 exposed 3.5″ drive bay and 4 hidden ones. The case comes with some good cooling as well, there are 3 80mm Y.S. Tech fans, one is mounted in the front for the intake, there is one in the back for the exhaust and there is one on the top for a blowhole. Now lets go ahead and take a look at this case and see what it has to offer.
This case is packaged really well and is really protected, not only is it in a really heavy duty cardboard box but it also has straps around it so that this case has no way out. The inside of the box is also well protected having good thick foam around it so that it is not close to any side of the box so that it would be almost impossible to damage it during shipping. There is also a plastic bag around the case so that the case does not get scratched up during shipping or after you take it out of the box.
I took the case out of the box and was really impressed I could already tell that this was going to be a great case. The front of the case looks really cool and the brushed aluminum just looks amazing. The case comes with one of the 5.25″ bay covers gone because they are assuming that you will be using something which will fill that space which makes sense, however it is always nice to get them all because if you are going to do some modding you might make a mistake and need an extra one. The top of the case is anodized gray and also looks really nice. There is a cutout for the 80mm blowhole which is pretty good and will allow for a good amount of airflow.
The back of the case is also really nice for a few reasons, first there is an 80mm exhaust fan which has a really good cutout so that not much of the air is blocked from excess metal like some other cases. The best thing about the back of this case is the fact that it comes with thumbscrews, a lot of them! There are 2 for each side panel and then 5 for to hold the removable motherboard tray in place. Below is also a picture of the side of the case giving you a good idea of what exactly the color and feel of the case would be.
Both the power and the reset button are really nice, they are both a perfect size so that they are easy to find but not so big that they are ugly. Not only are the buttons cool but I really like that blue LEDs come stock on this case because blue is much better than your standard red, green, or amber LEDs.
The case comes with another feature which I really love to see come stock on cases these days, front USB ports. This front USB port setup is really nice because it is not just stuck right onto the case its behind a little door so that it looks a lot cleaner. All you have to do is push on the top of the little door and it will pop out and lay flat so that you can plug your USB device into the front of your case, saving you time and energy.
I love, Love, LOVE thumbscrews, and Cooler Master knows that little things like thumbscrews can make a case so much better which is why they have gone all out with them. Because of the wonderful thumbscrews it is so simple to remove the side panel just give them a little twist and the panel comes right off. Just taking a look at the inside of the case I knew that there would be nothing but good times ahead.
As you can see at the bottom left of the picture there is a cutout so that you can get to the expansion slots with your screwdriver. You can see the PC speaker which is mounted on the bottom of the case as well. Remember that cutout for your screwdriver so that you could get to the expansion slots? Well guess what there are more thumbscrews under there too. I love the fact that there are thumbscrews on the expansion slots and that you get covers for each slot rather than the kind you have to punch out.
The front of the inside of the case is really nice as well, there is an 80mm fan that is angled up diagonally and the intake cutout is below it. I like that this fan is slanted so that the air is blowing up at the CPU rather than to the back bottom of the case. The power supply cage inside of the case is designed to basically encapsulate the power supply so that is easy to install and for use with redundant power supplies. Because some power supplies have dual fans the cage is removable so that the bottom fan is still effective, I am glad that this can be removed if needed.
This is the first case that I have gotten to review with a removable motherboard tray and it’s about time! Removable motherboard trays are one of the biggest things that I complain about with cases because they are so important to a good case I think. Having a removable motherboard tray makes installation and maintenance of your hardware so much easier. When you want to install you hardware you don’t have to dig around in a small space with little light which makes it hard to see what your doing, instead you can just unscrew the thumbscrews in the back of the case and pull this baby out.
You get instructions on for installing redundant power supplies as well as installing the front USB ports. you also get screws and the standoffs for your removable motherboard tray. The standoffs that come with the case are proprietary because they are not the standard brass screw in kind. They are actually better than the brass standoffs I think, all you need to do is snap them in which is faster and easier.
Because you get a removable motherboard tray installation of your motherboard, expansion cards, CPU, RAM, heatsink and whatever else you are going to install on your motherboard couldnt be easier. I always complain when I review cases and they don’t have removable motherboard trays because they are so nice to have and make everything so much easier to do. No more will you have to cram your upper torso into your case while you try and change RAM, install a new heatsink, or move around expansion cards.
I went ahead and installed my Pioneer 16x slot load DVD, Plextor 40x12x40A CDRW (review to come), and floppy drive to the case. Installation of all these drives went really well and without any problems. It was also really nice because there were no sharp edges in the case so I didn’t have to cut myself in the process which is a nice thing. The jumpers that come with this case are the kind that are all individual which I don’t like as much as the kind that are all connected only because these are messier but this isn’t really a big deal in the thick of things. You can also see the USB cable for the front USB which is nice and long so that it can reach all the way to the back of any motherboard.
Cooler Master knows that many of us use RAID which means we will need a lot of hard drive space in the case, hey that rhymed. Anyways there is a really cool feature on this case which I love, there is a removable hard drive cage that mounts vertically on the side of the case which you can mount two hard drives to, then install back into your case.
I really like this feature because usually the RAID controllers of motherboards are in the bottom right hand corner of the motherboard so this cage and the RAID will be right next to each other. I also like this because it makes installation and swapping of drives much easier and faster.
Conclusion
There is no question about it, I love this case and there are many reasons to love it. This is an awesome case because not only is it made out of aluminum and looks really cool but it has so many great features. I cant say how nice it is to finally review a case which has a removable motherboard tray because I love these things.
This case has front USB, it comes with 3 good fans and all of the cutouts are really good. I also love that Cooler Master spent the few extra bucks so that thumbscrews would be provided because they make everything so much easier and faster. There are a lot of spaces for hard drives and there are no sharp edges on any part of the case which is really nice because when you are installing those hard drives you won’t have to bleed on them.
I also really like the blue LEDs on the case they compliment it so well and are so much better than the normal colors. The only negative aspect to this case is the high price tag on it, if you want to pick this case up its going to cost you about $300 but let me tell you it is worth every penny if you are looking for a really good case.
Overall I am going to give this case a 9.5/10 and award it the OCmodshop Seal of Approval, I would like to thank Cooler Master for sending this case over to me for review and if you are looking to buy this case you can find the SX4 model which is all brushed aluminum rather than the gray anodized top and sides you can find it at Sharka Corporation.
Pros
- Aluminum
- Removable motherboard tray
- Front USB ports
- 3 good fan cutouts w/ fans
- Lots of thumbscrews
- Blue LEDs
- Lots of hard drive spaces
- No sharp edges
- You can use redundant power supplies
- Excellent packaging
Cons
- High price tag