I coordinated with Chris who owns Cutting Edge Case Mods and chose the color of the case, windows, and fans which I liked the most. This case is a clone of those popular cases out there which I won’t name because they will email me and tell me to take it down but you know what I’m talking about. I reviewed a Antec Performance Plus660AMG which is similar to this case but with obvious differences. This case looks really nice and looks like it has a lot of good features, lets see if it does.
This case comes packed in a regular brown box, inside the box the case is wrapped in plastic and then has the typical styrofoam around it. There was a big gouge in the side of the box from shipping but the styrofoam did its job and there was no damage to the case. The thing I really like is there was custom work done to the case and it is still packed like it would come from the factory.
When I first pulled the case out I really loved the look of the case and knew it could only get better from there. The front of the case has a door which covers the 5.25″ and 3.5″ drive bays along with the buttons and LEDs. There is a lock for the door which can be used to prevent people from getting into the case and stealing your drives. If someone wants to they can get in really easy but its nice to make people think. There is a place for a case badge on the door and the bottom of the bezel has good cutouts for air intake. The back of the case is basically a normal back, there are 2 places for 80mm fans which have good cutouts that wont impede airflow.
From these two pictures below you can see the case in all its majesty, seriously though this case looks really awesome the green windows on the blue paint looks amazing. One thing I really like about this entire setup is that it was all done by hand; this isn’t a factory pre-modded case. I really like the fact that good molding was used on the window rather than the window simply being riveted, glued, or something else tacky. Installation of these kinds of windows is not easy but I could not find a single flaw in either the top or side window. The molding matches up perfectly, has no gaps, and keeps the window tight in place like it is supposed to. Another thing that is really cool about both of these windows is that they have a hole for an 80mm fan. The fans that I got with this case are clear housing, blue quad LED ones which we will see light up later.
I wanted to take a closer look at the molding on these windows because it really deserves it. I took a close-up picture of the side window next to the handle for the door so that you could see how clean the molding is against the metal and how nice it looks. I also took a picture of the molding from inside of the door because I can tell you that installing these windows aren’t easy and getting them to look right using the molding with a built in locking strip is even harder. A lot of the time if you don’t get the cut just right for both the window and the hole on the case the molding wont go in correctly.
I opened up the door of the case where you can see the drive bays and buttons. The 5.25″ drive bays are nice because you can remove the cover without going in through the case. The power button is nice because it is a good size but I think that the reset button could have been a little bigger. The stock LEDs on this case are green and amber but could easily be changed. I think this case would look cool with 2 bright green LEDs to match the color scheme
From the back of the door you can see the handle and the fan attached to the window. The handle can be removed easily if you wanted to but the only real reason to do so is to install a window which is already done. This is also a good picture because it gives you a good idea of how nice the window is because you can see the wall outlet behind it.
As you can see from this picture the case is pretty big and has a lot of room in it. The case has a lot of cool features which we will look at in a little bit but one thing I can point out about this case that I really like is the fact that it doesn’t have any sharp edges which can cut you when working inside of the case. I also like how the case uses regular brass motherboard standoffs rather than clips or any other methods.
The case has a 80mm blowhole in the bottom front of the case which is good for pulling air into the system. You can also see that the jumpers are the kind I prefer, the kind that are fused together. The back of the case has a place to hold two 80mm fans which should be used to pull hot air out of the case. You get expansion slot covers which is nice because I cant stand getting a case and it has the kind you punch out and cant use again. The picture of the back of the case looks a little weird for some reason, I may have resized it wrong…
One feature that is really nice about this case is that the hard drive cages can be easily removed. There are two cages which have a little lever on the side of them. When you pull the lever back you can just slide out the cage. The reason this is a really nice feature is that it makes it easy to install your hard drives or any other 3.5″ drive. Another cool thing is that one of the drive cages has a holder for an 80mm fan which would blow directly over your hard drives which is really nice because most of the new 7200RPM and all SCSI get really hot.
The bezel of this case comes off really easy and doesn’t require any tools. There are 3 clips on each side which you just have to push back and it will come right off. On the back of the bezel there isn’t much more than the switches and LEDs which as I suggested before can be easily changed. Behind that bezel there is the bare chassis, as you can see the spot for the hard drive and intake fan have a nice cutout.
I didn’t want to install a system to this case because I have done it before and I can tell you that everything installs really easy. I did however want to just point out the 5.25″ drive rails. The really cool thing about these is that you just screw them onto your drive and then slide them right into the case. With this case you don’t even have to remove the bezel but I took it off just to show you how it attaches to the case. You just slide it right in, it clips and to move it you just push the clips together and pull it out. By the way the pictures below are from a previous review however the proceadure and rails are exactly the same.
I installed a power supply to the case because I wanted to see how the LED fans looked while they were glowing. I took the pictures during the day so there was a little light in the room and my camera never likes to take good pictures of light. The picture on the left is of the fan on the side window and the picture on the right is of the fan on the top window. They look a lot better in person but you can see that the blue on the green window looks really cool because it matches the whole color scheme. I am going to get a some more of these LED fans for the front and back slots as well as one of those power supplies with the LED fans in them probably or mod one myself.
Conclusion
I asked for this case because I wanted to see if it was really as good as it looked. I can honestly say that it is better than I thought it would be and is one of the best pre-modded cases I have ever seen. The case itself is a great case and a perfect candidate for modding because of all the nice features it has. I personally love the color of the top and side window and the fact that good window molding was used.
The nice thing about Cutting Edge Case Mods is that you can customize your case. You can choose the color of the case, the windows if any, and what fans you want to go with it. The only real cons to this case are that it doesn’t have a removable motherboard tray, it doesn’t come with a power supply, and the price is about $200 for all of this.
Like I say with any really nice product the price is going to be high usually because of how nice it is. If you want a really functional case that looks really nice and are looking to spend around $200 for it this case would be perfect. I can honestly say that this case is worth $200 if not more.
Overall I am going to give this case a 9/10 and award it the OCmodshop Seal of Approval. I would like to thank Chris from Cutting Edge Case Mods for sending me this case to review.
Pros
- Awesome color
- Both windows look great against the blue
- The molding on the windows is really good
- Lots of places for 80mm fans
- LED fans look really cool with the window and case
- Removable hard drive cages
- 5.25″ drive rails for easy installation
- Fan cutouts don’t restrict airflow
- Bezel easily removed
- Side panel and front door are lockable
Cons
- No removable motherboard tray
- No power supply
- About $200