Case-Mod sent over another case for me to review called the X-Sonic. Usually I don’t like pre-modded cases but I wanted to give this one a chance. Personally I don’t like pre-modded cases most of the time because I like doing the work myself. There are however people out there who don’t want to do the work and just want something that looks nice and has good features. This case looks like it might be one of those cases so lets check it out.
The case comes packed in a normal box which has a picture of what it looks like along with a few features that the case has. I opened up the box and found that the case was packed as most cases are, in a plastic bag and surrounded by styrofoam. The case came without any damage to it which is good.
The pictures below are a little dark which I apologize for, my camera must have been acting up. The front of the case is pretty cool looking and you can see that there is a good cutout for the intake fan at the bottom of the case. Both the power and reset button are a good size so you can easily power and reboot your system. The LEDs that come stock with this case are green and amber which are the standard however I think they look bad and would change them. The back of the case is the standard layout with one exception which we will look at next.
There is a door right next to the 3.5″ drive bays which houses two USB and one firewire port. I always like front ports because it just makes life easier. The back of the case has a little plastic storage area for the screws and hardware which I think is kind of a good idea but at the same time seems a little pointless. The reason I like this is because a lot of the time I lose hardware to specific cases which sucks but then again its not really that hard to keep track of a single bag. In any case this is a good idea because it doesn’t change the overall look of the case.
From the side view you can see that the case comes with a preinstalled window that has a protective sheet on both the outside and inside of it. There is also a 80mm LED fan on the window which is in a good position because it will blow over the CPU and video card. The window is riveted to the door rather than using molding which I don’t like as much but this is a factory pre-modded case so that’s what I expected. The window itself is pretty thin but it will do the job, I just like windows that are thicker. The top of the case doesn’t have anything special but I figured I would throw the picture in just to give you an idea of the shape of the bezel.
This case has a cool little feature that I thought I would point out. I have seen other cases with this kinda feature such as the Pre-modded Antec Performance Plus Case by Case Mods I just reviewed. The difference between this case and the Antec style ones is that this case doesn’t have a full door just a little door that covers the one side of the bay. This is nice because you can take out the bay cover without having to go through the case which can be a pain. All you have to do is pull the clip to the side and pull it out.
The side panels have two thumbscrews each which is really nice because thumbscrews are much better and faster than a regular screw. With the door off you can see a little better view of what’s going on inside of the case. All of the edges are very smooth and I couldn’t really find a sharp edge. The jumpers for the USB, firewire, LEDs, and buttons are rubber banded together and the cable for the power supply is attached to the case so it doesn’t move around too much. There is a tri color LED fan mounted to the back of the case along with a 350w power supply at the top which we will see more of on the next page.
The inside back of the case is pretty standard as far as cases go. The fan on the back of the case is 80mm and will be good for pulling hot air out of the case. The expansion slots are nice because the have reusable covers rather than the kind that you punch out then have to throw away. This is a small feature but one that is nice so that you don’t have to buy extras.
One feature that is really nice about this case is that the hard drive cage can be easily removed. On the cage there is a little lever, 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 really easy to install your hard drives or any other 3.5″ drive. This cage doesn’t come with a slot for an 80mm fan like other cases do however it could probably be added easily if you wanted to.
On the inside front of the case there is a florescent green 80mm fan holder which is used to pull cool air into your case. The good thing about this intake is that it will be able to pull in a lot of air because the bezel and chassis doesn’t restrict airflow. If you wanted to you could even add a bigger fan which would probably be better. 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.
I pulled the bezel off the case and was a little surprised to find another cool feature because I didn’t expect it. Attached to the 5.25″ bay shields are four purple plastic rails. These rails are very cool because what you do is attach them to your CDROM drive or any other 5.25″ drive and can simply slide it in through the front of the case. So with these rails and the fact that the bay covers can be removed from the outside it makes it really easy to install new drives.
This case comes with a 350w power supply which I mentioned earlier. The PSU is made by Turbolink and is Pentium 4 ready, I couldn’t find anything that said that it was “AMD certified” but I do know it will work just fine for basically any “normal” system. The PSU has 4 regular Molex, 2 berg (floppy), 12v, AUX, and main ATX power connectors. I opened up the PSU and didn’t really find anything unusually or extraordinary. Overall this looks like a good PSU to go along with a good case.
I didn’t have a complete system to install to this case other than my main system which I wasn’t going to do. I wanted to test the fans and power supply though so I just took a paper clip and stuck one end into the green pin and one into a black pin on the main ATX connector so that I could power it up without a motherboard. The fans power supply is very quiet but the fans are a little loud, they are tri colored LED fans that are blue, green, and red. Personally I don’t like the tri colored fans I like the solid colored ones but these are better than the pain black kind.
Conclusion
To be honest I didn’t think that I was going to be very impressed with this case because most of the time I don’t like pre-modded cases. Just because this is a pre-modded case though doesn’t mean that it is bad.
Personally I like modding a plain basic case to something cool but others dont have the time, tools, knowledge, or desire to do it themselves and pre-modded is for them. This case looks nice and has a lot of cool features like a preinstalled window, LED fans, 350w power supply, drive rails, removable hard drive cage, front USB/firewire, and a lot of other nice things.
This case retails for about $70 which is a really good price considering all that you get. If you are someone who wants a pre-modded case with lots of features and a good power supply this could be the case for you. If you like modding your case from scratch like I do I wouldn’t suggest this case to you.
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 Case-Mod for sending me this case to review.
Pros
- Lightweight aluminum
- 350w power supply included
- Preinstalled window
- Tri colored LED fans
- Removable hard drive cage
- 5.25″ drive rails for easy installation
- Fan cutouts don’t restrict airflow
- Bezel easily removed
- Thumbscrews included
- Front USB and firewire
- No sharp edges
Cons
- No removable motherboard tray