I went ahead and installed most of my system into the case, I did not put everything in because I did not have extra of a few parts but I also didn’t because the design layout of the case is basically identical to that of the Enermax CS-003-A106 case which I stated before.
To get the motherboard in I had to take off the expansion slot that was holding the switch in place and move it out of the way. I did encounter a little setback while installing the motherboard however. Because the neon is pretty tall I was unable to use the screwdriver I always use to install two of the bottom screws to mount the motherboard. This is not a huge problem just a little irritating because if you always use the same screwdriver like I do you are going to have to get up and go find a shorter one and you may not have a short enough one in which case you would have to go without two screws.
I did not have all the parts necessary to build a computer but I still wanted to test this neon. You can power on any ATX power supply without a motherboard if you know what to do. All you need to do is take a piece of wire and strip both ends then double it over on itself.
After you have it made take one end and put it into the green wire and take the other end of the wire and put it into any of the black wires on the ATX motherboard power plug. You can use wire, a paper clip, or anything conductive that will fit into the hole, doing this will allow you to start up the power supply without the motherboard.
I took a shot of the case with the lights on and the neon off just to start (please ignore the mess in the case) and then I hit the lights off and powered on the neon light. It was a lot brighter than I expected it to be, I am really impressed with it. I left it running for a little while and it didn’t get too hot, no more than expected at least. This is not all that this little neon can do though…
I took a 24 second video with my Olympus D-370 camera because I wanted to show you all what this neon can do, unfortunately this digital camera doesn’t take the best quality videos nor does it record sound so unfortunately you cant get the full effect because the neon goes right along with the sound.
Conclusion
When I first saw this case I was a little skeptical because a lot of the pre modded cases on the market are not really good quality. There are only a few online stores and companies that produce high quality premodded cases. Enermax has proven itself to be one of these companies with this case.
The CSX305ILS case has so many things to offer a buyer and with a price tag of only around a hundred dollars you really cant go wrong. You get a really nice case, 350W power supply, sound activated neon light, transparent blue 80mm fan, pre installed window, and a slew of other great features.
Not only does the case give you a lot of great extras but I think that it looks really good, it is a sturdy case that has a lot of potential for more modding to make it even better than it is. The only drawbacks to the case is that there is no removable motherboard tray which always makes installation much easier, the fan cutouts block a good amount of airflow and the neon light can get in the way because it is not able to be removed very easily.
Overall I am going to give this case an 8/10 and award it the OCmodshop seal of approval because it has proved itself to be a great product.
I would like to thank Enermax for sending me over this case to review. You can find a few differant styles of this case meaning the color and features at Case-Mod and Xoxide.
Pros
- Preinstalled blue window
- 350W power supply included
- Sound activated neon included
- Transparent blue 80mm fan included
- No sharp edges
- Backlight power button
- Lots of 5.25″ bays
Cons
- Fan cutouts block a lot of airflow
- Neon might hinder motherboard installation
- No removable motherboard tray
