Enermax is probably best known for their power supplies but lately they have been expanding into other areas of computers. They have started selling some really cool cases and are moving more to the case modding section of cases rather than the plain old boring beige boxes.
This case comes in either black or aluminum silver, it is made out of 0.77mm Japanese SGCC steel, has 7 expansion slots, and comes with a P4 Power Up 350W power supply. It comes with a lot of really nice features which include front access USB 2.0 & mic and headphones input, 5″ sound sensitive blue neon light, Enermax logo side window, power button illuminate (Blue), light blue acrylic front cover over aluminum layer.
The case comes in the sme kind of box that the Enermax CS-003-A106 case that I previously reviewed. The case is also packed in the same fassion having strafoam on the top and the bottom of the case to protect it during shipping and a plastic bag around it to keep it from getting scratched. Oh, and don’t worry, there isn’t a black hole in the box I just cut out the UPS label with my address on it.
The front of the case has blue acrylic on it and looks really cool, it also is protected by a piece of plastic so that it won’t get scratched during shipping or when you take it out of the box and are setting it all up. I really like that they put effort into protecting this case because it really sucks when you buy something that is nice and you take it out and within the first 5 minutes it is already scratched up.
The back of the case has 2 cutouts for 80mm fans which is really nice but as you can see the cutouts are not very good because so much of area is covered up by metal, I would suggest cutting out the hole to maximize air flow. The case comes with a 350W power supply which we will look at later, you can also see at the bottom of the case there is a red button which is the on and off switch for the neon inside of the case. It’s cool that Enermax included the switch for the neon but its kind of a pain for it to be in the back of the case because you are going to have to reach around each time to turn it on and off.
The top of the case has a blowhole cutout which accommodates an 80mm fan, again the problem with the blowhole is so much airflow is being blocked by the metal in the way. Because the blowhole cutout is not in the shape of a circle it would be hard to cut it out so that it would look good and so that airflow could flow freely. The best bet would be to make the hole 92mm so that you could make it look nice and to have more air being pulled out of the case.
The side of the case is really cool looking, Enemax decided to cut out a window in the shape of their logo and install a blue transparent 80mm case fan right in the middle of it. Both the window and the fan are tinted blue so that they go along with the color scheme of the case. The window is attached by 8 rivets around the edge of the window. \
I really like the design and construction of all of this, not only is the cutout really nice and smooth, but the rivets look really nice. I also like that they put a fan on the side of the case rather than none or just more window. They really did a great job with the quality on this part.
The case has built in front USB 2.0 and has a jack for a mic and headphones. There is also a cutout for a firewire port but if you want to use it you are going to have to buy an add-on or make one yourself. The power and reset button are nice and big which I always like because I hate searching around for the button in the dark. Not only is the button big and cool looking but it lights up blue when powered on which is really cool.
I opened up the case and the design is pretty much exactly the same as that of the Enermax CS-003-A106 case. There are 4 exposed 5.25″ bays, 4 hidden 5.25″ bays, and 2 3.5″ bays. The case comes with a sound activated blue neon light which is really cool because most cases don’t come stock with things like that. You can see on the neon light there is dial for its sensitivity which is for the sound activation part of it. You also get a power supply cable and a little box with a bag of screws in it.
The case comes with a 350W power supply which is Pentium 4 compatible, it is nice that you get 350W because 300W is sometimes not enough. Also because I have gotten a few emails asking if this PSU is compatiable with AMD systems I wanted to let everyone know that it is. Depending on where you buy this case from will depend on what kind of PSU you get.
If you do get the one I was really supprised to se that the power supply wasn’t an Enermax one, instead you get a Power Up brand one. It seems really odd that Enermax wouldn’t even put their own power supply into their case but o well. I opened up the power supply to take a look inside because I always like to see what it looks like inside and to see if there are any potimeters in it which are better for overclockers.
The jumpers on this case are the good kind, by the good kind I mean the kind that are all attached together so that you don’t have a huge mess with a bunch of different wires running all over the place. The jumpers for the front USB and front audio are really nice too because they are designed so that they will work with any motherboard. I used an EPoX 8K3A+ and the USB jumpers are on the back of the motherboard behind the PCI slots and the cabel reached so there should not be any issues with it not working with motherboards.
The bezel of the case is held on by plastic snaps rather than screws which is really nice because its a lot faster than having to unscrew a bunch of screws to get under it. The clips come off really easy by simply squeezing them together and pulling it off. There is a cutout for a 120mm intake fan that is in the front of the case, this cutout is really good which should be used for the back and top of the case too.
I really like that Enermax went ahead with the same manufacturing process as they did with the Enermax CS-003-A106 because both of these cases have totally rounded over edges everywhere, there isn’t a single sharp edge that I could find. Most of the time when you open up your new case and get started installing all of your parts you will usually find out very quickly that whoever designed the case didn’t actually use it because they would have been cut like you just did.
The sound activated blue neon is powered by the yellow and black wires which are connected to a 4-pin Molex connector and the switch for the neon is connected with the red and black wire which has a 3 pin connector that can be unplugged incase you want to move the position of the button or add a totally different button really easy.
The neon light can either be sound activated or stay on all the time which is what the button is for. I really don’t like that the button is in the back of the case I think that it should have been mounted either on the side or front of the case.
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