At first glance thie case looks polished and professionally constructed. There are no protruding corners or jaggies, and the metal edges have been rounded off. The matte black finish is of average quality, but extra thought was taken to paint both sides of the removable panels. I noticed a half hearted attempt to provide ports for 2 audio connectors.
There was no type of bolting mechanism to grab any audio cable plugged into these holes. These holes are merely left open, being no use whatsoever. It is pointless to even wire one up yourself, as the plastic housing for the USB mechanism extends the entire width of the access panel. I can only assume that the manufacturer meant to provide audio hookups within the USB housing, but was never implemented.
The front of the case looks rather nice, being completely black with clear accents. The front features a “stealth floppy” faceplate that will easily conceal a floppy or Zip drive, and is good to see a manufacturer realize the end of the floppy drive. Two clear decorative strips cover either side of the front panel, embossed with what looks like little abstract dancing human figures. I have no idea how this could be desireable on a PC case, but whatever.
The silver power and reset buttons reside in the center of the right clear strip. The amber power and red hard drive lights also appear on this panel. The drive bay covers are black plastic (instead of painted) which is good for modders wanting to drill the hell out of the plates. A translucent flip door covers the front connector panel, which features 2 USB 2.0 ports, and 2 audio input holes, but these are unused.
There are a standard 7 available slots for adapter cards. The screw holes that mount the two exhaust fans have been counter-sunk to hide protruding screws. This shows evidence that the designers tried to add some professional touches by putting some thought into its design.
The front air intake port is rather unique. It has a clear 3-pronged transparent fan grill protecting free-hanging white fake fan blades. These blades are moved by the airflow generated by the real fan hidden behind this piece.
The recessed port’s interior is surrounded by 3 blue LEDs in a triangle formation. These LEDs are powered directly from the included power supply (via a 5v adapter) and illuminate the clear grill whenever the PC is on.
The white blades to not produce any noise, as they move much slower than the fan driving it, but still produce a white blur when in motion. This is a neat idea, but seems very overworked and unnecessary. Why not just include a white-bladed fan to achieve this effect, or even better, a clear bladed fan to catch the light from the LEDs?
The two 3.25” drives are flanked on either side with 2 clear textured plastic pieces that I can only describe as “bicycle reflectors” There is no lighting behind them or anything. Just bicycle reflectors.
The side of this case features the pre-installed “original” X-window. It houses a clear intake fan in the center, and extends most of the length of the door panel, but not the height, so the power supply is barely visible through it. The window is securely attached to the panel with screws.
The fan intake is a round (rather than square) hole, that fits the pre-installed fan perfectly, but any standard square case fan will look a little awkward in this port. A gold-colored fan grill covers the fan, which is a total eyesore given the case theme is black with silver and clear accents. A quick replacement to a black “radiation” grill greatly improved the aesthetics.
The back of the case is rather standard, as a place for for two 80mm fans has been puched with an array of holes, providing ample airflow and little blockage. The use of two fans can provide extra airflow to meet today’s cooling needs. Above the exhaust cutout is the power supply, which is mentioned later. Both side panels can be detached by unfastening the case screws, although it would have been nice to have thumb screws included.
