Xion Predator AXP 970 Case Review

But that’s enough ogling, lets get to work and find something to fill this beast.

I selected a DFI LanParty motherboard with a Core 2 Duo e8400 as the building blocks for the build.  It’s not exactly the fastest system on the block, but it’s no slow-poke either.  With 4 GB of memory and an ATi Radeon HD 5850 to boot, it may even run Crysis.  The case didn’t come with any motherboard stand-offs, which seems like such a minor thing to exclude considering all the other extras that are thrown in.  The motherboard mounted easily and had plenty of breathing room in the relatively spacious case.

Installing the power supply was also a cakewalk, and there was even the added option of determining how one could orient it.  Fan up, as with most bottom-mounted PSU case designs; or fan down, which takes advantage of the mesh at bottom of the case designed for this setup, complete with externally removable air-filter.  It doesn’t take much time to throw some components into a case and close it up.  However, I wanted to utilize the full set of features that this chassis provided.

Home base?  Nope!  It’s the side of the case, with mounting holes for 120mm and 180mm fans.

Mounting the PSU in this fashion not only allowed it to make use of the mesh, but also allowed the mess of power cables to efficiently slip into one of the cable management holes allowing the working area of the case to adopt and maintain a very cable-free appearance.  These cable drops were a little tight for some of the larger power cables, but with a little pushing and pulling they worked out splendidly.  The cable lengths on the power supply I used were just long enough to make this all work, though I had a growing concern that the side of the case may prove difficult to close considering the growing volume of cables stashed behind it.  Fortunately, a little cleanup allowed me to get the side of the case back on with only a minimal amount of grunting and shoving.

Installing the drives was ridiculously easy, though I was not convinced that these units were as secure as they otherwise might have been.  The optical drives only had thumb screws on one side, so in order to completely secure the unit, one would still have to manually screw in the other side (and then face the task of getting the side of the case back on).  The internal hard drive was simple to install and snapped securely into place.

After the tool-less installation of the internal hard drive, I was quite baffled to learn that one would still have to screw in any drives using the hot-swappable trays.  Whatever benefit which had been gained over using the removable hard drive trays was lost considering it required nearly as much effort as installing another internal unit, not to mention a screwdriver!  However, I still found the front loading method quite preferable when faced with the prospect of routing more cable through the already crowded cable management system.

The front loading SATA bays still required one to secure the drive to the tray with screws.

When all the components were in place the chassis maintained a very presentable appearance that emphasized function over form.  The interior was clean and neat with only a minimal amount of visible cables, while providing ample room for future expansion.  The uncluttered design allowed the two 120mm fans included with the case to operate unfettered by the constraints of cables and other obstructions.  A SWiF 2 (again, the Silent Whisper Fan 2) was added to the side of the case for good measure.