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Introduction:::...
The
box looks pretty good. I've seen better, but it sure as
hell beats your bland, brown cardboard affair we often see.
With a case as distinctive as this it certainly pays to
have a decent photo of it as big as possible smack-bang
in the middle of the front area.
The good looks are apparent as soon as you take the case
from its box. Considering the number of functions implemented
into the front fascia, it remains clean and classy looking,
even if you can tell on closer inspection that you're not
paying for the finest materials known to man. I don't mean
they're cheap looking, I just mean they're not expensive
looking.
Turning
to the rear we find nothing unusual other than the three
audio ports peering from one of the expansion slots. There
are two grills for a pair of 80mm fans and though they're
not as nice as a decent chip-basket design they're certainly
not as awful as some I've witnessed. You should get a reasonable
flow of air through them at any rate.
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Front
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Rear
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The
side of the case shows very little in ay of efficient ventilation,
and being a multimedia focused case that may be a deliberate
move. I say that because, and I'm generalizing here, most
HTPC users don't push for the very latest, fastest, hottest
components and want quiet operation. Sparing use of vents
keeps fan noise inside the case at the expense of thermal
performance to some extent.
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Side
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Although
it initially looks like there are four external 5.25"
bays, in fact there are only three. The lower buy is a spring-latched
door behind which lurks a 3.5" bay. This is fixed and
you can't remove it to free it up as a fourth 5.25"
bay which is a shame, though a memory card reader would
probably compliment this case's specs well.
Behind
the lower door is a headphone and mic socket, a pair of
USB ports and a Firewire port cutout which isn't actually
used. This also seems like a strange move considering the
case's brief, particularly with so many digital camcorders
using Firewire, though perhaps perhaps a little more understandable
when you look at the price tag.
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Side
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The
chromed plastic buttons look extremely nice, though in the
length of time I have this case to test there's no way I
can test out how durable to coating is. I'd be more concerned
about wear on the rotary volume dial as it has no depth
to grip and thus needs turning using a finger tip like you
would a jog/shuttle dial.
Below
the PC5.1 button is the infrared window for the remote control
unit. Below this is a long, acrylic strip which illuminates
red. This would appear to be just a cosmetic feature.
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Side
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From
the button you can see the slot to allow extra airflow and
the plastic feet which are decidedly un-hifi-like.
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Side
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It's
always nice to see drive stealthing used, particularly on
components that may be used in a domestic environment, but
that's only if it's done properly. One of the four drives
I tried jammed against the flap rather than opening it,
and a further drive couldn't even be ejected doe to the
external eject button complete missing the drive's eject
button.
Although
the eject buttons are quite large, there's no horizontal
or vertical adjustment behind them to compensate for unusual
drive button placement. I'm assuming three stealth-type
bays are used for aesthetic reasons as most people don't
fit three optical drives to their PCs.
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Side
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