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Internal
Features :::...
Once
inside the first thing you notice is that there's more than
just boring, gray steel around. The white 120mm rear fan,
which incidentally is optional rather than standard, and
the blue and white toolless drive retainers make for an
unusually colourful internal space.
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The
Case Internal
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Being
a 120mm unit, the rear fan needs to draw its power from
a regular 4-pin Molex though the it also has an additional
connector for speed monitoring.
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Front
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Despite
its grill, which I won't mention again, you do get the flexiblity
to use a 120mm, a 92mm or an 80mm fan, and while a 120mm
job is clearly preferable this does at least let you use
any existing, smaller fan you might have until you get your
hands on a 120mm version.
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Side
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These
quick-fasten drive retainers tend to be something you either
love or hate. Personally I don't mind them at all.
They can be a bit fiddly to align but it's probably no more
hassle than having to remove both side panels and work the
conventional way. The biggest problem with them is the small
pips used to locate with the screw holes on the right hand
side of your drives (when viewed from the front) will often
slide their way down the side of them and mark them, something
that doesn't much concern me but which may, for some reason
bother you.
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Front
Drive Retainers
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Once
white inner section is slid to the right the drive is held
securely in place. A small tab is then slid upwards to lock
it in position.
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Front
Drive Retainers - 3.5"
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Front
Drive Retainers - FDD
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The
front fan can be seen nestling just behind the 3.5"
drive cage and is used to draw in air and cool your hard
drives and the case as a whole. Again it seems that the
case's ability to breathe is hindered by an inadequate vent
as the fan is forced to draw its air through a narrow grill
on the bottom of the front fascia. Being downward facing
this vent will no doubt take in more than its fair share
of dust, a problem exascerbated by the total lack of any
kind of filtering. This whole arrangement dramatically reduces
the CFM potential and simultaneously increases the noise
levels of the fan, which in all honesty is still fairly
quiet.
Because
there's no cross-bracing used, a small structural stiffening
corner bracket can be seen in the bottom right of the picture
below.
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Front
120mm Fan
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The
whole 3.5" cage can be removed by simply unscrewing
a couple of thumbscrews. I saw no mention of it in the manul
but there looks to be roon for a third 120mm fan below the
3.5" drive cage. That would explain the purpose of
the holes in the bottom of it, other than for just general
ventilation that is. With no holes in the underside of the
case and the fact that a fan here would only blow air onto
the lowest drive in the cage I'm not sure it would be very
effective though, unless you have just a single drive, or
perhaps one very fast and very hot drive that could benefit
from the extra airflow more than the others.
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Switches/LEDs
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So
that's the end of the tour of the innards. It's all nicely
de-burred and rounded to avoid mass spillage of blood, it's
reasonably well thought out and it's cooled far less efficiently
than it ought to be. It doesn't quite live up to the promise
of its spectacular exterior but its far from poor, in fact
it's very good, just not great.
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