Date: November 3rd, 2008
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Arctic Cooling
<--CLICK FOR DEALS ON A COMPUTER CASE IN THE UNITED STATES
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
Behind the door there are two each of the 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch external bays. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of doors on computer cases, but Arctic Cooling at least left some room for bay devices with knobs or other projections. The plastic mechanical latch and hinges seem sturdy and work well, but once again, the overall feel is kind of cheap.
The front panel will have to come off for installation, and it's held in place with three plastic clips and some corresponding tabs on the other side. While one shouldn't have to get behind here very often, this fastening scheme doesn't inspire much confidence for long-term service.
Moving around to the rear, we can see evidence of the non-standard design. Starting at the top, we've got two 80mm exhaust fans, mobo I/O and expansion slot area. There are lots of ventilation holes for air intake, but…no power supply opening!
As I said earlier, the PSU is up front and the wall power cord plugs in at the bottom of the rear panel. Sadly, there is no on/off switch to be found, a feature that I will miss.
Arctic Cooling didn't cheap out on the fan placements! No restrictive, stamped grills here, just smooth quiet airflow. I like this feature a lot and wish more manufacturers would do this on their upper-end case offerings. Another nice feature is the captive thumbscrews that secure the side panel. No more hands-and-knees searches for dropped screws. The opposite side panel cannot be removed, and there's really no reason you'd need to.
