Date: November 30th, 2009
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: In Win
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
The front of the Maelstrom has a definite presence and distinctive look. While there are what seem to be a total of five external big bays, the top one has a built-in 3.5-inch floppy adapter and the bottom one is taken up by the HDD rail storage rack. At the bottom of the case there is a 120mm intake fan behind the mesh front panel. The Maelstrom also has two green bars across the front that sure look like handles…
…but are obviously just decorative, as the warning sticker denotes. After handling the case for a week or so, I caught myself trying to grab the bars numerous times. I wish that In Win would have just went ahead and made these bars a structural part of the case, as I’m sure someone will break one while moving the case. It’s just too tempting.
From this angle we can see the top and side mash panels and a rather puzzling arrangement of grommets. In Win has some surprises in store for us, but we’ll wait until we look at the interior to go over them in detail. The proportions of the case are just right; it neither looks too tall nor too squat, a problem that some full tower cases have.
In Win has placed the front I/O panel on the top of the chassis and it’s very full featured. The attractive power and reset buttons are flanked by the status LED lighting (power LED is blue while the HDD activity light is amber,) and the I/O consists of audio, four USB, a FireWire and two e-SATA ports. With the panel mounted on the top of the chassis, this case would be more at home on the floor, than on a desktop.
The rear most fan placement on the top panel has a 120mm exhaust fan preinstalled and the user is free to add a second one. In Win touts the metallic black coating on the steel chassis as not only attractive, but very durable as well. I’ll comment more on this after I’ve had a chance to fool with the case a bit more.
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