Date: August 28th, 2007
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Xclio
<--CLICK FOR DEALS ON AN XCLIO COMPUTER CASE IN THE UNITED STATES
<--CLICK FOR DEALS ON AN XCLIO COMPUTER CASE IN CANADA
PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
With the left panel off, we get a look at that big honkin' 360mm fan. Five blue LEDs surround the hub and a single 4-pin connector delivers power to the fan through the controller.
The interior is Spartan in the extreme, though XClio lists tool-free drive latches as an option.
The rear is also fairly unremarkable, but does have a fan placement for 80, 92 or 120mm fans. Likewise with the front. The I/O shield and expansion slot covers are stamped and must be broken out during installation.
Nothing surprising here, either. The front panel connectors are sufficiently well labeled, and an experienced enthusiast will have no trouble getting them connected. LED and speaker polarity can be determined by wire color, in most cases, with the colored wires being positive and the black or white wires are the grounds. Switch polarity is irrelevant, as they merely short the pins momentarily. Let's get some hardware in the propeller and see how it performs.
PRODUCT INSTALLATION AND TESTING
I installed the following components in the Propeller for this review.
- AMD Opteron 148 processor w/OEM heatpipe cooler
- DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-DR motherboard
- eVGA 7900GS-KO w/Thermalright V2 and 80mm fan
- OCZ 5002048ELGE-K (1024mb X 2) memory
- Thermaltake Toughpower 750W PSU
- Western Digital WD800 SATA hard drive
- LG DVD/RW drive
Installation presented no surprises and while the interior is Spartan and there is no manual, most usere will have no trouble here. The Propeller will accept just about any PSU out there, as there is lots of room in this area.
