Date: May 21th, 2002
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Xoxide Modifications

To access the internal components of the case, all you do is slip your fingers under the front bezel of the computer, pull up on the level and pop the whole front off.

Once the front bezel is taken off, you will note the 4 5 1/4" bays. Just as a note, I will have to mention that you will not be able to use the top 5 1/4" bay due to the top 120mm exhaust fan completely blocking the installation of a CD-ROM etc...

Now, you will have the option of installing 3- 3.5" components into your computer. Two of them can be accessed externally through the front bezel and one will be available internally for you hard drives. But, most people will only us a floppy drive externally and a couple of hard drives internally.

Once you have removed the front bezel, just slide the side window forward an inch, tip the window out an inch and lift the window out. To completely remove the window, you will have to disconnect the wires going from the switch to the blowhole. To remove the motherboard side of the case, repeat the same instructions as the windowed side.

To install the motherboard, just unscrew 6 screws and the motherboard tray will pop out. Install your motherboard with the included spacers and screws and pop the tray back in.

Now, install everything and you have a complete case.

To take advantage of the beautiful side-window, pop in a cold cathode kit (mine is from www.zxmods.com), and you have an awesome case!!

CASE COOLING PERFORMANCE

If you are concerned about cooling, you will not have a problem with this case. The only problem with the ventilation of this case is the noise that comes about once the switch is turned on and the three main cooling fans come to speed. Although it is not as loud as my own rig, it can get pretty noisy with the low roar of the Dynatron 120mm 121cfm exhaust coming to the forefront. But, it works incredibly well at cooling.

The components that were heating up the internal temperature of this case are as listed below..

Shuttle AK31 v2.0 (Provided by: Xtreme Tek Werks)
Duron 700 @ 800 (Pencil Unlocked)
Volcano 7 HSF
Vcore 1.85 volts
512megs Crucial PC2700 DDR Ram (Provided by: Crucial Technology)
Western Digital 40Gb 7200rpm ATA-100 Hard Drive
ATI 128meg All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500
Samsung SW-232 32X CD-RW (Provided by Samsung)
Standard 1.44 meg Floppy
Windows XP Pro

I turned on the system, left the switched turned off and fired up prime95 and got a results as below after an hour.

Room Temperature: 22 Degrees Celsius
Motherboard Temperature: 27 Degrees Celsius
CPU Temperatures: 38 Degrees Celsius

As prime95 was still running at full steam, I switch on the main side intakes and the top blowhole exhaust and allowed them to run for 5 minutes before I took another temperature reading.

Room Temperature: 22 Degrees Celsius
Motherboard Temperature: 22 Degrees Celsius
CPU Temperatures: 32 Degrees Celsius

As you can see, the cooling results are excellent. The drastic increase in air flow cooled the case temperature down to room temperature and it lowered the CPU temperatures impressively. I was actually surprised at just how great the cooling results were and would have loved to found out how well it cooled the videocard, but I will be equipped soon enough to monitor it as well.