Here are my impressions of the case: [LINK]
OUTSIDE: from all the pictures of this case online, such as at Phamcomputer, the case looks ok, but nothing too special. When it arrived however, I was really impressed by the way it looked. It was very sharp and the front bezel looked great. Each floppy drive has a cover (so you don't have to match the color of your floppy with the case), and the top floppy bay can be covered by a piece that makes it match the rest of the bezel. The sides looked great. The back looked pretty standard (both the side and the back can be seen clearly at Pham).
As my friend and I began assembling everything we removed the motherboard tray. It?s not the best tray in the world, but its pretty darn good. The sides of the case come off with screws (I think three on each side). Two screws hold the motherboard case in. None of the screws that came with the case were thumbscrews, however.
The first thing we did once the tray was removed was to drill larger holes for my 92 mm Delta fan on the back (it comes with 80 mm holes). We also looked over the case for other potential blowholes. The front intake is very tiny and you must use the stands so the air can come up through the bottom. The drilling was easy and soon I had my 92 mm fan in it.
Installing the motherboard onto the tray was also easy. Enermax provided multiple places for the rises, so it can accommodate almost any configuration (including a P4 according to the site).
The only real problem we had was installing the HD and the CDROM. The CDROM (and all other bays) are installed by punching out the metal on the inside of the case and then unclipping the bay cover. It took us a while to figure that out, but once we did it was easy to install and secure. The HD was another story. Perhaps we had so many problems because we are morons, but I attempted to slide the HD into one of three slots and it would not go in all the way. We applied a little more force and still it would not go in. (Perhaps in hindsight we should have tried using a little lubricant (maybe?) but we didn?t think of it then.) When I removed the HD I saw it had suffered some scratches from the case. This was not cool at all, but I installed it into the 3rd slot (which is one where you just screw it into 4 tabs and it hangs upside down) with no problems.
Everything else worked fine. The powersupply is wonderful! The case itself gets a little confusing with all the wires running through it, but what can be done? Anyway, I just thought I would share my experience with you guys?.
BOTTOM LINE: This case is by far the best deal I have seen in a long time. Pick one up at Ctgdirect.com for 73 bucks shipped.
BTW this is the system I put into it:
AMD Athlon 1200 mhz
Iwill kk266 motherboard
256 megs Crucial RAM
Maxtor 30 gig HD
Standard Floppy
52x Sony CDROM
OUTSIDE: from all the pictures of this case online, such as at Phamcomputer, the case looks ok, but nothing too special. When it arrived however, I was really impressed by the way it looked. It was very sharp and the front bezel looked great. Each floppy drive has a cover (so you don't have to match the color of your floppy with the case), and the top floppy bay can be covered by a piece that makes it match the rest of the bezel. The sides looked great. The back looked pretty standard (both the side and the back can be seen clearly at Pham).
As my friend and I began assembling everything we removed the motherboard tray. It?s not the best tray in the world, but its pretty darn good. The sides of the case come off with screws (I think three on each side). Two screws hold the motherboard case in. None of the screws that came with the case were thumbscrews, however.
The first thing we did once the tray was removed was to drill larger holes for my 92 mm Delta fan on the back (it comes with 80 mm holes). We also looked over the case for other potential blowholes. The front intake is very tiny and you must use the stands so the air can come up through the bottom. The drilling was easy and soon I had my 92 mm fan in it.
Installing the motherboard onto the tray was also easy. Enermax provided multiple places for the rises, so it can accommodate almost any configuration (including a P4 according to the site).
The only real problem we had was installing the HD and the CDROM. The CDROM (and all other bays) are installed by punching out the metal on the inside of the case and then unclipping the bay cover. It took us a while to figure that out, but once we did it was easy to install and secure. The HD was another story. Perhaps we had so many problems because we are morons, but I attempted to slide the HD into one of three slots and it would not go in all the way. We applied a little more force and still it would not go in. (Perhaps in hindsight we should have tried using a little lubricant (maybe?) but we didn?t think of it then.) When I removed the HD I saw it had suffered some scratches from the case. This was not cool at all, but I installed it into the 3rd slot (which is one where you just screw it into 4 tabs and it hangs upside down) with no problems.
Everything else worked fine. The powersupply is wonderful! The case itself gets a little confusing with all the wires running through it, but what can be done? Anyway, I just thought I would share my experience with you guys?.
BOTTOM LINE: This case is by far the best deal I have seen in a long time. Pick one up at Ctgdirect.com for 73 bucks shipped.
BTW this is the system I put into it:
AMD Athlon 1200 mhz
Iwill kk266 motherboard
256 megs Crucial RAM
Maxtor 30 gig HD
Standard Floppy
52x Sony CDROM