The first thing I noticed is that it did not look cheap. Granted the DVD covers look plasticky, but I wasn't going to leave the system without a couple of optical drives. The case feels like a baked on glaze and for the most part, that is true. The part that convince me otherwise, was putting a screw in for the second time. Mere contact with a screw causes the paint to come over where the contact was made. I understand the physics of the screw's job. There is no need to put it on tight to begin with. Now that you know, take it easy.
After I took the cover off and found the screw pouch. Enough to fill it up with hard drives, optical drives, etc. Unheard of. The screws kick butt. An earlier commenter on this case suggested the screw holes were cheap. Sorry. The screws are all machine threaded. This means that your case is going to look uniform throughout. Every screw provided is BLACK. There are at least 40 screws in this. The screw that I used to mount the motherboard with and the screw I used to tighted optical drive with and the screw that I used to hold the GTX-660 is the same screw. It's about time!
Imprinted on the backwall of the motherboard floor, the have how many screws and in exactly which holes the screws for your exact motherboard, go. Not a problem in you are in the mid-thousands. It just kind of dawned me one day, that I had reached some plateau and the screw holes kind of glow when I get near. The wiring behind the motherboard is more than ample, with plenty of large, close, wiring access holes made for hands as well as wires. Again great. Every screw has threaded very well aside from one screw on a new black edition HDD. It began to bind-up. At the time I was thinking that might be binding on the case as it went past it to the hard drive. As a forethought, it might have been one bad screw. There is plenty of space to rout my wires. The power supply is located on the bottom and is set off the case floor just a little bit, not to mention that they have made it possible to put two fans down there. You can put two more up on the ceiling of the case as well as two more up front. They there a huge opening to allow air escape.
My hat is off to NZXT Technologies for an intelligently thought out, technically aware and savvy design as well as a quality product whose prices are a serious value. There was plenty of room to tuck the cables out of sight. I have an Antec Twelve Hunred v2, the Nine Hundred v2, and two Thermaltake Armours. NZXT Technologies did a beautiful job and I hope all of their cases have this much thought poured into them. I have a real need for a case that has so much versatility built in for a really good price.
The case is a great deal but I would love to see in future models features that used one of the 5.25 or perhaps a couple of rows at the top of the 3.5" HDD bays or perhaps where the video card might butt up against. They could add put an area just for SSD Drives. Another request would be (4-8) four to eight black screws for DVD drives. Perhaps they could offer additional features for $20 more that offered a a 3.5" cutout in the lower 5.25" bay that made it possible to add a 3.5" Card Reader. I obtained a 25 Multicard Reader that includes one USB 3.0 plug in front. I had to add an adaptor for the rear fan that connects to the old style 4-pin molex connector that allows me to connect it to the motherboard, so the system can adjust the speed of the back fan according to the temperature inside the case.
It has been said before.... Buy this case!!! It is an incredible deal. Use the money you just saved and get something like a card reader that has a couple of USB 3.0 ports.Amazon has a blue aluminum adaptor made by ORICO (AC52535) that allows two SSD drives together or a 3.5" HDD that fits inside of a 5.25" Bay.
NZXT Technologies thank-you for making a case that is affordable & really well thought out. Honestly, I will think twice before I run out an buy an upscale case.
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 2 |
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