A Closer Look – Exterior
I would normally say “the first thing you’ll notice is…” but there’s so much going on here! There’s a huge tempered glass side panel window eating up the left side, and giving a great view of the interior of the chassis, lots of funky ventilation slots at the top and bottom edges, and that freaky front panel housing design. One thing is for certain, this chassis really does look unique.
The tempered glass side panel comes fitted using large aluminum thumbscrews over rubber washers, so it’s easy enough to remove/install as needed.
There are two long rails at the base for the legs, which look great and give the bottom air intakes good ground clearance.
There’s a towering ventilation section on the front, which is perfect for getting cool air into the chassis and with room for 3 x 120mm fans or a 360mm radiator behind it, keeping your system cool couldn’t be much easier.
Wrapping all the way around the front panel ventilation is a white plastic strip, which comes LED backlit and is finished off by the air-scoop black border that gives the front panel its unique shape.
The right side panel is just a solid panel, held in place by two thumb screws at the back. There’s also more ventilation on the top and bottom edges, matching those on the left side of the chassis.
Around the back, you’ll find the only pre-installed fan, seven expansion slots, and the PSU cut-out. One thing that I noticed quite quickly is that six of the seven expansion slots have snap-off covers, which really suck, but aren’t much cause for concern for most system builders.
There’s lots of ventilation on the top panel, and we’ve got that aggressive fin-like design, similar to what we’ve seen on Aerocool chassis’ in the past.
The front I/O is very nicely equipped, packing audio jacks, two card readers, lighting controls, power controls, dual USB 2.0 and dual USB 3.0.
Finally, the base of the chassis has a good amount of filtered airflow for the PSU, as well as some firm rubber grips to prevent the chassis from sliding around or scratching hard surfaces.
Nice review!
I have an E-ATX board 12 inch x 10.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 26.9 cm ) and Im wondering if would fit in this case
Nice case. I hope there is a better spot to hide that ugly LED strip. I was hoping to squeeze it into one of overlapping metal trims.
I’m not sure why but it really bugs me how much that graphics card is drooping on the right.
I agree with you. The overall look is good, with an interesting design that isn’t over the top and I like it, but that LED strip… It is just so damed ugly, what with being able to see all the LEDs etc. Given the frosted finish of the front ones I would pay a little more for them to be housed in a similar casing.
I thought my eyes were going off with the GFX card drooping! My minor uniform gene doesn’t like LOL
Also why does the review insist on calling it tempered glass? It isn’t, by its own wording: “acrylic side window”. Nothing wrong with it being acrylic, keeps the price and weight down, but please stop trying to make it into something it isn’t.
I do love the case, even considering getting one when i do my next major upgrade next year. I just hope I can gain access to those LEDs in the front to add my own controller in and make it more fancy 😀
Actually there are 2 versions of this case 1 has acrylic window and the other is tempered glass, this one is tempered glass version according to aerocool site.
i have an aerocool p7-c1 but when i pres the front buttons to chnage the colours on them it just stays green
why?