Interior
With the top panel off we can see the there is a huge area inside the case, there are not stacked hard drive bays or other obstructions, leaving lots of room for graphics cards and cooling components.
In the top you’ll find two suspended trays that that offer a multitude of hard drive mounts.
These bays can be lifted out without the use of tools and features thick rubber pads on the top to prevent hard drive vibrations from transferring throughout the chassis exterior.
Lift the bays out and you’ve got lots of room to work with, handy when you’re trying to install your motherboard.
The trays are pre-drilled to support 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives and being able to lift the bay out of the chassis makes installing storage drives incredibly easy.
With both bays removed, you can see the front mounted PSU area. The PSU will draw air in through the sides of the front panel and exhaust out of the right side ventilation of the exterior panel. There is some thick rubber padding on the back of the front panel that will help provide a snug fit and again help to reduce vibrations.
The front storage tray features a slim 5.25″ drive bay, perfect for a slot loading optical drive, although should you need the clearance for what ever reason, you can remove the 5.25″ bracket and just keep the top HDD tray. In fact, it’s completely optional to have either storage tray installed, you could just as easily remove them completely if you wanted.
On the right side we have a lot of cut-away, leaving a little extra room for two 2.5″ hard drives thanks to some extra mounting holes.
The rear 120mm fan is a nice bonus and the size of the case and extra ventilation means you shouldn’t really need much more. You can remove this of course and install your own, or even a 120mm water cooler, which is what I’ll be doing in our build today.
As I said before, the top panel is a single piece of aluminium, it’s a little thin, but the finish and overall quality is really nice.
Only problem that I forsee with this case, every kind of mITX motherboard and the H80i cooling system is, most (/every) of the time, there is :
– Only one USB 3.0 and 2.0 internal slot on the MB,
– On the other hand, the case have one usb 3.0 and one usb 2.0 on the front panel,
– And the H80i need also an usb connection internaly.
=> So, you will have to choose between plug usb case or H80i on the MB.
My understanding is that the internal USB3.0 headers on the motherboard will serve both 3.0 and 2.0 ports. Most cases include a cable that splits into 3.0/2.0 because some may not have USB3.0 support on their MB. They often warn to plug in only one or the other.
So there should be just enough for both the H80i and case I/O. Also, you could get an AIO that doesn’t require an internal USB connection.
I just bought this case (£30 del from Maplins) and while the looks are very good and construction is also v good I am finding that a 3.5 HDD in the middle holder is acting a bit like an echo chamber so the noise of the hard disk seeking is louder than it should be. This would be great as an SSD only case and the internal layout is good too. Not a fan of internally mounted power off switch tho. And the front LED strip is perfect for HTPC, very low level and discreet.
Really wanted an lian li q36 but @ £30, great value.
Which Mobo did you use?
With the H80i installed, were you able to mount a 3.5″ HDD on the side of the case?
Also with the H80i, were you able to fit the hanging 3.5″ HDD in the bracket above the mobo?
Dear Sir, Madam,
I really believe job well done Te only thing is the fan bar horizontall is not there yet. Please be advised that it should be a 1 to 3 point to the point of the start of the heating all together.
I think a cooling bar or something should go up an the end!
I am going to buy this later when i worked for it!
And I am happy I have an antec case here myself!
I am upping my old workstation!