The power supply stands out inside this case, you can see the inner workings through the side panel and the two fans are "Blue Quad LED" for consistency. The internals of the PSU are anodized green giving a nice glow that you can not fully appreciate with my photos.
The ATX cable for the motherboard is wrapped in a mesh green and the connectors are colored in a UV reactive green (I thought that maybe these should have been blue, no). There is a rheostat on the back of the PS to adjust your fan speed, also on the back is a UV green reactive power switch and voltage selector. Also to aid in stabilty whilst standing this case has retractable feet.
Now that everything is installed it is time to connect and route the cables, there is a lot of room inside this case and it allowed for someone as talented as I (not) to route cables and hide them effectively. The power supply came up well short here, with just 2 Hard Drives, 2 DVD Drives and a floppy drive I almost ran out of connectors. I had to connect 6 more fans and the Rheobus, luckily most of the fans had a pass through connector allowing me to connect another fan behind it, I still had to borrow one multi-connector from an old system to give me enough plugs.
For a 500W Power Supply, they need to add a few more connectors in my opinion. The USB and firewire cables are of the separated pins, this, unfortunately, is becoming a trend. I miss the older ones that came as a block, easily connected to the motherboard, I wonder why they have gone away from this, I mean, it is a standard, right? Lastly I connect the Temp probes, with MBM doing a fine job monitoring my CPU temp, I decided I wanted to use the probe labeled "CPU" on my Video Card, I attached the HD probe to, well, my primary Hard Drive.
I close her up and plug everything that needs to be plugged in externally, and now its time for the show. I turn the power on, the first two things I notice is 1: the lighting and 2: the noise from the fans. I go to the Mid-Panel and adjust the fans to a slower speed, that alleviates some of the noise (remember, I am used to a water cooler with almost no noise).
As I am doing this I notice that the Temp indicators are labeled "HD" and "CPU". It would have been nice to be labeled "Probe 1" or "Temp 1" or something a little more generic, just a little more flexible I guess. The light show is something out of a Pink Floyd concert (umm, showing age again) I mean, a Rush concert, errr, never mind, It's a good light show, very few would not be impressed by the amount of activity going on inside this case. There is also a nice glow protruding out of the front grill from those two 80mm's. All in all, very impressive lighting display.
Lets take a look at a few temps while we are here:
Specs: MSI 645DE-Max, Intel P4 1.6B @ 2.16GHz (1.525 VCore) (Swiftech 462+/Aero), Samsung 80GB 7200RPM 2MB Cache Hard Drive, ATI Radeon 7200 64MB
As you can see, the cpu and motherboard were not effected by this new case. The hard drive and video card, however, benefited nicely by having fans directed at them keeping the heat away.
Final Words
The folks at have done a very nice job with their rendition of the X-SuperAlien case. They have put a lot of thought into the process of building your system and what would make it an easier go, as well as allowing you room for growth.
The standouts are the hidden 3.5" drive bays and the ability to route cables with the plethora of room inside the case. It was so nice to be able to SEE how the IDE cable connected, instead of feel. The case is built well, even though it is very light, you can still feel the strength of it. Everything fit and snapped nicely, giving you a sense of quality through and through.
The power supply, a beefy 500W, is a thing of beauty and did nothing but add to the overall appeal of this case. I also like the fact that they put the rails on the 5.25" tray cover, even though I went looking for them:.
The cons were few and nothing that would make me not purchase this case, just a few "gotchya's" to look out for when building your dream rig. The only thing that I did not like was the top fan blowing in, that was fairly easily remedied, a task that could have been difficult on many cases.
Pros: Slide out Hard Drive Trays with easy access to connector, 500W power supply included, Six "Blue Quad LED" fans for maximum air flow, Front two channel Rheobus and dual Temp monitor (saves a 5.25" bay, not that you need to with this case), Five 5.25" exposed bays, Six colors available, A Light show when turned on
Cons: To few power connectors on power supply, Lift out motherboard tray instead of slide out, Cable run from mid-panel interferes with hard drive placement, 80mm fan on top of case blows in instead of out
Bottom Line: This case isn't without minor flaws, however they are very minor. XPCases have added a lot of features to make for an easy install and a striking appearence that will get you noticed. The PSU could do with some more connectors though ....
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