It has been a while since I last reviewed a case... probably close to 2 years since the last one. Honestly there hasn't been much recently that has come out that caught my eye. These days pre-mods have taken over, cases that look like demons, samurai warriors or robots, and front bezels that look like the grill for a high dollar import car. Throw in enough LED fans and flashing CCFL's to light a runway and that's what most of the case market looks like these days.
Personally I prefer the less flashy cases and that's what I am taking a look at today. The case in question today is the ABS Stealth, which is an aluminum mid tower case available in black or silver. Honestly I wasn't aware that had their own line of cases (Editor's Note: It looks pretty much like it's based on the latest Cooler Master Praetorian 730). I had seen their laptops, pre-built systems and barebones kits at various online retailers. The Stealth retails for about $130 and can be found on their or on .
Right off the bat I liked this case, one it is black and two it didn't have a window in the side or any fancy LEDs. First lets take a look at the externals. The very first thing I noticed once this case was out of the box and the plastic removed was the door, it's not a cheap plastic door held on by a couple of cheap plastic tabs that are bound to break the first time you move the case. The door is made of thick aluminum, and not just one piece of aluminum but three.
The three piece design is so simple that's it is pure genius. The door runs the full height of the case, there are two outer strips and a center strip that is attached with standoffs. The standoffs separate the center piece from the two outer pieces to supply airflow to the front of the case. The pictures don't do it justice, but should give you an idea of what I am talking about. Some of you may be thinking, big deal, the front of the case gets airflow so your CDROM gets some fresh air, there will be more on why the airflow is so important in a few.
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OK, once we get behind the door we see why airflow is a big deal, the entire front bezel of the Stealth is mesh, even the drive bay covers. Filters are placed behind the mesh to help keep out all the dust and debris that might be floating around in the air. All of the drive bay covers as well as the lower bezel that covers the fan are removable and have a plastic rear shield that you can take out in order to remove the filters and clean them. So, unlike most cases with a door where the only intake is through a small opening on the underside of the bezel, the entire front of the Stealth is a fresh air intake.
The front intake fan on the Stealth is a 120mm Cooler Master fan, it DOES have blue LEDs but it doesn't flash, blink or change colors. The mounting bracket for the intake fan can also accommodate two 80mm fans if you prefer. As for me, I'll take a quiet 120mm fan over a noisy 80mm any day. The second pic was taken from inside the case and shows that it is pretty much obstruction free inside as well as outside. The fan itself and all mounting hardware is accessed by removing the cover on the lower half of the front bezel.
Power, reset, activity indicator, power indicator and input/output ports are located on the top of the case, not my idea of the perfect location, but since the Stealth is a mid tower and not a full tower they should still be pretty easy to access even if the case is sitting on your desk.
Another nice feature of the Stealth is if you don't want/need the IO ports on the top they can be removed and replaced with a fan, they even include a mounting kit for the fan with built in grill and screen. The fan is not included, I installed it to show how it works. One thing I would like to have seen is a place to relocate the I/O ports to, maybe in a 3.25" bay or something.
Moving on to the left side of the Stealth you will see there is no window, just a large air intake over the area of the CPU. There is a shroud on the inside that funnels air onto the CPU. The air intake does not have a fan, it relies on the CPU fan to pull air in, this is all fine and good if you use air cooling, if you are using a water-cooled set up obviously there is no fan available to draw air into the case. The fresh air intake over the CPU is a good idea, however not all motherboard manufacturers place the CPU in the same location. Some of the newer motherboards I have seen the CPU is migrating more towards the center of the board and the RAM slots moving up to where the CPU used to be.
Continuing the trip around the case we come to the back, EVERYTHING on the back of the case is held on with thumb screws on both side panels, the removable motherboard tray and the rear panel that the PSU mounts to. The interior of the case where the PSU mounts is built like a cage around the PSU, this gives the PSU more support than just being held in place by four screws in the back, but it also requires that the PSU be installed from the rear of the case. This was somewhat of a pain, but once the PSU is installed and you get all of your wires pulled through the little bit of extra effort is worth the added work.
Anyone that has never worked with a case with a removable motherboard tray doesn't know what they are missing. I wont even consider buying a case that doesn't have a removable motherboard tray. To remove the tray on the Stealth you simply remove a few thumbscrews and the entire back of the case (minus the PSU) slides out on rails. This makes installing hardware extremely easy. Even the rear expansion slot hold downs use thumbscrews.
