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 ABS
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 website
or on PriceGrabber.
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.
