For cooling, there is one 120mm blue UV LED fan, as well as the 500W power supply setup for exhaust. What we like about these items is both feature a grid or honeycomb grill that should allow more airflow than a fan cutout in the chassis. One criticism we had with the previous X-QPack was that there was no intake fan, but the X-QPack2 now has an 80mm front intake fan to help with airflow. It isn't of the LED variety though, but it is relatively silent which matter more for myself.

Another upgrade this time around is a PSU rated for 500W. It features dual 12v rails rated at 16A and 18A respectively. The cable layout is as follows: 1 x 24pin Main Power (20 + 4 pin), 1 x 12V (P4), 6 x Peripheral, 2 x Floppy, 2 x SATA and 1 x PCI Express. For the neat freaks, all the wires are sleeved for a neater appearance.

Installation and Use

The included coloured manual is an excellent source of info and has illustrated pictures demonstrating the entire installation process. That said, if you forego the manual, installation isn't really much different from setting up your typical case. The motherboard standoffs are already preinstalled, so simply place your board on top and secure it.

Installing the rest of the components work as usual, and Aspire includes all the necessary screws for this. If you wish to make use of the front LED display, make sure you attach the thermal probe to the CPU heatsink and hard drive.

The hard drive is installed on a separate bracket which can be removed by undoing a couple screws. The bracket slides out and you can fit up to 2 hard drives.

To install the optical drive, you need to remove one of the external dive bay plates and slide the drive in.

There isn't much in the ways of built in cable management, but on the side with the hard drive, there is a small opening to loop some of the wires.

Cooling

the Apevia X-QPack2 was loaded up with an AM2 5000+ Energy Efficient and MSI K9AGM2-FIH. A Seagate 160GB Barracuda and Sony DVD drive rounded things out. This was a migrated system that was previously installed in a Cooler Master Centurion 532, which is a full sized tower.

We fired up Folding@Home and a batch script of 3D Mark 2006. Ambient room temperature was maintained at ~23°C/74°F. Both cases were "closed" during testing.

Except for the hard drive, the X-QPack2 was a slightly better performer. The temperatures were read using software and the BIOS, except for the hard drive which used a thermal probe. Using the X-QPack2's built in thermal probe, the CPU and system were 2°C cooler.

Final Words

Compared to the first generation of X-QPack, the X-QPack2 is a better designed and better performing Micro-ATX case. The improvements design-wise is the slightly deeper chassis which gives a bit more clearance for long video cards and optical drives, and the improved performance comes from the additional cooling and higher rated power supply.

The build quality is improved when compared to the original X-QPack, but the outer shell does still feel a little flimsy. The aluminum isn't thick and neither is are the windows. Granted, the case is much lighter because of this, but certainly a hard drop isn't going to do it any favours. The main chassis does feel a bit more solid, but the paint job could still use a bit of work. The overspray from the paint is better (less messy) than before, but the finish isn't car paint smooth.

Cooling performance is better than the previous model thanks to the intake fan and additional perforations in the case itself. The power supply we did not extensively test, but it is of decent quality and better than the average "throw-in" PSU. On the subject of cooling, Apevia could improve on future models by allowing for more clearance for the CPU fan so enthusiasts can use the larger tower coolers on the market. For now, you're limited to those no taller than 3.25".

The Apevia X-QPack2 isn't perfect yet, but overall, the improvements were minor but significant as the previous model had some issues that we felt needed to be addressed. The new X-QPack is cooler, a little easier to upgrade and work with but is still plagued with the average paint job and some CPU cooler challenges. These aren't deal breakers though, and even if your needs are particular for Micro-ATX systems, the X-QPack2 should fit the bill.