Installation/User Experience
The following components were used while reviewing the Mountain Mods Twice 7:
ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe Rev2.0
AMD Athlon 1700+ @ 12.5x170
1024MB Corsair PC4000
FIC Radeon 9600 Dual DVI
ASUS 52x32x52x CDRW
ASUS 16x DVDROM
Seagate 200GB SATA
Seagate 120GB SATA
Ultra 400W UV

To start off the installation in the case I removed the top/sides panel, motherboard tray, 5.25” bay, 3.5” bay. Once all of this was removed I was left with an empty shell, and a pile of 27 thumbscrews. Once empty I installed the three 120mm UV reactive fans included in my package into the case along with their wire mess grills.

I tackled the 5.25” bay next, installing my optical drives and the included Nexus 4-port fan controller. Now three problems come to mind with the 5.25” bay, one being the bay itself. The bay was excellent as long as you had three devices to install in it, as Mountain Mods does not include any blank covers. This could cause some problems for those that do not need all three bays. Also the fan controller was a bit of an issue, it only has 4 ports, although the case itself uses 5 fans. So one fan will be left uncontrolled, which could add some extra noise to the mix. Finally, there are no screws included with the case for your devices, which can be quite annoying as not everyone has a pile of screws sitting around.

I next installed my hard drives in the hard drive bay. This was a straight forward installation. Simply slide your hard drive into position, and screw them in. Although I hope you have the screws, as they are also not included in the case.

I next installed my motherboard in the removable tray. This is probably one of the easiest installations I have ever done. The tray included the fans and everything, so you don't need to worry about any "fitment" issues when sliding the tray into place. Mountain Mods includes 9 motherboard standoffs and screws, which will be fine for AMD systems, but Intel systems better go looking for another standoff, as most boards need a total of 10.

Once all the bays and trays are installed back into the case it was time to wire it up. Now you would expect wiring to be difficult, because of the two sections of the case. It actually was really easy to find a good spot to route your cables. I found that the SATA cable slipped under the motherboard tray, while the PATA cables wrapped around the tray. Power was the hardest to wire up. Having the power supply on the bottom makes it hard to route the ATX cable to the motherboards power connector. Other than that it was fairly straightforward.

Performance
The Twice 7 has a unique cooling system. By splitting the case into two sections, you make two separate cooling zones. These zones each have their own intake and exhaust fans. Also, by separating the motherboard and the hard drives, you eliminate the heat transfer between the two, which would raise both case temperatures, and CPU temperatures.

The Twice 7 cooling performance was tested using MBM 5, reading temperatures from my A7N8X-Dlx's onboard diodes. Temperatures were taken at four different stages. Those being: system idle w/fans on low, full load w/fans on low, system idle w/fans on high, full load w/fans on high. Shown below are the results.

As you can see the Twice 7 does an excellent job in the cooling department. The design of the case is the cause of this. The compartmentalization really does pay off in the cooling department. Unfortunately, noise was an issue with the fans Mountain Mods included. Even on low, the system was no where near silent. A hum was always present with the case. On high, I had to turn up the volume on my stereo to be able to drown out the computer. The lower quality fans are to blame for this, they look cool because they glow under UV, but I would rather have a quiet computer than one that glows. I will defiantly be replacing all of the fans in the system with some quieter models.

Conclusion
The Mountain Mods Twice 7 is the welcomed smaller brother of the U2-UFO series of cases. Based on a smaller 14 inch cube chassis it makes for a nicer, compact package. The finish on the case is absolutely impeccable. The whole case is powder coated black, making for a deep glossy look. Accenting the black is the included silver grills for all of the fans as well as the silver colored power/reset switches and silver light buckets. The top/sides panel includes three large square windows, allowing for full view of everything inside your system. My package included a dual UV cold cathode kit and UV reactive fans, which made for a very nice overall look to the case.

Everything on the case uses thumbscrews, which makes building and administrating your system extremely easy. For example, four thumbscrews and the 5.25” bay slides right out allowing extremely easy installation of devices. Everything is basically designed for ease of use. The two compartments make wiring easy, and cooling performance even better.

The Twice 7 is not without its downfalls. One major problem was the lack of included accessories. Mountain Mods only package motherboard standoffs with the case, and only 9 of them, leaving you looking for one more if you have a motherboard that uses 10. Mountain Mods also leaves you searching for screws to install your components such as your optical drives and hard drives, which can be a problem if you don't have extras. Adding screws to the package is such a small expense to Mountain Mods, and for the price of the case, I would expect them to include everything required. Another missing part was covers for your 5.25” bays. Not everyone has three drives, so if you do not use three devices you are left with a blank hole. One thing I found really annoying is the fact that you need to slide the motherboard tray out in order to install an expansion card onto your motherboard. This is caused by the fact that the frame of the case blocks all of the slots, and this is the one section that Mountain Mods did not include thumbscrews. By adding 7 more thumbscrews, this problem would have been averted.

Pros: Unique design, compartmentalized cooling, lots of room, everything is removable via thumbscrews

Cons: Expensive, major lack of screws and accessories, size makes it hard to find a spot for it on your desk

Overall: I thought the Mountain Mods Twice 7 was an excellent case. It provides a lot of room to work with, excellent cooling potential, along with ease of use. For the price I would have liked then to have included all the screws you needed as well as a quieter set of fans to be included.

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