Cases
are a very personal thing; there is no shortage of styles and
flares to choose from when looking for that “Show”
case. Over the years I have reviewed many cases, most of which
have either been a basic case that’s built for performance
or one with a little bit of an edge to it.
Today
I am unpacking the XG
Dragon case, my first venture into a review of a case that
arrives modified to the hilt and designed to be your LAN party
“show” case. Is the XG Dragon all show and no substance?
Before
we can delve deeper and determine what is what, let’s look
at what the XG
Dragon has to offer out of the box.
Specifications
Size:
ATX Mid Tower
Construction: Aluminum / High Grade Plastic
Drive Bays: Four 5.25” (Exposed)
Two 3.5” (Exposed)
Four 3.5” (Hidden)
Power Supply: Not Included
Available Colors: Green, Black, Blue, Silver, Red or Yellow W/
Black or Silver W/Silver
Fan Configuration: 2 80mm Front intake / 1 120mm Rear outtake.
Front I/O Interface: USB 2.0/1.1 x 2 / IEEE 1394 / Temp Probe
LED / Fan Control
Miscellaneous: Multifunctional Thermally advantaged chassis /
Removable motherboard tray
XG
brings to market their Dragon
line of cases, cases built to inspire while at the same time designed
with the tweaker in mind.
This
is one case that actually comes with a manual, no not a piece
of paper that says it's a manual, but an actual manual. There
is also a separate box (located inside the case when you receive
it) that has all the included parts you are going to need to
put this puppy together. Not that you are going to need many
tools; one Phillips screwdriver, as most everything is done
by hand in this little gem.
Also
note the packing, I don't believe I have ever received anything
electronic protected this well, yes that’s ever.
Starting
at the front you can see a swinging front door; I am not a huge
fan of swinging doors on my cases (it gets bothersome when inserting
CD's, powering on/off etc.), however I understand it is becoming
the norm. The front panel has grown in popularity probably two
fold; no longer are we required to purchase Black or Tan cover
CD / Floppy units as our door will cover those nicely for us.
There is also the ability to dress the front panel up with designs
and lights. The XG Dragon has a nicely done swing door made from
aluminum with an etching of, and then the word, “Dragon”
with frosted white plastic behind it. This lights up Blue when
the system is powered on giving you a nice flair immediately as
you use it.
A
variation to the “standard” once you open the door,
there are four 5.25” bays and two 3.5” bays, and
nothing else. The power and USB / FireWire / Audio ports are
on the beveled top front of the case, alleviating at least a
couple of scenarios when you would need to open the swing door.
This is a good thing as it is already apparent stress has taken
a slight toll on my new case. Opening the door and looking at
the edge you can see the thickness of the door, a necessity
to allow for the internal lighting but also the reasoning for
the strain taken by the mounting brackets and Plexiglas.
The
top of the XG Dragon case sports not only the power button,
lights and flip door concealing the USB/FireWire/Audio ports,
but a flowing handle made of high grade Plastic to assist you
on carrying your gear to that next LAN party. This handle not
only flows with the design of the case but is comfortable to
use when carrying the wide case from home to the car to the
table you will be LAN'ing on.
The
left side of the Dragon case has the defunct standard window;
however they have done a new play here. The XG Dragon's side
window is not square by any means, it has a nice flow to it
as well as a dragon etched into it. There is also a blow hole
for directing air to your CPU intake fan as well as an added
ventilation below this to aid in cooling of any add-on cards.
The design is “sports car-ish” once again giving
the case a look that it is moving even when standing still.
Removal
of the side panel is easily accomplished by removing the two thumbscrews
on the rear flap. The thumbscrews are of sufficient diameter that
you can actually grip them and torque them. The panel itself is
easily removed and installed without having to slide it with an
exact amount of pressure to finish the job. There is also a sturdy
finger pull to assist you in removing the side panel.
Now
that the side panel is off, I can look closer at the internals
of the XG Dragon case. A few things show up that are not on my
favorites list as far as case attributes. Numero Uno is the FireWire
leads are individualized, in other words they are not in block
format and you must match each particular connector to its appropriate
match on the motherboard header.
I don't care whose motherboard you have or how small your fingers
are, this is not an easy task (and one I will not be attempting
in this review). Interesting enough, the USB header cables are
in block format, what gives?
Second
issue I have is the internal Hard Drive cage faces front to back
instead of right to left. Although this is personal preference
more than a better solution, believe me, someone who has to build
many different machines over a 1 or 2 month period, the ability
to quickly pull out hard drives and not fight motherboards or
cables is a nice feature.
Installation
Removing
the right panel requires you to take out two additional thumb
screws. The removable motherboard tray is held in place by four
more of these thumb screws that do not hold the right panel
on. The motherboard tray slides out easily once released, notice
the quality build on even the motherboard slide channel... I
set the tray aside to install the motherboard on once ready.
There
are three possible included Power Supply models for the XG-Dragon
case, this one was shipped with the MGE500WP, a 500W unit. Opening
up the PSU exposes a quality build and design with efficient
cooling in mind.
Although
the PSU is built with cable connectors (it comes with them all
installed), I can not see any similarities with this design to
others I have installed. It does, however, include a 4/8 pin and
20/24 pin hard cabled main power connectors, giving you expandability
into the latest motherboards power requirements.
When
it came to installing the Hard Drives and the removable drives,
I had to actually sit down for a second and read the instructions.
I had never come across the type of bracket they used in this
design in all of my cases. I proceeded to install with a little
trial and error until I finally got it installed correctly.
I must admit, when I first saw the brackets and how they were
to be used, I thought this was going to be a lousy system of
securing your drives. It turns out to be a rather quick and
sturdy solution once done right.
Installing
the Motherboard took little as is the case with most removable
motherboard trays. The only thing I ran into was one of the tray's
brackets had either been missed or the rivet had fallen out.
The
tray slips back into the case nicely, even with a rather large
mounted HS/Fan combination. The front panel connectors were labeled
well and had plenty of slack to reach most any motherboards choice
of FP header position (I have seen some winners :P). I bypassed
the FireWire and installed the USB connectors, and then proceeded
to position the temperature probe. The probe comes well shielded
and has plenty of stretch to reach across the case to measure
a temperature pretty much anywhere you see fit.
NEXT
