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NZXT Alpha

David Murphy — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:16:59 -0600

There are apparently two versions of the English language going around the technological world: One is the version manufacturers use when they say things like, “The NZXT Alpha also enables the user to fit large expansion cards like the Nvidia 8800 GTX.” The other version is the kind we use, where the word “fit” doesn’t suggest a large bucket of grease, a hammer, and profanity that would make a longshoreman blush.

If you're looking to build a screaming SLI or CrossFire rig, you'll have better luck using the box this case came in.

The blue LED fan on the Alpha's window adds some lovely coloration to the chassis.

The smallish size of the NZXT midtower case was obvious the minute we cracked the box, but we figured that installing a decent-powered gaming rig into the chassis wouldn’t be a total bust. And it wasn’t; it was just a hassle. The PCI holders aren’t your average combination of a screw and a metal tab. No, these holders have multiple notches and tabs that are meant to lock into the slots—obviously designed so the holder doesn’t accidentally fall out of your case. You know, when it’s not attached with a screw.

In actuality, you’ll likely break one or more of the tabs when you try to remove the flimsy metal holders from the Alpha. It’s a small concern if you never plan to build a second machine in this case or switch any PCI cards around. But that’s just silly talk. Nobody likes a gaping hole in the rear of their case, but that’s what you’ll end up with if you start futzing around with your PCI-based devices.

Have fun wedging an Nvidia 800 next to this neighboring drive bay!

Of course, the Alpha has an ingenious solution for this problem: It just doesn’t make any room for large PCI devices like today’s high-end videocards. If you try to put an 8800 GTX into the case straight on, it’s not going to happen. The videocard slams right into the case’s hard drive bay. It’s possible to get the card in there if you hit on the perfect combination of patience, deft angling, and brute force, but why bother? Once the hellish task is complete, you’ve got your card wedged in so tight that there’s no more than a fraction of an inch between the end of the card and the drive bays, and you still have to attach cables!

A strange benefit of the case’s miniature size is that airflow, for all intents and purposes, is perfect. The fresh breeze produced by the case’s two 12cm fans covers your motherboard just as well as it covers your videocard and hard drives. So feel free to pack your rig full of hot equipment—but not large graphics cards. The NZXT Alpha is, at best, an above-average case with a deal-breaking flaw.

Next: The Ultra m998!

Gigabyte Mercury Pro

David Murphy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:41:32 -0600

In our last big case roundup (April 2007), Gigabyte’s Aurora 570 earned top marks for its excellent design and convenience as a chassis. But Gigabyte certainly hasn’t rested on its laurels since then—the company’s designers have gone back to the drawing board and given us a case that rivals the coolness of its predecessor. Gigabyte calls it the Mercury Pro; we would have named it the Monstrosity Pro if we were in charge. That’s because this case isn’t just a run-of-the-mill chassis. It’s a fully functional (armed and operational?) water-cooling/case hybrid. Take a moment if you need to collect yourself.

Both the 5.25-inch bay and PCI locking mechanisms are screwless, and they do an excellent job of holding your stuff in check.

At least, that’s how we felt in the presence of this case’s greatness. Typically, when water cooling is involved, we expect high levels of frustration and/or fluid leaking all over our expensive gear. But to our extreme satisfaction, Gigabyte has turned an otherwise irritating process into utter simplicity. For example, the water block stays the same regardless of your computing platform. Just snap a bracket over the top of the block and you’re good to go. It took us about one minute to switch from an Intel to an AMD setup—we spent far more time looking for the mounting bracket amidst the Gigabyte’s many accessories than we spent clamping the block to our motherboard.

Splitter valves at the top and bottom of the case offer plenty of room for expansion.

The cooling mechanism itself is Gigabyte’s Galaxy II water-cooling system. Rather than slapping this system to the side of the chassis and calling it a day, Gigabyte went to great lengths to integrate the water-cooling kit into the chassis itself. Ugly tubing runs alongside the framework of the case as much as possible, and we can’t speak highly enough about the six additional splitter valves Gigabyte includes in the case. They make for a stylish and handy way to add more cooling to your rig without having to disassemble the entire kit or, for that matter, spill even a drop of fluid.

Watch your liquid churn through the Mercury Pro's front panel.

Performance-wise, the cooler rivals some of the top all-in-one kits we’ve reviewed. It runs on a variable fan-speed dial, and we saw excellent performance on both its low and “cover your ears” setting. The cooler dropped our CPU to 40.5 C and 35.5 C, respectively, during full-burn testing, and 18 C and 15 C, respectively, when idle. Filling the system with fluid is as easy as holding a bottle over the case’s blowhole—a front-panel flow meter and tiny reservoir window show you exactly what’s pumping (and how much is left!).

Believe us, if we could find something about the Mercury Pro to criticize, we would. The Galaxy II does emit a horrible shrieking noise if it’s underfilled, but really, that’s it. This case rocks.

Thermaltake Xaser VI (VG4000)

David Murphy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:40:47 -0600

For a change of pace, we’ll start with our biggest critique first—literally, the biggest. Thermaltake’s Xaser VI chassis (the air-cooling-specific VG4000 model) is the Godzilla of cases. It’s heavy enough to make carrying it an awkward, hernia-inducing experience, and that’s before you slap a system inside. Heaven forbid you make full use of the case’s eight (?!) hard drive bays and seven (?!?!) 5.25-inch expansion slots. Add water cooling and you might want to invest in some wheels and a dolly for transporting the beast.

The Xaser VI is huge. Absolutely huge. Remember: Lift from the knees.

The Xaser VI is a screwdriver’s worst enemy. Save for the motherboard standoffs and typical fastening screws, you shouldn’t have to touch any kind of tool to assemble a basic rig in this chassis. In this respect, some parts of the case function far better than others. For instance, we love the mounting setup for the Xaser VI’s 5.25-inch bays. Removing the front-panel coverings is a one-second process, and you simply shove your device in from there. It automatically locks into place, and that’s it. No screws to tighten, no fasteners to fuss with.

You can remove the drive bays on the bottom of the case and replace them with an included fan!

The PCI holders attempt to follow suit, but they’re a bit more delicate and frustrating than their peers. We broke the very first fastener when we gently tried to remove it from the side of the case. When you do this—and trust us, you will—you’ll be forced to default to the old screw for locking your PCI card into place. It’s an ugly solution that makes us wonder why Thermaltake didn’t include some extra connectors in the accessory bag that comes with the Xaser VI.

The goody bag also lacks any extra thumbscrews for the exterior of the case. But in many ways, we wish Thermaltake would have eschewed these tiny screws altogether. The design of the case is such that the narrow thumbscrews you use for the panels are absurdly close to the case’s decorative exterior elements. So something that should be removable with your fingers requires the use of a tool, thus defeating the entire point of their existence. It’s a minor detail, but when 95 percent of a case is perfectly screwless, there’s no reason you should have to find a tool kit to start (or finish) your work.

An obscene number of front-panel connectors are hidden beneath a stylish push-top covering.

A top-loading storage bin and ample air-cooler support help fill out the list of excellent eccentricities on this fairly innovative chassis. The senselessness of the minor flaws make us hesitant to recommend the Xaser VI for general use, but there’s no denying that this is one of the slickest full-tower cases we’ve tested. A few touch-ups on the drawing board would make this one rockin’ enclosure.

Next: Gigabyte Mercury Pro!

Cooler Master 690

David Murphy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:40:25 -0600

In yet another example of a design that likely looked way better on paper than in practice, we find ourselves struggling to come to terms with the Cooler Master 690’s more unique features. We can’t fault the company for trying; in some ways, we applaud Cooler Master’s attempts at distinguishing the 690 from the rest of its cadre in the crowded case market.

For all the 690 chassis does to improve your rig's wiring, the end result is hardly helpful.

The exterior of the 690 not only looks cool, the mesh accents throughout the shell also serve as a handy means of moving air into and out of the case. Arguably, this semi-open design might diffuse air you want directed at certain key components, but the quasi see-through paneling—especially when illuminated by a few LED fans—looks slick enough to silence such concerns. Anyway, with room for up to seven 12cm fans, the 690 is hardly lacking when it comes to air-powered cooling potential.

Correction: six fans. When you mount a standard-size power supply to the bottom of the case, you lose one of the fan slots outright. We’re baffled as to how Cooler Master thought that power supply cables and a 12cm fan could somehow coexist in the same physical location, but there you have it.

One hole is for the power supply fan; the other (in theory) fits a standard 12cm fan.

Speaking of cables, the 690 uses an interesting scheme for managing them. A series of plastic clips attached to the motherboard tray encourages you to route all your cables along a single, uniform path. This is supposed to minimize cable clutter. And it does. But it also hampers your ability to connect devices to your motherboard; the clips and cables along the route blocked access to our floppy connector.

Whoops.

Storing screws in this manner is unique. Too bad it doubles our work.

Yes, right now it’s only a floppy connector, but the minute we encounter a motherboard whose side-mounted SATA ports are rendered useless by the 690’s design, well, that’s the minute we’re tossing this case into the garbage. And it’s not just the motherboard that presents an issue. We had a little trouble getting our optical drive to fit amidst the cords of the top-mounted USB, FireWire, and eSATA connectors.

While the case itself is screwless, you pay for this luxury with the hard drive holders. Rails on either side of hard drive holder let you scoot your drive right in—that is, after you’ve spent time wrestling your drive into the flimsy, plastic sheath.
Sweet ideas combined with subpar execution: Welcome to the Cooler Master 690.

Next: Thermaltake Xaser VI (VG4000)

Ultra m998

David Murphy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:40:02 -0600

Ultra’s m998 is a sad combination of two phrases: “Looks are deceiving.” and “A for effort.” Funny, because when we consider the case strictly on face value, it’s anything but a cliché. For starters, the m998 is wider than the standard cases we’ve tested, but the aluminum body keeps the enclosure rather light.

The m998's interior is all contours and class.

Opening up the windowed side panel of the m998 is like throwing open the doors to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. There aren’t any lake-drinking chubby kids or Oompa-Loompas, but a number of new delights await curious rig-builders. The first thing we noticed was the motherboard tray. We like the neat look of its reflective surface—too bad there aren’t any labels for the motherboard standoffs. That’s misstep number one for Ultra.

Ultra's proprietary power bar limits cable clutter in the bottom half of your machine.

The second thing we noticed was a fanciful panel studded with Molex connectors running vertical to the motherboard tray. We assumed this was a new power strip of some sort, as lord knows the manual told us absolutely nothing about the unfamiliar feature. Only after happening upon the information on Ultra’s website did we realize that the top portion of the so-called Ultra Power Bar is for inputs—your various power supply cables—while the bottom of the bar is populated with outputs—from which Ultra’s short, uniform cables extend to your peripherals. As for which input corresponds with which output… well, that’s an awesome game of trial and error.

That said, the power bar is pretty sweet if you can figure it out. While it’s not a one-stop shop for cable management, it does help relegate the unsightly snarl that typically occupies a case’s interior to just the top half of the enclosure, keeping the bottom half neat and tidy. Trouble is, you’ll have to negotiate that northern tangle of power supply cables to fit multiple devices into the 5.25-inch drive bays. Tread carefully, you water coolers.

Front-panel connectors are hidden ninja-style beneath a push-spring covering.

Less-adventurous builders will find that the m998 does little to ease their construction efforts. The chassis loves screws. It loves them so much that it doesn’t give you a single screwless way to interact with your case. Nada. For the lax computer builder, that’s a terribly weak move on Ultra’s part. Speaking of lazy, the m998 comes with front-panel eSATA. It’s just not plugged in. You have to pop a side panel and string your own SATA cable. That’s certainly the first time we’ve ever done that with a case.

This is Maximum PC, not Masochist PC. We aren’t happy when the build process is made needlessly tedious, be it through half-baked features or a dearth of instructions. The m998 would be a strong contender if a bit more attention were paid to the details.

Next: the Cooler Master 690!

The Great Case Race

David Murphy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:37:42 -0600

When it comes to case design, innovation is a double-edged sword. If a company gets it right, it can win attention and accolades for introducing a fresh and functional approach to an otherwise stale and unchanging market. Let’s face it, a lot of new cases look just like the plain ol’ boxes of yore, with maybe a couple of new fan holes here and there.

But when a company tries too hard, or gets sloppy with the detail work, innovation can quickly turn an otherwise perfectly usable design into a configuration nightmare. We’ve seen this in droves. The thing is, case quality isn’t always something you can eyeball. Sure, that case with the huge, nondescript fan on the crudely windowed side panel might look ugly as sin, but maybe the chassis brings something to the table that you wouldn’t realize unless you built a system in it. Worse yet, what if that case with the awesome features you just picked up isn’t an ideal fit for your system? What if your components don’t fit at all?

This is exactly why the process of case selection can be one of the most important steps you take as a budding rig builder. And it’s why we don’t mess around when we review cases in the Maximum PC Lab. In this roundup, we’re putting new designs from some of the top chassis creators to the ultimate test: We’ll stuff a full, functioning machine into each enclosure, complete with some of the fastest (and hottest) parts a computer can handle. If a case can’t play nicely with an enthusiast setup, it’s not worth your time or money. Because why would you ever want to downgrade from your current enclosure to a more headache-inducing model? Find out which of these models made the grade.

Click on each case name to read the review!

	NZXT Alpha

	Ultra m998

	Cooler Master 690

	Thermaltake Xaser VI (VG4000)

	Gigabyte Mercury Pro

Next: Can your case do this?

Can Your Case Do This?

All this talk about innovation and unique features has us contemplating some special tricks that could endear us to an enclosure

USB Megahub

Most cases offer two or three USB ports up front, but considering USB is—without question—the No. 1 tech invention of all time (see the December issue for more info) that’s a level of scarcity we just can’t abide. We want room for all our essentials, plus a USB disco light, mini fridge, AND air freshener, dammit!

Case Frod

Your components could be outdated, your wiring could be a shambles, your case could be sheltering a family of refugee dust bunnies. A faux-interior decal doesn’t just get you off the hook for slovenliness, it has folks thinking you’re the Martha Stewart of PC maintenance.

Internal External Drive Bay

Of course, a newfound surfeit of USB hoo ha leaves us with much less workspace. That’s OK because we know of one device that could stand to be relocated. Our external drive would feel much more at home nestled in its own special nook.