Now that the new years celebrations are out of the way, I needed something to do to keep myself occupied. I'm going crazy not being able to get this thing built yet, but the post is holding me back, haha!
I thought I'd spend some time having a proper look around the case, and also show you lot as well. I also decided to get the SSD, optical drive and input/output shield mounted while I was at it.
------------------
Here's where I intend to do the whole build. You've seen this desk before but I thought I'd show you again
When you open the case for the first time, this is what you're presented with. A bunch of cables and some plastic bags. As you can see, the inside of the case is very roomy, but I have a feeling it may not have the same feel once the motherboard is mounted in there. The holes for cable routing do have rubber grommets, however you're going to have to install them yourself which is actually quite frustrating. I understand it's easier for BitFenix to just package them and leave the user to it, but it would be nice for them to be installed already. I have a funny feeling once I start passing the larger cables from the PSU through them, they're going to be popping back out which may get annoying, but we'll see what happens.
I do like that the entire interior of the case is black though. It makes it look very smart and clean looking.
Inside the plastic bags you get a load of screws, a couple more standoffs for mATX motherboards, rubber grommets, little adhesive feet for the PSU (I assume?), a user guide (mine has two copies of the same page in it
) and you also get the HDD slides, which I have not pictured for some reason. There are enough slides to fill all of the available spaces if you keep the case in its current configuration. The wall for the SSD slides can be removed to allow for longer graphics cards, or moved along slightly to allow mounting of larger sized mechanical drives. However, there are not enough of the larger slides to have the whole tower in this configuration.
This is the inside of the side panel, and here you can see the silencing material BitFenix have used. The material is of a decent thickness and is rather smooth to the touch. However, quite malleable as it's very soft. Be warned as you could end up with a permanent imprint into the material.
I tried to get a closeup of the material, but my camera just wouldn't play ball. I think you can get a rough idea of what it's like though.
Looking at the actual motherboard tray there is a key imprinted into the metal. It simply shows you what the letters next to all of the standoffs mean. A nice feature to have, particularly if you're a first time builder. Also pictured here is the pin used to align the motherboard in the case correctly, also a nice thing to have.
Here is what the SSD/HDD slides look like. I have mounted my SSD in the case already, and doing so was very easy indeed. The plastic simply bends around the SSD and clips into place. I was worried about bending the plastic too far and snapping the slide itself, however the plastic is very thick and doesn't feel like it's going to break. I believe there is some form of vibration absorbing feature with these slides, however I could not spot anything in particular so I may be wrong there.
I've also mounted the optical drive, which was also very easy to do due to the tool less mechanism that the case has. I have however screwed the drive into place on both sides to make sure it's definitely secure, and help hold it in place when it's spinning up.
Here is the drive mounted in the case. If it matters at all, I very much like the way the drive looks in the case. The black pretty much matches, and it's nice and flush with the case, so it's all good
Finally, here are some pictures of the case itself. The lighting is a little bit iffy, so there are some funny reflections from the tables. The case isn't that shiny, it has much more of a matte finish to it. I very much like the aesthetics of this case, more so than the similarly priced offerings from Cooler Master, and Fractal Design. Corsair also have their silent case, but it's a little more expensive than the BitFenix, and in my opinion still doesn't look as nice.
That's it for now I'm afraid. Just thought I'd actually do what I can without the parts that I'm yet to receive
Cheers!
- Anthony.
