Exterior: Sides of case

There removable side panels on both sides of the case. The left side panel has the window and is very nice.

The clear plastic of the window is flush with the metal frame of the panel so it looks professional. If you like side window panels, this case has you covered. The window panel side also has a nice pull-lever to quickly open the case. Removing the side panels and putting them back on is easy. They aren't too tight or too lose. There are large thumb screws to secure the panels. They are optional for the left panel but the right panel needs them if you want it to stay on.

The fan that is in the window panel is the only fan with LEDs. There are four LEDs in this fan. The LEDs shine down the fan blades to make a nice pattern if viewed from upwind (the default) direction. However the white fan grille that covers the fan obscures this nice feature.

The good news is that it is not hard to remove the white metal grille and put the fan back onto the window panel. The window panel has a grille too so if you remove the white grille, there is still some protection from the blades.

In the above image I have the fan exhausting air from the case (fan reversed) so the nice pattern on the fan blades from the LEDs is not there. If you have the fan inhaling air into the case, you'll see the pattern on the blades as previously shown. It may be true that this grille filters some dust but there is another intake area under the front of the case that is not filtered anyway.

The reason I have the fan exhaling air here instead of blowing air onto the video card is because I like to have air flowing over my hard drives but the internal hard drive cages do not have room (more on this later) for fans. There is a single air intake hold underneath the front of the case so if I have the side window fan exhaling air, that air comes from the front of the case and over hard drives, cooling them.

Exterior: Rear of case

The single large 120mm fan stands out here. It is not lit with LEDs but I think that would have been a nice feature for this fan because it is visible from both the window and the rear. The power supply slot shows some room above it.

Exterior: Top of case

The top of the case is flat and has a air intake grille in the middle with a fan under it.

You can of course manually reverse the fan. I noticed a high pitched whine from this intake grille and when I put my hand on it the whine disappeared. This fan is my first candidate for not plugging up or using, unless you can find a better replacement grille.

The grille is aesthetically fine but significantly interferes with air flow enough so as to create this noise. If you use your computer for one or two hours a day, it's no big deal but if you use your computer more than that, the whine starts to wear on the brain (for me anyway).

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