When Apple
released it’s Imac to the public, it was the craze for a little
while. What was it that made this little computer so interesting? It
didn’t perform well and had mediocre specs. No, it was the design.
The case was translucent, allowing the owner to peer into the system
and see the components without opening the case. Until recently, PC
cases have been the traditional off-white design. After the Imac,
some components began to come out with translucent designs, such as
MP3 players and USB hubs. It was just a matter of time before
companies began to venture into the PC case market with this new
approach.

 A-Top
technology has created their own lineup of translucent PC cases. The
X1 series is completely translucent, meaning you can see the metal
framework of the case through the outer blue plastic. But,
underneath this framework, is this case worth your money? Anyone
buying a case needs to consider a lot more than looks. So, let’s
look at this case:

Overall, I would
rate this case as mediocre. The features are fine. The construction
could be a bit more solid. The metal within seems to be a little
thinner than cases from, say Enlight.

Let’s look at
how it comes apart. The two side-panels come off by unscrewing two
screws from the rear edge of each panel and then sliding them off.
Small plastic handles are provided so that you can slide the panels
back and off their racks. You will then be able to see the inside of
the case. When I got my case, it was lacking a power supply, so it
seemed like it had gobs of space. I had to punt a power supply,
which mounts sideways in the upper left corner of the case.
Unfortunately, the position of the power supply means that you
either have to remove the power supply or the motherboard assembly
in order to get to components such as the CPU or RAM, as the power
supply covers them up.

I found it
interesting how the motherboard was removed. By removing a couple
screws, you slide the entire motherboard mounting plate out the back
of the case. This includes the card slots, too, meaning you, after
building the system, could remove the entire motherboard/ card
assembly from the case at once. Putting the mounting rack back in
again is rather easy. Just slide it along the slide rail and screw
it back in.

I found the slot
cover and ATX port plate to be shabby. The port plate, that covers
the built on ATX ports, was quite flimsy. The card slot covers were
the type that you had to pry off with a screwdriver. I much prefer
the screw-on type. A-Top did provide two extra covers that were the
screw-on type to replace the others once ripped off.

The hard drives
and floppy drive are mounted on a removable drive rack that has a
three drive capacity. It is easily removed by removing one screw and
sliding the whole rack backward and off the rail. The only problem
with this is that if your system is full and you need to remove the
drive rack, it will run right into the cards and ribbon cables. To
get it out in a full system, you would probably have to un-hook a
few other components to make room. The 5.25” drives mount like
most other cases, directly in through the front and screwed in.
There are no drive rails. The floppy drive is accessed through a
built in slot in the bezel. It is compatible with most floppy
drives, but of course, cannot be used with internal ZIP drives, tape
drives, etc. The diskette eject button is not spring loaded, so it
is always loose.

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