Aerocool Masstige Case

[tireman]

This is my first review, so bear with me....

I found this case online at Newegg while searching for a mesh front enclosure. I have been having some severe heat issues and tried several fan configurations, different cases and just about anything else you can think of. A friend of mine had purchased an Antec 900 and had good results, but I just did not want to spend that kind of cash. Newegg sells the Aerocool for just a little less than the 900, but I just happened to find one at the local Microcenter on clearance for 65.00 us.

PRODUCT LINK

The above link will illustrate most of the info better than I can. First of all, this is a reverse atx design case. I had a feeling that I would run into cabling issues, but I had none whatsoever. Essentially, everything is just upside down. This case is of steel construction, but not really all that heavy. It has 10 5.25" external drive bays, one of which has a 3.5" faceplate installed for a floppy drive or card reader. All of the drive face plates are mesh. Included are 3 sets of 5.25 to 3.5 adapters for mounting hard drives in the bays. The drives mount in the front bays using a "button lock". These locks seemed a little flimsy, but proved to be quite strong. There are two other hard drive mounting locations above the power supply. These are also tooless, using two sliding ears to hold the drives in place. These mount very firmly, but they do tend to transfer noise. The hard drives are mounted sideways, so running the cables is a bit of a pain. Solved this problem with SATA cables that used 90' connectors to clear the fans in the side panel.

As for fan placement, the case comes equipped with 3 80mm Areocool fans mounted in the side paned that send air over the hard drives and directly to the CPU fan and heatsink. There is one 120mm fan in the rear of the case and one mount in the front drive bay area for another 120. Using the front mount will take up three of your front bays. The power supply mounting area has a vent that opens underneath the case, which is protected by a mesh grill to cut down on dist intake. The power supply is also seperated from the other components to help with cooling.

The finish on the case is pretty good, but not high quality. The paint scratches easily. The side panels are a little thicker than a few cases that I have seen, and seem very sturdy. There is a small side panel window above the side intake fans placed very nicely to show only the mobo and expansion cards. At the bottom of the front panel, there are 2 usb ports, 1 firewire, mic and headphone jacks, power button and reset button.

All in all, I am quite pleased with the case and it's operation. Transplanting all of my components was very easy and took less than an hour from start to finish. Plenty of room for hiding cables and such. But....the main thing is the drastic improvement in the cooling. With only the first two side intake fans running, the rear 120mm fan, and a 92mm fan on the HSF, my temps have gone down a total of 10' celsius across the board.

Thanks,
tireman