Cubitek ATX ICE Case Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. Cubitek ATX ICE: Exterior4. Cubitek ATX ICE: Interior5. Cubitek ATX ICE: Installation6. Testing Methodology and Performance7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Cubitek include a concise installation sheet in the box which guides us through the various parts of the installation process with a series of diagrams.

These are quite small and, for the most part, aren’t annotated so they aren’t that easy to follow.  Cubitek thoughtfully separate all the different types of screw into different, clearly labelled bags which makes it much easier to find the correct ones.

We installed the Biostar TZ77XE4 motherboard into the system.  This was a rather painful process as we first had to install all nine motherboard stand-offs.  Cubitek don’t supply an adapter for screwing these into place so we tried to screw them in by hand.  This was next to impossible so we ended up using an adapter that we received with an old Lian Li system.

Once the stand-offs have been installed, we can then screw the motherboard down using the provided screws.

We were a little confused when it came to hooking up the front panel connections to our case.  Presumably by mistake, Cubitek have attached the wrong connector onto the end of the Power LED cable so there is actually two cables labelled power switch.

It is possible to follow each cable back to the corresponding location on the front panel, but this is simply not acceptable for a £180 case.

Next we installed a Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W power supply into the system. Cubitek have only drilled one set of holes into the rear panel of the system so we can only mount this with the fan pointing downwards.  The large routing hole cut into the motherboard tray next to the power supply provides more than enough room for all the cables, though.

The case supports power supplies up to 300mm in length.

Next we installed our AMD Radeon HD 6670 graphics card into the system.  The thumbscrews used to secure the expansion devices can’t easily be undone with a Phillips screwdriver so we had to break out our trusty old flathead.

This case supports graphics cards up to 330mm in length so all cards currently on the market should fit without issue.

We don’t feel it necessary to install optical drives into our test systems because they aren’t required anymore as most drivers and software can be easily downloaded from the internet or installed via USB drive.

Those users who want to install an optical drive will have to screw them in with the thumbscrews, though, as there is no tool-less clip provided.

There are seven 3.5” hard drive bays in total which use a tool-less mechanism similar to one we’ve seen on a number of Lian Li systems in the past.  It requires us to attach two thumbscrews to each side of the hard drive and then slide them between the rails.  There is a bracket at the front which secures the hard drives in place once they’ve been installed.

Cubitek provide a 2.5” drive adapter which is pre-fitted into the bottom drive bay of the case.  There is space here to install two 2.5” drives.

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