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Removing the front panel reveals a 120 mm front in-take fan.
Aerocool uses drive caddies which are held in place by a lock mechanism on the side. As a result, the front panel has a large open space behind it which can be utilized to improve airflow in the case.
The back of the front panel houses the I/O panel and a layer of foam padding which serves to dampen noise levels and as a dust filter.
The front panel's face plates are held in place with clips and can be removed from the front of the case.
Moving to the side we can see four rubber feet, used to reduce vibrations from the power supply.
Directly above the power supply is the relatively large CPU cut-out to facilitate the installation of a cooler without removing the motherboard.
To the left of the CPU cut-out is the second pre-installed 120 mm fan. This fan is rated to deliver 39cfm of airflow at 1,200 RPM with a maximum noise level of 23 dBa.
Three cable management holes can be seen above the box of accessories.
This side view of the case gives us a better look at the lock mechanism for 2.25″, 3.5″ and 5.25″ drives. Rotating the lock lets users remove it completely. Simply lining the pins up with the drives’ mounting holes and returning the lock to its original position firmly secures the drive.
A closer look at the expansion slots reveals Aerocool have chosen to use brackets that snap off and cannot be replaced.
The pre-installed fan comes with both a 3-pin connector and a Molex connector.
Removing the box of accessories gives us a better look at the drive cages.
The front in-take fan is secured with a hard drive converter that can also be used to secure a hard drive or optical drive in one of the drive bays. It is possible to install two additional 120 mm fans above and under the front in-take fan.
Aerocool have designed the drive cage to also offer the option of installing another three 120 mm fans on the other side of the drive cage. This allows for the installation of an impressive 6 front in-take fans.
With the box out of the way we can also see the fourth cable management hole in the center of the case.
Like the Aerocool Strike-X Xtreme Black Edition that we reviewed on KitGuru, the bottom cable management hole is curved.
From a lower angle we can see the large mesh in the roof of the case. Users can install two 120 mm fans or a 240 mm slim radiator, provided the motherboard does not block the fans.
The back of the motherboard tray shows there are only limited cable tie point available for cable management, with the majority adjacent to the cable management holes in the center.
Aerocool provide hard drive converters to install both 2.25″ and 3.5″ drives.
As is standard, 2.25″ drives are secured with screws underneath the converter, whereas 3.5″ drives are held in place with screws on the side.
Interestingly, users can install a fan on the opposite side of the converter to cool the drive. Alternatively, unused converters can be used to install additional front in-take fans.
As always, we aim to find out how forgiving the case is. As such, we deliberately stack cables and only apply basic cable management.
The lack of a CPU power cable cut-out above the motherboard means users are forced to route the cable across the motherboard.
The bottom of the case can turn into a mess relatively quick, especially if numerous drives are used.
The limited number of cable management options at the back of the case means users will need to take special care when assembling the system to avoid restricting the air flow to the components.
