Front Door

My first impression of the case's front door was 'Wow!'.

The small XG ball in the front actually glows a deep red and looks totally kick-ass in all kinds of lighting conditions. The door design is very attractive and really quite solidly-built. Each component is held together by polished screws.

Opened cover

When I first tried the door, it was a little tight. I was a little concerned, needless to say. Fortunately, after opening and closing it a few times, the hinge loosened up and the door opened and closed very easily. Although the door does not come with any latch, the door remains firmly closed until you pull it open.

The Sidewinder sports four external 5.25" bays, along with two external and four internal 3.5" drive bays. The external bays are all protected by the door, which is remarkably solid. The door is thick and strong enough to offer the drives behind it a lot of protection.

I would even go as far as to say that you could hit the front door with a hammer (with moderate force) and your drives would sustain no damage at all. That's how well built the front door is. It's not common to find this kind of high quality materials used in most cases today.

The grill under the front door allows light from the fan to filter out. This lights up the front of the case without going overboard. The grill was designed so that you won't feel any air flow, even if you place your hand next to it. Little details like this all add up to create an impression of a well-designed and built front case cover.

Front Ports

XG wisely chose to place two USB ports, a headphone jack, a microphone jack and a Firewire (IEEE 1394) socket into the side of the front cover. As more and more cases employ this type of design, you will soon realise how convenient such a location can be.

My old case (I won't even mention the brand!) had all the jacks at the back of the case. Every time I wanted to plug in a USB device or change headphones, I had to pull my whole system out to get them plugged in. With the ports in the front, these simple tasks are no longer a pain as the ports are within easy reach.

The power and reset buttons look and feel metallic. They are fairly solid, so no complaints there. They fit in with the theme of the case and look quite good situated above the power and drive activity LEDs.