The Outside

With the plastic packaging removed, we could finally take a good look at the shiny aluminium inside and matte black outside. The matte black finish is rather staid, and doesn't pick up fingerprints too easily, which is why I prefer matte finishes to glossy!

The front bezel is a silver-charcoal mix, having the external drive bays, power button, and reset button behind a lockable door. The power LED and hard disk activity LED are visible through the front door. The bezel should be somewhat familiar to those who have used Chenming's older cases, and the ever-popular Chieftec Dragon.

Beneath a small flap just under the front door are the front panel I/O ports. Two USB 2.0, one Firewire, one headphone and one microphone jack is provided.

There is one slight niggle here - above the headphone and microphone jacks is...nothing. If you have to plug in your headphones with the lights off, you'll probably end up poking the connector into the empty space above the jacks. A little plastic surround around the ports would have been nice here!