A-Top XPlode Gladiator Case

The front bezel view is commanded by an aluminum shield of sorts.  Covering roughly three-quarters of the front of the Gladiator, this shield does not get away from the case's theme.  What is interesting is that on either edge of the shield cover there are two thin 9" blue cold cathodes.  These illuminate a faint glow coming from under the shield when the unit is under power. Centered in the upper portion of this bezel covering is a 'X' logo with a yellow bolt of lightning running through it.  This logo is over a small grill of sorts that has some blue LED lighting behind it as well.  I'm looking forward to seeing this rascal under power.

The lower section of the bezel has two mesh covered vents accented with plenty of chrome colored plastic.  These vents feed a stock 80mm blue LED fan.  As you can see, circulation isn't an issue here from the size of these intake vents.  In the middle of these vents are the power and reset button as well as two USB 2.0 ports positioned between a mic in and audio out jack.

Behind the bezel door, the reflectiveness of the paint really stands out.  Four 5.25" and two 3.5" bays are here to accommodate whatever drives you have.

Here we get a better look at the main draw of the Gladiator case.  Are these things wings or claws?  I'm not sure but either way they're pretty tough!  Looking closer, we can distinguish that the window isn't really a window at all, it's a mesh screen.  As we said before, circulation isn't going to be an issue with this case.  The downside is that the greater the air flow within a case the more often you are going to need to blow the dust out of it.

At the rear of the Gladiator we discover that the exhaust fan grill is stamped into the steel of the chassis.  Personally, I like the open type vents with finger guards as they promote more air flow.  However, with all the mesh screens we've seen so far this is a non-issue.  Looking closer at the exhaust, notice how it is drilled out to accept either an 80, 90 or 120mm fan.  This is important for you water cooling guys.  Some H2O kits are based around an 80 and some are based around a 120mm radiator.  The Gladiator can easily accept either.

The last thing of note for the rear is the power supply.  This is one of A-Top's signature X-Blade LED windowed PSU but this one also sports a small rheostat to control the PSU's fan speed.  At its lowest setting the PSU was inaudible.

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