Chenming ATX-602 Case

The lower half of the case front is a non-filtered air intake for two 80mm case fans.  Access to these fans is as easy as pulling the vent cover off from a clip at its base.  At the top of the lower half is a small door that conceals two USB ports, a mic in and speaker out jack as well as a Firewire port.

     

The left side panel is windowed with black rivets that match the paint of this particular case.  With previous Chenming models the rivets have been black regardless of the case's color.  I'm hoping that they will color coordinate the rivets with the 602 but I could not confirm that at the time of this writing.  The panel is opened by means of a locking pull latch that will look very familiar to you.  I personally like this type of side panel lock better than a slide and thumbscrew type.  The 602 does have two oversized thumbscrews on the panel but these are not necessary to keep it locked in place.  The latch, like the rivets, historically is colored black regardless of the case's color.  This like the rivets, will hopefully change with colored versions of the 602.

  

Moving around back we see the shiny aluminum of the chassis.  Two 80mm blowholes are present to serve as exhaust.  You can also see that one of the expansion slot covers is cut so as to make a clean fit for the audio pass through cables routed through and out of the case rear.  The right side panel is just that, a plain side panel.  Something I do want to mention is the finish of the paint.  While the pictures here do not convey what it actually looks like, it is a dull intentionally flat coating instead of the automotive finish many case makers are going with.  A matter of preference to the end user in the end.

  

Removal of the side panel gives us a look at a few of the other improvements in the Chenming case, a removable motherboard tray and side mounted drive trays for your hard drives.  The two 80mm case fans are mounted in the traditional fan holders synonymous with this type of case.

  

The mainboard tray is held in place with two large thumbscrews on the right of the plate's side.  Removing these allows the mainboard to slide forward a half inch so it may then be pulled out.  A handle on the top and bottom of the plate allow you to lift this out with ease.

  

Here we see the pass through cables, USB and Firewire connectors.  Both the USB and Firewire lines are the block type plug in as opposed to the individual lines that have a tendency to make the most passive of us curse from time to time.

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