ThermalRock Dragon Aluminum Case

On the right side of the door is a small area with a key slot, power and drive activity lamp.  The key slot is a three position number.  Position one, locks the bezel in place keeping out prying fingers.  Position two allows access to the drive area.  Opening the door shows an exposed five 5.25"/two 3.25" drive bay arrangement.  The power and reset button are on the side as you can see below.  At the bottom is a vent area that feeds an intake fan. 

  

Position three allows a second door to be unlocked and accessed.  This is a feature until now found only on Thermaltake's case line.  As you will soon see, the case shares so many features with the Xaser line that it is apparent that the case blanks are being produced as the same factory prior to ThermalRock getting it for their personal dose of additional design and feature flair.  Behind door number three we also get a glimpse of a filtered 80mm case fan.  The filter is easily removed by three plastic push clips.  Underneath the filter, three screws hold a fan mounting bracket in place.  Access to the fan and its filter is quick and almost effortless.

     

Two other features I want to note here is the side panel lock and the FDD rack.  In the first pic below you will see a small color coded knob.  Turning this 90 degrees swings a bracket up locking the side panel in place securing your gear inside.  The FDD rack slides outward with the removal of a lone thumbscrew.  While I love this design, the rack was a bit of a tight fit and necessitated much more force than it should have for removal and insertion.  With floppy drives being in their death throws, I'm not seeing this as a big deal from a practical standpoint, it is a construction quality issue all the same.  Albeit, the only construction quality issue we found.

  

Closing up both doors we can move around to the windowed side panel.  The window is shaped more like a slightly rounded hexagon more than anything else.  A red 'Dragon' logo sticker resides on the bottom right corner.  The molded handle has perforations in it as does the panel frame area immediately below.  These are to feed twin 90mm fans set in an over and under style just behind the side panel.  VGA cards are running hotter and hotter, requiring more attention to cooling.  These 90mm fans should be able to handle most anything placed under them.

The Dragon's rear looks a bit smaller than it actually is.  This is a visual effect of the 90mm rear exhaust.  Oversized thumb screws can be seen holding the side panels in place.  Iin case you are looking closely already, no, there is no removable mainboard tray.

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