Overclocker Cafe

A Top Technology X-Blade Case

The side panel of the X-Blade adds to the aggressive look of the front bezel, or vice-versa. As you can see, this isn't your standard run of the mill windowed side panel. The window of the side panel is cut out in the same design as the chrome trim on the door of the case front, as well as that here on the intake fan. Centered in the design is the same raised black mesh trimmed out in chrome that is on the front. But here, it conceals an 80mm LED intake fan.

The interior of the case is laid out in the same manner as several other cases that we have reviewed here with a few exceptions and improvements.

At the rear of the case, we can see both the included PSU and the 120mm exhaust fan. As I mentioned before, I'm a proponent of the larger fans for their lack of noise while continuing to circulate air at a high rate.

The PSU has a total of seven 4-pin Molex connectors which should be more than sufficient for most of us. However, the length of these cables leaves a little bit to be desired. The longest of these is only about 18.5 inches long, which makes it a stretch to reach the HDD cage at the front of the case. And you can forget about routing these to keep them out of site, they're just too short to do that.

Speaking of the drive cages, let's turn our attention to the front of the case.

Below the five 5.25" and one 3.5" externally accessible bays we find the hard drive cage. Like a lot of other case we've seen lately, the HDD cage is turned toward the side panel for easier access.

Did I mention that it was removable too? Yep, held in place by a single thumbscrew, the HDD cage slides right out for easy installation of the drives.

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