by Brian Tiller (10/4/2003)

Introduction

Anyone who has read my reviews kn1ows that I'm a sucker for some good solid bargain stuff. A few months back I had the chance to review a case made by AspireUSA as one of their line of budget cases, the X-Dreamer. Today I'm back with the sequel to that particular case, the X-Dreamer II. As we all know, sequels for the most part do not live up to the original (at least in the world of movies anyway). So today we're going to check and see if the X-Dreamer can break the mold and what they've added to an already kick butt bargain case.

Specifications

As with the original X-Dreamer, this one while also made of steel and not aluminum, is so light that it can be mistaken for an aluminum case. I kinda made a boo-boo on the original review because I did think the thing was made of aluminum. Also nice to see once again is the inclusion of a 350W power supply with the case.

• Construction: Steel w/plastic front bezel.

• Shipping weight: 19lbs

• Dimensions: 17"(H) x 8"(W) x 18.5"(D)

• Four 5.25" drive bays (two with drop down covers)

• Two 3.5" external drive bays

• Four 3.5" internal drive bays

• Integrated thermal monitor with backlit display

• Front ports including (2)USB 2.0, speaker and microphone

• Two included UV reactive LED fans (side panel and top panel mount)

• Acrylic side window panel

• Thumb screws

• 350W TurboLink PSU

• UV reactive front knob thingies

As I said with the original review, for this little money, you sure do get a lot of stuff. 

First Impressions

Our first look at the case shows that it's design is consistent with the original X-Dreamer. Of course the color is a tad bit brighter than the silver one we had back then. I'm not sure what shade of yellow this is, but Dean calls it "Grey Poupon Yellow" and that's pretty close. Anyone who likes yellow will definitely find the color of this case a big plus. And if you don't, well they've got several other colors to choose from; green, black, silver and blue.