Installation (continued):
The next several images are all dedicated to showing how the unique back cover works. The below left image shows the case with not only the plastic grill removed, but also the plastic frame. The frame mounts to the case without tools, and pops on and off rather easily. Having both pieces removed makes the Alpha 360 look like your typical case. The below right image shows the plastic frame installed, and the unique look of the case is starting to come together. All of the basic functions of the rear of the case are still accessible, and you have to have this piece installed in order to have the button available that releases the case's side panel.
 
The below left image shows the case wired up to the typical cables you would need in order to operate the system. One accessory included by In Win is a special power cord with a right angle connector. This item is necessary if you want to be able to use the rear grill. Although the power cord will stay nice and tight to the back of the case, I found some other connectors stuck out too far to consider using the grill. Any DVI connector I had was too deep, as were the VGA connectors on a few different KVM cables I owned. You really don't have much room between the back of the case and the grill, but the below right image shows that I was able to close things up with the wires shown in the below left image. Although it worked, I did have to use some force as even though the VGA cable I used was the most compact set I had, it still pressed against the grill.
 
In Win was aware that some cables may not work with the complete grill installed, so they made three key areas removable so that you can come straight out with whatever connections aren't compatible. You can remove panels from in front of the power supply, the I/O panel, and the expansion slots, and all three are removed in the image below.
Operation:
The system went together with ease and there are just a few things to mention regarding its use. Once powered up, the first thing I noticed is that the sole case fan is rather loud. A simple fan controller is recommended, as I found the 90mm exhaust fan provided more than adequate cooling and far less noise when the speed was decreased by as little as 15%. Whether the case fan ran at full speed or slightly less, I was quite pleased to see that the system temperatures remained rather comfortable. The fact that the CPU cooling duct lined up perfectly with the test system's processor has to help, but I was surprised that the temperatures stayed so low. An intake fan might be nice, or perhaps some ventilation near the drives, but there was nothing in particular to worry about related to heat.
The tool-less features work well and are some of the best I have used. Including some sort of tool-less mounts for the hard drive cage would be a nice design change, but the one tool-less area where I have a problem is with the side panel removal. Although you can remove the side panel with just a push of a button found on the back of the case, you have to access the button first. If you use the case as designed you will have the rear grill installed, and that covers up the button. So, you must first press the rear grill's button, remove the grill, and then you can push the button to remove the side panel. It may be more work than just removing two thumb screws.
|
|
