Almost fantastic. Still mostly is, but...
by JamesWas majorly impressed during the building process initially. Given the price point, I was expecting some glaringly obvious issues right from the start, but no such things presented...for a while. Build quality is good. Sturdy construction - though quite heavy. 3.5' mount is surprisingly good. Rear 2.5' mount is okay too. Fits a 200mm PSU despite the specification stating 180mm max, which was a nice surprise (I was prepared to cut out the PSU shroud). 4x USB Front I/O is great. Including 3 fans (albeit cheap ones) at this price point is a nice boon too. The price of the case makes it a good choice for users that are carrying over high quality fans from another build, which was a major consideration for me. Some extremely minor issues that can be waived given the price point - PSU dust filter is cheap and not easily removed. Non-captive thumb screws for the panels. Mesh front panel is a little more restrictive than I assumed from images - it could definitely stand to be a little more perforated, but it isn't horrible by any means. For those with big air coolers, beware. I believe 120mm coolers will be fine universally, but anything bigger than that may have issues. I had to ditch one of the fans on my NH-D15 for example, wouldn't fit above the RAM in push, nor the VRM heatsink in pull. Bit of a shame given the airflow focus, but eh. Cable management is somewhat of an issue. The back of the case isn't actually that deep, and the 2.5' drive mount takes up precious space, especially if you actually have drives mounted. The front-side fan mounts also mean said area is pretty much off limits for cables, unless you don't mind them being clearly visible. Additionally, some cut-outs for cable routing should have been made bigger. Tie down points are decent enough though. The lack of rubber grommets is something I consider a positive. The real issue I found was the cutout for the Motherboard I/O shield. It isn't big enough. I was able to fit the I/O shield after much headache, but due to the lack of clearance, the Shield was bowed and under significant tension. The Shield bowing inwards meant the Motherboard could not be mounted. Bowing outwards meant the Shield interfering with the Motherboard I/O, preventing proper connection of some USB's. Pretty awful stuff honestly. Of course, one can just run without an I/O Shield, but this shouldn't even be an issue in the first place. For what its worth, I believe Motherboards with built-in Shields will avoid this issue. All in all, there's a lot to like. But that I/O shield problem really put a damper on things for me. The price point means I can forgive certain things, but such an elementary thing like that being messed up sucks. If not for that, I'd probably be giving this 4 or 5 stars honestly.
