An excellent review for an excellent case ... an I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything you stated. It is an awesome case. However in my opinion, perfection is marred by four factors alone.
1) It might just be the case with my case (no pun intended) ... the on/off and reset swithches' frames wiggle about and spin a bit. I have tried to tighten them, but they are based on a pin-in mount, so tightening them appears impossible. Some rubber beneath the switches' frames (switch frame = little aluminium circle on the outside of the button you actually push down) wold surely stop the fiddly feeling everytime you press that button.
2) The SmartFanControl buttonshave the same issue. The swithces wriggle about in a most clumsy manner. They could use some rubber fastenings as well.
3) The
I/O cables for the
HDD and Power swithches could be just a little longer. Threading them behind the MB monuting rack is a must to reduce case clutter, but trying get them over a thick graphics card to correctly fit the
USB, Firewire and audio plugs into the MB / Audio card leaves the cables slightly streched.
4) More dedicated and plastic shielded holes (only 2 available)in the MB mounting rack would reduce a LOT of messy cable issues.
But all four points are nitpicking and are easy to work around. At this price tag, they could have fixed up those issues as well.
The front dust filters actually work wonderfully, all you need to do is to vacuum the front of the case every once a month, and it should contain at least 60-70% less dust inside. The fact, that the whole case can be disassembled and reassembled in a very easy way and the excellent amount of extra gear that comes along with it it would make it reason enough for this investment, as it saves you A LOT of hassle, when plugging and unplugging various components.
Judging from the cases I've used so far, this case truly shines, and I'm extremely happy with it. Despite it's price it was definitely worth it, and I'm not going back to anything else. Highly recommended.