Internal Design
Inside this gaming chassis, we found plenty of features that puts the Xpider II apart from the rest. Though its design is not completely tool-less, it has plenty of positive points to make up for that.
Click to enlarge.
We found the drive bays the most interesting out of the entire case. Chenbro makes use of drive rails for the 5-1/4" drive bays that snap-on to the drives easily and securely. There are four 5-1/4" drives in total, which is the standard for mid-tower chassis these days. The option to use screws is also given.
The 3-1/2" drive bays were something to look forward to when working with the Xpider II. There are three directly under the 5-1/4" bays, where two are meant for floppy drives. The third is reserved for a HDD that most likely will not be removed when working with the case.
Click to enlarge.
Under those bays is the removable carriage for four more 3-1/2" drives. The carriage is held in place by a single thumbscrew and a metal stopper, which can be pushed down to remove the carriage. The carriage is guided in and out by machined tracks to keep it from moving about and damaging the drives. The drives, unfortunately, must be screwed into the carriage to secure them. We have seen many other cases like Thermaltake's Damier V6000A that uses drive rails for all of its bays to minimize tool usage.
The Xpider II comes with 5 pairs of drive rails (four 5-1/4" drives and one 3-1/2" drive), which are secured at the bottom of the chassis on the inside.
Click to enlarge.
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Staples - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
Very ugly design. It certainly will not be my next case.kmmatney - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
Can't say that I've ever found a removable motherboard tray very useful. Just gives more parts to rattle and weakens the structure. You certainly don't need it to swap out components.shuttleboi - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
Do Anandtech reviewers have a problem with aesthetics or something? Why do they keep reviewing these really butt-ugly cases? How about something (e.g. from Lian-Li or Coolermaster) that isn't completely repulsive?Budman - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
" We test it with all the same PSU so that the noise comparisons are all the same.Kristopher "
that may be good for mobo/cpu tests but you're reviewing a CASE,you just cant pick & chose the parts you like.
The case should be reviewed as is just like anybody who's going to go buy it,not everybody's going to have a spare psu handy.
And just like the other guy said it's a freaking Fortron 350 watter great psu.
very bad ideal to swap out the psu,when you buy it will it come with that other psu? NO . so if you're going to review do it as it will come from the store.
Sonic587 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
"Installation of all components took no more than 15 minutes and since the Chenbro threw in a 350W power supply, a few minutes were shaved off that total installation time. We did swap out that power supply with our own test bed unit, the OCZ 520W PowerStream, for our benchmarks."Excuse me if I missed something, and ignore this if I did, but they just "threw in" a 350W power supply? That's a Fortron FSP350-60PN. A very high quality PSU that could handle almost any system out there today. I think there should be some credit to Chenbro for choosing a quality component that is so often ignored.
That said, I agree it is 110% fugly.
BUBKA - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
I heard it was optimized to play spiderman 2 and benches 3% fasterKristopherKubicki - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
We test it with all the same PSU so that the noise comparisons are all the same.Kristopher
Degrador - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
Yep, I'm with #1. Fugly.Monkeydonutstick - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
Super StupidBudman - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
Why in the hell would you go to all the trouble of reviewing a case but then swap out the PSU???You should have tested it with the PSU it came with.