MGE Viper: Another Xtreme Gamer Creation
by Purav Sanghani on December 18, 2004 5:14 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
External Design
The visual design of a chassis can be simple yet elegant or extremely detailed and heavily modified from the factory. No matter what the case is, personal preference plays a large role in whether the case will be accepted by each individual user. Many prefer that we review cases based solely on how they look instead of looking inside to the guts of a product to see how they perform. We ourselves at AnandTech have our own opinions when it comes to the looks of certain products, but we try to go deeper into it to see what makes the case worth investing in or else, what changes can be made in future models.MGE's XGbox line of gaming cases takes their reference designs and adds custom-molded bezels and custom-designed side windowed panels to give consumers various options from which to choose.
The Viper's front bezel is a custom-designed piece made of plastic that features a two-color combination of, in this test case, red and black. MGE carries on these colors throughout the chassis and we will seldom see a section of unpainted metal. At the top of the bezel, we noticed the sinister Viper logo, which is red on black at the center on the horizontal. The logo will light up when the system is powered.
Click to enlarge.
Towards the bottom of the bezel, we see a large rectangular LCD temperature display, which features a system up-time counter, an animated Viper logo, and a single temperature readout. The temperature lead can be attached to any component, but we prefer to attach it to the CPU, since it is the most critical component. We would have liked to see a full-featured temperature display, which could keep tabs on more than just a single component to get a better idea of how each piece of hardware is performing in the area of heat dissipation.
Right click hereto play video.
Below the LCD display is a grill that allows air to be pulled in. We hope to see an air filter to keep dust and debris from entering the chassis.
Click to enlarge.
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Aquila76 - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
AnadTech's case review team - Here is what 99% of your readers look for when buying a case:Subtlety
Great Cooling
Subtlety
Internal features
Subtlety
Room for expansion
Subtlety
Did my semi-sublimnal hints get the point across?
for an example of just such a case, which I received and setup last week, look here:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
mrdudesir - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
im glad i read these comments and found more people like me who are sick of the overblown "modded" cases flooding the market now. I just want something slick, classy, and unobtrusive (why i love my antec sonata so much). Not to mention from my experience these premod cases are loud as hell and cheaply constructed.Poser - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
I was a little surprised to see the comment about the internal speaker being worrysome. See the question, "The enemy within?" here for why:http://www.dansdata.com/io014.htm
TinyTeeth - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
Oh yeah, by the way, sorry for the double post but, is Anandtech going to review the Dragon? That case seems quite a lot more interesting.TinyTeeth - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
Sure, it looks a bit cool, but it ain't anything I'd like on my desk. This is something you show off at LAN parties, not using every day.Besides, the front looks plastic and a bit like it was built in LEGO.
MemberSince97 - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
The upcomoming Dragon looks acceptable...kmmatney - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
The blue version of this case looks better than the red, IMO. Microcenter has it advertised with a 500 Watt PSU, but I think it needs to be cheaper than $99 if it going to sell.Panther - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
is there a shortage of legitimate hardware to review around the labs?istari101 - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
I like the simplistic, clean style of a coolermaster case. Specifically the Praetorian, but those gaudy plastic facings of the reviewed case is definitely not my thing. Neon lighting in cases is distracting for me.Bonesdad - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
cmon, lets do some reviews on REAL cases. Gawd, this has to be the one of the fugliest things evar.