Introduction

Aspire seems to be a company that does not mind marching to the beat of a different drummer. We have seen more boldly themed cases from Aspire than just about any other case manufacturer out there. This is not a bad thing at all though, as many, such as the X-Navigator we reviewed last year, actually represent a very good performance per dollar niche especially for the gamers out there.

Continuing in their tradition, Aspire has recently come up with a Micro-ATX form factor case dubbed the X-QPack, and let us be the first to tell you, this is by no means a case that only gamers should get interested in.

A quick search through your favorite engines on the web for "micro atx cases" will most likely yield droves of squatty-looking mid-towers with no real features separating them from their slightly-bigger mid-tower brothers. One has to wonder what the point is of getting a case that does not allow the use of larger motherboards if it really doesn't have much to offer over the nicer (not to mention only marginally bigger) mid-tower cases.

Well the X-QPack definitely aims to change all that. After a couple days of working with the unit, here is a brief summary of how we feel about the new chassis:

Aspire X-QPack

Included Features

- Excellent layout (good expansion)
- Removable motherboard tray
- LCD temperature monitor
- 420 watt power supply
- Good cooling design

Possible Improvement

- Rounded edges - Tool-Less Features (minor)


Much to gamers' delight everywhere the case comes in red, yellow, green, blue, and silver, and the model we received for review was of the blue variety.

More information on the X-QPack on Aspire's website.

External Design
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  • Pannenkoek - Saturday, July 2, 2005 - link

    [OT] Can anyone from Anandtech explain what happened to both the game console performance speculation article and Anand's blog entry on the same subject? Called by a lawyer?
  • Sunbird - Saturday, July 2, 2005 - link

    I would really love a SFF case that is just plain black, but with a nice handle on top to carry it with.... then I'd just need a monitor with a handle too!
  • Cookie Crusher - Saturday, July 2, 2005 - link

    The nice thing about the case is the little bit of extra room it provides. It could really be a case modders dream in the sense that a water cooling system is possible. I think it's probably a worthwhile tradeoff that this case is slightly larger than a traditional SFF case like a shuttle. Nice review, I'll be taking a closer look at this case because of it.
  • Tamale - Saturday, July 2, 2005 - link

    yeah getting this review online was a little bit messy.. haha.. I think it's ok now

    and I have to agree with you guys.. this little thing is sweet
  • hoppa - Saturday, July 2, 2005 - link

    Ah, finally, a review of a nice-looking case on AT. And, I must admit, a very, *very* nice case at that. Long gone are the days of the 102 dB "2XTREME SPIDER ILLUMOCHASSIS ZINC-COBALT FUSION SUPERDESTRUCTO CASE FORM HELL"

    Joshua, the image for the sound benchmark is blank.

    -andy
  • Rapsven - Saturday, July 2, 2005 - link

    Seems like a good buy.

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