MGE Viper: Another Xtreme Gamer Creation
by Purav Sanghani on December 18, 2004 5:14 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Internal Design
As we opened up the Viper, we were quickly blasted back to our look at the Sidewinder in mid-October. The Viper has the same internals as the Sidewinder in every aspect except the red paintjob (matching paint to the external shell), and we can, therefore, safely assume that they are both based on the same model.
Click to enlarge.
The internal structure includes drive bay mounts, which compose the entire front 1/3 of the chassis. There are a total of four 5-1/4" drive bays and six 3-1/2" drive bays, two of those being external for applications such as floppy drives, flash card readers, etc.
Click to enlarge.
Also, just like the Sidewinder, the Viper has no tool-less features for its drive bays. Being a gaming chassis, we would expect MGE to implement even the simplest type of tool-less device. At the least, we would have liked to see thumbscrews for securing the side panels if not the drive bays.
Click to enlarge.
One thing that worried us was the placement of the case's PC speaker at the bottom of the case, vertically in line with the drive bays. This puts the magnet bearing speaker about 3/4" below the bottom-most HDD, which could lead to data corruption. We recommend that either users remove this speaker or MGE change their design and move it to an area away from the drive bays.
The Viper does have plenty of space to work with. Besides the space to add up to six 3-1/2" drives and four 5-1/4" drives, there is plenty of clearance between the motherboard tray and the drive bays, 2-1/2" to be exact.
Click to enlarge.
The expansion slots also lack tool-less features. MGE has kept the traditional Philips head mounting screw method to secure add-on cards to the Viper.
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k2bordr03 - Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - link
i must say that your reasoning for discarding this case as it being ugly is based on personal preferences. if you dont like it soooo much why did you bother looking, bought this case and i love it. get compliments like crazy at lan parties and you dont have to like it, but someone else might. you guys are too critical, you probably all own kias.Hunter Viking - Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - link
I just got mine. I think the case looks cool. All the beige cases or even the new beige,,, black, been looking at them for years. I wanted something a little different then all the same ol same ol. And I am pushing 40 so take that:)Thanks Anandtech for reviewing something a little different. I can't stand having everything look plain all of the time. Case is stong enough for my SLI setup and quiet enough to be ignored when I am across the room. The lighting is not too bright without being obnoxious. I even added a UV light to brighten up the plastic.
The only problem I have, other then the tooless case, is now I have to open the case and clean the dust bunnnies out more often.
And the blue is more subdued then the red.
albinodragon - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link
Personally I had just bought the blue version of the MGE Viper case and it hasn't arrived yet, but I am excited to upgrade my old PC using it!Regs - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
I usually don't pay attention to cases such as these. However this one I couldnt help but to laugh at the design. Looks like a power ranger got shrink rapped around the casing.unclebud - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
"Why is it most modder cases look like a 14 year old metal head design them?Diversity should not mean between a cobra and dragon. All these cases look like album covers from the 1980s."
laughing really hard...
Gatak - Monday, December 20, 2004 - link
Zak, these cases do sell. Lots of people like this kind of thing. No need to be rude. Better to write and say you would rather like something like the Hush cases to be reviewed. =)Zak - Monday, December 20, 2004 - link
Why do you people keep reviewing ugly, BUTT UGLY and useless cases??? This is a waste of time and not worth reading. Stick to reviewing the guts: mobos,cards, etc and leave this for someone else. You're obviosuly not getting it right.Zak
bigpow - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
This will match well with a Pontiac Aztec...Woohoo!
crimsonson - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
I have to agree,Why is it most modder cases look like a 14 year old metal head design them?
Diversity should not mean betweena cobra and dragon. All these cases look like album covers from the 1980s.
Gatak - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
This is what I want! :) http://www.hushtechnologies.net/start.html