MGE Sidewinder: A Look at a Gaming Chassis

External Design

When looking at the Sidewinder's bezel, the first thing that we noticed is the chrome finished dome, which features the "XG" logo on top. When the system is powered on, the letters light up to match the case's blue-colored fans. Though it is just added eye candy to entice its users and serves no other purpose, it is cool to look at.

The bezel features a custom-molded design and comes in 3 different color combinations: silver/black (featured case), blue/silver, and black/red.

Click to enlarge.

The top half of the bezel features a door that swings open to the left. This door is secured to the bezel by magnets on the right side, and they're strong magnets at that. At about an inch away from the bezel, the door is pulled shut by the magnets behind the plastic.

Click to enlarge.

When opened, the door exposes the four 5-1/4" drive bays as well as two of the six 3-1/2" drive bays directly below. To remove the drive bay covers, the entire front bezel must be removed by unscrewing it from the inside.

The lower half of the Sidewinder's façade features ventilation for the intake fan that is mounted on the inside as well as the power/reset buttons, and the power and HDD activity LEDs.

Click to enlarge.

The Audio, USB, and FireWire IO ports are located on the right side of the bezel and remain hidden when looking directly at the front of the chassis.

Click to enlarge.

The left side panel features a UV blue acrylic window that occupies about 2/3 of the panel. The window is attached to the panel by screws from the inside and can be removed for whatever purpose.

Click to enlarge.

The bottom 1/3 of the panel is occupied by two of the three 80mm fans included with the case. From the outside, the holes are covered by silver steel grilles, which accent the Sidewinder's paint job. The word "SIDEWINDER" is printed on both the left and right side panels vertically at the front.

The paint job is also of a high quality, like the finish that we saw on SilverStone's Temjin 5.