Aspire X-Navigator: A High End Gaming Chassis
by Purav Sanghani on October 26, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Internal Design
Looking through the left side window, we have a good idea of what we're going to be dealing with when we open the X-Navigator: 1/3 of the case occupied solely with drive bays, a plethora of case fans, and enough room to fit a 747 on the motherboard tray. Well, not exactly a jumbo jet, but there is still plenty of room inside the case to work freely with any component.
Click to enlarge.
The 5-1/4" drive bays are easy to work with, thanks to the use of drive rails to secure drives in the bays. The drive rails require them to be screwed onto drives to be utilized, which somewhat defeats the purpose, since the main goal is to create a tool-less environment. Still, many average users don't often replace their drives to require screw-less drive rails.
Click to enlarge.
That is not the end of it, though. Upon further inspection, we notice that the 3-1/2" drive bays are split into three separate cages, which could all be removed easily to install HDDs. This provides for a greater possibility for expansion in the future to add as many as 9 HDDs. HDDs need to be screwed into the cages, which helps secure them and reduces the chance of damage from vibrations. We would have liked to see drive rails being used here also, but we were satisfied with the amount of bays provided.
Click to enlarge.
Moving on to the rear of the X-Navigator, we expect the expansion card slots to be as feature-full as the rest of the case. Instead, Aspire has decided to keep this area as simple as possible by staying away from sliding clips or other locking mechanisms and sticking to traditional screws. The upside to this is that screws are known to be the most secure method of securing expansion cards to slots and holding them there no matter how rough the case is handled.
Click to enlarge.
All the way at the top of the case at the back is the location of the power supply. This area is the roomiest that we have seen in cases to date. Not only will our large 520W PowerStream unit slide in easily, but it will have over 2" of space above the power supply as well as 1" on each side for even easier removals and replacements. There was also no interference with the top mounted fan with all of that extra buffer space.
Click to enlarge.
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LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
Looks like an ugly attempt at a premodded case for me. The fan grills are gaudy, and I can't stand front case doors, especially plastic ones. Too much built-in lighting makes this case more blingy than it is useful, and the interchangeable front plastics are all ugly. Give me multiple low-noise 120mm fans over the cooling setup here any day as well. I also don't like clear power supplies; they look good for about two months until dust gets in them, and then they're nasty. To clean them, you'll probably end up voiding the warranty.Thresher - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
That case is fugly.I like the feature set, but I can't stand the "bling" on it. I wish more case manufacturers took Antec's lead and built more cases like the Sonata and Aria.
Entropy531 - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
#9 - They use it so they can get impartial results. If you're comparing apples to oranges, the results aren't very legitimate. They have to use all the same components to get thermal benchmarks. #5 and #10 - I agree.diehlr - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
ugly.shabby - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
Why dont you guys use the psu's that come with the case for testing, you switched to the ocz psu again.Aquila76 - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
#7 - The other HDD bays do have space for a cooling fan, it just isn't included (greenish bracket):http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/cases/aspire/x...
The top 3 are really meant for the External 3.5" drives, so even the bracket isn't included on that one, but you can get a universal one pretty easily if you need it.
MustISO - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
One thing I just can't understand is why there are three, 3 1/2 drive cages and only one of them has a fan. What the hell are they thinking?"Gee, maybe the users only want to cool 3 hard drives, the others can fry!"
Antec does the same thing.
At the very least add 2 additional fan brackets and let the user decide. That should increase the total cost by $2.
Beenthere - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
I definitely wouldn't bring this case home... but different strokes for different folks.skunkbuster - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
i actually think it looks pretty fugly + gaudyLocut0s - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
Scratch that sorry it's much clearer on a 2nd read. If any admin is watching you can delete the past 3 posts by me.