MGE Viper: Another Xtreme Gamer Creation
by Purav Sanghani on December 18, 2004 5:14 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Enternal Design (cont'd)
At the top of the Viper, we immediately noticed two rails on either side of the case. They are placed there to be used as handles so one does not strain his or her back lugging the case from one place to another. Well, not so much really. The rails extend from front to back and seem strong enough to withstand a great amount of weight.
Click to enlarge.
At the front of the chassis, at the top, there is a pod-shaped module that houses the auxiliary connections as well as the power and reset buttons. A small, push-to-open door hides these from view, which keeps the look as clean as possible. The back portion of that pod is vented, which MGE says will help cool the system. However, when drives are installed in the top-most bays, air flow to that area will be minimized significantly. The auxiliary module does not make much sense to be as big as it is and, in our opinion, takes up too much space on the outside of the case.
Click to enlarge.
The side panels, especially the left side panel, are very exciting to look at. Though many will have mixed feelings on the art, we believe that the Viper logo window is a great added touch to the theme. Each side panel also features "Viper" printed towards the front of the panel, similar to the Sidewinder case.
Click to enlarge.
Looking at the backside of the Viper, we see the first signs of a well done paintjob. The entire backplane is painted red to match the color scheme of the Viper. We see mounts for two optional 80mm fans, which we will talk about later, a couple serial/parallel port cutouts, and a removable/replaceable motherboard backplate. MGE also includes a plastic "Static Wire Guard", which is meant to organize and protect the wiring from the system during mobility. We did not think that this was necessary, since wiring can still become tangled and be bent.
Click to enlarge.
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Denial - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
Wow, I'm at a loss for words. Who buy such a thing?Nice review :)
radx - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
Can't say i love the design of this case. But i do like one thing better with this case than my own Antec Sonata, that be the 120MM fan behind the hard drives. Rather than my case which has the 120mm fan infront of the hard drives.Other than that another cool review done by the guys at anandtech :)
Gatak - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
A few of them:http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/decobox/images/de...
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/images/story0363b.jpg
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/computex2004-4/images...
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/images/story0353.jpg
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/gramaphone-itx-hd...
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/computex2004-4/images...
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/images/story0330.jpg
Gatak - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
How about looking for quality cases which are more pleasingly designed? Instead of monsters I would like to see something that would fit nicely in a modern home. Look on how expensive home cinema receivers are designed.Look on this page for many really nice cases: http://www.mini-itx.com/
A few of them:
Locut0s - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
To make it clear Purav I'm not saying that Anandtech should look at cases on their external merits alone as you suggest many who complain about style are suggesting. In fact I don't think many of us who are complaining about style are saying that at all. Instead we are saying in many instances "What a shame that such a good case is ruined by such ugly looks". Unlike the internals of a computer where I think looks truly don't matter the chassis is really the only physical presence of the computer that you are ever ware of on a day to day basis. As such many of us would prefer not to have our chassis making a statement such as "hay look how cool I am over here Look Look Look...!" That doesn't mean that the internals of a case are not the most important thing, far from it they are the most important aspect of any case. But that doesn't mean that the external design of a case can't almost completely offset all the goodies inside, it definitely can. No matter how good the internals of a case are I am not purchase a bright yellow Pikachu case for example.By the way I happen to really look forward to most of the case reviews here at Anandtech, they are very thorough and informative. It's not the reviews I have a beef with, it's the trend in the industry to this look that I don't like.
Just my 2 cents
GnomeCop - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
sickNovaoblivion - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
should be- External visuals wont appeal to anyone
lol
Kccdx2 - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
Too true #1shoRunner - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
yeah whats up with all the cases looking like they were designed by playschool. More funky colored plastic is not better. Its a computer not an action figureLocut0s - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link
*sigh*The following needs to be in bold in "The Bad" section:
- External visuals may not appeal to some
Or maybe a label on the box "For ages 12 and under"