One of the most interesting items about this case is its sexy front mounted ports. This case has it all - from FireWire to sound to USB - which can be easily accessed from the front of the case. Similar to Lian-Li and Cooler-Master, this case uses an ?extension cord? to transmit the ports to the back of the case.



A very nifty feature of this case is in the often forgotten turbo LED, located on the front bezel. Although not widely used, it can be easily modified into a NIC Activity LED or another useful feature.

Useless or Useful

Although this case does come with a lot of cool modifications, one might think that SkyHawk has also neglected a number of rudimentary features. This case does not come with a removable motherboard tray, and is jam-packed with ?features? blocking easy installation. It is quite a pain to have to remove a lot of unused junk in order to get access to the internals of the case.

One of these use ___ (fill in the blank with ful or less) features is the swiveling card holder. This rarely used monstrosity is designed to hold the expansion slots in place. After numerous attempts, the only card that could possibly fit in the correct slot is a sound card. Seems like an extremely use__ feature. Although this case uses thumbscrews in the places used often, the annoyances are somewhat "bolted" on with hardcore nuts and screws, making the installation a lot harder than necessary.

Verdict Is?

This case does have some nifty characteristics which make it extremely unique. That, combined with its extremely low price, makes it a good consideration for any case-buyers money.

Pros
- Price
- Decent cooling performance
- Some nice features
Cons
- Difficult installation
- No removable motherboard tray <---- AHHHH, what were they thinking?


by Allan Maymin
4-10-2002