MGE XG Dragon Case Review - Closing it up

(Page 8 of 10 )

After getting the PSU reinstalled and hooking up all the wires, I took a few moments and did some wire organizing.  I could have done a better job if I used some sort of channel to run them in, but I don’t think it was necessary.

Here’s a shot of the inside all wired, before closing up the case.

And here’s a picture of it powered up for the first time.  Notice the front and back fans, glowing the same blue as the front of the case:

And of course, how about a couple of shots from the front, with the lights on and off.

 

Ok, its looking pretty cool thus far, so its time to close it up.  At this time, though, I’d like to point out a small issue I had with such a simple thing as closing it up.  Not that it was difficult, mind you.  Putting it together was really simple, but it seems that the wire for the front panel lighting comes together right near the top front of the case.  The whole time I was testing, this wire was repeatedly getting pinched each time I went to close the case.  I tried pushing it, moving it, and finally got frustrated and used a piece of scotch tape just to move it out of the way.  Its actually visible in almost every picture where I show the case from the side, if you look for it, but here’s a close up.  Just be careful if you have this case.

Other than the wire that kept jumping out while closing the case, the doors attach to the case very easily.  On the left panel of the case, next to the window is an intake funnel, to try and route outside air directly to your cpu cooler.  This is a great idea, but not supremely sturdy.  So if you have a small cpu fan (like the stock cpu fan that came with the Athlon 3700+ I put in here), its going to be sort of flimsy.  See the picture.

At this time, I took the film off the outside of the window.  Unfortunately, they only put a protective film on the outside of the Acrylic, so the parts box and cables get a chance to smack and scuff the inside of the window (which happened to mine).  The scuffs are only noticable when the power is off.

And here’s a pic of the case closed up.

For those of you who have been paying attention, you will notice the small white wire pinched in the top right of the side panel.  This photo was taken before I noticed it the first time.

Another one of the many cool features of the case, is underneath the huge dragon door on the front.  It’s an LED readout that shows you the fan speeds of up to 3 fans (including the two included fans), the cpu temperature, and the time.  You can even set an alarm to go off when your cpu exceeds a certain temperature.  This feature adds yet another layer of coolness to this case, and is well documented in the book.  There is a small dragon logo at the top of the readout, which flashes every .5 seconds.  Wish I could make it stop flashing, but I’ll live.  Here’s a pic of the led readout.

Here’s some pics of what the case looks like in the dark:

 

 

These pictures are from the front, the back, and then a close-up of the dragon emblem on the front.  The emblem on the front is laser-cut out of brushed aluminum, and its lit from the back by some sort of glowing light.  It is a very soft light, and it kind of leaks out of the background smoothly.  It’s a very cool effect.

Next: Bonus! A Mod Kit! >>
 

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