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by Enermax/WaveSonic
Specifications
Introduction Enermax is a company that has been specializing in the design and construction of computer cases and power supplies. It was originally formed in 1990 and has been producing a wide range of products. Their product lines range from consumer level cases and power supplies to high performance server rack mounts and redundant switching power supplies. They are a very well known company in the US for their line of power supplies and well-priced cases. Wavesonic is a fairly new US division of Enermax to distribute the Enermax Group product lines to the United States. The CS-7181CBX case that was provided for evaluation is designed for the enthusiast market. It features aluminum construction for low weight and good thermal characteristics. The design is very much targeted towards those individuals wanting to have a modified case. Lights are standard in the front columns on either side of the case as well as a 4 LED light cooling fan mounted in the stylish 'X' pattern acrylic window. But all of this is very much the aesthetics of the case, so with that in mind let's take a more thorough look at the case itself. Exterior The exterior construction of the CS-7181CBX consists of aluminum, plastic and acrylic. The majority of the case is of a textured silver aluminum finish. The case is also available in a black finish. While the front panel is also made up primarily of aluminum, it is covered or shielded by a blue tinted acrylic plastic. This lends a bit of color to go along with the acrylic columns on the front panel that light up when the system is powered up. These lights are always blue at the top of the columns but rotate between about 6 different colors on the lower half of the columns to produce a rainbow effect. 
 Case Fully Installed (Left), Front Panel (Right) Continuing with the front panel, there are a large number of external drive bays available. The four 5.25" drive bays are covered by removable plastic and aluminum covers. Matching external drives to the color of the case is difficult. Below them are a two 3.5" drive bay covers. The upper of the 3.5" covers also acts as a bezel for a floppy drive. While this is a nice touch to lend a more uniform appearance on the front panel, many systems now do not require a floppy drive. Any systems built without a floppy drive will end up having a large slot in the front panel that can let a large amount of dust and debris into the system. At the bottom of the case is a small plastic door that hides two USB 2.0 ports and audio out and microphone ports. An optional bracket is available to add an IEEE 1394 Firewire port to this panel.  Front Panel Door With USB 2.0 and Audio Connectors The primary side cover is constructed of aluminum with an X pattern cutout backed by a sheet of acrylic plastic. The acrylic sheet is riveted to the aluminum side using silver metallic covered plastic rivets. Residing in the middle of the fan is an 80 mm golden fan grill that covers the side exhaust fan. The side panel is removed by sliding the panel back from the front of the case after removing three case screws. The opposite side panel can also be removed in a similar fashion, but more on that when we examine the interior.  Side Panel with X Pattern Window and Cooling Fan The rear panel of the case consists of much of the standard layout. On the top is the cutout to support a standard ATX power supply. Just below this is the ATX motherboard connector panel that is removable and the grills for two 80 mm case fans. On the bottom are the standard 7 expansion slots, 6 of which are covered. These covers are held in place to the rear panel in a similar fashion to the ATX connector panel rather than the screw-down traditional slot covers. Just to the right of the expansion slots are punch-outs that are available to mount various sized serial, printer or game ports that you may have.  Rear Panel Interior The interior space to the CS-7181CBX is very wide open for a mid-tower case. In most cases, a bar is placed across the middle to help keep the case rigid. The lack of this bar makes the interior around the motherboard very wide open. All of the interior edges are rolled back to help prevent sharp edges. This is done fairly well through the case except around the lower 3.5" drive trays. In this spot rather than neat being folded back, there are rolled quite poorly.  Case Interior The interior drive bay brackets help increase the rigid frame of the case due to the lack of the support bar. The 5.25" and 3.5" bays span the entire height of the system allowing for a large number of peripherals to be installed. Because they are installed to increase the rigidity of the case, there is no removable drive tray. The drive cages also lack any form of drive rails necessitating all drives by screwed directly into the bays. This is one of the reasons that both side panels can be removed. The other feature that requires the second side panel be removable is the motherboard tray. By removing a single screw from the rear panel, the tray is able to slide towards the front and then pivot down to provide easy access to the tray. This makes installing a motherboard very easy and its is a welcome addition. Many of the current cases produced in the market have dropped the removable motherboard tray feature. The tray is able to support up to a standard sized ATX motherboard.  Removable Drive Tray Cooling of the computer system can be assisted through five 80 mm fans. Only the single fan on the side panel is included with the case. Two additional fan slots are available on both the back and front panels of the case. Access to install the two rear fans is very straightforward, but there is a problem for those looking to install additional front fans. The front fans slots site side by side between the 3.5" drive cage and the front panel. In order to install these fans, it would be necessary to screw the fans in from the front of the case. The problem is, there is no method I could find for removing the panel to access the holes for the screws. A simple solution for Enermax would be to include a plastic fan mount similar to those found in many other cases.  Front Fan Mount Conclusions Overall the Enermax CS-7181CBX case is a good selection for the market that it is intended at. There are few annoyances with the construction that prevent it from becoming a standout case. Most notably is the lack of access to properly affix front 80mm case fans. Since this case is geared towards the enthusiast market that tends to overclock their systems which generates a lot of heat, adding fans to the front of the case to assist in airflow is fairly critical. The other item is the 3.5" floppy drive bezel that does not have a replacement in case you don't have a floppy drive. This is more of a cosmetic gripe than a functional one. Although, someone who comes over with a floppy could possibly end up putting a floppy inside your case if they don't pay attention. |
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