When this case first made its way from the box, two words came to mind to set the two mindsets that could receive this case – bold, or terrible. Stretching its way from the streamlined plastic of the forward panel, a silver ringed, mesh covered turbine provides a point of celebration, rather than concealment for the forward mounted intake. While this feature has been in the ICute lineup for some time now, it undoubtedly harkens back to the enthusiast ideal of chopping a hole in the front bezel, and running a pipe back. Unfortunately, unlike those cases where it’s a smooth, shiny transition, the positioning of such a large, tacky ring amidst a world of sleek black with occasional chrome accents takes the cake in terms of throwing the case’s design for a loop. Along with this, having such a large point of entry sit above exposed 3.5” bays made the front panel have more of a strange appearance than a welcoming one. Placed just above this yawning dust catcher were a pair of Plexiglas tubes, to show the lights behind, and a pair of nice large chrome buttons, intended for power and reset of course. Now, above this, while there are intended to be four bays, I initially found two optical stealth covers, and two blank spots – to be filled by the plastic covers which floated free inside the case – nice job ICute – looks like they were trying to damage it. For what it’s worth, though, the optical stealth faceplates work like a charm, with an adjustable foot to ensure that you can press the button on any optical drive without issue. Yet, the slight issues with build quality would not end here. Snapping my gaze down the front panel, I noticed something disturbing. While there was a nice panel there for USB, Audio, and Firewire, the Audio ports had decided to take a vacation and fall out of place, wonderful.

Even more wonderful was the fact that tilting the case slightly to get a better luck resulted in the front door swinging open, and two small plastic clips falling out. These clips, it seemed, suffered the same fate as the front panel audio connector – they just couldn’t stay in for their lives. Now, while these are major points of concern to me, a nagging voice in the back of my head just had to say something “What did you expect, the case’s MSRP is $52” On the plus side of things, though, the world under the bezel wasn’t quite as worrying as the one overtop it. Within easy reach, I could remove the accursed steel blanking plates on the drives, remove the screws for the forward fan, repair the stupid front audio header, then push the reset and po… at which point I found yet another flaw. During shipping, this poor case seemed to suffer quite a lot of abuse, and in that abuse, the power button seemed to be smashed. With its nub broken off, and tip stuck underneath, the system treated it as a continually depressed switch, one to which no amount of screwdriver Prozac could fix. In the end, the switch will be replaced, but in the mean time reset will simply be used to power the machine. What leaves me wondering, though, is with such tight placement of the front cage, how will consumers ever change from the included thin (about 20MM) 140mm fan? Well, the answer was simple enough, and it’ll be detailed in the interior section of things. Looking along the left side of the panel, we can see a few screws holding the hinges in place which allow the door to swing open and shut – by your will, rather than its own volition, once those two black pieces had been re-installed, that is. Now, while many cases have things to notice from this point onward, taking this case on from half it’s side would result in simply gliding along a glassy black expanse, one which bore enough of a shine to show off just about everything behind it, requiring this reviewer to duck out of the way rather quickly when it came time to snap shots. Now, if you were to move along the right side of the case, though, you’d find a tremendous 250MM fan, ringed with a nice, jet black plastic ring, along with an acceptably permeated black mesh coating it. Unlike cases such as the Aero Cool Engine 3T, the 0508’s side fan is a very low CFM one, resulting in a decent breeze passing over the motherboard, but unfortunately, not enough of one to actually be sufficient to keep things such as sizzling UTT Based OCZ GX cool. On a positive note, should you tire of the tremendous fan and it’s grille, switching to a window would be a simple matter of removing the wheel and fan, then bolting piece of acrylic in behind with six bolts. Users could go further, and install higher powered 120mm fans, in order to focus airflow where it’s needed most on the motherboard. Turning to the rear of the case, there really isn’t much to see – just the replaceable I/O covers, a nice perforated hole for up to a 120MM fan, and a place to put your power supply. All in all, nothing truly special to this case apart from its finish, the tremendous side panel fan, and the love it or hate it front panel. With all the panels in their place, it’s about time to see what’s under the hood.