From the days of the first Cooler Master chassis, smooth lines and hidden drives have always been things of focus, and of beauty. From the beauty of the glowing dimple on the front of the chassis, which tumbles into the gently curving doors stacked atop curved bars with their modern drilled out design, this case absolutely screams class.

From the moment that the case came out of the box, and the smooth front doors opened (a moment that was slightly hindered by the left door simply falling off), this case was an instant favorite of mine. By slipping a finger into one of the holes above the door, and gently pulling to the side, the smooth anodized mirrors slowly drift apart, driven evenly by gears within the top and bottom hubs of the chassis. Along the flat inner surface of these doors, a few magnets reside, helping to old the doors closed when the case sits at idle. These panels, which slide all the way to each side, gently resting their tapered edges against the smooth sides of the case are thankfully un-obtrusive, making things so much easier when it comes time to eject drives from the breaks in the forward panel’s mesh.

Popping the forward panel off the case is brutally simple – just tug from the bottom, and off it comes. Considering the fact that the most of the things seen behind this panel are solid metal (including the entirety of the optical bay blanks), the concept of having air drawn through the mesh, and filtered by the foam is sort of stifled. Thankfully, snapping components out of the panel is brutally simple – just push the tabs inward, and out the bay covers pop. In order to jettison the mesh cover and to get at the foam underpad is to push back the mesh tabs, and pop the panel off. Removing the blanking plates below, though, is a whole different story. Essentially, in order to get these panels free, a Phillips screwdriver needs to be wedged into the hole, and rocked back and forth until the frail metal bonds have snapped. Nice. As many of you should have noticed by now, this front panel is abnormally clean – devoid of I/O ports, and Power Buttons/Indicators. This, of course, is an animal of good reason.

Swinging the view to the top of the case, a rather large circular hub (one which is mirrored on the bottom of the case) holds an assembly of black gears which slowly spins the doors open, while a large milled power button and smaller milled reset button take up residence along a curve with two aqua blue LEDs. The wiring from this gaggle of buttons trails down over the uppermost optical drive bay, where it occasionally joins up with the thick wires from the top mounted Audio, USB and Firewire. Users beware, though, as uber-long PSUs (PC Power & Cooling, Anyone?) will undoubtedly hit these ports, and force users to gut them, in order to fit everything. Looking at the unbroken brushed aluminum of the top of the case though, you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Finally, there are the sides of the case, and it’s rump to finish up with. For lovers of large swaths of unbroken metal, the right panel will get you giddy, though the left panel – with its thick plastic latching handle, drilled out 80mm fan mount, and “free breathing VGA vent”, is slightly less solid than one would hope. On the plus side, though, when running black fans and unlit components, nobody would ever tell that the holes were there in the semi dark environments of below desks or LAN party halls. The rear of the case, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. It’s solid silver expanse is only broken by the clipped in I/O covers, the standard (and now, not used) ATX layout I/O shield, the hexagonally meshed rear fan, and finally, the holes through which tubing with up to 5/8” OD can pass, giving users the option to use just about any external solution. In the end, though, it’s nothing but a standard rear, one that nobody will know the difference from when it comes to the wide world of cases.