Nexus Edge Review
Initital Impressions
Published: 22nd April 2010 | Source: Nexus | Price: £135 |
Initial Impressions
First things first. The Edge is massive. One of the tallest cases we have ever had in fact. Second thing this is no gamer case. It has definitely been designed for the professional or those among us who don't require landing lights and something that looks like it belongs in an episode of Doctor Who.
Opening the full length lockable brushed aluminium door it becomes obvious why the case is so tall. There is a total of 9x 5.25" drive bays in the top section alone with a 140mm Nexus fan as an intake which has a dust filter. Talking of dust filters all of the front panel covers have dust filters fitted.
The side panel is also lockable but once removed with get our first glimpse of how much you could possibly cram inside this. The 9 drive bays dominate the front of the case. At the back there are 4 water cooling hose grommets and a space for what we would call the usual 120mm exhaust, although this is strangely not supplied. Between the upper and lower level there is a 140mm exhaust fan, again in the roof yet another 140mm exhaust. There are a couple of things here I must point out. 1, there is no rear exhaust fan in the 'usual' slot near the motherboard I/O. 2, there is no intake fans what so ever in top section of the case where the main hardware would be.
If you look at the picture of the case on its side, and cast your eyes to the front part of the case you should notice a small opening. When the door is shut this is all of the ventilation for the intake of the case, so not only does this case not have front fans for the upper section but airflow is hardly abundant either. While we are gazing around the bottom of the case its easy to see the large feet which can be moved outwards to give extra stability.
This case's party trick is the fact that out of the box it has the ability to support up to 9 hard drives. These are all also tool-less. All the cases fittings actually came in a box the same size as a 3.5" hard drive so that you can store the spare parts in one of the drive bays should you have any spare!
There are some cable management holes between the two layers but sadly none in the motherboard tray meaning that most things will be on full display. It pains me that a manufacturer sees the cpu cut out a priority, yet a small hole for the 8 pin psu power at very least is not. Sound deadening foam on the backs of the doors is yet another hint at the fact this case is not for gamers.
Let's move on to testing, as its not straightforward with this case.
Most Recent Comments
PS: Is the Corsair HX1000 supposed to make a low hissing sound when the hard drives are working. Its there all the time but it gets louder the more the PSU is being used.
For the money there are much better options.
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Originally Posted by name='thewoolard'
Gosh this case is ugly.
For the money there are much better options. |
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-172-LL&utm_source=froogle
Even though i love lilis id seriously consider one of these as its a fantastic case and looks to be better on the sound with all that dampening foam!
Also, to be very honest, I have worked with better quality cases than this, there are a lot of sharp edges, which I would have expected better for a case of this price, and the design is only average.
I have missed out on a Lian Li V2100 on eBay, which I would have love to have instead.
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