Aspire X-QPack: A Lanparty Dream
by Joshua Buss on July 2, 2005 1:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Installation
Due to the component-like nature of the X-QPack, installing our test bed was very straightforward, albeit slightly lengthy. Our motherboard fit on the tray without any problems.
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We put the hard drives into the cage and slid the completed motherboard tray into the unit.
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We were then ready to put our DVD burner in. We do feel that the case could've benefited from tool-less features during the installation process, but with this style of chassis it might not have been very feasible.
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One can see how tight for space things are inside a case of this size, but everything considered it was actually quite easy to work in because of the careful planning of component placement.
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66 Comments
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Questioner - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
I have this case with the MSI Radeon Xpress 200 MB with an AMD64 (Venice)3200+, 4 sticks of Geil 512MB PC3200(With Blue heatsinks)ATI 550 Pro TV Tuner card, VIA Vinyl Sound card, 2 Plextor SATA DVD/DVDRW drives, 2 Segate 120GB SATA drives,Mitsume 3.5 floppy drive with built in smart card reader,Gigabyte cpu cooler with blue led fan, blue led SATA power connectors, UV SATA drive cables,Logitech MX 1000 laser mouse, Logisys lighted blue keyboard and Sceptre 19" LCD 12ms. The question about can full sized power supplies be used is yes, only if you use Liteon or Sony optical drives because they are shorter than the other drives. This case is great it is very quiet and cool the motherboard lacks any overclocking options but I was able to push it to 2.2gHz with a software tweak and it was stable and I didn't need any other voltage tweaks to do it. If any one wants pictures of my system I would be glad to show it if I knew how to post pictures on Anandtech, plus my system is alot neater than what the Anand's reveiw looks like because I have alot less cable clutter than Anand's, plus I did a little cable modding to make it look better.at80eighty - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
#30 , did you even read my disclaimer?thanx for the answers though :p
bbomb - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
How does this case compare to an Antec Aria? Its a pity they didnt compare the two as they are very similiar looking from the outside.IPSecGuy - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
Great review - thanks for the in depth info.Just a couple of (hopefully) quick questions;
1 - What MicroATX mobo's would you recommend for this case? I have looked at some Intel 915 foxconn and ASUS mobo's and have also looked at some AMD 939 based MicroATX boards. AMD vs Intel aside, which would be your top pick from each camp? (btw - haven't seen one with SATA-II support, so if you are aware of one let me know)
2 - Assuming that selecting a mATX board with pci-x16 is a given, do you think the PSU included with this case would support a vid-card such as a nVidia 6800GT/Ultra or the newer 7800GTX?
Thanks for your time!
deathwalker - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
Olaf van der Spek: Aren't there like four MicroBTX boards on the whole market? And aren't two of them based on 915G? I'll pass.Kristopher
Gholam - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
#29, did you even read the article? This is a case, not an SFF barebone system. It has nothing to do with SATA or SLI. It will accept pretty much any mATX motherboard, which DFI LanParty isn't. Abit is rumored to have a mATX SLI board in the works, but nobody has seen it yet. The PSU can be replaced, but the space is tight, and you'll have to use a short 5.25" drive to leave enough room for it, and fitting a long PSU such as Antec Phantom is out of the question.at80eighty - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
utter n00b questions :-1) SATA 2 supported?
2) SLI - capable?
3) Can a mobo like the DFI LanParty fit in this case?
4) Can the PSU be replaced with something like a Antec Neopower?
Appreciate any help :)
Olaf van der Spek - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
#25: MicroBTX?vfxraven19 - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
I bought this case and love it! I think this is better than the Antec Aria, but the Aria is still a nice case...