Installation

**click to enlarge**

As a rather large full tower chassis, there is ample room to work with and the lack of a removable motherboard tray is not really something to brag about.

**click to enlarge**

As far as the install goes, there was only one very minor issue and that was easily resolved.  The 3D Aurora has two aluminum support bars that run across the case where the PSU is installed.  These are honestly not necessary as I found they don't even touch the PSU when mounted properly.  Fortunately though, they are removable.  In order to mount the Ultra X2 without scratching it, I had to remove the right side bar.  Those with large power supplies would want to remove the bar for an easier and trouble-free install.  Also, removing the side bar will allow you to install even some large internal liquid cooling kits such as the Koolance Aquian.

Installing all your drives and PCI-E/PCI cards is a breeze, thanks to its completely tool-free system that does work well.  The 3D Aurora comes with a bunch of HDD brackets that require no screws and hold in place very well.  Also, the 5.25" drives require absolutely no brackets and also stay securely in place.  The tool-free design on the expansion slots is very well designed and the first case I've come across to use such as convenient yet effective method.

What I would like to emphasize on is its claim to support support "all" watercooling setups.  Not only is it designed to support external kits, but I can confirm it can easily support internal units as well.  The pic below shows the excellent CoolIT Freezone installed, while still taking advantage of the lower 120mm for exhaust.  This was nice because this test setup included the Asus EAX1600XT SILENT.  For those unfamiliar with it, this excellent new video card features a fan-less design and the heatpipe leads to the large heatsink on the rear of the card.  This sink gets extremely hot.  So hot, you can't touch it.  With the 120mm fans, it was able to cool down the card significantly, drawing plenty of hot air out of the chassis.

**click to enlarge**

While the case was properly tested with only standard air-cooling, I did attempt to to install two internal watercooling kits, the CoolIT Freezone and the Koolance Aquian.  Both can be installed while still taking advantage of the lower 120mm exhaust fan.  This is truly an excellent choice for anyone venturing into liquid cooling.

The Lighting

**click to enlarge**

The 3D Aurora has some spectacular lighting effects that truly gives it that modern, "high-tech" look.  There is this odd plastic pinstriped piece on the front that enhances its looks and provides a very nice visual effect.  The front intake holes are lighted not only by the front LED intake fan, but by the blue LED that is designed for the logo projection.

**click to enlarge**

I spent some time testing out its patent-pending light beam projector.  Considering they include both an extra DIY bracket and a link to a downloadable template, I just had to make use of it.  First thing I would like to note is that if you plan on using standard white paper, forget about it.  You need transparency and have access to a quality laser printer to make your own custom logo.  I grabbed some high quality transparency film and printed our site's logo twice on the same paper to get that darker shade of black around the text with a quality laser printer.  The result was certainly impressive...

This feature works quite well, and when using the right film and printer, you can even project smaller text quite legibly.

Cooling Performance

Let's first take a quick look at the test system specs...

Temps where measured both at idle and under load.  Idle temps were captured after at least one hour of operation.  To load the system, Sisoftware's SANDRA 2005 SR3 was used.  While I can take the 3700+ up to 3GHz easily with excellent water or thermoelectric cooling, the maximum stable overclock tested here with the San Diego core on air was 2.7GHz. 

The dual 120mm fans move plenty of air and the temp readings here were impressive for an air cooling setup.  Keep in mind that I neglected to use the stock AMD HSF.  It is absolutely horrible in terms of cooling performance and those who are willing to spend this much on a quality case will most likely have better air cooling installed.  We can see here that there was roughly a two degree difference in case temp when running at max O/C.  Overall, the case does a good job at moving all the hot air out of the case.  I could easily tell by the video card heatsink temperature, which was not as hot as when it was running on a small steel case like the NZXT Trinity. 

Next:  Conclusions