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Contents & Design
Accept my apologies beforehand…My pictures of the case when I first pulled it
out didn’t turn out the way I wanted. All the pictures here are
post-installation.
The Guardian arrived undamaged. The box was very descriptive of the case
within, and was clearly marked for color and power supply type. I was a little
surprised at the size of the box…it seemed a little small.
**click to enlarge**
Upon
opening the box, I found the Guardian to be a little on the small side. The
case is not heavy at all, even with a steel chassis. Excellent news for a
traveling gamer! The outside of the case was carefully protected with tape,
Styrofoam and plastic, but the loose wires and accessory box inside caused
some scratching on the window. The Guardian is just a hair taller than the
Casemaxx
210 we reviewed a while back, and is almost tiny next to the Z-Alien. The
Guardian fit perfectly on the
Xide-base
that I had made for the Casemaxx.
**click to enlarge**
The
box contained the Guardian, a power cable, instruction booklet, spare PCI
cover, and the obligatory bag of screws. The manual was unexpectedly
thorough…definitely a welcome change from the usual guessing game. Although
only four pages long, it does go over all the basics of installing your system
in the case, with step by step instructions and pictures.
I’ll start my walk around with what I think is the best part of this case –
the windowed side panel. A lot of effort was put into it, and it shows. The
detail is well done, and the window has been beveled in such a manner that it
is flush with the side of the panel. In the center there is a fan grille with
‘something’ on it…don’t quite know what it is, but I didn’t like the amount of
airflow the design looks like it will block. Having the custom grille is an
eye catcher and certainly a nice touch. Modder’s mesh has been used behind the
grille to prevent anything from inadvertently coming into contact with the fan
blades. The stock side fan is an 80mm tri-color, and has a standard 4 pin
Molex for power.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
The front of this case shows a lot of work.
Clearly the biggest item here is the LED array called the ‘Eye’. The Eye goes
through an active cycle, with the LEDs blinking, fading and wandering, for
about ten minutes. Then all the LEDs turn on and stay on for about 40 minutes,
then the cycle starts over again. Here are two videos of the Eye in action!
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**click to play** |
**click to play** |
**click to enlarge**
The 4
‘thumbscrews’ on the door are purely decorative, but are nice looking. The
jewel-like apparatus on the top of the door is the HDD activity indicator, lit
from below with a red 5mm LED. Just for grins, I disassembled the front as
much as I could without causing damage. Turns out that the HDD indicator could
be changed to pretty much any 5mm LED you can dig up…it’s not even glued in.
**click to play**
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