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Design & Features
The new Viper 2 is decidedly lighter than the
original Viper, and although it retains some of the original’s design
touches – Such as the snake head on the door and the lower front venting. It
is a clearly a different case however, with the chassis is aluminum this
time around which contributes to the light weight. The handles and front
ports are gone from the top and are now mounted in a removable 3.5” mount.
For a gamer this is probably a downgrade, as you now have to have the door
open to use them. The door itself is also not quite as nice as the original
Viper’s was but closes securely and gives a lot of room in front of the bays
for knobs and the like. The excellent display is back but this time it has a
few controls to set alarm points and the clock.
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MGE has thankfully decided to cut back on the
Viper theme just a little bit, and has opted for a more stylistic smoked
acrylic window. There is still an 80mm sized hole, but there is no mount for
a fan. The paint is not mirror finish but instead has a very nice wire
brushed look that is very similar to the Enermax CS-A666TA we looked at some
time back and is also featured on high end cases such as Lian Li and
Silverstone.
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The cooling system is one place you have to be
careful with the Viper series cases. The original had a similar problem,
where the fans would have different configurations depending when you
ordered one. The XG website shows the Viper 2 coming with a rear exhaust
that looks like it can accommodate one 120mm fan or a dual 80mm fan setup,
but this review sample came with a 92mm fan mount with a 120mm fan on a
bracket. The front intake came with an 80mm fan, but can accommodate both 92
and 120mm versions as well.
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Compared to the original Viper the side panel
on the Viper 2 comes off and goes back on very nicely. I will concede that
with age the Original Viper door did eventually become much more usable but
this one works great right out of the box. No interior paint this time
around but the polished aluminum looks very sharp as it is. I was happy to
see a pair of support shelves for the Power Supply…a big issue I had with
the Viper. Another nice perk is the addition of a intrusion sensor,
something we usually don’t see in purely gaming cases.
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Another big perk is the inclusion of a tool
free system, another item the Viper lacked. The four internal HD bays can
use either the tool free system or regular screws, and have small shelves to
help hold the drive in place while mounting. We’ve seen a similar setup on
the Nikao DragonFire and find it works pretty well with few exceptions. All
the knock outs, 5.25”, 3.5”, and PCI are all replaceable as your
configuration changes and keeps ugly empty PCI slots at a minimum.
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The power supply is also a fairly nice one,
and is PCI Express and SATA ready. The unit is at least being honest with a
350W rating - instead of one of these 500 or 600W cheap units - and I found
it to be extremely quiet as well. Just using a jumper and plugging the fans
in, you can barely hear this case.
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One thing that I was extremely happy to see
make a return was the LCD display. Of all the cases I’ve ever reviewed, the
MGE Viper had the nicest by far. The Viper 2 has a very similar display, and
has added a few controls to sweeten the deal a bit. You can adjust the time
and the alarm point on the single temp probe, as well as monitor three fans.
Temperature probes to match each fan would have been nice, but this is still
a solid unit. |
