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Design & Features
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The power buttons are one of the really cool
features on the Ninja. The HDD and Power LEDs are integrated into the
buttons, and the buttons themselves are integrated into the look of the case
itself…kudos! The intake is not very large, although there is a gap that is
not visible on the front on the bottom of the front bezel that provides more
intake than it would initially appear. There is a single 80mm blue LED fan
mounted in this location – interestingly it’s mounted in between the front
bezel and the chassis itself. The aqua tinted clear piece just below the
door is lit by a trio of Blue LEDs shining up from the bottom…these will
illuminate your drives if the lighting in the room is low or off.
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The door secures with the usual plastic clips,
but the action is pretty nice and you don’t have to force it to get it to
open. The top 5.25” bay has a matching opening in the door, for either a
CD/DVD drive or a cumbersome front panel device that won’t fit in any of the
other slots. There is actually room behind the door so most items should not
have a problem unless they have particularly obtrusive knobs.
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One of the first things that I didn’t like on
the Ninja 2 was the side panel. The design and mesh are just fine, but the
panel is one of those that you find yourself wishing for a third hand in
order to get closed correctly. The one on this particular Ninja 2 was also
slightly warped – whether by shipping or construction was hard to say – and
exacerbated the problem quite a bit. The Star design also tends to be
overlooked…XG should have added a little trim or painted it silver to bring
the design out some more.
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Inside the Ninja 2 was pretty plain with the
exception of a removable motherboard tray – a very nice feature in a case at
this price point. All the rest of the interior is about what you’d expect
from a basic steel case…knock off non replaceable PCI brackets, no tool free
latches, and unfinished metal. There is a slot in the rear that will
accommodate an 80 or 92mm fan. The motherboard tray has pre molded mounting
points, so no brass standoffs are needed with a standard board. MGE has also
added a pile of plastic insulators, just in case one of those mounts ends up
close to raw circuitry and not a mounting point. I personally still prefer
brass standoffs.
The Ninja 2 does ship with a generic power supply as well, and although it
claims to be 400W I wouldn’t expect too much out of it. I will run a load
test on it later in the review. On the plus side, it does have a 20/24 pin
ATX power adaptor, and has one SATA plug on it as well. |
