APEVIA X-QPACK-NW-BK/420 Black Aluminum 1.0 w/ ABS plastic front panel MicroATX Desktop Computer Case 420W Power Supply

Pros: - Temperature gauge on front of case.
- Plenty of room inside case
- Motherboard try for easy installation and maintenance.
- Good airflow when rear fan is reversed.

Cons: I wouldn't trust the included power supply to do anything really. It has all of the warning signs of being an IED hardware killer. It's generic, it's light, the power wires are of the wrong gauge and looking at the PCB inside it pretty much sums it up that it's a heavily overrated AsiaX PSU with very sketchy parts. Apevia should sell a model without a PSU because it gets tossed in the bin.

The case metal is ridiculously thin, and the front bezel is so cheap and plasticy that I feel like it's going to break when I touch it. I wouldn't trust the front handle with a fully loaded system.

This case is also massively overpriced for what it is. With the cheap construction and IED PSU, this thing should at most be at most $40.

Other Thoughts: I didn't get the case from here, I bought it used for about $38 (which is about what it should cost new.)

Pros: Size, value, and Apevia's Support

Cons: Not a con if you know what you're buying. This is not a solid $100 case that will take a lot of abuse. Metal is on the thin side and assembly takes some patience, but once all together, the case is fine. I'm not sure I'd carry it around a lot with the thin plastic handle, but never my intent.

Other Thoughts: I bought 6 of these for school AV carts because I wanted a small, low profile system. They have worked great for that. I did end up with one case that had a power switch problem, but calling Apevia Support (US based :)) totally solved the problem. The 5 eggs is for their Support.

Pros: Size, ease of access, clean look

Cons: power supply, no instruction book

Other Thoughts: As others have mentioned the power supply unit that comes with the case is junk. This in itself dropped it an egg for me. I found that an instruction book not being included to be more than a little annoying. It made getting the unlabeled wires that went to the various things on the front of the case a bit of a challenge. You are able to go online to download a manual, but that is only useful if you already have a machine online at hand.

This case has a very nice clean look. I have had no issues with overheating at all. Mine has an i5 quad core 3.3GHZ with 16GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 2 TB HDD 7200rpm, and a GeForce GTX 550 Ti. It's typical temperatures run at 28 C on the CPU and 22 C on the HDD. I did install two small fans in the front of the case to pull air in to add to ventilation.

The ability to slide the tray out from the back to make modifications or upgrades is really nice. However, cable length of components inside can hinder the ability to slide the tray all the way out.

I had no issue getting everything in the case. I could see how people who weren't careful with their component purchases could run into issues. If you are going to buy a micro desktop case you had better do your research on the components you plan to put in it to make sure that they will fit.

This case does have a carry handle on the front in the event that you should choose to go to a LAN party or something. I personally would never consider carrying my machine in this manner and don't know that I would trust the plastic handle.

Pros: Nice small light case with plenty of room for a low end gaming system (cdrom, 2hdd, graphics card)

Cons: The power supplies suck. As stated in many other posts they fail. In my case I built this system for my brother who mostly does home office stuff and plays minecraft now and then. No way your power user. He had the system for about 3 months when it suddenly let out a loud pop and a whiff of smoke. Got it back and the power supply was DOA. RMAed the power supply back to the vendor (That part was easy to do just needed a copy of the invoice and ship the old PSU back). Unfortunately when I installed the new power supply the PC would not post. The fans spun up and the lights came on but no one was home. Tried all the standard debug (removed all accessory hardware HDD, CDRom, add in cards) so it was just he MB, CPU, and RAM. Still no post or beeps. Even tried different ram and a known good (but full sized so it would not fit in the case) power supply and got the same results. Now out of luck and have to sink another $60 + shipping on a new MB. Hopefully the processor and CPU are still good but no way to know until I get the replacement MB. Will be really upset if they are fried as well.

Other Thoughts: Good case BUT AVOID the power supply if you value your hardware. Just toss it out and use something else.

Pros: The motherboard tray slides out.
Thin steel but doesn't feel cheap.
I'd buy another one.

Cons: The provided power supply doesn't have connectors for video cards.
Case came dented from shipping.

Other Thoughts: The psu wattage is plenty for my rig but sadly I can't use it because it needs a powered video card.

Pros: good case for mini ITX or Micro ATX boards. Has two thermistors you can place and monitor temperatures on the front LCD panel. Lightweight

Cons: aluminum: easy to strip screw mounting holes, bends easily.

Other Thoughts: I used this to mount a Foxconn Atom 330 board that came out of a Foxconn case with a failed PSU (proprietary and could not be replaced). It's an OK case, the thermistors are a nice feature and the motherboard tray is removable, so assembly is straightforward. I used hot glue to attach a themistor to a hard drive and wedged the other one in between the fins of the passive heatsink for the CPU. I'd rather have a heavier case that doesn't bend so easily.

Pros: Metal is thin, so if you need to bend the case a bit to get something to fit its great.

Cheap.

Cons: Metal is thin, and bends easily.
One screw hole that held the case cover on stripped out.

Pros: Case is the right size for my needs.

Cons: Who still uses molex connectors? Apparently, Apevia thinks everyone does. Those are the only style power connectors on the power supply that came with this case. Unbelievable!

Manufacturer Response:

The power supply that comes with the X-Qpack model case has 4 Molex peripheral, 1 SATA, and 2 Floppy connectors in addition to the standard motherboard plugs. If you need more SATA connectors, you can use adapter cables.

Pros: Nice design. Decent price. Nice looks.

Cons: Sharp edges here and there. There are no SATA power connectors only molex coming from the PSU. Really? I could see the reverse being true in this day, but where'd this PSU come from the '90s?

So, if you're going to use SATA anything in this, you'll need power adapters.

Other Thoughts: I'm using this for a diskless client which is ok. As long as you only have short depth CD-ROMs, (I don't have one in this) it looks like you could put a standard ATX. I'll be checking this.

Pros: Inexpensive, Lightweight. A perfect home for a custom router running FreeBSD and pfSense. I took off one egg because of the reset switch.

Cons: I want to add to earlier comments. I have read much about switches. The very first time I tried to run this build I had to eliminate the reset button because it was shorted and the machine wouldn't boot. But since this machine was going to be a router it didn't really matter to me. The machine will rarely be shut down. One other thing. If you use HDD drawers note that the included power supply is shorter than most and does have enough room behind it. If however you plan on using a larger size PS you may run into problems with room.

Other Thoughts: This router build is 100% Newegg loaded up with a M2A-VM MB, 4gb Ballistix memory, Athlon 64 X2 5000 purchased in 2008 and still running strong. I've added an Onyx 32gb SSD, Bytecc HDD drawer, a StarTech ST1000SPEX4 Gigabit Ethernet Card and a Rosewill RNX-N150PCx Wireless Adapter. Protecting it is a Tripp Lite ISOBAR4ULTRA 4, and a CyberPower UPS (CP1350AVRLCD). It also feeds a Cisco 2950 24 port managed switch.