APEVIA X-CRUISER2-BK Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: So I just now got this in the mail and I got to say, the pictures doesn't do this case enough justice when it comes to its overall look. It's a stunning case and design is a sight to see. The gauges look way more impressive in person, don't let the pics fool you. I agree with other posters that said it is quite roomy. As for durability, I like to think it was well made. No complaints here.

Cons: I guess this falls under my own luck, but one of the 3.5 bay front panels was already broken off. Whether that was the shipment or whatever, it wasn't a huge disappointment. I'm only fortunate nothing else seems to be broken.

Other Thoughts: I came across this case looking for the original x-cruiser, but unfortunately, Apevia stopped production on those. Still, this case is a charm and the only reason I gave it one less egg was for the simple fact I found it to be a little on the cheap side when compared to Apevia's original x-cruiser cases.

Pros: I am an extreme demanding power user and this is a very durable built mid tower case! I love the exterior retro look design married with display LED's. The style alone deserves 5 eggs. It has analog gauges for fan speed, temperature and volume level on the front door. The front access panel was easy to pop on and off when installing my DVD drive. The metal inside is all rounded edges which will make your fingers and hands happy when installing components. It offers lots of internal drive bays, 6 external drive bays (2 of which are 3.5 inch).

Cons: Even though the metal edges are rounded, my finger found the one spot that wasn't filed and rounded. I however, was installing a hard drive that had a cooling solution system mounted to it, making the dimensions of the drive larger than the normal drive slot would accept. I had to bend the tabs that the drive sit on to allow it to slide in. I should have used needle node pliers to do this in the first place, but was just using my fingers :/ and it did bite me. But hey, I needed to insert my DNA into the new build anyway :)

Other cons are:

The fans that come with the tower are a little loud and noisy, lowering the fan speed does not really help. Better quality system fans would help the noise factor. Do not get me wrong, these fans do what they are supposed to do and the led's built into them are pretty glowing inside the tower. I'm just being super picky about the entire cooling system, being that I have the three fans that come with this case, my cpu fan, dual video card fans, dual hard drive fans, and a whisper quiet power supply. Sadly, the fans that come with this tower are the only ones I am hearing :(

Lastly, the mounting for the internal drives could be faced outward to allow for easier installations. However, It is important to understand the reason the mounting trays are not facing outward is to maximize air flow from the front fan in to the chassis. It is a bit more difficult install of internal drives because of this design, however it does not out way the importance of air flow. Possibly a mesh metal mounting railing install housing or moving the forward fan position would be a better design.

Other Thoughts: Over all, I am EXTREMELY happy with this mid tower. I love love love the retro gauges. The height, width, depth fits my desk nearly perfectly and was something I was paying close attention to when choosing a new Mid Tower. The fans are a little noisy, but honestly, it's not any louder than my old mid tower, I was just hoping to achieve a complete whisper quiet system. The temperature gauge works great for monitoring the CPU Core temperature, I simply inserted the sensor probe inside the fins of the heat sink on my CPU. I would recommend this case to others I know who are upgrading, building new or looking for a change in looks.

Pros: Roomy interior meant the build (and a couple part swaps since) went very easily. Looks great, get compliments on it all the time even after it's been banged up to hell and back (see other thoughts). Fan controls worked but I never use them. Interesting design. Cheap.

Cons: Font panel needs to be opened to access the CD drive. No cable management help means it looks messy inside, and while I feel it defeats the purpose the of the clear side panel, no case at this price does anything special there. The front panel lights burnt out after a couple years, but I expected that, and still looks fancy. Worst con is difficulty to clean. Very hard to dust out certain parts of the case.

Other Thoughts: As flimsy as it felt at first, it survived a very bad car wreck and kept mostly everything inside okay except my CPU cooler. I had to bend some parts back together with a hammer, but it kept going after I did that. I think there's some insulation/static issue, where it kept power cycling after I rebuilt it (just had to reinstall everything and it worked fine) but it may have just been something I did being my first build.

Pros: Great looking case, and a good amount of room

Cons: The two triangle piece light LEDs burnt out within 2 weeks. Itys been a month now, even with the lights out the case looks great, its just disappointing :/

Pros: The thing is huge -- much larger than I had anticipated. There is TONS of space inside. Mobo, Drives, PSU and PCIe Video Card all fit perfectly. Plenty of screws are provided to get everything mounted. Fit and finish is decent. Front-side USB, Firewire, audio, volume and fan speed control are nice. On a sturdiness scale of 1-10, I'd rate this about a 6. The gauges are very cool and the chrome adds a retro feel to the look that I really like. I did not have any problem getting the gauges to work. Fans are nice and quiet - even at full speed.

Cons: There are four (4) 4-Pin molex splitters that have to be daisy chained to connect all of the fans and lights - it makes a bit of a mess that is hard to hide. The "swooshes' on the front are unevenly lit (and I'm being kind). Front Cover blocks the DVD/CD drive tray.

Other Thoughts: Biostar A780L3B w/Athlon X3
nVidia GT-240 PCIe 2.0 x16
Two 3.5 drives
5-1/2 DVD Burner
Room left over to have a picnic lunch.

Pros: Looks good.

Cons: This case is very poorly constructed. My mother board expansion slots did not line up at all with the cases expansion slots. I had to angle my video card to make it work. The front door when close offers no air flow for the front fans. The volume control and gadge both did not work . The front USB slots are very cheaply made and broke in the first week. The LED's on two fans burnt out after a month. No room behind the mother board for cable management. Unfinished inside, a lot of jagged edges to snag wires on. Paint job looks good until you touch it shows every little finger print. The metal is so thin I have stripped out 2 screws just taking them out! WAY over priced this case belongs in a price range of 29.99 and under. And even at that price I still would not recommend it.

Other Thoughts: I did replace the case, for 5 dollars less so keep looking folks all this case offers is looks and there are way better cases in this price range. I do not see why so many customers rated it so high. Must be there first case or they just never had a good case. I have 8 builds and 9 cases so far and this case is the worse investment I ever made. One egg for looks is all I can give it.

Pros: For a mid tower case it did provide an ample amount of space to move around. You are going to need it. It comes with a descent amount of fans

Cons: This case has many "aesthetic" features that one would think would come in handy. The swinging front panel is very loose it swings around and because of the front fans pull it will cause the lid to slam shut. The front panel design was not very well thought through, when closed the back part of the front panel has almost no real way of allowing the front air flow to pass through into the system, I had to literally use a marker or a book to wedge under it to keep it open. The volume control did not work out of the box..did not care for it while the gauge worked but impractical and useless, The fan control option in the case is just a pain. The wiring requires you to piggy back several fans to it in order to work. The sensor on the thermal gauge burned out after about a month.

Other Thoughts: The flexibility of this case is mechanically the same as low end 30 dollar case with no real aesthetic attributes. Basically that is what you are paying for in this case.. I sold mine off for almost nothing to a co worker with my previous old rig in it.

Pros: This tower is not cheap and is put together very well. PSU is on top not in the bottom which I liked. Has tach's for VU, temp, and fan speed. I dont use these, for I constantly run coretemp prog. For some reason all my overall temp and cpu temp run cooler than in my other case.

Cons: There is only space for 2-3.5 hdd's, but there is room for like 6-2.5's.
I better start investing in ssd. Not a con if you are running all ssd's

Other Thoughts: Asus M5A97
AMD FX-4100
Powercolor hd6870 gpu ddr5 1gb
4x4 Gskill Ripjaws ddr3 1600
2x 1TB WD Cavair Black sataIII hdd
LG sata DVD burner

All fits and runs perfect!

Pros: Very good looking case. I love the front leds and gauges. Very sturdy and the screws holding the side panels on are nice they are just thumb screws so no screw driver to take them off.

Fit all my parts very well. Great case for a pretty basic computer with a nice video card.

Cons: For some reason I can not get the VU meter on the front to work. In the instructions does not give a very good intructions on how to hook the fans up to the fan speed controler kinda had to figure that one out on my own.

Also I think all 3 fans should be blue led not just 1.

Other Thoughts: Very well made. Nice clean and sleak look. Very flashy if you want to impress your friends.

Bought it from tiger direct and love it. BTW its cheaper at Tiger Direct.

Manufacturer Response:

To get the controller to control the fans, you should do the following:

1) Daisy-chain all the fans together (each fan has two connectors, a male and a female)
2) Find the male connector from the front panel (labeled "Input DC 12V") and connect it to the power supply
3) Find the female connector from the front panel (labeled "Output") and connect it to the male end of one of the fans

As for the VU gauge, it will not work unless you plug something in to the front audio ports. It will not register on the motherboard (or sound card) ports.

Pros: Good case. fits all my component and does not take up to much space.

Cons: Hard drive slots are off a little. Had to scrap the sides of my hard drive to get it in.