APEX MI-100 Black / Mirror finish Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply

Pros: Good build quality.
Looks very nice.
Surprisingly easy to work in.
Power supply has been stable and running well so far.

Cons: Front face looks great but scratches easy, honestly I scratched it when tried to remove the front plastic coating... with my fingernail.

Gets hot, impressively hot. I have an old Wolfsdale duo core in there with a GT520 and the whole thing get a bit toasty. Since I do not use the 5.25" bay, because who the hell uses a DVD drive anymore, I plan on drilling out some holes and mounting a fan there to help.

Pros: Roomier than other mITX cases, yet still only 5.1" tall on its side (more if you add the rubber feet)
Full size optical drive and HDD
Included power supply is relatively quiet (except on startup)

Cons: The entire case was covered in anti-scratch film EXCEPT the one part you don't want scratches on: the mirrored front. It was a little scratched on arrival.
Some interior metal was bent.
I agree with all ventilation cons mentioned by others.
Lots of space for additional drives, but no mounting place.

Other Thoughts: The case does include ventilation holes now, but only toward the rear of the case. I will probably add more holes and a 120MM fan to the front, although both the case and fan would require modification.

Not a bad case for the price and a good starter, but needs modifications to improve airflow and better utilize interior space. Buy this if you don't care about good ventilation or don't mind tinkering with it after purchase.

Pros: * Comes with 250w power supply
* full size 5.25" bay, 3.5" bay
* Small size
* fairly easy to work in

Cons: Terrible ventilation. As others mentioned, the PSU sits over the CPU (half-on half-off with my mobo), which results in both the CPU fan *and* the PSU fan operating suboptimally. There are holes on the sides of the case, but if you have a video card (particularly a full size one) on one side and a hard drive mounted on the other, these are effectively blocked.

Other Thoughts: I put a ASUS M4A88T-I in this case, which is a fantastic motherboard but runs hot (a bad combination with this case). I tried to reduce the northbridge temp by putting in a discrete video card (half-height), but it didn't do much. I also put in a 120mm fan where the hard drive mounts are, and surprisingly it fit quite well (a little tight, but no problems with the fan). But this wasn't enough. The box just heats up with little chance for air to escape, and my system was becoming unstable under high loads.

I've gotten my temps down with a simple modification, but I can't explain due to Newegg's review guidelines, and I don't recommend it anyway. But what I found out is that the PSU location is the main reason for high temperatures.

I wouldn't buy the case again, at least not with this mobo, but aside from the overheating problem it's a very nice design. It would be great with a cool, low-wattage system.

Pros: Fits all that should be needed for a functioning system. Compact

Chrome front (remember to peal off the protective film, the film makes it look scratched)

Cons: Plenty of unused space under 3.5" media card/floppy bay, could be used for a proper hard drive bay.

Power supply makes loud noises when starting up

poor ventilation by default, though the grill on the sides can fit a 80mm fan no problem (front left being the easiest spot to install.

Picture's on newegg show the system on it's side (which actually turns out to be upside down if you want it vertical) There are markings for where the feet (optional) can go, however due to the lack of airflow and a dead hard drive I elected to put the system on the side.

Hard drive bay is terrible, it just wedges in the side, while there is plenty of space in the front of the case for a 3.5-inch bay. There is a second set of mounting holes in the front left, but they are spaced to wide to install the included bracket to.

Other Thoughts: I doubt I would buy this case again, however it is a good case for the money if you look past it's shortcomings.

Pros: n/a

Cons: n/a

Other Thoughts: I'd purchased as I wanted a case with no venting holes as the photo's on Newegg show. Unfortunately there are large areas on both sides that would fit an 80mm fan or two (though not drilled out for one). Very disappointed with Newegg & manufacturer for not posting the correct photos.

Pros: Fits micro ITX board real nicely and has a 250W PSU that would not be too hard to replace as it is a standard size.

Cons: The measurements are not as advertised although after calling NE I found out that the measurements are given to them by the manufacture so no fault to NE. At any rate I bought this to use to mail the PC back and fourth to my clients in a $15 flat rate mailer however due to false advertising about the size it does not fit. This case is actually 13.5" long vice listed measurements. Additionally the PSU sits right on top of the CPU so if you have a fan that blows down on the CPU like all of them do it will be battling the fan on the power supply as that one is taking air out of the case creating a vacum on top of your CPU fan. So the two cancel each other out and there is no longer any airflow. With this the CPU and PSU would overheat. The only solution to this is to flip over the CPU fan and then blow heat off of the CPU into the PSU. I know; also not good..., but at least its better then frying your CPU. Overall a poor design. Recommend a different case!

Other Thoughts: New egg to the rescue! They were so good about this return. The case was not broken nor bad in any way except for its size. They were willing to pay for return shipping from Hawaii!!! and give me a full refund with no charges for restocking or anything, I challenge other reatailers to do that! Thanks newegg.

Pros: Cheap, Nice looking case. The size of the case is great for what you can fit in it. Makes great use of space.

Cons: The psu intake fan is located directly over the cpu heat-sink. With the amount of room you have you have to purchase a low profile heat-sink(understandable), but those draw air in from the top. While the psu fan is also drawing air in and those fans are right on top of each other creating a vacuum over the heat-sink causing over heating. Also the power button on the front of the case doesn't line up properly so you have to wiggle it around sometimes in order for it to work.

Pros: Compact; can easily mod to fit 4 HDD for NAS; I guess this case has undergone various changes as mine had plenty of ventilation on both sides of the case.

Cons: Dead PSU on arrival (consider this, "Allied" is supposedly the manf. on the side of PSU, but that is really Apex); Wires, wires, wires (from PSU and MB connector cables)...tangled mess, but cable weren't made with micro cases in mind.

Other Thoughts: End of the day it's a really nice case with a really bad PSU. Not worth killing the review because of a slight inconvenience, but if you're considering it, be prepared for the PSU to be DOA.

Pros: For the price the case is actually not to bad. The quality of the steel and even the overall "feel" is decent.

Cons: The motherboard mounts were skewed and not evenly spaced. I could only mount 3 of the screws even after drilling out part of the backplate to help make it fit. I found this case to be FAR more frustrating than it was worth.

Other Thoughts: I have built several dozen sff computers. That said, I will more than likely avoid Apex in the future. It is not worth my time and effort to RMA the case and I learned from the experience.

Pros: Small yet spacious for a small case. There is space for plenty of hard drives if you Jimmy rig it with minimum effort. Nice shinny finish. Power supply is very quiet. Room for a 120mm fan where the side 3.5 hard drive should go. DVD player slides right in with no effort and no guessing.

Cons: Mine has a couple of defect and one part gave out. That's why I took off an egg . The led lights on the front won't work, nothing, nada. I've tried everything I can think, checked and double checked the connectors, I removed the front panel, turn off the light in the room to no avail. The LED's just won't turn on for me. Second, my PSU was not sitting straight. It was leaning downward and interfered with the CPU Heatsink (HiperFlow Cooler HFC-20820-C1) which is very low profile. I added doubled sided foam tape at the back/bottom part of the PSU and that straighten it out. Also, After I finished the build and had my fun, the computer would not turn back on. I checked my power strip but that was not it. I thought for sure the PSU had died. I decided to test the power cord first since it was easy to do. Low and behold it was the AC power cord, never had that happen before. Lucky for me I have plenty of those around the house.

Other Thoughts: Over all is not bad. There is room for more hard drives below the 5.25 and 3.5 bays, you'll have to get a bit creative..say double sided foam tape, drill holes on the bottom, etc. The 120mm fan (Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AR-R1) fit nice and snug where a 3.5 side hard drive should go almost like if it was intentional. I needed a case which would be under 6 inches in Height and not too wide like Desktop cases plus affordable. It now sits in the space between my monitor and my desk. I can still have my KVM, External enclosure, mouse receiver and HD Docking Station all sharing the same space. The new system is for browsing, emails, Skype, WP, Pandora, just simple tasks. I did not want my gamer Rig on all the time just those simple task and drilling a hole through my wallet. My system:
-Zotac GF8200-C-E
-AMD Athlon II X2 235e
-G. Skill DDR2 800 4GB
-Seagate 2.5 250GB HD 7200RPM (Super Talent 2.5 to 3.5 Bracket)
-Samsung SH-S223Q
-Ubuntu 10.10