Case Exterior

The first characteristic that stands out about the Uber Chakra case is its mass. It is a fairly large server class case, due to dimensions of ~21.75 inches tall, ~8.5 inches wide, and ~21.5 inches deep. Although we don't have any exact measurements from the manufacturer, it is very heavy, due to the rigid and thick steel used in it's construction.

The case comes with a small parts bag, including a mini main board speaker in case the need arises. The screws and mounts included are adequate for installing an extra fan and any size ATX board. It also comes with three variations of snap-on rail mounts for the three different drive bay areas, these are always welcome and drastically speed up system assembly. The included fold out poster is just a simple but thorough guide to the case's features and basic assembly instructions.

When looking at the front of the chassis, the complex compound curves standout. In addition, the mesh grills over the external drive bays, the sharp looking brushed aluminum edge treatment, and the 12cm fan with blue LED's all add that special touch. Being a server class chassis, there are plenty of external drive bays. These bays include five 5.5" bays and two 3.5" bays available. We'll look "behind the scenes" at the front bezel in just a bit.

At the top edge of the front panel the details are even more interesting. Dead center of the top is where the power switch is located. From left to right: the system reset switch, two USB ports, external mic and headphone ports, power and hdd activity lights, and something very unusual, an eSATA port for connecting external SATA devices. eSATA external storage devices have only recently surfaced in the consumer market, but they are significantly faster than USB 2.0 or Firewire devices. This is because of the the native speeds of internal and external SATA connections are the same.

Panning around to the side of the case, a massive "dual circle" design with mesh work and  Enermax's logo stands out with beauty. The unusual aspect is the utterly huge 25cm blue LED fan. This massive fan spins at a leisurely 650rpm  moving 90 cubic feet of air per minute, while at the same time generating only 17 db  of noise. What sets this fan further apart from the norm is its external power switch and directional control located along the circumference. The directional switch allows two modes of operation, exhaust and intake.

As we move to the rear of the case, everything is similar to most decent cases. The rear mountable 12cm fan spot is well ventilated, although at the price this case goes for, it would have been nice for a fan to be included. It also has holes to mount 8cm and 9cm fans as well. A minor detraction from is that many higher end cases these days have rubber protected holes or ports on the back panel for passing through hosing for water cooling systems. With this case they will have to be cut. The side panel doesn't feature any fancy latching mechanisms like many cases do these days, and substitutes with two chrome thumbscrews. On the door itself, we can get a better view of the 25cm ventilation fan. This thing is incredibly massive and the leds are strong.

Let's move on and take a peek inside...