Chenbro Gaming Bomb II: Anyone for Upscale Gaming?
by Purav Sanghani on December 14, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
External Design
Usually, we begin our look at the external design of the case at the front bezel, since that is usually what we notice first. With the GB2, however, we noticed two handles at the top of the case before anything else. The handles are placed at the front and back of the chassis and are reminiscent of those on Apple's G5 cases.
Click to enlarge.
While we're at the top of the chassis, we noticed a square shaped vent for a 92mm fan that can be mounted to exhaust air. We will talk more about that in the Cooling section.
Moving back to the front of the GB2, we see a well-designed bezel with clean, straight and rounded edges. At the top, we see on the right are the HDD activity LED, the reset button, and the large square-shaped power button, which has the Power LED integrated into it. The large size of the power button makes it easy to press while the reset button's small size keeps unwanted reboots from happening. The reset button is a bit too small, though, for even an averaged sized finger to press.
Click to enlarge.
Next, we see four 5-1/4" drive bay covers and two 3-1/2" drive bay covers. Each can be easily taken off by removing two screws for each cover.
Click to enlarge.
At the bottom of the chassis, we notice the auxiliary ports, which include a FireWire port, two USB ports, and the standard audio input/output ports. Each is labeled clearly with the standardized icons.
Click to enlarge.
Pulling on the front bezel from the left side, we were able to open the bezel door. By doing this, we can now remove the drive bay covers by undoing the screws on each side. From the picture, we see a clear plastic molding that holds the HDD LED, reset and power buttons in place along with the aluminum grill and auxiliary ports at the bottom of the bezel.
Click to enlarge.
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RuStYwAvE - Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - link
Just face it, you guys will never be satisfied with any case as long as you get it for free. If you want a case that stand out from the crowd build one yourself or shutup and buy the most expensive case you can find, most likely only a number of you will actually buy it. The fact is most of you won't buy a expensive (top of line case) and would probably just settle with a cheap case and a decent power supply, even if you do have the money for it. Saying that, I prefer the Lanboy or SLK 350 watt model from antec, but that is just my opinion. It is cheap, reliable, quiet, and aluminum depending which one you get; alot of people buy it for these reasons, even though the case does not stand out from the crowd, but who cares. Also, I think that toolless cases are overrated and thumbscrews can be just as easy to remove components and drives from the case around the same time it takes you push a slot or twist a knob. Taking a quick look at the pictures of the cm stacker and chenbro case, it looks to me that you still need to crack open the case to replace any part and the motherboard still require screws to mount them.phaxmohdem - Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - link
Those B**tards stole my design! And now they insult me by offering it at a meager $260??? This case is worth at LEAST $549.99 Come on!kmmatney - Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - link
I can't really understand why everyone is ragging on the XSpider case so much. It was actually one of the quietest cases tested, it was well-built, and is 1/5 the price of this one. It didn't look that bad - you can get other colors besides red.Locut0s - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
Like others I applaud the review of a nicer, non tacky "metal-head", case. Though there are even nicer ones out there. Personally I don't care for any type of side window, though the one on this case is bareable. However I also agree with others that 240 bucks is a bit much to spend for a case like this, especially considering that you can find many other cases with similar features, some of which look nicer, for a lot less. Still this is a step in the right direction IMO.Bladen - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
I knew that price would hurt them, it was supposed to be $200.I'm still going to buy one later, which may be sitting im my bedroom until 2006 or later when I will put a new system in it.
I'll probably mod that top exhaust to fit 120mm fan to put my 4 Blue LED Blackfire A.C. Ryan fan on it.
Why complain about stock, who uses stock anyway?
It looks good and is probably solid. The ICM and Fleibay are good for modders who want looks and airflow (although having the HDDs backs facing the motherboard will reduce airflow).
ksherman - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
no thanks... ill stick to my uber quite Antec SonataWolfz - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
Would it be possible to have a short follow-up addition about modding this case to fix the noise issues, etc? It shouldnt take that long to do (~2 hours maybe?)diehlr - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
uglyPhantronius - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
I"ll stick with my aluminum chieftec, thanks.PuravSanghani - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
hoppa: We actually did briefly mention this in the conclusion..."The GB2 performed extremely well in our thermal benchmarks. Though very loud, the dual 120mm fans helped keep the air flowing to move warm air out of the chassis as quick as possible"
Hope that helps!