AOpen G325 Almost Does It All

Category: Review on AOpen G325 Blk/Sil 400Watt Case

Posted by: 8-Feb-2008

Strengths: Uses most ATX power supplies, solid construction, excellent airflow characteristics, dashing good looks.

Weaknesses: Extensive use of very brittle plastic on front panel, handles, DVD eject door ... easily damaged.

CONS: This case could have been everything, but the folks at AOpen "missed it by that much". The plastic handles are NOT for carrying as the label clearly warns you. The eject door on the DVD bay is hinged on an extremely flimsy plastic pin which is a molded part of the entire front panel. What does this mean? It means that if you are not REALLY CAREFUL you will break the hinge, the door will fall off, it will look like crap, and you will be forced to TRY and get a whole new front facade for the case. I actually broke the pin on mine but managed to cajole the dealer into replacing the case for me.

It uses 'most' ATX power supplies. When I attempted to fit a new HuntKey ATX power supply it would not fit, it was just a tad too large. I then fitted a Golden Field ATX supply and it slid right into place.

PROS: This case is well thought out inside with hard drive mount, motherboard placement, cooling vents all in ideal locations so that the power supply fan (you must use a 120mm fan power supply with this unit) and CPU fan are more than sufficient to the task. It's solid-as-hell steel, not aluminium, which means you can actually stand on it (of course the flimsy-as-hell plastic will snap off and fly in all directions if you do) and do a dance. The Power Supply protrudes from the back which not only gives you lots of room inside the case, but it provides a 'stand-off' protection for your I/O stuff such as PS2, VGA, USB, etc. connections. I also recommend using a power cord with a 90 degree end to keep the 'lean clean look' alive. I am completely impressed with the technical design aspects of this unit.

I'd rate this as a 'fair' case due to the fact that it's facade's fragility is really disconcerting and you find yourself afraid to even touch the door because the price of failure is so high.

Still ... it looks good sitting on my desk, and draws comment and a lot of second looks.