Cooling

The Viper has a few different options in cooling when it comes to fan placement. Our unit shipped with two 80mm LED fans. The first fan is an intake at the front of the chasses toward the bottom of the case, which is standard nowadays. We also have the option of replacing the 80mm fan with a larger 120mm fan using the provided screw holes and larger fan grill on the chassis. A larger fan will also help cool the mounted HDDs better than the 80mm fan, which will only cover two of the four possible mounts.




Click to enlarge.


The second fan included with the Viper is also an intake and is mounted on the left side panel at the bottom left. This is also an 80mm fan and is covered by a standard silver steel grill to protect the blades from any unwanted contact. The fan is placed near the area of the expansion card area possibly to assist in exhausting warm air produced by the video card.




Click to enlarge.


Two additional 80mm fans can be mounted at the back of the chassis above the expansion slots to increase air flow from front to back. If these fan mounts are utilized, we do recommend upgrading the front intake to a 120mm fan for maximizing the air flow.




Click to enlarge.


MGE has also included their own Vigor 450W power supply with our test unit, which has one 120mm LED fan at the bottom as well as an 80mm LED fan at the back. The unit is not SATA ready, but MGE has included two MOLEX-to-SATA power adapters. The unit also features a 6-pin motherboard connector aside from the standard 20-pin and 4-pin motherboard power connectors, eight MOLEX plugs, and two 4-pin floppy drive connectors. The MOLEX plugs, called Ohm Legs, also feature an easy-off design that allows us to remove the MOLEX from a device by squeezing the flexible tabs instead of killing ourselves while trying to wiggle the plugs from the device and risking damage to them.

Note: Instead of the 450W Vigor PSU, MGE will bundle with the Viper a standard MGE 500W PSU.



Click to enlarge.


Internal Design Construction
Comments Locked

41 Comments

View All Comments

  • Aquila76 - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    AnadTech's case review team - Here is what 99% of your readers look for when buying a case:

    Subtlety
    Great Cooling
    Subtlety
    Internal features
    Subtlety
    Room for expansion
    Subtlety

    Did my semi-sublimnal hints get the point across?

    for an example of just such a case, which I received and setup last week, look here:
    http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
  • mrdudesir - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    im glad i read these comments and found more people like me who are sick of the overblown "modded" cases flooding the market now. I just want something slick, classy, and unobtrusive (why i love my antec sonata so much). Not to mention from my experience these premod cases are loud as hell and cheaply constructed.
  • Poser - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    I was a little surprised to see the comment about the internal speaker being worrysome. See the question, "The enemy within?" here for why:

    http://www.dansdata.com/io014.htm
  • TinyTeeth - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    Oh yeah, by the way, sorry for the double post but, is Anandtech going to review the Dragon? That case seems quite a lot more interesting.
  • TinyTeeth - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    Sure, it looks a bit cool, but it ain't anything I'd like on my desk. This is something you show off at LAN parties, not using every day.

    Besides, the front looks plastic and a bit like it was built in LEGO.
  • MemberSince97 - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    The upcomoming Dragon looks acceptable...
  • kmmatney - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    The blue version of this case looks better than the red, IMO. Microcenter has it advertised with a 500 Watt PSU, but I think it needs to be cheaper than $99 if it going to sell.
  • Panther - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    is there a shortage of legitimate hardware to review around the labs?
  • istari101 - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link

    I like the simplistic, clean style of a coolermaster case. Specifically the Praetorian, but those gaudy plastic facings of the reviewed case is definitely not my thing. Neon lighting in cases is distracting for me.
  • Bonesdad - Saturday, December 18, 2004 - link

    cmon, lets do some reviews on REAL cases. Gawd, this has to be the one of the fugliest things evar.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now