External Examination:
The model I received is a pre-production model, and arrived in a plain brown cardboard box. I do not expect this to be the final retail packaging, so we skip taking a look at the brown box. Besides, packaging does not mean much as long as it provides the user sufficient information, and protects the item in shipment.
In the image below you can see the most important side of the case, the front bezel. As you can see, it arrived in the tower configuration. The front bezel has a brushed aluminum finish to it, however parts of it are plastic. It looks really sharp and this picture does not do it proper justice.
In the below left image you can see the top section of the case (or left section when in desktop/HTPC layout). The very top bay comes with a "stealthed" face plate for an optical drive, which is nice since it allows you to have any optical drive and not be concerned whether it will match your case. Directly below the optical bay are two other hidden 5.25" drive bays. Moving down the case we find a single 3.5" bay hidden behind another door, which would be a great place to install a media card reader. This is where I encountered a slight issue... When opening the door there is a bit of a scraping sound, but the door still opens rather easily.
The features in the bottom portion of the case will vary depending on which model you have selected. Here you can see the base model which includes a place where the optional VFD goes, as well as the location for the remote control receiver. I would prefer to have a solid area here, and as I will show you later, there are other differences between this model and the advanced model. At the very bottom of this section is another door that hides the front microphone, headphone, Firewire, (2) USB connectors, reset button, and hard drive activity light. The power button is also located here, but it is not hidden by the door.
