THE AOPEN HX45A MID-TOWER COMPUTER
CASE
Last updated: 6/30/99
PLASTIC. The front
panel has an attractive appearance. Gone are the useless turbo LED
and switch and the keylock--good riddance! The panel is quite securely
fastened to the chassis with solid plastic tabs which makes it easy to snap
on and off. The speaker is inserted in a molded expansion card
guide assembly which is conveniently already snapped into the front of the
metal chassis. An optional muffin fan can also be mounted in the guide. The
1" square indentation for the manufacture's label is still where it
was on the HX45: bottom center of the panel. Ii would be better if
it were higher on the case so it would not be partially obscured by the keyboard. The
plastic is solid stuff.
DRIVE BAYS. The case
has six drive bays: two exposed and one hidden 3 1/2" bays and three
exposed 5 1/4" bays. The three 3 1/2" bays are in a removable
cage which is secured with one screw. This makes it a snap to install
and service, all-at-once, a hard disk, Zip or LS-120 drive, and a floppy
drive. All of the exposed bays come with snap-on dust covers. Drives
are easily installed without rails.
EXPANSION BOARD SLOTS. The
case has seven slots. It will accommodate motherboards with 3 ISA,
3 PCI, one shared ISA/PCI, and one AGP expansion board connectors, or other
combinations thereof. All of the slots come equipped with removable
slot covers (not those annoying knock-outs found in some cases).
POWER SUPPLY AND COOLING. The
case comes with a 250 Watt ATX power supply with a ball-bearing fan. There
is a power switch on the power supply in addition to the ATX power on switch
on the front panel which connects to an ATX motherboard. The switch
on the power supply overrides the one on front panel. It is useful
for making sure power to the motherboard is off when plugging-in expansion
boards, etc. without having to pull the power cord.
The power supply has more than enough drive
connectors for the number of drives which the case can accommodate: two
3 1/2" and five 5 1/4".
The power supply exhausts air from the chassis
and does not direct it in and towards the back of the motherboard for CPU
cooling as preferred in the ATX
specification--no big deal; I feel more secure with quality
CPU fans and motherboards with temperature monitoring anyway. The ATX
power supply is almost whisper quiet yet, by feeling the back, it is obvious
to me it is pumping an ample amount of air through the chassis. The
ventilation of this box is very good from front, bottom to top, rear of the
case. Most computers I build do not need the optional fan.
MOTHERBOARDS. The
HX45A accommodates both ATX , Baby AT, and microATX motherboards. An
optional B1 I/O back panel is needed for microATX motherboards. If
you use a Baby AT motherboard be sure it has an ATX connector. If it
doesn't I would replace the motherboard with an ATX motherboard. Unlike
the HX45, this case has six permanately attached, 1/4" diameter motherboard
stand-offs. They shouldn't be a problem with quality ATX motherboards
with adequate mounting donuts, but could cause a problem with cheap motherboards
with less than 3/8" donuts. The arrangement of the standoffs is
ok for all of the motherboards I sell; but could require a gorilla
maneuver to remove one or two of them to accommodate old Baby At boards. There
are extra screw-in stand-offs and taped hole to install them. I recommend
that you add a stand-off or two for motherboards that have more than six
mounting holes.
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