Bitfenix Aurora Tempered Glass ATX Case Review

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Building, Testing, And Final Analysis

The Aurora installation kit includes an Asus Aura-branded SSD light that connects to the controller seen on the previous page. Mounting rails for 3.5” hard drives use pins for slip-in installation. All screws and standoffs are delivered in a single bag, including four course thread thumb screws and enough fan screws to secure four more fans.

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Rookie_MIB
    It would have been interesting to see how the addition of one or two fans affected the temps and the ability to run at a slower speed.
    Reply
  • cliffro
    My current case being the exception rather than the rule, I usually buy better case fans to replace and or supplement the ones included. My Phanteks Primo came with 5 140mm fans that work very well with minimal noise.

    But every other case before it came with minimal fans. The most being either 2 or 3 on my HAF XM.

    But hey, I just buy what I like feature wise and make any needed adjustments after.

    Again my current case being the exception. I only added some Bit Fenix LEDs to it, and left it pretty much as is.
    Reply
  • Dysphemism
    This is the same price as the S340 elite which also has tempered glass
    Reply
  • jdlech
    With these glass cases, I'm starting to think about a local artist I know. He's very good with just about everything I've seen him do.
    I'm thinking I would really like the results if I bought a glass case and handed it to him for about 4 months and a couple hundred dollars. I'll bet he could do some awesome acid etching and back lighting.
    Reply
  • Dysphemism
    18841949 said:
    With these glass cases, I'm starting to think about a local artist I know. He's very good with just about everything I've seen him do.
    I'm thinking I would really like the results if I bought a glass case and handed it to him for about 4 months and a couple hundred dollars. I'll bet he could do some awesome acid etching and back lighting.

    It shouldn't take that long or cost very much. Etching takes a few hours and is cheap to do and not particularly high effort.
    Reply
  • the nerd 389
    It would be nice to see these cases tested with hardware that they were designed for. I suspect the landscape would change significantly if these cases that were designed for water cooling were tested with a water cooler.

    The noise and cooling performance would obviously change, but just as important is the difference in installation convenience. Installing a water cooling setup is quite different than installing a single tower air cooler, and there are significantly more issues that could come up.

    Tom's Hardware has plenty of information on closed loop water coolers that would be suitable for such a test. The price difference between the cooling systems could easily be accounted for in the value comparisons.

    Regardless, I seriously question results that are derived from a setup that you'd never actually use.
    Reply
  • jdlech
    18841972 said:
    It shouldn't take that long or cost very much. Etching takes a few hours and is cheap to do and not particularly high effort.
    It probably won't cost that much, but I prefer to give him lots of time for inspiration. The actual work would only take a few hours, depending on the number of colors he uses. Acid etching can be a lot like painting with watercolors. But it's more important that he be inspired - and god knows how long that might take. It's best to just hand it to him and let him do it when he does it.
    artists.... you know....
    Reply
  • Crashman
    18842178 said:
    It would be nice to see these cases tested with hardware that they were designed for. I suspect the landscape would change significantly if these cases that were designed for water cooling were tested with a water cooler.

    The noise and cooling performance would obviously change, but just as important is the difference in installation convenience. Installing a water cooling setup is quite different than installing a single tower air cooler, and there are significantly more issues that could come up.

    Tom's Hardware has plenty of information on closed loop water coolers that would be suitable for such a test. The price difference between the cooling systems could easily be accounted for in the value comparisons.

    Regardless, I seriously question results that are derived from a setup that you'd never actually use.
    I'd use the dual-tower version of that CPU cooler in a system like this, so the only difference you're seeing are that the numbers are slightly higher. The consistency is still there.

    Reply