The Lazy Days of Summer Case Review

Aspire X-Superalien, Continued

A look inside the X-Superalien.

The case features an internal design that is very similar to that of the Antec Sonata. While the case is considerably larger than the Sonata, it features the same side tray bay design for the hard drive cage. By stacking the hard drive cage underneath the 5.25" bay cage, Aspire’s design provides tremendous strength for this case. As with the Sonata, Aspire has elected to use a cross member that extends from just below the power supply in the rear of the case all the way to the front of the case on both sides. This improvement provides the added benefit of a removable motherboard tray.

During testing, the X-Superalien exhibited very little bend, but did have some twist, which speaks well for the design and construction of this aluminum chassis. The inside of the case features rolled and smooth edges, for the most part. We did find some areas inside the case that were a little jagged and blunt, but these were not sufficiently sharp to cause cuts to the typical case modder in most circumstances. The X-Superalien touts a tremendous amount of expansion room, with a total of twelve bays inside that can be used for a variety of internal and external 5.25" and 3.5" devices. The bay design is relatively well conceived and allows the user to plan for the future.

A 500-Watt, see-through acrylic covered power supply comes with the X-Superalien. We did not test this power supply, as we test power supplies separately from cases. Aspire has promised to send us this power supply for testing in our next power supply unit round-up. We look forward to testing it and to determining the effects, if any, that the acrylic cover has on the power supply.