Spring Case Madness: 24 Of The Best

Athenatech A747, Continued

One the device is inserted, you match the holes on the device and mounting bay rail. Once this is complete all you have to do is move the clip to the right and lock it in the up position. We have seen similar arrangements with other cases and drive rails as well, and this arrangement seems to work better than most others that we have seen.

The side panel of the case features a fan that could be ducted from the processor to the panel for additional processor cooling, but Athenatech didn't offer such a duct with the case sample that they sent us. What is more interesting however, is the nice spring-loaded clips that fasten the side panel to the case. These are similar to some of the case panels that we have seen on the Atech cases in our last review.

The case is pretty firm with no bend, but a little twist in some areas of the case. The edges on our sample unit were folded and rounded; however, we did find some of the corners to be somewhat blunted in a manner that could scratch you, but not cut you.

The cooling potential of the case is somewhat limited with the three fan locations in the unit. While the fans do move air fairly well, it seemed somewhat hampered by the removable fan filters that seem to be made out of a plastic/nylon material that obstructed the free flow of air. The bottom line is that with the filters installed, the case was not as cool as it could have been. Once the filters were removed the cooling potential of the cases improved significantly.

A look at the top mounted USB and Audio ports of the A747.

The A747 offer top mounted USB and Audio connections that are covered by a flip up door on the top of the case. The construction of the door is plastic which feels a little flimsy, but it is hinged pretty well so it should not break off.

The A747 is well-organized case on the inside and offers a good amount of room. Beyond the USB/Audio top mounted ports the only other thing that it offers is some nice blue lighting around the power switch.

The problem with the A747 isn't with what the case offers; it is more about what the case doesn't offer. While it will serve most applications well if you are looking for just a computer case, it can't really be compared with many of the high-end cases of today. It is well made and offers a fairly standard design but lacks bells and whistles that are becoming required in order to attract buyers. If you like the case, you can find it well below the suggested retail price from a variety of sources. What is more important is that this case is more of a throw back to the old school cases, which isn't bad, but hopefully Athenatech has a few things on the drawing board which will be more innovative than the A747.