March 2004, that’s when it all started. On a dark rainy Monday evening (or was it a sunny Saturday afternoon? Can’t remember :-)) a strange evil looking man, straight from hell, dropped by…
Yes, JMke had arrived: D, and he brought me a case to review. The Global Win GAT002. (He took a look at the GAT001 about 1.5 years ago here)

Some things in general ...



The very interesting box & case...(click for larger picture)


Content

Yellow Rounded IDE ATA133 cable

Yellow Rounded Floppy cable

Blue / White 20 cm ccfl

Dual Inverter + power cables

CCFL control panel

Stickers to attach CCFL somewhere in case

Bag of screws

Default I/O panel

Lots of manuals

2 brackets for AGP/PCI card slots



The complete content...(click for larger picture)


Some specifications

Dimension 485mm x 200mm x 410mm (D x W x H)

Material Aluminum Alloy, Thickness 1.0mm

5.25" drive bay 4 x External with cover; 3.5" drive bay 2 x External with cover; 3.5" HDD 4 x Internal hidden

Weight ~ 4.4 kg

So far for the information, time to put a system in the case.

ZZzzzoooom, Zooooom, a closer look !

The front is nicely finished, the power and reset buttons have a chrome reflecting look.
You just bought this case, this nice case, and you want to put your system in it. No big deal, but you have this awful white optical drive and even uglier then a 10 year old, almost yellow floppy drive. No problem, this case comes with a custom 3.5” en 5.25” drive cover. Just looking like the other front panels of your case.
The CD drive for example, click the original front of, and click this one on it. *done*, 30 seconds of work.



A closer look to the front...(click for larger picture)


Cooling

There are 2 case fans pre installed. In the rear panel there’s an 80 mm fan, and in the left case panel, the windowed one there’s also a case fan installed. Both these fans use a main board plug to dram their power.
Both the fans spin at around 2000 rpm. Have an airflow of ~26 cfm, and a sound level of ~22 dBa. Decent fans, not too loud.
On the side panel, there’s a fan duct installed for optimal airflow. And finally, fore the HDD’s, there’s also room fan an extra 80 mm fan.



80 mm fan in side panel & fan duct...(click for larger picture)


And the rear, you can clearly see the position from the 80 mm fan.



Rear...(click for larger picture)


Installation

Before you can install your computer you need to get the case opened. I once had a Dell, couldn’t open the case, some stupid click-and-screw system I couldn’t understand. Couldn’t get the case opened until I found the Dremel :).

This case is luckily different.

The side panels can be easily removed as they are held in their place by a couple of thumbscrews and there’s an extra grip. No need for a screwdriver up to now….



Easy removal of the panel...(click for larger picture)


I’m not going to discuss every screw I used to install my computer, just gave you a basic impression on how everything went. But there’s one thing I’d like to mention before going to the next page.

This case has a Front I/O Interface with two USB 2.0 ports, AUDIO, and one IEEE1394 (also known as Firewire) port. I use these things a lot, because they’re easy accessible, the way it should be. But the installation, I hate it. Look at all these tiny connectors… Why don’t they make a standard for that? It would make me a happy man.



Universal front panel connectors...(click for larger picture)


I hope you already saw that this isn't the average case when it comes to looks. It’s a pre modded case! Isn’t that a surprise? More details on the following page.

This case goes for the best looks...

The GAT002 certainly does not look like most cases. It has a plexi front and a window in the side panel, not a normal rectangular window as you see most of the time, no, this one has a nice cut out.
The plexi does not look like any plexi I’ve seen before. When you look at it has a blue shine, depending from what angle you look at it. Nifty effect:



Plexi with a blue shine...(click for larger picture)


And on the second day he created light …

This case has enough light, that’s for sure. One 20 cm blue/white CCFL and an 80mm fan in the side panel with 4 LEDs which give off a nice effect. As pictures can explain more then my silly explanation, here they are:



And the system powered up ... click for larger picture)


Also a remarkable thing is the front LCD; here you can display the time and the temperature of a Hard Disk Drive. There’s a temperature sensor in the case, which you can attach to your HDD. But the sensor has a very short cable, ~10 cm only. It’s enough for the HDD just behind the LCD, but you can’t place it anywhere else to measure other components.

The LCD constantly changes colour, but you can select it to stay at one colour, luckily!

When the computer is shut down (soft shutdown through the OS) the PSU remains under power and is still giving some current, this way the LCD clock can remain lit. This is achieved by a pass through ATX power connector. A small logo on the LCD changes, so you can se that the computer is turned off, but you still can check the time.


Front LCD & power connector...(click for larger picture)


And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for a conclusion. >>

The verdict!

I kind of liked this case. Compared to my Chieftec case, this case is a feather. You get a lot of extra's, such as rounded cables, a CCFL, lighted fan, in short: A perfect case for the for anyone who doesn’t find the time to dive into casemodding but still wants to have a great looking case!


PRO
Very light
Lots of gadgets and flashy lights
Easy and quick to install a system in the case
Lots of cooling options

CON
No removable motherboard tray
Temp sensor cable is too short


I would like to thank Amal from Eurobizz.de for providing us with the review sample.



Questions/Comments: Forum thread

/Piotke out.