Presentation

Barebones are really cool cases. I once had a Shuttle and a Soltec based barebone in my possession. Looks very great on your desk and doesn't take too much place. Unfortunately its small size only allows one, perhaps two hard disk drives and only one optical drive. It's said that such small form factor computers are perfectly suitable for transporting LAN parties.

Installing larger and high end graphic cards can also be an issue. Using two slots cooling is most of the time out of the question and this leaves you with the louder one slot cooling...

Aspire has created the X-Qpack. At first sight it looks like a barebone, but it's just a bit bigger. The unit tested today is the X-QPACK-AL/420; Aspire’s X-QPACK Aluminum Case with 3 Windows, Silver colored.



Features

Compact, portable and tasteful design

3 x side see-through windows

Front 2 x USB2.0, 2 x Audio, 1 x Firewire

1 x front LCD temperature readout

1 x 120mm blue UV LED fan at rear

5 x drive bays: 2*5.25" + 1*3.5" + 2*3.5"(int)

ATX 420W 12V power supply

Removable motherboard tray for easy installation

Sturdy aluminum contructed for best cooling

If you are looking for a PC that is compact and dynamic that you can just grab it and go, then this Aspire X-QPACK is your perfect choice. The X-QPACK is designed with the idea of giving users to choose any Micro ATX motherboard and components in the market to build their own compact PC. With a built-in ATX 420W power supply, 5 x drive bays and a 120mm fan, this X-QPACK is powerful, cool yet quiet. Stylish, portable, dynamic and cute, Aspire X-QPACK has it all. Simplify your life with X-Qpack!

More information on the manufacturers' website.


Installation

Opening the sturdy cardboard box reveals the case... Every plexi window is both on the inside as the outside protected by a thin plastic film. It can be easily peeled of and leaves no marks. The front panel has two USB ports, a firewire port and audio connectors. The weird construction in the front is a handy. As you can see it's easy to click it out and carry the case.



Continuing our exploration of the case we notice 120 mm rear fan. It seems to be a blue LED fan. Does it provide enough airflow? Performance test further in this review will answer that question.

The cover of the case, made of one part, is attached to the case with three thumbscrews. Opening the case is done in just a jiffy. Once removed the cover feels a bit weak and to flexible to my opinion. The thin aluminum and the plexi aren't the strongest combination. But once installed around the chassis, the panel sits well in place and feels sturdy. It becomes one strong construction.

Inside the case we also found a little bag with screws and a power cable.



Let's take a look on the inside. >>

Removable Mainboard Tray

A removable mainboard tray is a feature that makes my heart beat faster. Usually this makes the installation very easy. You can install most of the PC on your desk and finally slide the tray into the case.

As you can see in the pictures I did the same. First I installed the little Asus P4P800-VM mainboard. This case support Mini Atx mainboards. There are quit a lot of powerful mini ATX sized mainboard on the market, so that you wont be limited to the Shuttle sized mainboards.

Afterwards it was time for the Leadtek 6800 Le, Leadtek is known for the bigger cooling solutions they install on VGA cards. The initial plan was to install a Zalman CNPS cooler on the CPU. But before I installed that one, I decided to test it first if it would fit. Actually it wasn't the CPU cooler that got me in trouble at first, the VGA cooler, which made a card only a couple of mm higher then a regular card gave me problems...



So the CNPS9500 Zalman CPU cooling doesn't fit. Time for plan B, the Geforce 4 MX based Albatron VGA card (with the Zalman Vf700-cu installed on it) and the Zalman CNPS7000B Cu CPU cooler. This combination fits perfectly. Also other larger VGA cards, such as the 7800 Series for example fit perfectly, as long as the cooling doesn’t poke its head above the PCB.




Drives

This case has room for 2x 5.25" drives, such as a DVD writer, and 3x 3.5" drives. One of the 3.5" bays can be uses for a floppy drive. Those three external visual bays (2 x 5.25 and 1 x 3.5) are installed in the front of the case. Nothing special is required here. The remaining 2 hard disk bays are installed on the side of the case. The little rack needs to be removed in order to get them in there.

Once it's removed you can easily screw in the two drives. Then you place it back into its rails and slide it back in position. To prevent any vibrating noise you connect it firmly to the chassis using two screws, one on each side.




Power Supply Unit

The small power supply is, according to the specifications, capable of delivering 420 Watt. Quit a lot for a unit this size. It’s cooled by one 80mm fan, which is fairly silent.

The Aspire X-Qpack is a windowed case; having a regular PSU installed wouldn't make it an eye catcher. That's why Aspire put some effort in making the PSU good looking. Not only does it have a high gloss mirror finish, but the fan has built-in UV blue LEDs. The finishing touch are all the sleeved cables.

The power headers are limited to the amount of drive bays this case consists. If you have the case stuffed with equipment and want to use another device that requires a molex connection (Such as the Asus CT-479 converter or a rather power consuming VGA card, you'll need to use a molex splitter).

1 x 24pin Main Power (20 + 4 pin)

1 x 12V (P4)

4 x Peripheral

1 x Floppy

1 x SATA






Finishing the installation...

To use the front temperature sensors, there's a pass through molex connector to provide power to the little LCD in the front. The two thin sensors can be installed practically everywhere. When using it in normal circumstances the sensors work quit accurate. Both my multimeter as the classic mercury based thermometer show values in a 2°C range.

Because you can see everything on the inside of the case cable management is important, to those that care of course. Most of the cables can be stuffed below the floppy disk bay. Nothing can or needs to be installed there and the airflow is almost not interrupted either.



On to the testing ->