Introduction:

PointerX dropped of this no-name case at my doorstep.
Well it isn’t completely no-name. This case has been re-distributed by others under names as "Sunbeam Clear Acrylic PC Case" and "Xoxide X-Clear Clear Case". Both these "editions" come completely disassembled. The mentor case I received was in one whole however. The only difference beside the name was the absence of a fifth blowhole at the top. So there are 4x 80mm blowholes present and not 5 as seen in the Sunbeam and Xoxide versions.


Specifications:

4 x 5.25" exposed bays

2 x 3.5" exposed bays

5 x 3.5" internal HDD bays

4 x 80mm blowholes (1 in front, 1 in back and 2 on side panel)

Accepts standard ATX motherboard (12" x 10.2")

Dimensions: 445mm(H) x 220mm(W) x 475mm(D)


First thing I did was removing the protective paper that was applied to avoid scratches on the Plexi surfaces.



The included goodie box contained the following items:

a manual - Instructions on how most parts were assembled, but lacks detailed information

screws and other goodies to install your cdrom/hd/floppy drives

a pair of white gloves - don’t want to get dirty finger prints on those Plexi plates!

face plates for cdrom/floppy to put in the front of the case

3 fan grills and screws to fasten 80mm fans

Installation

As clear as can be, using the gloves paid of, no finger prints to be found:



You can see everything, even these not so pretty details on the power/reset buttons:



The speaker is situated at the bottom of the case and provides a nice beep when booting your system (if the wires are connected correctly of course):



The motherboard needs to be installed using these metal stands that are screwed into the Plexi backplane:



Next we attached these metal babies on our hard-drive:



Then we installed the hard-drive in the rack, you have to remove the front plate and the whole drive-cage to do this:




Installation of the PSU was the easiest thing to do, it will work flawlessly with any standard power unit, but if you have an exotic one you can be faced with problems for fitting it in there:

Installation continued:

After screwing and unscrewing several times I noticed that the screws tend to get damaged pretty easily. They used soft metal for the screws so a large flat screwdriver is highly recommended when working with them



Lets whip out the fans



They were installed with the provided fan grills. This was made very easy thanks to the effective screws that tighten themselves in the plastic holes of the fans



But don’t plan on fitting any large 80mm fans at the front, the free space between the fan and hard drive is limited



With almost everything in the case it is time to put on the faceplates to finish the whole



The system for attaching these plates is however far from perfect, after trying repeatedly to fix them it their place, I gave up. Every time I moved the case at least half of them just fell out. They should have paid more attention to this when constructing this aspect of the case



If you remain really silent and still, then maybe they won’t fall out



The whole system was installed:

Abit KR7A

XP1700+

RAM, Vidcard, etc..

Lets see how it performed…

The case in action at a local LAN party :)



Weight:

It is not the ideal case to drag around to LAN parties, but it is doable. One of the big downsides however is the sharp edge on every Plexi plate. While transporting I got my hands cut pretty badly. Removing/Replacing the side panels without getting cuts on your hands is a real challenge!



Temperatures:

At default CPU settings you can see that the Mentor Plexi performs on par with the Antec Lanboy when 2 casefans are used. When we add 2 more fans to the Plexi we see a small improvement but the added noise is also quite noticeable.



Overclocking the CPU to 2ghz using almost 2v vcore pushes the limits of aircooling. Having a good airflow in your case is essential. Here we see a broader difference between the contenders, a maximum of 3°C when both cases have two case fans hooked up. The 2 extra fans (4 in total) in the Plexi deduct another 1.5°C from the CPU temperature under load.

Conclusion:

This case is a high quality product that will raise eyebrows when you have it installed in your living room. If you are looking for the ultimate window mod, look no further then this baby. Out-of-the-box this product will be of interest to the average PC user and gamer. Hardware fanatics and casemodders will adore this case, as the "modding" capabilities are endless.

High quality finishing and good craftsmanship
Flashy looking, a sure crowd-pleaser
White gloves to prevent dirty finger prints during use/assembly
Good airflow
Sharp edges. Although the overall quality is top notch, I still got cut when handling this case
Method for attaching face plates could be better
Changing hardware in the case requires a lot of unscrewing and screwing
Power supply not included

I had a great time finding the strong and weak points of this case. Although some negative points can become quite annoying when you change hardware a lot. I used this case to host my test system, and during this period changed video cards and heat sinks. Removing the side panel is a challenge compared to "normal" cases, changing the motherboard or a hard drive is really a killer: You have to remove 12 screws to be able to get the drive-cage out of the case so that you can access your drives!

The Mentor Plexi is aimed at people who build their whole system once into this case and then leave it unchanged for an extended period of time. Even if you change your hardware once in a while and don't mind fiddling around endlessly with all the Plexi panels, then you won't be disappointed. The prefab blow/suck holes are well placed and provide good airflow for your CPU, hard drives and video card.

I would like to mention that without the generosity of PointerX this review could not have been possible, what's more he decided to donate this case to [M]! So if you win the case in our "Crystal Plexi Case" contest, be sure to send PointerX a small word of thanks!

You can buy this case at Flexcomputers for a reasonable price of approx. €150.

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Join the "Crystal Plexi Case" Contest here and win this see-through extravanganza!