Spire Sonex 6010 Chassis

The main draw of the Spire Sonex 6010 is the attractiveness of the front bezel and the all black chassis.  The Sonex 6010 is targeted at gamers, so they have chosen a color scheme that will appeal to that demographic.  Painting the inside, out and back is important, so I always look for it in new chassis.  The system looks good off, but when you power it on and the blue intake fan and blue accent lights start shining it looks much better.

The Sonex 6010 was built to comply with the Intel V2.03 ATX specification, which is why the internal lay out looks familiar.  The Intel ATX specification places the power supply at the top of the chassis above the CPU, intake at the bottom front and exhaust at the rear next to the CPU and power supply.  This is not a new or revolutionary design, but it is certainly one that has been known to work.  The filters on the front of the case help keep dust out while the exhaust fan and power supply blow out all the hot air that the graphics card and CPU generate.  The front intake and side vent also feed your video card fresh air, so it will run cool.  Keeping the components cool and free from dust, which helps ensure they last longer.

The internal construction of the Sonex 6010 is solid and gives the chassis a very rigid feel.  While the case is lightweight (6.5Kg) it doesn’t feel flimsy or like it is going to fall apart.  Spire has also included a two year warranty, so if there is a problem in the first two years of ownership you’ll be able to get it fixed directly from the manufacturer.  The front bezel doesn’t have any moving parts or doors that could break off, so it is much less likely that something will happen to damage the case.

The Sonex 6010 was built with the gamer in mind, so it supports long graphics card up to 330mm (12.99”).  There is a black plastic bracket on the backside of the 3.5” bay that quickly pops out when you remove the two thumbscrews.  Once the plastic bracket is removed the Sonex 6010 can accommodate graphics cards up to 330mm (12.99”).  I would recommend using graphics cards with the power connectors at the rear to ensure there is enough room.  The only down side of removing the bracket is that you will lose two 3.5” bays, but realistically the remaining four bays will be enough for most users.   In the image below you can see the removable portion behind the red SATA cables.

The Sonex 6010 keeps the cable management fairly simple.  There are several places to zip tie and secure cables on the front and backside of the motherboard tray.  There is also a pass through at the top of the case, so you can route cable bundles through the back.   If you are going to try and keep cable clutter to a minimum I recommend using a modular power supply.  A modular power supply will allow you to only connect cables you need which will prevent cables from dangling into the CPU fan or blocking airflow thought the chassis.

There are two holes at the rear of the chassis to allow easy installation of an external water-cooled system.  Spire has included the rubber grommets to help stop the chassis from cutting and rubbing against the hoses.  I usually prefer the holes to be near the CPU since that helps keep the total hose length down but if you were going to water cool the CPU and VGA the hose length would remain the same.   If you were planning on water-cooling this case you could easily Dremel out the diamond vents to add additional ports.