Sansun Galaxy Case Review :: Galaxy Exterior

After opening the box and (disappointingly) finding a lack of Taiwanese newspapers padding the case, the Galaxy was out in full force. Sitting against the white shooting background, only the triple 120mm rings on the front panel, sprayed in silver, brought light to this absolutely black, matte finished case.

Starting on the front panel, ringed mesh fills in the gap between each rounded bar, concealing a wide open hexagonal grid in the molded plastic below. Set at equal distances to each other and the edges of the panel, three 120mm rings with black 80mm centers accent this panel. For the top and bottom ring, this accent is mesh, and helps to filter the airflow coming in through the Sansun branded 80mm blue LED fan. For the middle ring, it has a smaller, 40mm clearing in the middle of its black ring, through which a blue backlit LCD display displays a temperature and RPM level, both corresponding to a probe/header combination for the case's fans. On the top of this ring is the case's power button, who pushes down with a satisfying and resounding click. Down the sides of this ring are a set of vents which are backlit by four (possibly replaceable) blue LEDs.

Cracking the front door open, the 8 5 1/2' and 1 3 1/4" bay are visible, each with a matching set of holes to allow airflow in from outside of the case. Down the left side of this panel, the reset button is rather well hidden near the hinge, and wiring input from the fan controller to the case. One thing that's not visible on this case's face are holes for clips to go into, meaning that once again, Sansun has used the more elegant (though sometimes more annoying) magnet method to hold the door shut. Moving to the side of the front bezel, two USB, the audio, and a fire wire port can be seen. Pulling the front panel free of the chassis, a series of solid blanking plates blocks the way for air up top, while a mesh'd fan mount for a 120mm fan resides below. Each of these blanking plates (apart from the demonic floppy one) can be screwed back in, meaning that the fan mount can be re-installed if need be. The only problem there is to the front bezel comes with the fact that this is a pre-production case. It took me a fair while to work out how the fan controller worked - essentially, the cable with black, yellow and red on it is to feed it with power, the 3-pin header with very few wires is for the controller lighting, and the 3-pin header with many wires is for the fans. As to the controller itself, it operates the fans at levels of 1-5, representing 20% on, and 100% on. Essentially, it uses a mock-pwm setup, that is a little too harsh, and results in odd things like LED fans flashing. Overall, it does the job, though.

Setting the Bezel aside, there was the matter of sliding along the panels of the case to contend with. Thanks to either a feature, or an oversight on the part of Sansun, this case features a grand two panels - a fused left-top panel, and a right side panel featuring the massive 250mm fan attached to it. Dotting the combined panel in a tidy line are a set of plastic "screw ducts" which guide the left side screws for the optical drives down into their places. Users should know which screws to use for this, as there are but eight black screws in the package, and there are eight bays, so logic would associate them together. Moving across the joint of these panels, to the right side, its matte finish is essentially kept flush via the mesh grille, which is attached to a stamped metal ring inside the case. This mesh, whose circular holes bequeath its lineage being in line with the forward panel's mesh, holds the case's side fan. The fan, which is set to blow outward, is affixed to the mesh via four plastic "rivets" - similar to what Lian Li uses to hold your fans in place. These rivets promise vibration damping, which shouldn't be much of an issue considering the low RPM of the fan. Now, as I'm panning across the edge of this panel, I've noticed a trio of interesting things. The first two are the plastic "Click Locks" which seal the side panel when slid apart from each other, securing into metal grooves in the case. The third is the pre-installed lock holder, which will allow you to drop a hearty padlock onto this side panel, to keep pesky LAN party thieves (or room-mates for that matter) out of your case.

Finally, there is the rear, and combination side of the case to talk about. The rear of the case is essentially a mirror image of what you'd see in a typical ATX case - everything, power supply inclusive has been flipped over, with the interest of providing the processor with a cool slipstream of air, which moves from the front 80 (or 120mm) fan, over the heatsink, then out through the included low RPM rear 120mm fan. Further up the panel, the two round headed screws which hold the tool free PCI interface into place can be seen. Now, rimming this panel is a wide collection of rivets - similar to the one below the front panel. In order to remove the combined panel, all rivets on the front and rear pertaining to this panel must be removed, as well as one just below the tool free PCI area, and two holding the top of the drive cage to the roof panel. Then, as the top of the drive cage is pulled back, this roof panel will slowly lower backward, at which point it can be pulled off. It should be noted that the only real reason to do this is to either remove the external 3 1/2" support if watercooling is to be installed, to add noise damping materials behind the optical cages on this side, or to modify the top of the casing with 120mm fans as so to help the side panel fan extract searing hot air from the case. Apart from this, users are probably best off to save time, hair, and bits of soon to be mauled flesh, and leave the chassis as is - after all, there's plenty of room in the drive cages to hide wiring. With these panels peeled away, I'd wager its good and time to get inside this case to see what makes her tick.

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