Originally Posted by
CyberDruid
About the scratches. The mesh insert in the front is welded into place by a total madman using way too much stick and too much heat. It warps the front panel. David (the go to guy at PCD) said he works over the front panel with a deadblow hammer and then the guys hit it all over with that goddam 36 grit angle grinder. Why? Hell if I know. There's no reason at all for there to be any grinding on the case except perhaps on the warped edges and that would be better addressed with an airfile. I don't buy the "hasn't made it to the paint and polish side yet" argument...it's just poor process control with guys doing stuff that actually detracts from the product. The amount of work those scratches create for any painter, factory or aftermarket, is obscene.
The front mesh could be welded with the tiniest of wire-feed welding...a few tacks is all it gets anyway...that would keep the front panel from freaking out and then save everyone the hassle of dealing with the mess the production line makes of it trying to hide that one problem spot.
Another thing I really could not quite understand about the layout is the huge amount of wasted space in the lower front of the case. That's where I would think a dual HDD rack would mount. But it's exactly too small to slip one in there...a dimension. Nor can it accomodate 120mm fans...it seems like a front mounted radiator would be the ticket. Or in lieu of that at least the option to mount a couple of drives on the floor of the case. I would think a slight increase in the overall dimensions is required.
The Side mounted HDD caddies are nifty but if you want to mount a fan or a rad you can't use them...again a little weird.
Another thing I would hope to see PCD add is a radiator mount. It makes no sense to mount the rad to the removable cover...that would make plumbing a nightmare. It didn't take much for me to fab up a rad mount for the chassis...but honestly why isn't it already there? The previous version did have a mount...but I don't think it worked all that well.
For about $300 shipped a case should not have so many problematic features. But I was always interested in the little "hutch" so I went for it. It's far from a perfect solution though.
