On Figure 4 you see the case top panel, where you can find space for installing two 120-mm fans (which don’t come with the product). This same space can be used for installing a radiator from water cooling systems on top of the case and that is why the manufacturer also calls this case “WCR Edition” or “Water Cooler Ready”. You can see that there are two holes for passing the hoses from the water cooling system from inside the case to the external radiator. What is good about these holes is that they use screwed covers. On steel cases that feature this kind of hole (usually on the rear side) you need to break the covers, making your case to have two open holes if you remove your water cooling system.

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Figure 4: Top panel.

On the top panel you can also find a panel containing two USB ports, one Firewire (IEEE1394) port, mic in and headphones jacks. We think that a high-end case like this should offer one eSATA port. Another problem with this panel is that the two USB ports are two close to each other, preventing you from using them at the same time if you have two “fat” devices – USB drives, for example.

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Figure 5: Connectors available on the top panel.

Finally we have the rear panel on Figure 6. On this case the power supply is installed on the bottom part of the case and this case allows the installation of redundant power supplies (more about this in a minute). You can also see that this case comes with a 120-mm fan on its rear side. The two side panels are fastened to the case using a mechanism that requires just one thumbscrew for each side panel. Once the panels are removed the screws are kept attached to the mechanism, so there is no way you could lose them.

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Figure 6: Rear panel.

The power supply compartment is twice as big as the one found on regular cases. This allows the installation of redundant power supplies, which are two power supplies together and thus twice as big as regular units (click here to see a redundant power supply). When the main power supply fails the second one comes immediately into action, preventing your computer from shutting down due to a malfunction on the power supply, and you can replace only the faulty power supply, with your computer still turned on. The case comes with a frame on the external side of this compartment for you to install regular power supplies. If you want to install a redundant unit you will have to remove this frame and buy a frame compatible with your redundant unit from the case manufacturer.

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Figure 7: Frame for installing regular power supplies.

Let’s see how Black Pearl looks like inside.