Feral has a new, epic review of the X-Super Alien Case.

Check it out here.

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good review!

the case is good.

Some welcome additions to the chemming design...I like the idea of a removable front grill, some filtering now perhaps?

That UV ATX plug is just sick, I want one!!...And those Light Purple mofo'n fan brackets are a different color...yea!!!!

Feral, good review, very complete, you'll love the new case!!
psssst. wanna get me a neon ATX plug from aspire?

Nice review Feral.
I especially like the slide-out HDD trays and the included drive rails attached to the drive bay covers... nice touch.

Great review. Love how you snuck in Strongbad

Im diggin that case. I like it.

Good review bro.

If I could only get one without the PSU. And then paint it some diff colors.

Thanks again for your imput guys. I have to say this was by far the time consuming review I have done (not really saying a lot as I have only done three thus far.).

I kinda agree with you on the filter there Zen, sounds like a mod idea to me. Just have to file down a side or two of those aluminum mesh filters and cut out the sides where the clips are where you attach the fan to the case.

godfoot, the slide out rails just rock! Never again having to take off both side panels to take a drive out something to look forward to.

Using Feral's review as one of the few datapoints I had on this case, I decided to purchase it. Now I'm in hookup hell. The instructions are pathetic and they connections for the front firewire and two USB ports do not have as many connections as I would expect.

I have the Asus 865PE motherboard. There are two (?) more pins available for each of the respective USB ports and firewire onboard connections. Uh, is this OK?

I have no earthly idea how to hookup the fans, nor tell which cables are going to which knob.

And, (this is a naive question), for the HDD led, sound, etc. wires, are the black wires ground (I would think so...)? For the ATX switch, the wire is a twisted green-white cable. Which is ground?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

/ds

Fans:

The two front fans were already connected to one of the controllers via pass through connectores. The last fan in that chain (of the two front intakess) then had its passthrough connectore pulled through a hole in the metal casing to the inside of the case. Just connect the side fan to that one and you are good to go. It's a little confusing and I had to actually take the whole front of the case off and putt the front fan cables out to actually see what the hell was going on.


LED and switches etc...

Usually the positive lead is the one that has a little triangle on one side of the connector for your jumper/header connectors.
Don't worry about the LED's if you have them backwards, they just wont light up. Just turn the connector around. I'm not sure if it really matters for the pwr and reset switch mater (not sure if if they are sensitive to polarity).

I'll have to look into your USB/Fire Wire problem later as I am at work

Dont do what this guy did with his, see link

http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread....&threadid=9586

Here is a link from Aspire USA's web site for the connectors... At the bottom is some links for the USB and Firewire connection

http://www.aspireusa.net/frame.htm

Quote: Originally posted by FeRaL Just connect the side fan to that one and you are good to go.

Do you mean "connect it to the side, the side to the back, and the back to the top?" Reading the Aspire site (thanks for the link) seems to suggest that. When I read their configuration, I understand it that one controller controls the front two fans and the other controls the other four fans. Is that how you mean?

Quote: Originally posted by FeRaL I'll have to look into your USB/Fire Wire problem later as I am at work

Looking forward to it.

Quote: Originally posted by FeRaL Dont do what this guy did with his, see link

I don't have the same connection configuration as he posted. I have two 12V Inputs (male) that I connect to the power supply. Only one Output (MAX 4) sticks out into the chassis. I'm inferring that this goes to the side fan, side fan to back, back to top. The other Output (MAX 4) is connected to the front two fans.

/ds

You should have your two front and your side fans connected together as intakes. The top fan might be set up as an intake by default (mine was, I assumed this was a factory screw up, but after seeing a few posts I think they are sending them all like this...) and you should pop out the fan and flip it over so that is exhausts out of the top. Chain the two rear exhaust fans and the top fan together and connect them to the right rheostats output.

The side fan should be connected to the two front intakes. Once you take the front grill off that hides the front fans and undo all the wiring, you will see that they are connected to the left rheostat with a pass through connector gong from the last fan in the chain. You can then feed that connector out the back of the front of the case through a hole. Just plug your side fan into that and you are good to go.

That should do it for you. If you read the links at the botton of the Aspire site, they show that you don't use all the jumper pins for the USB or Firewire.

Excellent. I got it working in their default config (as described on their site). I'm probably going to end up switching it around (cabling is a mess right now). At that time I'll go to your suggestion. Makes sense.

The only two problems I have right now are a) managing the side fan wires while trying to get the side back on; and b) my LCD for the temps isn't working.

/ds

I take a pic and post it on how I have my side panel fan wires set up.

Well, I have disassembled the front of the case. The power leads to the LCD circuit board are loose. If I apply a good bit of pressure, the LCD's light up. There is this yellow-green goo over the leads apparently holding it in place. Never seen that before.

I guess my options is to either figure out how to remove and reapply some of that goo, or send it back. What really sucks is that I mail ordered it.

/ds

Me again. My top fan is fastened with four plastic rivets (for lack of a better term). It looks like I can squeese them from the inside and pop them out with a pair of pliers. How did you flip your top fan?

/ds

Don't know if you already figured it out or not and I'm a little late with this reply as I don't realy check it since it's been a while since the review. On the pins, if you get a screw driver (small one) and apply pressure to the center of the bottom of the pin the top will pop up a bit. Once that is done apply pressure to the rest of the botton with the screwdriver and the whole pin will pop out.