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In general, current day full tower cases share the same qualities, and the HQ08 is no exception. We found this baby after some readers sent us email asking us whether this bad boy would be a good alternative to the hot roddin' Antec SX830 (by far my favourite full tower to date). The HQ08 is a fairly appealing case, and at first glance you can see that the case packs a solid offering. We're showing the HQ08 with aquamarine trim, but the case also comes in grey, blue, and green, just in case (pun totally unintended) you're fashion conscious.
Right away I can tell you the HQ08 has all the standard features that earmark a quality case: rolled smooth edges, LOTs of drive bays (internal and external), a removable motherboard tray, two removable 3.5" trays, and a large, open interior. The quality of this case (constructed of 1mm thick sheet metal) is beyond question, but it isn't as suave as the sweet-ass Antec SX830.
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| Front & Rear Views of the AOpen HQ08 |
Specs:
For starters, the case is not as easy to get into. To get at the guts of the system, you have to remove no fewer than 5 screws because you have to remove the top cover before you can get at the side panel. That's an automatic strike right there for me the top cover design is a SUPERB idea, but forcing me to remove both top and side panels makes even a simple chore a lot more tedious. Plus, because there is no nifty latching system (a la Antec), you are going to have to screw in at least a few screws to secure the tower. So every time you want to get into the case you have to mess with some tools.
The removable motherboard tray is also hampered by poorly thought out design: you have to remove 6 screws to get it out! The best motherboard tray designs usually depend on a self locking mechanism to keep the tray in place - you know those trays that require you to LIFT and pull to unlock and track the mother out. These trays are usually further secured either by a single screw, or by piggy backing off a screw that already holds a side panel in place. In the case of the HQ08, the tray does NOT have any sort of self locking position, it just slides in and out if no screws are used, so you are going to have to secure it with screws to play it safe.
Thankfully these negatives are not that serious, thanks to the all important thumbscrews that have become my number one "Must Have" case add-on. The top cover, once you get past its irksome screws, really is a great idea too. Once you pop that sucker off, you have easiest access to the rear of the drive bay area that you are likely ever going to find. This means you can actually look down into the connections of all your CD-ROMs, hard drives, and misc. drive devices, rather than having to strain your neck around the side of the case. Way cool.
The case doesn't come with any extra fans beyond the high efficiency fan in the 300W power supply, though it does have an additional 80mm fan cage mounted on the lower front. You can just make out additional fan grilles at the back of the case, above the power supply obviously these were put there so you could pop two 80mm fans into place and kick in some added cooling. You probably also noticed the interesting placement of an additional 3.5" drive cage right about there too. That makes two 3.5" fan cages for a total of 7 internal 3.5" drive bays. A single external 3.5" bay sits at the very top of the case. That's not too great for some people because they might have a memory card reader, PCMCIA card reader, or some other non-standard external 3.5" device in addition to the floppy disk drive. Meanwhile, there are no fewer than five external 5.25" drive bays ranged just below the 3.5" external bay.
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I am familiar with the KS188, but I haven't had the chance to play with it, so I was totally ignorant of the fact that the KS188 and HQ08 are the one and the same. Shucks.
Oh, and to clarify, all the AOpen H_08 series are the same except for the face plate... so yes the HX08 is the same as the HQ08 except for the front face plate.
From Chip Dodge:
I think I mentioned that with thumbscrews it gets better, but I just thought I would point out that first time case buyers may not have their own thumbscrews yet. An interesting idea was proposed by John Scripter:
He had other suggestions too on modifying the case, including boring a hold to the rear side of the ATX I/O panel where he installed a 40mm fan.
SX-830 vs HQ08 (drive bays)
Another common comment is on the drive bays... the total of 7 3.5" internal drive bays seems to be a godsend for some people.
JR writes:
Chip Dodger also felt it unfair to even compare the two cases because of the difference in number of drive bays... it definitely pays to have more bays, when you need em!
Thanks to everyone for their input, comments, corrections, etc. I really appreciate all your help and feedback.
The hole-entrance from the lower to the upper bay could have been bigger made, but with the mod-cables bundled as roundwinded this loosens up a bit, also to the airflow.
The transformators fan was very noisy, so i exchanged it with another one.
The last thing as a matter of taste and optimation.. I cut out the ventilationholes on the front to one big hole fitting for a 80mm fan.