The XCube is blessed with an
excellent internal layout of both the chassis, and motherboard components. Even
with the PC fully installed (including a PCI Express videocard) there was a lot
of space to move around. Very impressive, especially when compared to some of
the other SFF PCs we've tested!
For instance, how many of you
can install memory or a hard drive into your current SFF PC without first
disassembling most of the computer? Well you can install those same components
into the AOpen EX915 XCube by just removing the cover... and that is it! The
aluminum chassis is even nicely anodized, a further sign of quality everyone
looking at aluminum cases should be on the watch for.
I'm a big fan of AOpen cases,
and use them all the time when building machines for friends. I'm happy to say
that the the AOpen EX915 XCube case lives up to their great standards. As one
example, almost all the metal edges are rounded over so you won't cut yourself
when working inside the chassis... although they did miss a few spots so you
should still use a bit of caution. Also, the inside cables are kept neat and
organized with a mix of wire mesh sleeving, heat-shrink tubing, and zip-ties
which keep the large system cables out of the way. These little touches really
do make working in the PC a pleasure.
The good things don't end
there. AOpen also splices the IDE and floppy drive cables to make them fit into
the small case easier, and the Serial ATA connector is turned perpendicular to
the cable!
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