Introduction

Some of you may have heard of ExoticPc before while some of you may have not. ExoticPc is an up and coming company that is entering the modders market in a big way. They have some of the most common products needed as well as a few exclusive products that you won't find anywhere else. They strive on customer service and really want to earn your business. Peter over at ExoticPc sent me a couple of cases to review. One was the Noblesse, which you are all too familiar with and will become a showcase for their products. We are going to be doing some modding to the Noblesse and adding new stuff to it as time goes on, and all the products will come from ExoticPc. The other case I received was the Freez. This case was designed for the high aesthetics and entry to mid level modder. However, with some modification this can be the ultimate LAN-Box. You are going to see some pics after we did a little modding in this review. So sit back relax and enjoy.

Features

Supports all Flex, Micro, Full ATX motherboards
Intel P4 and AMD XP/MP Compatible
Tool-Less Side Panels with Thumb Screws
EMI Protective Shielding
Vented Side Panels
Drive Bay Cover Design
2 x USB, Headphone/Microphone Ports Standard

8 [w] x 15.5 [h] x 15.5 [d] in
4 x 5.25 External Drive Bays
2 x 3.5 External Drive Bays
2 x 3.5 Internal Drive Bays
7 x Rear Expansion Slots
1 x 80mm + 1 x 40mm Fan Capacity
1 x 80mm Front
1 x 40mm Rear

First Impression

As you can see this case isn’t exactly the biggest case on the market and that’s the good thing for making it a LAN box. It does have plenty of room inside to mount a full atx motherboard or smaller. It has 4 5 ¼ inch bays and 2 3 ½ inch bays which seems pretty standard these days. There seems to be ample room for everything but the power supply. The power supply has a unique mounting system that actually swings out similar to those found in modern day HP Pavilion PC’s. For the average user this is a great feature that allows for a case that’s got the standard set of bays and less height. But for the extreme user this is quite annoying. However this was a key feature in using this case for the LAN Project. Now as you might imagine if you need to do some serious cooling then the power supply will sit right over the fan of most high end CPU Coolers. So therefore in the modders world I thought relocation was optimal. There is a considerable amount of room under the Hard Drive bays to fit a Power Supply so I modded the relocation there. This gave me a nice open area to work with as well as a good quiet airflow in the case.

Construction

This case is made of Kobe steel and plastic in the bezel as you may have guessed. The thing that I liked most about Freez when choosing a LAN-Box idea was first it’s size second its great aesthetic appearance. The all silver look is really cool and should fit well with the chrome/steel look we attempt to do with this case. I loved the fact that it came with a CD ROM cover so you don’t have to paint that expensive burner and drop the warranty in the garbage can. However since it’s a LAN box and I represent the “paint the drive” club here at PimpRig I decided to paint and chrome the drive anyway.

This case has a very sturdy feel to it and is above average in thickness of most designer cases. This will come in handy when adding the carrying handles in the top. Don’t need a weak panel that’s going to allow the handles to pull out. Fan locations on this case are good for the average user with an 80mm fan location in the front and a 40-mm fan location in the rear. The front fan location in my case will become the power supply fan hole for cooling the inside of the power supply since its no longer exposed on the back of the case. I don't own any 40mm fans so that hole will stay blank. There’s room to punch plenty of extra fans in this case but I decided to stick with adding an 80-mm blowhole up top and using the power supply as a pull for fresh air. I was going for silent cooling in this case so a low speed clear fan up top did the trick..