Our head of reviews, AntiM, said something to the effect; "Sharka has offered a budget case that looks pretty decent." I've reviewed tons of cases (probably literally) over the years and when I hear the term "budget case" I know what to expect. Budget cases are made out of tin, offer convection heating instead of cooling, are too small for normal enthusiast gear, are ugly, and offer little to zero modding potential. However, I had nothing on my plate and the other reviewers were pretty busy so I told him what the hell, I'd do it. I was thinking this would be a use, review, and dispose case, not unlike a Bic lighter. Now that I have had my hands on the M775 all I can say is that I am damn glad that my plate was empty.

The M775 arrived in a box (which always scores points with me). Said box has some low-key graphics on the outside and a bullet list of the features. Now, I have talked about this before, but if you are an Asian company looking to break in to the American (Ed: Or British...this vexes me as well!) market please hire a real interpreter. Don't trust the marketing director's brother-in-law who spent 2 weeks in Orlando to translate the text that will represent your company, spend the couple of hundred dollars for someone who can do it correctly. I know it is trivial and has no effect on the product itself, but this has become a pet-peeve of mine. To me it reflects the seriousness and commitment that the company has made to it's target market. If I wanted to sell something in Taiwan I would make damn sure that I had a certified Taiwanese interpreter to put the correct text on the product. High-Five to those that correctly identify all the grammar and spelling errors in that short list of bullet comments.

The case was protected by the usual Styrofoam caps and wrapped in a plastic bag to keep it smelling fresh. The bag-o-parts includes the screws, feet, and something you don't see too often anymore, a speaker. There are no instructions but on a straightforward case like this, instructions aren't necessary.

The case measures 18.1 x 9.1 x 20.2 in (HWD) so it is pretty good sized for a budget case. The exterior is made out of .7mm SECC and should stand up to your chubby friend who is too lazy to find a chair and sets his fat ass on top of it. The front is covered by these little plastic pyramids but the effect is actually pretty cool; it looks a little industrial. Up top there is room for four 5.25" devices but the top two are set up for a DVD and CD. They are even labeled for you in case you forget. These two top drive bays have spring-loaded covers designed to cover the front of your optical drive and flip down when you push the hit the eject button. I have had some incompatibilities in the past with this design but the top one worked just fine with my Lite-On DVD burner.

In the middle of the case are two 3.5" inch bays and one of those are filled with your front port adapters behind a spring loaded cover. I like the location of the adapters because it is in the center of the case. When they are on the bottom you always have to reach for them, and when they are on top they always seem to interfere with the usual crap that gets stacked on top of a case. The USB, Audio, and Mic ports are available out of the box but if you want IEEE-1394 you have to provide your own cable. Not an issue in my book considering how often I use Firewire.

On bottom are two Blue lights to indicate power and HDD activity, a power button, and a small reset button located well away from the power button. I know the pic doesn't show it but the power and reset button have a brushed aluminum look.

The finish on the case is a typical Black matte but seems to be pretty thick and should resist scratches. The right door (or left depending on how you look at it) actually has two fan options. Towards the top of the door is a filtered 80mm mount with a duct on the backside that is supposed to direct air to the CPU, and below that is a grill that can accommodate a 92mm or 120mm fan for case and graphics card cooling. Because this is a budget case, I was really wondering whether or not there would be room to actually use these for cooling. The left side has no exterior features to speak of.

Pulling the front off exposes a couple of very cool features. The first thing that jumps out at you is the intake grill. This allows you to install an 80, 92, or 120mm intake fan that will blow directly across your hard drives. The grill is pretty restrictive though, an I would recommend a good dose of Dremel to open it up a little. The second thing I noticed is that the door uses real hinges. Yep, real steel hinges instead of little pegs or plastic hinges that inevitably break. I don't know if everybody is as hard on the front panel as I am, but I am constantly pulling it off to screw with stuff. Real hinges... I'm impressed.