A Closer look:

Branding

Great styling

Optical door open

The side of the case, opposite the motherboard, opens up with a small door latch that lets the door open slightly then come off completely. The door is lockable with a key. Everyone and their dog probably has the same key for the hundreds of other things they are used for, so it’s not perfectly secure, but it would stop small kids and snoops. On the panel you can replace the grill with a supplied plastic window. For my personal preference, I chose to keep the grill on. I think it looks much better than a window, and also helps with cooling.

Side door

Replacement window

Drive door lock

The other side panel only has 3 thumb screws and then slides off like most cases. There is no removable motherboard tray, which I’m a little disappointed in but seems to be standard fare today in most cases. There is however enough room to work with inside, but after reviewing the Spire Pininfarina, I’m kind of spoiled.

Open

Box of supplies

Rails, screws etc etc

The front bezel is aluminum overtop of plastic, the optical door cover also locks with the same key as the side panel. It stays shut without the lock because of a small magnet, it could be stronger, but it will hold as long as you aren’t knocking the case around.

Door lock

Empty

opened up

To install optical drives, and to get at the front 120mm fan, you have to unlatch the front cover. Getting to the latches requires taking off both side panels, then pushing 6 of them in before the cover comes off. I’m never fond of the metal pop-outs that Gigabyte also uses in this case, they have a habit of leaving nice sharp edges. At least it's not a place you should be handling too often.

Optical latches

Locked

Installed

After removing the pop-outs, and the plastic covers on the front bezel, the Aurora has a really nice system for securing an optical drive. Just slide the drive, in, then close the plastic slider on the one side, and it locks in place. You don’t need to remove the other side panel, as there is just a metal spring that puts tension on that side to prevent it from moving around. This method is far and above the best way to install optical drives. Also rather than using screws or removable plastic latches, the locking sliders on the Aurora never come off, so you don’t have to worry about losing them!

Hard drive rails

Plastic w/metal pins

Installed

To install hard drives, there are 5 side loading slots that use a rail loading setup. In another comparison with the Spire case, if you lose the rails, you can’t use standard screws to secure them in the side loading section (one rail was missing a metal peg). I look a the Lian-li PC-V1000 as the best system for installing hard drives, as it can use other screws in a pinch. There is excellent airflow for the hard drives, with a 120mm fan directly beside them, and large holes beside the rails.

Unlocked

Locked

Rear view

To install expansion cards, pull back on a small lever that opens up all the slots (where you normally have the screw them down). Push in a PCI card and just close the lever, and you are done. It is setup so that even double slot coolers on video cards are held down securely.

Back PSU

Rear grills

White fans

On the back of the case, there are 2 120mm fans (very quite ones at that) for some excellent cooling. And then there are two holes near the bottom by the PCI cards. The holes have a rubber washer with triangular slots in them. These are for external parts of a water cooling setup (the radiator usually). And the holes would also work for 3^rd party watercooling kits.

Final thoughts:

Feet!

Stylin'

Side grill

Even though, like I said, there are cases that are easier to work with (at least the motherboard anyway), the 3d Aurora does everything else great. Side loading hard drive case, optical drive latches that don’t get lost, quiet cooling that works. Quality workmanship, nice and sturdy, and the general opinion that it has excellent looks and lots of room for my stuff. It is definitely a high end case, and great for anyone who wants a lightweight aluminum case for Lan parties.

eek, blind-ed-ed!!

Ah, much nicer

Super quiet!

My current system is quiet enough, and cool enough that I don’t need it, but this case is ideal for a water-cooling setup. On top of that, it is specifically designed to make room for an Nvidia 8800, something a lot of cases have a problem handling.

Another nice touch is the customizable light beam projector that displays just under the front of the case. It looks best on a desktop or hardwood floors. Overall I can certainly recommend such a sharp looking and well thought out chassis. Kudos to Gigabyte.

If you'd like to pick up this great chassis online, you can do so here. Check out Gigabyte for tons of other great products.

Update 3-19-2007:

Ok, sometimes you just miss something. This is one of those times for me. While I was reviewing the 3d Aurora, I completely forgot to mention what some consider the main feature of the case. This isn’t something I did on purpose, but it is entirely my fault. The reason you can’t see it in any of the pictures I used before, is because one of the wires in the Molex connectors had come loose. A simple fix, but I just forgot about it.

Default 'Light beam'

[VH]'ified

the inserts

The “Patent Pending Customized Light Beam Projector” is heavily featured by Gigabyte. Though I think there is still some confusion about what exactly it is, and how it works.

It is fancy looking!

Brighter is better?

the Blank

When you break it down, the Projector is a piece of plastic that the light from an LED shines through. There isn’t anything computer controlled going on here (more than a few people have asked what software you needed, and if it was USB or Serial controlled).

What happened here?

looks like burn marks

Some distortion

I don’t know what caused it, but the plastic insert that comes installed default in the Aurora had some damage. It looks like it was either melted or burned at some point. It does blur out the last letter in “3D Aurora” a bit. The pattern is not removable, but that is why they provide a 2^nd blank insert so you can change it to whatever you want.

Not the normal way

But it works

To change the pattern, you can do a few different things. The recommended method is to get some plastic transparency sheets and us a laser printer. I didn’t have any of the sheets on hand, so I simply cut out a design in a piece of paper. I also got a suggestion that you could modify it with a white LED, and draw on the plastic Insert with markers to add colour to the projections. Whatever you want to do, it’s up to you.

Once again I would like to apologize for forgetting about the projector in the original review. I know a lot of people really like this feature, but in my own opinion, I don't think it's what makes this case as good as it is.