Supplied by Koolcases

The mid tower Koolcases Silver Fusion PC case stands out from the pack. The Silver Fusion boasts drive rails, screwless PCI slot mounts, front intake grills with foam mesh and solid construction.

Koolcases.com stocks over 35 PC cases. PC Cases are shipped double boxed to ensure the case arrives at its destination undamaged. Koolcases also carries a light selection of fans, grills, LED accessories, rheobus units, power supplies and optical drives.

The Silver Fusion comes in to color styles; a mud-red (orange) and silver.

Specifications

• M/B Form Factor: ATX
• CPU Type: Intel PIII/P4, AMD Athlon XP
• Dimension (DxWxH) 465mmx 198mmx 425mm 18.2″x 7.8″x 16.7″
• Drive Bays:
  • Exposed 4 x 5.25″
  • Exposed 1 x 3.5″
  • Internal, 2 x 3.5″
• Cooling fan (Option) Front, 1×80mm or 92mm Rear, 1×80mm, 92mm, or 120mm
• 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x Audio, 1 x IEEE1394
• Security Lock : Keylock, intrusion switch and kensington lock supported
• Pass Intel 3.06GHz CPU thermal test Slot bracket with venting holes
• Easy air intake by metal mesh design
• Excellent EMI Solution
• Installation and Maintenance Time Saving Rear fan holder for easy installation
• Easy bezel removal design
• Detachable internal drive cage
• screwless slide rails for 5.25″ and 3.5″ devices
• Safe Assembly Folded edge for each part

The Silver Fusion is steel construction therefore weighs in at a notable weight increase over its aluminum counterparts. This steel construction makes it a very durable PC case. Four external 5.25″ drive bays are available.

The power switch, power LED and IDE activity LED area is missing one feature that is the one of only three flaws with the the Silver Fusion. Missing is the reset switch which is a major flaw at that.

The front ports are hidden by an door which was easy to flip up. This is noted only because other PC cases have doors that can be quite “sticky”.

The door flips up to reveal front USB and two 1/8″ jacks (Headphone/MIC). Space is available for a 1394 connection which was disappointing that it wasn’t included.

The rear of the case has three very notable features. The first is highly visible due to the extremely large rear exhaust fan grill. This grill area accommodates 80mm. - 120mm. fans and is less obstructive than the traditional grill area that is made up of a series of round holes.

The other notable feature is a key lock and side panel locking mechanism. The keylock is at the top right next to the power supply exhaust and the green tab on the right side midway down the rear exhaust slides up to unlock and down to lock the side panel into place. No screws are required to lock the side panel into place.

The second flaw is that the other side panel and top are one piece held in by rivets. This is a flaw in our eyes due to the fact we like to hide loose wires behind the motherboard tray and the permanent construction prevents this. If you do not do this then it’s of no consequence.

The feet are solid plastic but of a good depth.

The Silver Fusion comes with the side panel pre-modded. The black in the center of the larger window is printed on the acrylic panel which is glued on as one piece.

The side panel removes easily.

Six big features are visible; rear fan area that accommodates up to 120mm. fans, front intake area that accommodates up to 92mm. fans, screwless PCI mounts, drive rails, slots for long PCI cards and screwless bezel removal.

The Silver Fusion comes with an 80mm. fan pre-mounted.

92mm. fans will not mount as easily. The space is actually designed for either an 80mm. fan or 120mm. fan. A bolt, nut and washer would have to be used to mount a 92mm. fan. The 120mm. fans fit into a supplied clip which then clips to the case. 120mm. fan installation is totally screwless but be careful of the height of the 120mm. fan and that it doesn’t interfere with a heatsink.

The PCI slots are screwless as well. A sliding post and clip design locks any PCI card into place. (Shown in locked position.)

The Silver Fusion also comes with 4 sets of drive rails for 5.25″ devices and 1 set of drive rails for the floppy drive.

These are held in place for safe keeping by a flip up clip arm.

Each drive rail is differentiated by a label but it only matters that the floppy drive rails can be separated from the rest. The other way to tell is by the screw posts on the other side of the drive rails. There are only two rails that have the posts closer together compared to the rest. These two are the floppy drive rails.

The front intake area is spacious enough to accommodate either an 80mm. or 92mm. fan. Visible is the PCI card holder and the rear of the front USB/audio ports. The wires are easily detachable. On the right side is a flip out lever.

A second flip out lever is at the top of the PC case.

These two levers make removing the front bezel incredibly easy. The bezel just opens up like a door with the opposite edge just a series of hook mounts. The bezel also completely removes; no wires attached.

Air intake is at a minimum.

Inside the bezel are four mesh covered intake ports. A lot of cases draw air from the bottom lip of the bezel but the Silver Fusion excels both by size and filters.

Note the center gray square. There is a removable plate at the top area of that center gray square. This triangular panel may be removed and the potential modder may be able to install their own custom case badge providing they are handy with an LED and a Dremel An acrylic sheet of plastic could be cut to fit this area.

The four mesh grills provide for good front cooling intake and dust filtering. Just remember to pull the bezel and clean the grills every so often. The grill mesh is backlit in the following image to be visible for illustrative purposes. Normally they are black.

Installation

Installation was a snap and with one hard drive only two screws were needed in addition to the motherboard screws. The Silver Fusion case comes with the standard parts bag of brass screw-in standoffs and clip motherboard mounts. The clip mounts were used for the test ASUS A7N8X motherboard.

The bottom 3.5″ bays can accommodate 1 floppy and 2 hard drives. There appears to be slide mounts for an additional drive cage in front of the front intake area but the review sample did not come with this option.

The power 300 watt supply may be optional as well.

Assembly was easy due to the majority of the installation being screwless. Drives slid in easily. There is a surprising amount of working space in the Silver Fusion. Take our advice and read Tech tips: Cable & Wire Organization to get hints and tips on how to manage those loose wires.

The other piece of advice is to get black face optical and floppy drives from Koolcases.com. Beige just wouldn’t cut it.

A modder may attempt to Dremel off parts of the front cover in order to attach it to the drive drawer.

Read Tech Tips: Stealth your CD…blend yer floppy for hints on this.

Pick up a CCFL for this case. Pick your color as no neon in this case just won’t do.

Conclusion

The Koolcases Silver Fusion is a hit with us. We preferred the silver bezel over the orange but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Silver Fusion has a large amount of features for a mid-tower case. Hits include obstruction free front intake fan area that accommodates 80mm. and 92mm. fans and an obstruction free rear fan exhaust area that accommodates 80mm. to 120mm. fans. The included 120mm. fan clip makes for easy mounting and a 120mm. fan will provide wicked exhaust flow. Drive rails and storage clip for drive rails and screwless PCI slot clips are other hits. The side window is stylistic and an attractive change from the standard rectangular or square windows. Again beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If these features look familiar it’s because this case is of Chenming origin; the same people who brought the very popular SX1000 series to market.

Misses include the missing extra drive cage and lack of a reset switch. There is no PC speaker but most motherboards are now coming with their own post beep speakers. Another drawback for some will be the inability to remove the motherboard tray side panel.

Our thanks to Koolcases.com for their continued support. Check out Koolcases.com for their selection of PC cases and the ocaissional PC case that is EXTREMELY well priced. It’s a site to bookmark and keep an eye on.

Scores Breakdown

Attribute	Score	Comments
Bonus items & software	8.5	No inclusion of the extra drive cage detracts from the overall score.
Design & layout	9	Well done.
Features & options	9	loads of features.
Modding possibilities	8	It could be modded some more but side panel modification may be limited.
Overclocking features	9.5	Great stock cooling possibilities.
Presentation	8.5	I liked the overall looks.
Price / value	9	60 bucks is a decent price especially if the PSU is to be included.
Total score	61.5/70	87.9%