CMI BMW Style Mid-Tower ATX Case Review Author: Alan Wong Date Posted: January 21, 2004 SLRating: Bottom Line: If you need a new a quiet case with good air ventilation and circulation, you could do a lot worse than the CMI BMW Style Mid-Tower ATX Case. The case comes with some bundled extras and is a solid buy for budget users. To find out more read on ........ Article Navigation Introduction Exterior Interior Extras Conclusions >> Discuss This Article

Exterior

Just because the case does not have a window for modding doesn’t mean that the case is going to be some plain ugly looking case. On the contrary, the case is quite attractive. The case is painted silver on the exterior with a small black bezel on the front of the case. The drive bay covers are silver, which really wasn’t a turn on for me since for the users who use white optical drives might not like it due to the color mismatch. However, for users with black optical drives, it does look very sweet in this case.

The front also has vent to allow air into the case and with the aid of the case fans, help to circulate air to cool down the heat built up by your system. The vent also has a dust filter, which helps in keeping dust from getting in (at least from the front side). Most cases usually have their front bezel of their case covering, rendering the front fans of the case practically useless, since there is no cool air to blow into the case. Above the vent is a power button, a HDD activity LED, and a reset button.

Below the vent are the external USB ports and microphone and headphone out.

On the back, there are your 7 standard expansion slots. On top of that, there are two 80mm exhaust fan outlets, which was a real plus since this will give users the ability to exhaust more hot air out of the case faster than opposed to having only 1 exhaust fan. Being an owner of a case with only 1 rear exhaust fan outlet, I know that having 2 exhaust fans can lead to about 5 degrees Celsius less ambient temperature. However, the fan outlet design kind of constricts air flow but nonetheless is made up by the fact that there are 2 outlets, so this shouldn’t be a problem. There’s also that I/O shield plate that you put your motherboard I/O ports through (such as your mouse port, keyboard port, USB ports, etc).

The case also uses thumbscrews, so all that is required to open the case is your fingers. Sweet.

The side panel houses two 80mm fans as well. These fans exhaust air into air and help in cooling down the system.

Well that’s it for the exterior of the case.

Interior

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Article Navigation Introduction Exterior Interior Extras Conclusion

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