Ultra Wizard ATX Case MS Blue w/ Blue UV Side Panel Author: jonnyGURU Date Posted:09/01/2005 13:53.27 SLRating: Bottom Line: If you're looking for a smart and durable shorter stature case, with a window and only plan on using 1 external 3 1/2" device and no more than three internal 3 1/2" devices then the Ultra Wizard may be the one for you. Article Navigation Introduction Out Of The Box Side Window Inside The Case Conclusions Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 Discuss This Article

Inside The Case

I opened the case and found two Ziploc bags. One with some screws in it and one with a pair of keys for the case's front door. There was also a silica packet inside the case which read, "Throw away. Do not eat." Although I've heard that silica pellets are quite tasty with asparagus, I threw the packet away as instructed.

Once inside the case, I also found the USB header cable and the Firewire header cable. Every Firewire header I've seen has had the same pin-out, but not every USB header. Unlike some cases, both sides of the USB header on the Wizard case are all on one connector instead of splitting the header into two five pin connectors. This means if you have a USB header on your board where the 5V pins are on opposite sides of the header from each other, you can't use the front USB (at least not without modification.) Be careful. I've seen some motherboards that have CAUGHT FIRE when the USB header is hooked up incorrectly, so please refer to your motherboard manual prior to hooking up the front USB port.

Looking around the inside of the case, I noticed a lot of rivets. EVERYTHING is riveted. Virtually NOTHING is removable. This means that you can ship this case without having things fall off unexpectedly, but that also means the case isn't very modular. I took the other side of the case off and found that the tray that the motherboard mounts to is ALSO riveted in place.

There is the typical provision for a fan in the rear of the case, just below the power supply, as well as a provision in the front. The provision in the front brought me some concern. There's no "basket" for the fan to mount to. One must remove the face plate to screw the fan into place. This isn't such a big deal as the face plate pops right off, but the reason Ultra did not use a basket to house the fan in the front is because there simply isn't any room for a basket with the two additional 3.5" bays.

   
On the right, you can see how the front face plate pop off, then you can screw the fan into the inside using screws going in from the outside.

You really start to realize how small this case is, even in depth, when you install the front case fan and then install a hard drive in the lower 3.5" bay. Unfortunately, the hard drive ends up sticking out into the case so far, that you can't get a full size ATX motherboard inside! You either have to pull out the hard drive or use a smaller motherboard if you want to get the board installed, and it's not like you can take the motherboard tray off the other side. Remember? It's riveted on! With some smaller cases this front drive mount cage comes off with a couple screws. Not this one. It's riveted on! Fortunately, there's enough drive bays where I can mount the hard drive anywhere I want without using the bottom two bays.

   
On the left, I've mounted the hard drive in one of the two lower 3.5" bays. Note how far the drive sticks out. This is because of the fan mount in the front of the case.
On the right, you can see how well the hard drive tucks into one of the upper 3.5" bays.

In fact, this thing is SICK with drive bays considering how small the case is. Ultra literally utilized every bit of space in the front of the case as a place to mount a drive. Up front we have 4 5.25" bays. One comes outfitted with a 5.25" to 3.5" adapter. This is meant for a floppy drive. Below these, we have three internal 3.5" bays. As if that weren't enough, you have the two aforementioned bays at the bottom, just in front of the front fan. Because of the plentiful drive bays, I'm not going to grade against the Wizard for having the two "almost-useless" drive bays at the bottom. I was thinking about grading against Ultra for not turning the lower five internal 3.5" bays sideways so drives can slide in and out without motherboard interference, but then I thought about Ultra's own power supplies. They do not have 90 degree connectors and the end pieces of an Ultra X-Connect power supply are so stiff, you can't even bend them 90 degrees to make them work if the drive bays were turned sideways. Hmm..... Too bad. We'll just have to live with it being a little cramped up front. Heck, if you want more space, you really should be getting a bigger case anyway!

Here you can see the top 3 external 5 1/4" bays, the one external 3 1/2" bay, the three internal 3 1/2" bays directly below that
and then two more 3 1/2" bays even farther down in front of the front fan.

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Article Navigation Introduction Out Of The Box Side Window Inside The Case Conclusions

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