X-Telstar

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You get the case in a stock photo covered box with a random white-shirted guy enjoying using is generic PC in the top corner. Annoyingly, Apevia have done the ultimate thrift design, where you have a picture of the G Junior case on one side, then the S Junior case on the other. The way to find out which case you’ll actually find in the box, you have to look at the sides, which have the 5 different colours of case with a circle next to it which is filled with a black sticker if that model is in the box. This means that Apevia can have one box for 10 different cases; could be annoying if you pick the wrong one off the shelf relying on the front picture for what’s inside.

The difference between the two isn’t great, as the G type has the windowed side with a 120mm fan, while the S type has a larger 250mm fan with no window. Each version is available in 5 separate colours, which refers to what colour the aluminium front is anodized. You can get it in silver, black, blue, green or red.

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Provided with the case, you’ll find a full colour A5 sized manual, along with some HDD rails and the usual compliment of screws, cable ties and bolts.

External

Front

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The front of the case is a strange Ying-Yang styling, with a top silver Apevia logo, bottom information readout and a curvy plastic side completing the effect. No matter what case colour you decide on, you’ll always have the plastic right side in black apart from the silver design where this panel is coloured well… silver. The lower information readout has a large silver surround that matches the top Apevia logo. Above this, you’ll find the front I/O which contains the usual mic and audio ports, along with a pair of USB and a FireWire. Next to these, you’ll find a silver knob which changes the connected fans speed. The logo and the bezel on the data readout is made of shiny plastic, that is on par quality wise with any tacky toy purchased from your local Post Office.

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The power and HDD activity LEDs are built into the top door which takes up a good two thirds of the front. The door itself, while having an element of brushed aluminium, is made of plastic and as a result feels a little cheap and tacky. Worse still, as both the activity and power LED’s need power, along with the illuminated Apevia logo, there is a thick sleeved cable in the bottom corner which already shows wear as the hole that it comes out of has sharp edges and is eating into the wire bundle. A side-effect of having the wire there is that it provides feedback for the door, much like an office door which closes itself. It’s not the most elegant method, but it does the trick.

One slight design flaw is that both the reset and the power buttons are the same size and behind the front door. While you’ll soon learn which side the power button is on, you’ll always have to open the door in order to use them. This means that the wire connected to the front LED’s will eventually wear away. Factor in two opening per day (on and off) plus using the CD drive, you’ll probably lose the front illuminations after a year or so as the wires are sawn through. On the plus side, the reset button won’t need you to go searching for something pointy enough to press an inset button.

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Behind the door you’ll see four 5.25” bays along with a FDD cover allowing you to use the RAID drive disc for XP every once in a blue moon. Each of the drive bay covers are plastic, as is the whole inside front. It’s a matt black finish and is a reasonably high quality plastic which doesn’t bend too much when put under pressure.

Sides

The sides of the case itself are made out of steel about a millimetre thick which gives the cases shipping weight of 9.5kg (21 lbs). Strangely, the front of the case feels much heavier than the rear even though the front should be the lightest (plastic + aluminium). The sides are finished with a nasty speckled approach which feels slightly sticky if your hands are even remotely sweaty. It looks reasonable, and is fine if you aren’t one of the few people would likes to stroke their PC.

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The side panel is windowed with a piece of see-through plastic which is held in place with 9 silver rivets which surround the window. The shape, along with the silver Apevia logo insert makes it look very similar to NZXT cases, especially with the 120mm silver-grilled fan. This isn’t a bad thing, as most will admit that NZXT cases look exactly how a gamer wants. The back of the side panel has an inset hold which gives you some purchase to remove the sliding panel.

Rear

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The rear of the case is the normally layout with the PSU slot at the top, the motherboard hole with a 120mm fan by the side and 7 PCI slots. The PCI covers are removable and replaceable, but are made out of cheap aluminium-foil thin metal which will bend easily and certainly doesn’t have the same quality feel as ‘true’ PCI covers.

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The case has slots for three 120mm fans of which two slots are filled. The third fan slot is at the front but the only way this slot can get air is from a small slot at the bottom of the case. As a result I doubt this fan would be as silent as most demand. This slot is accessible by removing the HDD cage which requires you to undo a couple of screws on its left-hand side.

The bottom of the case yields some remarkably uninteresting grey solid plastic feet. These don’t grip the surface you lay this case on particularly well, but they do stop the edges of the case scratching your desk or laminate floor.