By Frag-Girlie

Company: AOpen

A case is something none of us computer users can do without.  We just need to decide which type of case to buy, desktop, mid-tower or full tower.  A couple of weeks ago I looked at AOpen’s HQ08 Full Tower case and am now going to look at its little brother, the AOpen mid-tower HQ45.

Specs:

Housing Material: Metal

Housing Type: Mid-Tower

Main Board Size: ATX/microATX

Disk Drive Bays: three external 5.25", one internal and two external 3.5"

Dimensions: 16.54"(D) x 7.87"(W) x 16.30"(H)

Power Supply: 250W ATX, UL/CSA/CE/VDE/S/D/N /FI/FCC DoC Certified

Ventilation: Air Vents with Optional 2nd DC fans

FCC, CE & Novell: Ready

Net Weight: 16.5 lbs.

Gross Weight: 17.2 lbs.

Volume: 2.16 Cu. ft.

Certification: Novell certification with AOpen motherboards

ATX/micro ATX Mid-tower housing

High expansion capacity with 7 slots and 6 drive bays

Bend-in edges ensure safe assembly and installation

Smart slide-in back bracket with no screws needed

Compact design saves space

Complies with DoC, and CE regulations (with AOpen MBs)

Equipped with 250W ATX high efficiency switching power supply

Slide-in/out, Slide board for easy assembly

Optional all-in-one carton has room for K/B, mouse, S/W and accessories

Led cover provides 4 optional colors:  blue, gray, green and aquamarine.

Upon opening the case, which involves undoing a few screws, you will find an envelope with all the screws, binders and equipment needed to install your components.  You will also see there is room for three 3.5” hard drives without a FDD or two 3.5” hard drives with a FDD installed at the front bottom.  This case features three external 5.25” bays, one internal and two external 3.5” bays, which should be enough for most users. The HQ45 comes with a 250W power supply, only 250W you say?  Well, it should be enough power to supply the average user and/or the hardware that will fit into this case. 

Now all we have to do is plug in our motherboard, components and cards, connect the front LEDs and buttons to the motherboard, and attach any other necessary cables.  Doing this is not difficult, but the space is limited so it’s a tight space to work in.  Be sure to arrange your cables to ensure the best possible airflow because this case is lacking cooling features.  There is a fan cage in the bottom front of the case that will hold a 80mm fan, but that just covers cool-air intake.  There is nowhere in the case to mount an additional fan to push the hot air out… which may pose a problem for some of you overclockers out there. 

I built an 850 Mhz, mini-server/gaming machine with 394 megs of memory, a 40 gig hard drive, a CD burner/player, and DVD player.  

In conclusion, I think this is a great little case.  It’s not too big, not too small, has attractive styling and a decent price tag.  Coming from a reputable company like AOpen, how could you go wrong? 

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