• Housing Material: Metal
• Housing Type: Full Tower
• Main Board Size: ATX/Baby-AT/microATX/Full AT
• Disk Drive Bays: 5.25"x5/0, 3.5"x1/7 (external/internal)
• Dimensions: 16.54" (D) x 7.80" (W) x 23.23" (H)
• Power Supply: 300W ATX (Ball bearing fan in US)
• Ventilation: Air vents with optional 2nd DC fans
• FCC, CE & Novell: Ready
• Net Weight: 28.60 lbs
• Gross Weight: 31.90 lbs
• Volume: 3.1 Cu. ft.
• Certification: Novell certification with Aopen motherboards.

Design, Layout and Installation

This is a full tower baby! At approximately 24 inches in height, the HQ08 takes up some serious vertical space. Although, it isn't quite as stout as the Liteon FS020, it is steadied by four foldout feet that adds to the physical impressiveness of this case. You won't have to worry about your sweet dual machine tipping over any time soon.

The front of the case is a mix of sleek styling and sensible design. All who have entered my apartment and seen the HQ08 immediately comment on it. It truly is a beautiful case. As is standard on all cases in the AOpen full-tower line, the only external 3.5" drive bay is at the very top of the case for your lone floppy or zip drive. Directly to the right of that, lies the oversized power button. I love this design in an ergonomical sense. The size of the case necessitates it. However, there is a downside to this convenience, a cabling adventure. Ahh yes, you'll grunt, sweat, and moan as you weave your floppy drive cable up through the already existing mess of IDE and SCSI cables, praying that it's long enough to reach the intended target. The LEDS are very easy to see, large and bright. The reset switch is not recessed in the case, so you won't need a pen or paperclip to force a reboot on this puppy.

Getting into the case is relatively painless. The top, secured by two thumbscrews, slides directly back, then up and off. Then the side panels, secured by three screws, also slide directly back and off. This is where I discovered my first "issue" with the HQ08. The rails are designed as such, that you have to slide the panel completely to the back of the case before you can pull it away. I've never seen such a design on any other case I've used. Generally you can just slide the panel back a matter of inches, then pull it away from the case and off. Not so with the HQ08. It's a minor grief, especially if you're not inside your case on a regular basis. If you are, and space is tight, you may find this mildly irritating. A regular ircer in #2cpu on irc.stomped.com, |SiN| told me the way to best deal with this problem. Take the dremel and cut the tabs on the side panels… off. Then you can simply slide in the front clips, close it in, and screw it in place. Thanks |SiN|.

Once in the case the first thing you're going to want to play with is… the slide-out motherboard tray! This is a fantastic feature, which I'll never go without again. Installing your motherboard and expansion cards couldn't get any easier. Three screws hold the tray locked in place. Once removed, it slides out with ease. The installation of my Tiger 100 couldn't have gone any smoother. I set the tray on the table, mounted the board, plugged in my precious geforce, sblive, SCSI host adapter, and 3com 3c905 and gingerly slid the tray back in place.

At this point I'm pretty excited. Everything seems to be going smoothly, my cdrom is mounted. My baby, the Quantum Atlas 10,000 rpm SCSI hard drive, is mounted in a bay kit and residing in another 5.25" drive bay for cooling purposes. A problem arose when I went to install my Maxtor IDE hard drive in the lower internal 3.5" drive bay. The positioning of the DIMM slots on the Tiger 100 left my three 64MB DIMMs directly in the path of any drive mounted in that bay. When I first noticed this inconvenience, I did a little research and found out from an Abit BP6 user that he too experienced a similar problem with the HQ08. The only solution for me was to move the drive to the upper internal 3.5" bay. I then removed the offending bay from the case, which actually freed up space for cabling.

All in all, the internal design of the HQ08 is quite satisfactory, plenty of space for any dual motherboard. The quality of construction is first-class. All edges are rounded, making cutting yourself virtually impossible. This is not to be overlooked, as I'm sure blood would act like an insulator and have a negative effect on the ambient case temperature. :-)

Cooling the HQ08…

We're performance freaks. We purchase expensive, quality hardware and tweak the heck out of it. A direct result of this is obviously, heat. The HQ08 comes prepares to house three 80mm fans. Two grills lie side by side, directly above the power supply to aid in venting excess heat that rises to the top of the case. Due to the existence of that top internal 3.5" drive bay, fans placed here would also quickly vent heat being produced by any drives mounted there. The third grill is in the standard position, at the front of the case for bringing cool air in.

It should be noted that fans don't come with the case, but can be picked up almost anywhere without breaking the bank. Ian over at 2cooltek would be more then happy to help you in your cooling endeavors. If you do decide to pick up an HQ08, I advise you to order some fans right away. Without the air circulation the fans provide the HQ08 runs rather warm by default, easily a few degrees warmer than my previous, generic full-tower. This slight temperature increase had no effect on system stability whatsoever, just something I noticed.

Modifying the HQ08…

I am not a master with a dremel and to this point haven't made any major modifications to my case (other than the "tux" sticker on top :-). The HQ08, like its little brother the HX08, is ideal for the person with a taste for cool (pun intended) and unusual modifications. Several possibilities come to mind when I look at this case. A blowhole on the top of the case directly over the top 3.5" drive bay, blowing cold air in over your drives and then vented at the back by the aforementioned two fans.

The huge side panels just scream "dremel me". I think the addition of extra blowholes or maybe even a plexiglass pane (complete with neon lighting) would be easy to accomplish with the HQ08 once you removed the tabs from the side panel as mentioned before. It could make for an interesting project. The thought of watching my two processors glow under some neon lighting is strangely appealing to me. If I get the guts to make an attempt, I'll be sure to update this review with added pictures.

Ups

• Slide-out Motherboard tray
• Appearance (beautiful case)
• Ergonomic design
• Very spacious
• Quality construction
• Great mod opportunities

Downs

• Lower internal 3.5" drive bay was useless to me
• Side panel removal not the easiest I've seen
• Very heavy
• Temperature (without fans, it runs rather warm)

Conclusion

This is the nicest case I've had the pleasure of playing with. The slide-out motherboard tray is an incredibly convenient feature. Buying a high-end case without one, is no longer an option for me. Choose the path of wisdom and move your valued hardware out of the "wood shed" and into a high quality case. All I ask is that you don't forget about AOpen's HQ08. You'll be missing out if you do.

Jim Kirk

2CPU.com gives this case a 3.5/5