ghost review part 1
DESCRIPTION
The first look into the Bitfenix Ghost. Pics included.TRANSCRIPT
The Font / Door The front of the case is a nice matt black finish which looks much more professional than any
sprayed steel or plastic etc. You have the obvious Bitfenix symbol in a silvery plastic and apart from
that there is nothing else on the front. Inside the door as you might expect is some sound deadening
material.
Behind the door, under the mesh you
have room for 2 120mm fans or 1
140mm fans. This is where I have my
Bitfenix Spectres. This fan area is
covered with a fan filter built into the
mesh. You also have three 5" bays for
your DVD-RW etc. Air is channelled here
through the HDD bays which because of
the holes in the cages reduces the level
of influence the HDD bays have on the
air flow.
Top On the top of the case you have your usual array of ports. With the Ghost you have 2 x USB 2.0's and
2 x USB 3.0's, plus your power, reset, HDD activity light etc. The power button on the top has no led
backlight, but there are some white LED's to the side showing what is active etc.
The hot-swap bay on the top features vibration dampening supports so we'll see how effective that
is later on.
More room for fans here, a good choice too. You can fit either 2 x 120mm's, 2 x 140mm's or a 1 x
200mm fan by the looks of it. The fans here go underneath the shell so they are actually inside the
main structure of the case where you have the mobo etc but because of the height of the case it
does not interfere with anything there. Now you have space in the top for radiator support which is
quite nice. The downside is the fan grille is released using push-to-release catches which I found
became irritating while working on the case and carrying it since it keeps pinging off.
Back Nothing really special on the back so won't spend much time here. You have spacing for a 120mm
fan. The ghost supports ATX bottom mounted PSU's and there are 7 PCI slots for your graphics card,
wireless card etc. And 3 holes in the back for external water cooling support. Like I said nothing out
of the ordinary.
Underneath Underneath the case is something quite different. It is arched for one and has been designed to fit
LED Alchemy strips to create a very visual neon effect within the arch. Which I will have to install in
the future. It also has rubber feet which work very well against damaging the surface it is on and
again it cuts down on vibrations. Finally there is a magnetic dust filter designed to cover the Power
Supply and another fan either 120mm or 140mm. You can see where this is going.
Inside of the Case Ok so now to dvelve into the middle of the case and something I quite like.
Immediately you notice plenty of opportunities for cable management and rubber grommets (4 of
them) are included in the Ghost. You can also fit the CPU lead behind the backplate and through the
top left hand corner and also small cables like USB and HD Audio can go underneath that bottom left
hand corner. There is also sound deadening cover the whole of the side panel and the guards for the
5” bays are also sound deadened with a thick foam.
You have a total space of four 3.5" drive bays for your HDD's. three 2.5" drive bays for your SSD's
and as talked about before your three 5" bays. The SSD housing cage is removable to open up space
for airflow and to allow long graphics card support, this process is very easy and takes less than a
minute.
Spacing wise this case easily support ATX and M-ATX motherboard and as previousily mentioned can
fit radiators in the roof for those going down the water cooling route. There is also sound deadening
on the side similar to the front, however there is a large gap, i.e. the fan grille etc, in the roof which
could negate any dampening affects.
On the back of the case you have some options for cable management however the sound
deadening foam leaves you with less than 20 mm’s to play with. There is also very little hooks on the
back plate to tie cables too which left my build in a bit of a mess. Let down here by Bitfenix.
Extras: With the case comes plenty of screws which are quite nice to the fingers and don't leave you with
raw hands. They are also much more hard wearing than screws I have been used to with cases like
the Zalman Z9 so thumbs up there for Bitfenix!
As previously mentioned 4 rubber grommets are included to keep your cables hidden and also 2
spectre fans (basic black ones) come included. I am unsure whether these fans come with the OEM
Ghost though.
Some bad news: I was going to test how effective the sound dampening was with a few tests involving my 747 edition
graphics card varying the fan speed between 40, 60, 80 and 100% speeds between my old case and
the new Ghost to check how effective it really is and whether the gap in the roof for fans presents a
large problem. Unfortunately I recorded the sounds but nothing happens when you hit the play
button. So very sorry on that guys, really disappointed in myself for not checking earlier.