just got the shinobi yesterday. it definitely looks very nice, and you probably won't get such features like door, LCD with temp display and fan speed control, 3 fans (2 LEDs) at this price, really a value buy.

for the benefits of prospective buyers, i must say that the case is only for those who are careful owners and don't "disturb" the case a lot i.e. move around or frequently opening it. the build quality is sub-standard, very thin material used in the entire case. all the metal parts will be dented if you're not careful, and can be bent if you intentionally/ unintentionally do it. for example, the side panels/ top panel will dent/ bend if you apply pressure on it. it is not recommended to use huge psu with this case, due to the thin material on the back panel and no rigid support for heavy psu. i use ST50F about 1.8kg, still okay.

overall, what you paid is what you get, the world is mostly (not always haha) fair. what you paid is for design/ look and features, not a tough case, but that's okay with me. i'll just set up the system and leave it alone for quite a long while until there's a need to open it again.

one more thing i'd like to add, the 3 pre-installed fans are cheap ones without the 3-pin cable i.e. no speed control. if you want to control the speed, you gotta change the fans on your own. and i really dislike the expansion cards locking mechanism. if your gc has huge heavy HSF then forget it, it won't be secured. i don't understand why they didn't just use old-school screws. funny.

wanna ask the shinobi owners here for some help:

- there's a 3-pin female socket from front panel, what is it for?

- i found 2 HDD LED cables, 1 is together with the reset LED, reset switch etc. lump, the other one is stand alone. what's the standalone HDD LED cable for?

- in the screws pack, i found a few push-in pins with the other end with screw threads. what are these for?

- i found the stickers in the screws pack as well, where do you stick all 3 sensors?

- the data 1 and data 2 cable bundles are for the 2 USB right?

- i also found 3 red color gaskets in the screws pack. what are they for?

- there are a few button-head very short screws (like 2mm long), what are they for? so short

all in all, i'm gonna enjoy this case. the design/ look itself already gives me the satisfaction every time i look at it, and i kept playing with the door... hahaha. a nice door indeed

cheers

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Added on March 13, 2008, 2:58 pmehh... can any shinobi user help me out here with my questions above? thank you in advance

This post has been edited by mtandyx: Mar 13 2008, 02:58 PM

for the expansion slots locking mechanism, it's not really that bad anyway, it's just that i don't think it's a smart way to secure the cards and i don't like it, but i can live with it (it's at the back and i don't see it... haha). For gc, I'm using XFX9600GT XXX and it's rather well secured do far.

thanks for answering my queries. for the HDD led cables, the front panel led is working ok showing HDD activity. the other for the front LCD HDD indicator, it'll just be flashing non-stop once the system is powered up instead of showing HDD activity. is this normal? if it's not, then i think my MB doesn't have extra HDD led connector.

for the sensors, the system one i just stuck to the case. the cpu one i stuck it to the top of HSF cpu plate, the vga one i stuck it to the back of the gc, where the gpu is. compared to the temperature reported, the cpu temp shown on the LCD is -6C while for vga -10C (my cpu idle at 40C, gc 49C). it's a good idea to stick the sys sensor to NB, i'll try that.

the gasket i figured out it's for the stand-off, put between the MB and screw, but i figured out after i'm done with the installation and i didn't put, nvm i'm lazy to open everything again

one more thing, i reverse the side fan (suck out of case instead of blow into case), i noticed that my gc temp went down 2-3C, so i kept it that way

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Added on March 24, 2008, 9:07 amif you don't fully populate the HDD area, long gc is not a problem, you can still install at least 2 HDDs comfortably while avoiding getting too near to the gc. if you don't use floppy, there are 2 more bays you can use, out of the way of the gc

This post has been edited by mtandyx: Mar 24 2008, 09:07 AM

i think it depends more on your motherboard (ram, notrhbridge, etc.). as for concern on the case, i'm using cooler master hyper 212, it's 1 inch away from the bottom of psu, and 1 inch away from the case side panel. the shinobi's side panel has 2 ventilators... bottom one is pre-installed with a fan blowing directly at the gc, the top one opens directly on top of the cpu, and is pre-installed with a shroud. you need to remove the shroud, and my hyper 212 is 1 inch away from the ventilator. so when you look at the side panel, you can actually see the top of your cooler, which is nice, especially my hyper 212 has 2 led fans blowing in push-pull config although there's no transparent side panel, these 2 ventilators allow you to peek inside and you can see most parts of your mb. the pre-installed side fan has transparent blades

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Added on April 1, 2008, 12:22 ambtw for your back-side hs i'm not sure how you're gonna mount it so i can't comment. pls check out the height of hyper 212 in cooler master website for you to compare with your ifx14, i need to go to sleep liao

This post has been edited by mtandyx: Apr 1 2008, 12:22 AM

referring to the front view picture, how come there's light right at the middle? did you take the round thing out? i noticed a round thing there at the reverse-side of the door but don't know how to take it out ler...