14 DAY TRIAL // Gelid decided to start the year 2012 well, so it put together what its announcement dubs the first tower case in its GAMER product line.
The full name of the new, black and solid gaming chassis is Gelid GAMER DarkForce.
Since we started by mentioning the color, it should be noted that the black paint applies to both the outside and the inside.
Also, since there would be no point for an all-black color theme if there was no way to see the interior of the case, Gelid gave the DarkForce a large, transparent acrylic side panel.
That said, there are six individual hard disk drive trays, plus a HDD cage that can be removed when the video card is too long to fit otherwise.
Thus, the maximum VGA card length supported is 410mm.
Moving on, the 5.25-inch drive bays come with a tool-free optical drive mounting concept.
Additionally, the top of the enclosure bears a bay for hot-swapping 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch storage drives, whether HDDs or SSDs.
“No compromises were made in the design of this case, no costs were cut in order to provide PC enthusiasts looking to upgrade or replace their desktops with a high quality build,” said Gebhard Scherrer, Sales director of GELID Solutions Ltd.
In addition to the storage drive dock, the top I/O panel has USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and eSATA.
As for cooling, Gelid made a point of living up to its reputation as thermal specialist.
Not only did it pre-install a pair of 120mm fans (back and front), but it left room for large CPU coolers (of up to 165mm height) and threw in a dust filter on the base of the chassis as well.
There should also be two internal fan extension PCBs and black sleeves for cables, to keep things neat and organized without ruining the dark color theme.
Finally, Gelid's GAMER DarkForce case is WEEE and RoHS-compliant. Shipments should be already underway, for $119.99 / 91 Euro. A 2-year warranty is included in the purchase.