Apevia X-QPack

I have on of those. The thinness of the case has never been an issue. Compared to my previous Thermaltake Xaser III case, this one I feel comfortable carrying to LAN parties.

I’ve squeezed a Core 2 Duo in under a Zalman 9500 LED at the expense of the support bar that runs over the CPU socket. Of the two hard drives in the case, one is now secured to what’s left of the support bar and the other is in the upper most 5 ½ bay.

Power isn’t so much of an issue as I swapped out the PSU that came with the case for an Enermax Liberty. The catch is that the optical drive needs to be quite short, so I went with a standard LG DVD burner.

The other minor issue I had with the case, other than the plastic over the front display was the noise of the case fan. Rather than forking out extra, I just changed the wires in the molex feeding it to 12v / 5v (instead of 12 / ground) to run the fan on 7 volts.


Edit: I guess I should say that it's running an E6600 and Gf7900 and all that goes with them. I'll put an 8xxx in sometine early next year.

 

Whoa why so hostile? Seems like i misted that sentence. Still, what is your point?

 

The power supply included is junk. JonnyGURU did a test on it, and it wouldn't do anywhere near what it's rated for, without exceeding ATX spec. It would only work up to about the 250w point.

 

I've built a system in one of these (although I used the all black version WITHOUT the windows). It's not a bad little case and didn't require a mod right out of the box like the Arias I've used (like this) and it certainly has more room inside. The extra 5.25" bay is nice for a SFF case. The handle is a little week but I've used mine with everything installed and it holds up ok. The PSU location limits graphics card options (I was originally going to use a passively cooled card but the heatsink was too high). The three screws in the back (holding the cover on) should be replaced with large head thumbscrews with rubber pads on the backs so they act as feet when you have the handle up. A bigger PSU could be installed but then you need to use a fairly stubby DVD drive. All in all it's not a bad case but it could be better. (I have several ideas to mod mine to use up that unused space )

 

I took some quick pictures for anyone who was interested. They're not very 56k friendly though.

X-Qpack external showing the final drive placement. Things had to be moved around a bit to accommodate the Liberty and the Zalman 9500.
qpack external 1

Another external shot with all the drives visible through the windows. The molex with the X on it comes from the fan splitter and carries 7v.
qpack external 2

The support bar cut in half to allow the 9500 to be used on the CPU. The existing hard drive caddy now gives rigidity to the remainder of the support bar with the hard drive being screwed directly to it from the other side. Although the clearance was good, the little notch cut before the 9500 was to ease my own paranoia.. not needed in hindsight.
qpack internal 1

Other side of the case showing the Liberty. The original power supply is now used as a doorstop. The card underneath is an Audigy2 with GeForce 7900 and wireless cards behind. Looking at them, an 8xxx with a single slot cooling solution could fit without further modification. Still, there's the Dremel handy if it doesn't.
qpack internal 2

The last picture is a silly one. It should give you an idea of the Qpack's size at least. With the shell on, it's fairly strong as testament to having Robosapien riding Roomba, carrying a wakasashi on top (not a real one -_-, though Pintsize would be proud no doubt..)
qpack external 3

 

@ Silver51: Heh, I missed your review & see you had a similar experience. Now that you cut the support piece would you carry that case by the handle? (I don't think I would)

 

To be honest, I wouldn't use the handle on any case. However, once the lid is on the thing gains rigidity and isn't flexible at all. Imo, the handle would work as well without the support bar as it would with it.

 

U know,this rubbish box named "Q-BOX" in PR China,and u can get it from newegg.com.cn with a price of only £26(without PSU).But I think Silverstone SG-01B-E will be much better but much more expensive.You must have £79 if you want it,and also,the price is a price without any PSU.

 

that is pure sexy my friend much better alternative

 

Thats a bit crap for £70, wouldn't really like to pay any more than £30 for it, bad psu, bad materials . . .

 

From the looks of things, the X-Qpack, MicroFly and AeroCube are all revisions of the same case. Although I couldn't tell you who actually machines them.

 

Possible error?
Page 2 towards the bottom: "The is especially annoying, given that..."
Then it cuts to 2 pictures then a totally new sentance.

Other than that. Nice review. Shame the case is a bit lame though

 

Sorry, those ...s are meant to lead into the next paragraph, where it's talking about the removable motherboard tray. The lack of removable drives (poor) when including a removable mobo tray (good) was meant to be ironic.

Doh!

 

I've been using this case for about 6 months now that i picked up for just under £60 from ebuyer. It runs my ADM 64 X2 3800+ at an avergae 32 degrees-ish, and only goes a little higher under load, thanks to that 120mm fan. yeah, the case is a little flimsy, and it did make me look like some kind of headcase with cuts all over my hands, but all of my mates are amazed that I have a cube.

Plus, if you REALLY don't like the grey, get some primer, and spray the damn thing black! Its easy and with a bit of persuasion the front facia comes of easily. Mine was originally red (how it was so cheap) and you can pic up all the stuff at Halfords or your local little hardware shop for peanuts.

 

MicroATX? Bah, I say cram a full-size ATX motherboard in there!

 

after market cooler?

I'm glad to see that you were able to remove the drive support rail without problems. I, too, am running X-Qpack sporting a C2D (the E6700 tho), but I'm still using the boxed cooler. I was always worried the hard drives would rattle themselves silly without that support rail, but I think i'll give it a try now. I'm also running an OCZ Modstream 480watt, and I have just enough room to snake some molex connectors through for the optical drives and to power my gf7900.

I'm hoping the 8900gtx won't be 11" long and can be powered by my PSU, because that may pose a problem for me. The Modstream 480watt pumps 28amps thru the 12V bus.

 

qpack internal 1

If you manage to keep the hard drive cage in there, it'll give what's left of the support rail some rigidity. Unfortunately the 9500 obstructed the power leads for the hard drives the way were originally mounted in the drive cage.

In order to make it all fit the drives had to be flipped over (and moved backwards) to the position in the picture. You can't really tell from the image, but the edge of the cage facing the support rail has been cut away to allow the hard drive to screw directly to the rail. The remains of the cage (now L shape) slides down on it's own rails and is screwed onto to the other side of the hard drive to try and give the drive and main rail support. To make this work, you'd need to drill holes for the screws though.

I did think about screwing a support strut underneath the lot, but it hasn't needed it so far.

 

Thanks

 

of note... that PSU is crap, I told a friend of mines roommate that, but he didnt listen, now he has fried his x1900 xt in there....

 

I still wonder how people can build a computer using some of the best hardware components, but skimp out on the PSU & case. I don't think I'll ever use a sub $100 case, just the quality is so worth the price.

I can see the selling point for this case, portability, but I wouldn't trust putting my high end gaming rig in it. Just how I look at things.