Gigabyte's Thermal Division enters the enthusiast chassis market ... can it survive?

Our review of the Gigabyte Triton 180 Chassis a few weeks ago received good coverage. It was a chassis which I believed was perfect for the mainstream user. It offered many of the features found only on high-end chassis, with a price that was even more attractive. So, our verdict is ... Gigabyte's entry into the chassis market is a successful one. In fact, to show their commitment, they have even established a fairly new department just to produce new cooling products and chassis. You will now see a lot of Gigabyte products with their own cooling solutions, new CPU coolers, GPU coolers, water cooling and of course chassis. For this alone, I congratulate Gigabyte for their commitment.

           

In this review, we take at look at Gigabyte's 3D Aurora Chassis. It's aimed at the enthusiasts market, and with this in mind, we expect to see a lot of neat little features included in this chassis.

The 3D Aurora, like all high-end chassis is constructed of Aluminum. It is a full tower chassis with 5 x 5.25" bays for optical drives and has 4 x 3.5" hard drive bays. The 5.25" drive bays are protected by a solid panel which has 2 magnetic connects to hold it in place. Again it uses the same screwless design as found on the Triton 180 chassis, allowing you install any rom drive or hard disk with ease. The rear of the chassis has 2 x 120mm fans already installed, along with another one in the front, guarded by a removeable air filter. If you want to ugrade to watercooling ... then there's no problem, the 3D Aurora has 2 ready cut holes for easy installtion.

       

Another feature which is usually found on most enthusiast chassis, and goes without saying ... is a windowed side panel. This panel also features a key lock for added security. The front of the chassis has the usual USB, firewire and audio connections which are handy. There's another odd, but very unique feature on the underside of the front panel ... a Customized Light Beam Projector. 

With all these features, the 3D Aurora is truely designed for the extreme gamer and enthusiast who wants to show off their system.

Let's have a look at the specifications and some close up photos.