Installing your “stuff” into the Ninja 2 is a fairly painless as the system does come with a motherboard
tray. You will have to remove the back
panel of the case to get at the tray though as it is screwed into the frame of
the case. The motherboard tray is a
little different than other trays I’ve used.
Instead of screwing the board on brass stations which are screwed into
the the tray you actually screw the motherboard directly to the tray using
slots that have been “punched up”. To
avoid shorting out the motherboard you will need to place covers on the punch
up holes the punch ups that you don’t use.
Given the layout of the board I had I didn’t’ need to use them but I’m
not a real big fan of this system as a lot of people might gloss over this step
and short out their motherboard.
After punching out the back IO panel I re-inserted the
motherboard tray and began putting together the rest of the system. Installing the DVD drive was just a matter of
sliding the drive into the top slot and screwing it to the rails. Installing a hard drive was a little harder
as the case does not have any rails for the drive, rather just a series of
screw holes in the vertical supports in the front of the case. The included power supply is solid and
provides enough power cords for more than a basic system (1 SATA plug, FDD
connector, and five four prong plugs). If
you’re going to have a lot of items in the case you might want to consider
buying another power supply or a few splitters as there really aren’t enough
connections for a lot of gear (especially if you have a high end video card
that requires two connectors). MGE did a
nice job of combining the power plugs of the front fan and the power plugs for
the LED into one standard prong so that it only takes up one of the valuable
connectors. This of course means that
your stuck with the included multicolor 80MM but it does a serviceable job so
no real worries there.
Hooking up the front I/O ports and buttons to the case was
also pretty easy as MGE actually labeled the cables with clear, easy to read labels. After that wrapping everything up I slid the
side panels back onto the case and ran into my first snag. The Ninja
2 uses very lightweight steel for the side panels and consequently the
panels tend to flex a lot which makes re-installing the panels a little
problematic as the side panels tend to flex a bit. They really could have used a cross beam or
two on the sides to help make them a little more rigid as they are a bit of a pain
to get back on.
Turning on the system revealed the case in it’s full
glory. The front LED’s look great and help
the overall look of the case. The LED’s
are very bright since they are aimed upward you do get some light bleeding
through the top of the door. It looks
nice to me but it is something that not everyone may be a fan of.
All in all the Ninja
2 is a pretty solid entry level case, especially as the case is in the
$40-$69 price range. The case is fairly
solid and looks really good once you’ve got it put together. While a lot of high end modders and people
with a lot of gear will want something a little more feature rich but if you
want a solid case to put your stuff in then you will want to include the Ninja 2 on your short list of cases to check
out.
B
An attractive entry level case with some nice features and a solid 400W power supply.
Page 2 of 2