PC cases, cooling, and accessories firm darkFlash will at last start to sell its Blade-X open frame luxury gaming case, soon. This attractive open frame design with a handle atop is pretty large, with naturally fewer restrictions due to its lack of significant enclosing structure. Depending on the price in your region (in the US it is listed at $349), it might make an attractive show-piece PC or testing rig. As well as build flexibility here, darkFlash says the case can be used vertically or horizontally.
The darkFlash Blade-X is rather statuesque at 622mm tall x 346mm wide and 384mm deep, when stood upright with the handle atop. Its construction is substantial, with rigidity provided by 1.5mm SECC steel and 4mm aluminium alloy braces, with the 27mm solid aluminium alloy on top. Unpopulated, this case weighs in at 10.4kg. The ‘inner’ case is split in two zones, separated by the mounting tray within which you can hide cabling (looks like there is a 2-3cm void for this).
One of the great attractions of this case is its capacity and max compatibility figures. To start with, your motherboard choice is wide open from ITX, through mini ATX to full sized ATX. There are seven expansion slots, room for two ATX PSUs, room for radiators up to 420mm, capacity for a 450mm long graphics card, and a cooler as tall as 170mm. For storage devices beyond your M.2 slots, there is room for 3x 2.5-inch drive bays and 2x 3.5-inch drive bays – plus another 2x 2.5-inch drives if you don’t need room for a water cooling reservoir tank.
darkFlash has equipped an I/O panel with the power button/power LED, reset/lighting, plus two USB3.0 ports, two USB2.0 ports, and twin HD audio ports. RGB lighting is present on the four ‘shoulders’ of the design surrounding the component mounting tray.
As mentioned in the intro, expect to pay your local equivalent of US$350 when this case becomes available.