Introduction

Quick Look
Super Flower X-Mask	The Good
Click to enlarge.	+ Front panel audio/USB/FireWire + Included power supply + Up to four 5-1/4" drive bays + Seven 3-1/2" drive bays (2 exposed) + Removable 3-1/2" drive carriage
	The Bad
	- No removable motherboard tray - Lack of screw-less/tool-less design - Sharp edges

In a world of commercial endorsements and 15-second spots to market every product from high tech gadgets to boxes of cereal, the public tends to be blinded by insignificant themes in a way that they cannot look past the façade to the raw features of a product. Looks become more important than the actual functionality of a product, which defeats the purpose of choosing the right product for a consumer.

Super Flower has produced a chassis that incorporates the Spiderman theme on its outside. Depending on personal preference, this predetermined theme may or may not appeal to the average consumer and most likely will not appeal to the typical enthusiast.

We looked past the exterior of the X-Mask and tested its functionality and features to see if this themed chassis was more than just a kid's toy. Take a look at our review on Super Flower's X-Mask to see how this spider-themed case performs against the rest.

External Design

The X-Mask comes in 3 flavors: blue, black, and silver, like the one in this review. The front panel is comparable to the NZXT Guardian with a slight variability in design.

The top 2/3 of the front bezel consists of the door, which is light and simple. A Spiderman-like mask decoration is placed at the center, which lights up when the system is turned on. Below this "mask", we noticed that there was a printed design consisting of 8 spider legs. Many enthusiasts prefer to have a cleaner, more mature look when it comes to their PC cases; some may even think the spider theme to be a bit too cheesy for their taste.

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There is a front panel key lock for security on the right side below the door to prevent unwanted access to the case's drive bays. This feature seems redundant, since there are no security features to prevent access to the case's internals. Directly under the key lock on the 3^rd printed spider leg is the LED for HDD activity. We thought that possibly combining the Power light (mask) and the HDD light into the mask would have made for a more interesting look.

At the bottom of the X-Mask, or what looks to be the abdomen of the spider, are the auxiliary connections, which consist of Audio (headphone, microphone), 2 USB, and 1 Firewire ports. They are hidden behind a small oval-shaped, fold-down panel. The Audio ports are also color-coded as on many other cases to make it easier to differentiate between the two.

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Upon opening the door, we see the drive bays and Power and Reset buttons. There are 6 drive bays in total, consisting of four 5-1/4" drive bays and two 3-1/2" drive bays. The Power and Reset buttons are to the right of the 3-1/2" drive bays.

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The left side panel has a window and also a fan mounting. The grill on the fan mounting is machined to look like a spider web and has a black spider painted on it to carry on the spider theme. Both side panels are easily removable and are held to the case by thumbscrews.

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Internal Design

When we opened up the X-Mask and took a look at the inside, we were reminded of the Lian Li PC-6070. Though made of steel, the X-Mask was designed almost exactly like the PC-6070.

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The X-Mask uses a removable carriage for HDD applications and is held in place by 3 thumbscrews. Unlike the Lian Li carriage, Super Flower designed the X-Mask's drive carriage to hold 4 HDDs mounted horizontally instead of Lian Li's 5 HDD capacity mounted vertically.

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Still, the X-Mask has plenty of room for drive expandability. The case can hold three more 3-1/2" drives along with four 5-1/4" drives. Drive rails are provided for the larger 5-1/4" drives, but are not completely tool-less.

To install the drive rails, they need to be screwed onto the drives using one screw for each rail. Though not the best, it is not a major flaw in the X-Mask's design. The screw-in method is also an option for those who prefer not to use drive rails.

The add-on card slots also utilize the screw-in method. Screws have been provided for all applications, including drive and motherboard installations.

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Wiring for the front panel LEDs and auxiliary ports have been cut to allow plenty of slack. We have seen many cases that have made use of wiring that would be short for many standard uses, making it difficult with which to work.

Case Fans

Super Flower includes three 80mm case fans with the X-Mask. For intake, there are two 80mm fans at the front of the chassis towards the bottom. We saw that these fans did not come with any filters, which would increase the inflow of dust.

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The third 80mm fan is located on the left side panel at the center. This single fan is used as an exhaust, which may seem inadequate. Super Flower, however, includes a 350W power supply with a 120mm fan, which also exhausts warm air from the CPU area and reduces the need for extra fans.

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The X-Mask does allow for either two more 80mm fans or one single 120mm fan to be mounted at the back of the case below the power supply for increased air flow.

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Construction

The X-Mask is made of 0.8mm steel all throughout except for the front bezel, which is plastic. We felt around the inside of the case for sharp edges and were surprised to find a lot less than we expected. Super Flower has done a great job in folding over the sharp edges that we tend to find when cutting steel.

Some sharp edges do remain, however, where the drive bays reside. The platforms that the drives would sit on are still quite sharp and could possibly lead to cut wires or hands if not carefully minded.

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We mentioned earlier of the lack of security features on the X-Mask. It does include a front door key lock to defend against unwanted access to its drive bays from the outside, but will still allow access to the case's internals by way of both side panels. Adding a simple side loop for a padlock would increase security.

We did not see the need for any security features, though, since the main use for the X-Mask is for typical home or gaming use.

Expansion

When it comes to expansion, the X-Mask does not disappoint as a desktop case. With its four 5-1/4" drive bays and up to seven 3-1/2" drive bays, the X-Mask has sufficient room to add storage devices as needed.

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Screws also need to be used when installing add-on cards. We have seen tool-less and screw-less designs for add-on cards that do the job of securing the hardware well and also save time in the process. The sliding clips that Thermaltake uses in its Xaser Skull, and other models in its line, are both strong as well as easy to operate while Lian Li makes use of thumbscrews to secure add-on cards in its cases.

Motherboard Tray

The X-Mask's motherboard tray is not the removable type that we would like to see in more cases in the market. The greatest advantage of having one that is removable is the ability to install various components without the clutter of wiring and other components attached to the motherboard. For example, when installing or replacing the power supply, the CPU's heatsink fan tends to interfere in smaller cases if it is one of the larger ones. The heatsink fan would need to be removed in order to install the power supply.

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There are just enough holes on the board to allow installation of standard ATX type motherboards. Many other cases have support for various types of motherboards. We wondered why the X-Mask was designed to allow only ATX motherboards, since drilling a few more holes would have opened up the market to owners of other types of boards.

To mount a motherboard, we screwed in the provided standoffs, placed the board on top of the standoffs, and using the provided screws, secured the motherboard in place.

Installation

Installation for components like the motherboard and CPU, CD-RW drives, and HDD along with a few add-on cards consumed about 20 minutes due to the lack of a screw-less design. Some time was saved when installing the larger 5-1/4" drives because of the drive rails, but the rest of the case used the conventional screws to install all other hardware.

Since Super Flower included a power supply, we decided to use it for our testing purposes, but also tested the X-Mask with the TTGI 520W fan that we have been using in the past.

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Benchmarking

When benchmarking the X-Mask, we test the temperatures of key components including the actual CPU temperature, the actual temperature inside the heatsink, the temperatures of the DDR, Northbridge, Southbridge, HDD, PSU, and the ambient temperature inside the case, all during normal operation. During our testing, the PSU and CPU heatsink fans remain on to measure temperatures during normal system operations.

Gigabyte GA-7VRX AMD Athlon MP 2100+ 2 x 128 DDR Corsair XMS 2400 ThermalTake Volcano 7 Seagate Cheetah 10000RPM Inno3D GeForce4 Ti 4200 TTGI 4 Fan 520W Atlas FP-350WE

Thermometer Positions

The thermal readings for the key components and points on the motherboard during operation were as follows:

Super Flower X-Mask
System On-Time	CPU	Heatsink	HDD	DDR	Northbridge	Southbridge	Power Supply (TTGI)	Power Supply (Atlas)	System Ambient
10	54.3	37.5	28.1	34.5	39.9	38.8	26.2	26.6	32.8
30	55.9	38.4	29.5	36.1	40.5	40.1	27.1	27.7	34.2

Lian Li PC-V1000
System On-Time	CPU	Heatsink	HDD	DDR	Northbridge	Southbridge	Power Supply (TTGI)	System Ambient
10	50.1	31.2	24.3	33.2	35.6	34.5	25.1	25.4
30	51.3	33.1	25.1	35.1	36.8	35.9	27.5	26.6

Opus Technologies, Inc. MT-200
System On-Time	CPU	Heatsink	HDD	DDR	Northbridge	Southbridge	Power Supply (TTGI)	System Ambient
10	52.5	37.5	28.8	34.3	39.1	39.3	29.3	29.7
30	53.7	39.0	29.5	36.8	40.2	39.9	31.2	30.4

The X-Mask performed at about the level of the NZXT Guardian. The temperatures were a bit higher due to the placement of the case fans. The X-Mask lacked the fans on the backside of the case, which the Guardian had, yet the X-Mask did have twin 80mm fans at the front of the chassis to cool the HDDs.

Since the X-Mask lacked the back side fans, we found that in many of the other cases where we predicted the noise levels to be much lower than the competition. We measured the noise level of the X-Mask 12" away from the closed chassis with the power supply fan turned off. Take a look at our results.

Case	dBA
Super Flower X-Mask	51
Lian Li PC-V1000	46
Opus Technologies MT-200	56
NZXT Guardian	49
Ahanix Black Knight X195	50

As you can see, the X-Mask performed at the same level as the Guardian and the Ahanix Black Knight. This is mainly due to the number of fans in each chassis.

Final Thought

The X-Mask is an average chassis with the usual features that we have found in many other mid-level cases. It performed at par with the NZXT Guardian and the Ahanix Black Knight in both the temperature tests as well as the noise tests. We did, however, enjoy the ability for greater expansion when it came to drives. It's not rare to see cases nowadays with more room to add, since storage is becoming more important to consumers.

As for the price tag, we have seen many other cases with solid features like tool-less/screw-less designs and removable motherboard trays in a far better price range than the X-Mask. At around $70 retail, it seems a bit much for the X-Mask compared to those steel enclosures in the $40-$50 range, but then again, Super Flower does include a 350W power supply.

If you like a clean-looking case with features like a tool-less design and top performance as far as cooling and sound goes, the X-Mask may not be the right choice. On the other hand, if you enjoy the Spiderman theme and plenty of storage space, not to mention an included power supply, then look no further.