Apevia has existed now for almost a decade, in one form or another, and has the reputation of building solid, well designed cases.  The X-Jupiter Jr. is no exception to this rule.  While the Jr. denotation refers to the fact that this is a budget case the entire thing comes out as anything but.  With a case designed around the clear window in the side wire management is a breeze.  But that is not to say that the case is without the flaws of being overly heavy and an odd placement of headphone and USB jacks.

The first thing that is rather easy to notice about the case is that it is very heavy, weighting in at just under 20 pounds.  While the case does manage to benefit from this by being super stable and durable it also is probably not going anywhere once fully assembled.  Given the price of the unit it is nice to see that the case is this durable as many cases in the same price bracket seem to be made out of some kind of super soft foil.

 
The Jupiter Jr. is a tool-less case, something very rare in the budget range.  All of the expansion slots, 5 5.25”, 2 3.5”, and 3 3.5” slots in the front and 7 PCI slots in the back are completely tool-less.  Installation into the front slots is a breeze as the slides simply snap into the side of the drives and then they simply slip into the slots.  The case that we received seemed to come with extra slides which, if standard, are a really nice addition for those of us who are prone to changing drives.  The bottom three slots for the hard drivers are mounted to face the side so that they remain hidden from the clear side window.  Installation of the PCI slots in the back is as simple as lifting up on a slot and then pushing it back in until it locks.

The front of the case has all of the standard buttons and monitor lights, with the addition of a temperature gauge and single fan speed control.  The temperature gauge has two senses, one for the CPU and the other for a hard drive.  Thankfully enough the LCD temperature gauge displays both Celsius and Fahrenheit.  The toggle for the gauges is found inside the case door.  The fan speed control works rather well.  It seemed to control the fans hooked up to it without much of an issue or large during use.

The case comes with two 120mm fans, one that mounts in the back of the unit, and another that is mounted on the window of the unit.  Because the cause was designed with cable management in mind this allows the entire experience to be one of the coolest cases in its price range.  There is an additional 120mm fan slot in the front of the case to cool down the three “hidden” hard drive slots as well, adding to the already copious amount of airflow within the unit. 

The headphone jack and extra USB slots are happily accompanied by a firewire slot.  Strangely enough they are found in the center of the top of the tower.  This seems a rather odd placement because in almost every placement conceivable they are entirely out of the way.  The only way that it seemed that these would work is if the case is placed on the floor, in the open and sideways to the user.   The cable that runs from them, though, is well placed enough that it can be run down the back of the case without being seen through the side window.

The case itself seems designed for cable management.  From the way that the front hard drives are positioned to the side, to having the cable for the USB and headphone jacks slide out of view the case seems to be designed to have the side window show off the insides.  When assembled properly, with cable management in mind, the case ends up looking very nice.  It is long and wide enough even for the giant of video cards currently being put out. 

The X-Jupiter Jr. case manages to be a pretty solid case for the amount asked.  Between the tool-less design and the airflow centric design the case promises to be a wonderful investment for those looking to build their first computer.  With spare parts included and plenty of room to expand into it is manages to have the elusive newbie friendly approval.  But with a heavy case and very awkward placement of the extra headphone jacks the case probably isn’t going to be for anyone but the newbies.

Tags: X-Jupiter Jr