The Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 caught my eye in the April issue of MaximumPC, where it won a “Kick Ass” award with a perfect 10 out of 10. It had also been very favorably reviewed in the March issue of CPU magazine. Once I’d decided that the micro-ATX form factor wasn’t for me (at least not this time), I decided to take a closer look.

Gigabyte is best known for their motherboards and graphics cards, but had a chassis hit a few years ago with the original Aurora case, which won several design awards around the world and garnered many DIY fans. Gigabyte cases are particularly well known for being water-cooling friendly, which quickly moved this model to the top of my list.

My biggest concern about this case was size, especially since I was originally thinking about a small form factor enclosure. When you think about it, though, even if you’re a frequent LAN-goer (maybe 48 hours a month), you’re still looking at a situation where the case will be in one spot 94% of the time. I’m more of a once-every-three-months LAN party person, so I’m looking at a case that will be at rest on my desk top 99% of the time. For the benefit of having a great — if somewhat large — case, I’m willing to suffer lugging it around less than 1% of the time.

The Aurora IS a big case, measuring 205mm W x 522mm H x 570mm D. The width and height of the case aren’t much bigger than a large-sized mid-tower design, but the depth is considerable: if you have a normal-sized home or student desk, this case may not fit on top or under it if you place it face-forward (perpendicular to the length of the desk). I plan to put the case on top of my corner desk, with the length parallel to the long part of the desk, so this wasn’t as much of an issue for me. Plus, I want the case’s side window facing out so that viewers will be wowed by my nifty water-cooling system.

After reading numerous online and print reviews of the case (see the references), I concluded that this would be the right solution for my build. Here are the relevant stats on the case:

• five 5.25” drive bays
• two 3.5” FDD drive bays
• five internal 3.5” hard drive bays
• three 120mm fans with blue LEDs (one intake, two exhaust)
• aluminum construction with nickel-plated steel back panel
• internal storage box for tools / accessories
• two predrilled rubber passthroughs for water cooling tubes
• tool-free drive bays and PCI fastener

I purchased the case from NewEgg, and it arrived in a couple days. The box was HUGE, which didn’t help to assuage my fears about the size of this monster. Once unpacked, I was slightly more comfortable: Gigabyte provides more than adequate packing space in the box, so the shipping box was enormous. As is often the case with big packages, the shipping box was slightly crushed at one corner, but the packaging prevented any damage to the chassis itself.

As expected, the package included the chassis itself, the clear plexi side window (see below), a cable kit, motherboard standoffs, drive bay rails, security keys, screws, and a manual. 

The chassis scores well in all the important case factors that we looked at previously, including space, cooling capability, features, and construction quality. The interior of the case is very roomy, which makes up for the lack of a removable motherboard tray. This case will easily fit the latest and greatest extra-long graphics cards, with room to spare, and can accommodate some of the longer PSUs on the market today.

The single, 120mm intake fan sits at the bottom of the front of the chassis to pull cool air over the hard drive bays, and the dual 120mm exhaust fans sit a little above mid-way up the back of the case, close to where the heat-producing CPU will reside. I’ve read that 120mm fans are the “sweet spot” in terms of volume of air moved to noise ratio, and several reviewers have commented on how quiet these fans are. The rubber pass-throughs will make adding an internal or external water cooling system a snap: no worries about having to use up an expansion slot to pass the hoses through.

Tool-free bays means HDDs and optical drives should be easy to add and remove. One of the unique features of the case is the black plastic tool box which occupies the lower three HDD drive bays. This box came packed with the drive rails, screws, and other miscellaneous items for the case. This box can be used to hold small tools or other items after setup is complete. If you need the additional drive bays for drives, the box is easily removed. I also liked that the drive cage sits so that the backs of the drives (the sides with the connectors) face outward toward the side of the case, rather than toward the motherboard. This should make cabling the drives even easier, though with the new, smaller SATA drive cables this shouldn’t be as big an issue as it was with the old “lasagne” ribbon cables.

Another unique feature of the case, which some reviewers like and some do not, is the LED projector built into the front of the case near the bottom. This projector shines down on whatever surface the case is sitting on and displays an image (“Aurora 3D” by default) in blue LED light. The image can be personalized by swapping out the existing acetate design for your own. Guess I’ll have to think of what mine will show….

Next time: power to the people!