Testing Participants

ASUS TA-370

All recent system cases from ASUS come in rather plain-looking packages:

But the contents of the package may be surprising at times. The TA-370 is an example of that:

This is something, I should tell you. You can rather expect to see something like that at a modern arts exhibition than to have it for your own use as a PC system case. The front panel is designed in a most peculiar way:

The panel is wavy and is also like a volumetric chessboard. Most people who’ve seen this system case asked me one question, “Is it a case for a chess player’s computer?” Well, tastes differ, but I don’t think too many people are going to be fond of such an uncommon design. Let’s put aside the aesthetics factor, though, and get to worldly things like functionality.

In order not to impair the visual uniformity of the front panel, the developers put decorative faceplates into the top pair of 5.25” bays.

The disc eject buttons are camouflaged rather too well, and you may find it difficult to hit them in the evening in a dimly lit room. Moreover, the buttons are placed right on the flip-down faceplates and you cannot press one when the disc tray is open. This is not good because some optical drives – even from ASUS itself – do not take kindly to unceremonious treatment and successfully resist your trying to close the tray by pushing it back. The other two 5.25” bays are covered with ordinary brackets, so the designers’ attempts at uniformity are going to prove fruitless if you need to install something else besides two optical drives. The two external 3.5” bays are hidden under a flip-down cover:

This cover is handy enough. You just have to press anywhere on its top to open it up.