AMS G-Mono Mid Tower Case (White) w/ Window - Articles / Reviews

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AMS G-Mono Mid Tower Case (White) w/ Window

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
Case-Mod
Jul. 6, 2003

The Box

When I received the package from Case-Mod, it came in its normal retail box, which has styrofoam surrounding the case to protect it. On one side of the box is the white Gmono, and on the other side is the black. When I opened up the box, as mentioned before, I found styrofoam on the sides of the case to protect it. Once I removed the case from the box, I saw that it was wrapped in plastic, and that there are stickers on the window to protect it from scratching easily. You may or may not like the physical appearance of the Gmono, it really just depends on your taste. My friends think it is 'blah' but I think it looks pretty decent. So many cases are silver and black, etc. so to me it is nice to see a plain white one finally. Again, whether you like how it looks depends on your personal preference. Let's take a closer look at Mr. Gmono...

Looking Closer

The first thing I did was take off the side panel and the sticker protecting the window. Doing this was easy considering it was held on by thumbscrews. It's nice that AMS decided to use thumbscrews instead of traditional screws because it allows for easy access. The right panel is also held on by thumbscrews, but sadly, the top does not follow suit, and is held in place by rivets. When you first take off the windowed side panel you will see a couple of things inside the case. There is a bag of assorted screws, a confusing sheet detailing USB connections from the USB circuit board, a big ugly speaker, the cables for connections, an I/O shield, and an 80mm exhaust fan in the rear of the case. Something to note is that this case has very few extra features, but it is after all a budget case. There are no removable cages and all the 3.5" and 5.25" mounting bays are riveted together. There is no motherboard tray. The PCI slots are not toolless, but those usually don't work well anyways because of tall graphics cards and sound cards.

Something that is not really a feature, but it is nice, is the fact that when you remove both side panels, it is actually very easy to mount hardware into the 3.5" and 5.25" bays because the right side allows easy access to them, unlike most cases. Granted, most cases these days have some sort of removable drive cages, be them latched or screwed, so they don't need to provide access to the bays from the right side, so AMS basically had to do this. You will also notice that there is only 1 fan mount (80mm OR 120mm) in the front for intake, and there are 2 fan mounts in the back for exhaust. Combined with the PSU exhaust fan, there are 3 exhausts and only 1 intake. This does not make for good airflow. I would like to see this case with 2 80mm fans side by side instead of 1 fan mount, with holes directly in front of the fans for better airflow. The way it is now, the fan mounts right behind a metal plate, with some holes an inch or so lower than the bottom of the fan. This means you get little to no airflow in your case, and the exhaust fans will only create a vacuum. There is a little bit of ventilation on the right panel on top and bottom, but that is not sufficient by any means. On to the front of the case...

The front of the case is the part I like the most. On the front is a clear arylic panel that gives a nice shiny look to the front of the case. Also on the front are chrome power and reset buttons as well as chrome screws that, unlike some other cases, actually remove the acrylic front panel. There is also a sheet of metal behind the acrylic, with the same cuts in it as in the acrylic, and it is painted white, but only on the front. The buttons look great and have a nice click feel to them. Also in the front are 2 USB ports, an Firewire port, a Microphone jack, and an Earphone jack. Also on the front are some holes to allow for some airflow into the case. The problem with the holes is that they are under where the fan would be mounted, and only a small amount of air will actually be sucked in, especially if you decide to mount an 80mm fan instead of a 120mm one. Also included are the drive bay covers, all 6 of them. They are painted white to match the case, but if you look closely, you can see that only the front surface is painted. The sides of the bay covers are left without paint, which can be seen from certain angles. Again, for $60 there isn't much I can get away with complaining about, but how much does a little extra paint cost, really?

Also, if you look at the bottom of the case, you will notice that there are 4 rubber feet. These can be removed via some small clips on the inside of the case. There really isn't much else to talk about in the feature department, let's talk a bit about the quality of the case...

Quality Inspection

The exterior of the case is fairly sturdy, and would be very hard to collapse, even though there aren't reinforcements in the corners. However, on the inside of the case, it appears that quality wasn't very important to AMS. The rail that extends between the PSU mount and the 5.25" bays is pretty thin and can be bent with a little effort. Another area where quality is lacking is in the rounding of edges inside the case. Although most edges are rounded to prevent injury upon working inside the case, there are a few places that didn't get rounded, and you could easily cut yourself. There are only 3 places in the case that I found to be potentially hazardous, and I included pictures of each.

Conclusion

Overall this is an okay case that is just alright for the budget-consumer. I personally think it looks pretty nice, but some may think it is "blah." The airflow in this case is badly designed meaning you will have unnecessary heat, which is never a good thing obviously. The utter lack of features is understandable considering that this is a budget case, but I still would like so see some sort of removable drive cages. I was also disappointed when I saw that not all the edges were rounded inside the case, meaning that if you are not careful, you can cut yourself, and nobody likes that. On a good note, I was pleased to see that AMS put a multimedia port in front (USB, Firewire, Mic, Headphone) and also included some thumbscrews for eash access to the inside of the case. The acrylic front panel also looks pretty cool along with the chrome screws and buttons. If you are someone who just wants a good looking case that won't be upgraded often, I would recommend this case to you. However, if you are like me, and like to play around inside the case a lot, I would suggest that you keep looking.

Pros

Nice simplistic style
Available in 2 colors
Optional window
Thumbscrews!
Front multimedia ports

Cons

No removable motherboard tray
No removable cages
Some sharp edges
Poor airflow

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