Overclockaholics Forums - Gigabyte "Upgrade Your Life" Show Case

I am sure many of you have seen these cases at overclocking events, trade shows and events like CES.

It’s the Gigabyte "Upgrade Your Life" Show Case.

I was very fortunate to have one of these beautiful cases sent to me. It was a used case and had been around a bit I think, but that’s no matter.

Here is a typical Gigabyte setup at a show.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7758/dsc02471ne.jpg

So let’s break one of these cases down, see how’s its built and put in a starter setup to see how it all works and looks.

Here we have just the base of the case where you would house the PSU and drives.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/4333/img1572tl.th.jpg http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3474/img1573x.th.jpg http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7...g1574tb.th.jpg
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7092/img1575l.th.jpg

Inside behind the GIGABYTE logo on the front you will find two light bars that are connected to a switch on the top of the bottom part of the case. You can turn the lights off and on from there.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/4388/img1576e.th.jpg

We can now look at the top part of the case where the motherboard and other parts will be located at. A few close ups of the Power/Reset switches are located and what the corner joints look like.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2340/img1577te.th.jpg http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/4217/img1579q.th.jpg http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5996/img1578py.th.jpg
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/9613/img1580w.th.jpg http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/5402/img1581o.th.jpg

And we can put it all together and see the complete but empty case.

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5885/img1582.th.jpg http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/7852/img1583c.th.jpg http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4796/img1584j.th.jpg

I have installed the first build into the case using
GA-P55A-UD6
Intel Core I7 870
9800gx2 Graphics Card
4gb Dominator 2000mhz RAM
Megahalem Air Cooler
32gb MTRON PRO SSD
1x 75gb Raptor HDD
1x DVD Drive
Coolermaster Ultimate 1100watt PSU

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/6...g1585hu.th.jpg http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/723/img1586u.th.jpg http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9932/img1587.th.jpg

As you can see even with this big monster Air Cooler there is still plenty of space inside this case.
The PSU is a problem with all its cables. I really prefer modular PSU’s so you don’t have a huge amount of cables to worry about if you don’t need them all.
Also the DVD drive that I have is a flat ribbon type and that would not reach all the way inside the case, a SATA drive would be much better for this.
Mounting the drives inside is no easy task. There is mounting brackets but putting in screws on the side nearest the front is extremely hard. So for now I just have them laying inside the case. The DVD will be removed after the OS is installed, until I can get a SATA drive.

But let’s fire it up and turn on the lights and see how this baby looks.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7380/img1591z.jpg

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4...g1588zx.th.jpg http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4...g1589yu.th.jpg http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/673/img1590i.th.jpg
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9959/img1591t.th.jpg http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/2336/img1592q.th.jpg

Additional things I need to do are to get some nice fans that light up for the two locations on the right and left of the top part of the case. Plus general clean up and some additional equipment to make it all nice.

I very soon learned though that plastic cases are very hard to keep clean. It came in a box with filler material for shipping protection that had dust that needed to be cleaned off, it was not easy. Where I live we also get a lot of dust in the Central Valley of California so keeping it clean might be a problem.

Over all this is a very nicely made case, sturdy and able to be moved around with ease. It’s nice to have a bench table like setup that looks clean, easy to work in and shows off your computer build very nicely.

I would like to say thanks to Gigabyte for their kindness in sending this case to me, I didn’t have to bug them to much LOL.

I will post some updates to this when I get a chance

Thanks for viewing and I hope you enjoyed it :D