Bitfenix Merc Value Gaming Case Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2012-05-07
·
1,061 words · ~5 min read
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welcome to my unboxing of the bit Phoenix MC this is the oh hold on
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there's two versions there's the alpha with the window um and then there's the
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beta which does not wait hold on now I'm confused well we have the
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alpha so we're going to find out exactly what that is once we get it opened up so
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bit Phoenix has been releasing a number of fairly interesting cases one of the
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things that really sets them apart from their competition is their soft feel or
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soft touch finish which basically feels
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instead of like a painted metal or like
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plastic feels kind of like a velvety
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velvety soft plastic and I don't know
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how to describe it other than you know high-end gaming mice how they often have
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like a bit of a rubberized or like a soft grip to them it's kind of like that
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and at some point the case comes out of the
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box and at that point in time and no
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sooner we can take a closer look at
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it so value gaming cases ouch it shocked
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me that hurt value gaming cases are no new thing
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for bit Phoenix uh we had a look at the outlaw a little while ago which was kind
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of cool because it used that
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uh altered ATX style and it was as far
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as I can tell the least expensive case
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to ever use that design so here we go
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with the Merc so aha the alpha has the
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cooling panel on the side so this basically does not look like we can
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mount a 12 mm fan but I wouldn't be that surprised if you could kind
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of like kaj it to uh to work so hold on a
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second let's just grab a fan that doesn't have here we go so let's
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see it looks like it does line
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up yeah so you can just use the the
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outside holes here in order to screw a fan in if you really wanted to cool okay
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maybe they intended that surely they intended that they call it a cooling
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side panel so the alpha has cooling side panel 2x1
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20 mm optional see I I haven't come up with anything new here so on the top
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we've got dual 120 mm fans as well and
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then on the back we have an additional 120 mm fan you can also mount a 92 or an
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80 mm fan on the back should you see fit
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couple water cooling holes we've got seven expansion slots in this particular
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case so you're going to be fitting standard ATX motherboard boards only in
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here let's have a closer look at the front before we get any further actually
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this case does not have soft touch so this is meant to be more of a straight
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value case we've got a 3 and 1/2 in expansion Bay two 5 and a 3 5 and 1/4 in
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expansion Bays uh mesh at the front here
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and on the top we have four USB 2.0 microphone headphones power and reset
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switches so let's go ahead and take the side panel off
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here which hopefully I can do ah there we go it comes out this way
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okay we've got our front panel connectors these are all uh covered in a
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black uh heat shrink and then uh here heat shrink at the end and then just a
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black sleeving so we've got our HD audio we've got two USB front panel connectors
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and then last but not least we've got our front power reset switch hard drive
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LEDs and all that good stuff inside layout doesn't look like really much of
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anything too too different from what we've seen in the past from a variety of
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different is so hard drive wise we' got 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3 and 1/2 in hard drives
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we've got another 12 mm fan here in the bottom so in terms of cooling there's a
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fair number of options that are available to you I'm just going to go
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ahead and pull this out so there are two
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120 mm cooling fan positions in the
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front and if you go ahead and squeeze these together it comes out a lot more
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easily I suspect oh interesting
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having a bit of trouble here give me a sec guys got it guys I just had to heave on
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it a little bit so we've got two 120 mm cooling fans here in the front looks
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like you can also Mount 92s if you so desire so you can use those to cool your
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drives here you can see the inside of the case as a whole so there's the
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interface for the front panel what not
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but I can't really think of any good reason why
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you'd there we go want to disconnect those so we'll just leave those attached
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what else we got here CPU cutout is
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right here so it's a fairly small CPU cutout but as long as your CPU socket
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isn't sort of more to the right then you shouldn't have too much trouble reaching
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a back plate uh CPU Cooler and replacing
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it without actually removing the
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motherboard from the case I guess there's not too much else to say bottom
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mounted power supply um 120 mil fan here
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two 120s in the front all black interior which may may not matter to you because
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you can see inside the case a little bit but it's going to be less if you
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actually Mount fans here so there that should give you guys some idea of how
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much you can actually see down into the case so I do like the all black
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Interiors but I'm personally more uh more inclined to say it's necessary if
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you do have a side panel window so thank you for checking out my unboxing and
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first look at the bit Phoenix MC don't forget to subscribe to L Tech tips for
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