The Bitfenix Merc Alpha has three external 5.25” bays, one external/internal 3.5” bay, six internal 3.5” bays, and one internal 2.5” bay. The number of hard drive bays is impressive for a budget case. They don’t have tool-less installation mechanisms, but the case comes with several black thumbscrews for you to install the disk drives, which is terrific.
Figure 14: Disk drive bays
Figure 15: The 2.5” bay
We take a look at OCZ’s latest high performance 256 GB solid state drive, the Vertex 4. Let’s see how it compares to the competition.
The Athena Power AP-MFATX40P8 400 W is a tiny FlexATX power supply targeted to small form factor (SFF) computers with Mini-ITX motherboards, coming with the 80 Plus Bronze certification. Let’s check it out.
We tested this 560 W power supply with 80 Plus Bronze certification from Cougar. Let’s see if it is a good product.
Gladiator 600 is an inexpensive mid-tower case from Cooler Master, coming with a USD 60 suggested price in the US. Is it a good choice? Let’s see.
We added five more new thermal compounds to our previous roundup, for a total of 25 different thermal compounds from major brands. We also tried an “alternative” compound: lipstick.
The latest small form factor (SFF) case from SilverStone, the Sugo SG07, comes with a 600 W 80 Plus Bronze power supply. Let’s see if it is worthwhile to buy this case.