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USA EditionYou are located: Home > Reviews > Cases, Cooling & PSU > GameTiger Mars VA-2 Gaming Mid-Tower Chassis Review

GameTiger Mars VA-2 Gaming Mid-Tower Chassis Review

By: (more) | Cases, Cooling & PSU Content | Posted: Sep 12, 2012 4:39 am
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TweakTown Rating: 92%    Manufacturer: GameTiger

Inside the GameTiger Mars VA-2

 

gametiger_mars_va_2_gaming_mid_tower_chassis_review

 

Removing the panels is simple enough and it exposes the inside of the Mars VA-2. The first thing that grabbed my eye was the red plastic separator plate. This keeps video cards separated from the memory and CPU. You also see the wires are tied up to keep them from flopping about and the hardware box is slid into the HDD rack. Lastly, no matter where you look, there are red tool-less latches on everything.

 

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The tool-less mechanisms here need the latch to be pulled to the left to open and go under spring tension. Once the drive is close, release the tab to the right and the spring tension presses the tabs in. All you have to id jiggle the drive and the clips on both sides hold the drive very secure.

 

gametiger_mars_va_2_gaming_mid_tower_chassis_review

 

The hard drive bays are only 3.5"¯ wide to allow the use of similar clips to the ones I explained on the ODD bays. They are a bit smaller, but work in the same way. Being slimmer than the top bays, it also offers room for wiring behind it.

 

gametiger_mars_va_2_gaming_mid_tower_chassis_review

 

Under the roof of the Mars case, you find a pair of plastic dust filters installed over the 120mm fan mounts, but no fans - these are optional.

 

gametiger_mars_va_2_gaming_mid_tower_chassis_review

 

The motherboard tray offers a small CPU cooler access hole and a lot of shapes pressed into the tray for structural reasons. On the right you get a pair of management holes as well as a large and smaller one in front of where the PSU installs.

 

gametiger_mars_va_2_gaming_mid_tower_chassis_review

 

The floor of the chassis has the plastic dust filter you see out of the chassis set on the floor and held in with tabs. While it is nice to have a dust filter under the PSU, once installed, it will make this filter tough to replace correctly.

 

gametiger_mars_va_2_gaming_mid_tower_chassis_review

 

As does the front fan, the 120mm found in the rear of the case is also powered with a Molex connector. Unlike the front fan this one does not have red LEDs in it. As for the latches on the expansion slots, these are pretty cool. You lift the tab to unlock it and then slide it out to the open side of the case. Once the card is in place you push it forward until you hear the tab lock back into place.

 

gametiger_mars_va_2_gaming_mid_tower_chassis_review

 

The wiring isn't very long since the I/O panel is so low in the chassis, but everything it long enough to connect and have some slack left to make a clean trip to their connections. You get beige covered wiring for the USB 2.0 and HD Audio, but black for the native USB 3.0 connection. The rainbow ribbon cable, those are your front panel leads.

 

gametiger_mars_va_2_gaming_mid_tower_chassis_review

 

There isn't a ton of room behind the tray, but with creative offsets and conveniently placed holes, you can get quite a bit of wiring on the left section and behind the 3.5"¯ drives and still get the panel on easily.


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