Enermax Hoplite ST Mid-Tower Chassis

Down the face of the Hoplite ST you find a thick band of plastic at the top, bottom, and both of the sides. Then, in the mesh of the four bay covers and the large mesh panel over the intake you can see the "U"� shaped design pressed into the mesh. This leaves the little space in the middle for the Enermax name in chromed lettering.

As the front rolls over the edge and meets the top of the chassis you run right into the front I/O panel. Here you have a reset button, two USB 2.0 ports, the HD Audio jacks, a USB 3.0 port, three speed fan controller, activity LEDs and the power button.

Behind the I/O panel there is a slanted section on top that has a door covering the access to the connections under it now protected from dirt when not in use. The mesh behind it that allows an optional fan to blow through mimics the design of the bay covers design.

If you lift the front of the door up, it swings open to allow you to easily set in a storage drive as I did with this SSD and have hot swap capabilities. This will not only fit this 2.5"� drive, but any SATA 3.5"� hard drive as well.

Now looking in at the left side of the chassis you can see the thick plastic wraps three sides of the Hoplite as the feet continue with the parts on top and on the front. The "I"� shaped window is something I haven't seen, and I like the incorporated finger grip and angled fan mounting holes.

Looking much closer at the fan holes and the slits cut from the window shows that on both sides of the slits and coming off in one direction from every fan screw hole are these stress cracks I am pointing out with the white arrows. This is not something I want to see when staring in at my expensive hardware.

Behind the Hoplite ST you get four holes to pass water cooling tubing through, two at the top and two in the middle. The rest of the chassis is well ventilated including the seven expansion slots and the section next to them.

As I was checking things out, I noticed that two of the fan screws were stripped. The other one is not quite as bad as this, but again not something you would want in a brand new chassis.

Over on the right side when looking at the back of the chassis, you will find a handle that is folded flat against the chassis. Unfold it and it allows you to remove this really tight side panel.

The right side panel is just a large expanse of black textured paint on a steel panel that only offers the small finger hold to try to remove this super tight fitting panel.

Under the chassis you have long wide feet with much smaller rubber pads attached to them to keep the chassis from sliding around. Near the back, under where the PSU will install, there is a small removable dust filter to make cleaning a little easier.