In the beginning there was beige, and it was good. Then a case modder said “Let there be light” and there was born a quad LED fan. The case modder saw the LED fan and it was good. But more had to be done, and so began the rebirth of the computer case market. What was once a pretty standard market, i.e. one size fits all has now become as vast and diverse as the people the manufacturers cater to. Nowadays you can purchase a case ranging from the tried-and-true steel, beige beast to an all aluminum beauty so tricked out even the Honda boy’s have to say “Damn!”

One such manufacturer in the ever changing world of pc cases is Enermax. Quite a few of you know them for their popular line of rock-solid power supplies, but did you know they manufacture cases as well? Riding on their increasing sales figures which were pushed by the increasing popularity in the psu market, they diversified and spread to what was at the time, a small, but growing market on the verge of exploding. Today we’ll be looking at one of their newest offerings, the CS-EN5281X-Bb. Now say that five times fast! It offers a steel frame and all aluminum panels, minus the plastic faceplate, this case is definitely geared towards those who just want to be able to plug in their hardware and go yet still have a unique looking case. That is assuming everybody and their grandmother doesn’t rush out and buy the same model.

So how does it stack up to other aluminum case manufacturing heavyweights like Lian Li and Cooler Master? We’ll be looking at the case from the front, back, and everything in between to see if it’s worth your well earned green.