Interior Impressions continued

Carrying on from the previous page, we’re happy to report that the features list, much like the energizer bunny, just keeps going and going and going. As much as we’d like to stop for a second to comment, it’s best if we held off until the end to start gushing.


Once again we’re assailed with IN-WIN’s choice of colours when examining the tool-less card slot mechanism. Aesthetics aside, this design works quite well since it’s as easy as snapping the levers down onto the top of the card in place of the standard screw. Installed cards are fairly well secured, but the design is such that standard screws can be used without needing to remove the locking mechanism.


Ever had to go digging through your parts bin looking for a set of proprietary drive rails in order to add another HDD to your system? The B2 offers a well engineered 5 ¼ bay storage bin solution. Providing a secure storage device for the rails is quite handy even if we choose not to leave it installed in the 5 ¼ bay (more on that during the installation phase of the review). Included are enough slots for the 4 HDD, 2 Optical, and 2 FDD sets of vibration reducing mounting rails.


Looking at the back of the case side, we’re greeted with a telescoping fresh air vent designed to provide fresh air to the CPU socket. Not only does the vent adjust down for the best fit over a stock Intel fan, it also moves fore & aft to adjust for slight differences in CPU socket placement on various motherboards. The second vent provides an intake for the two internal 80mm fans, and both intakes include filters.

Obviously, the telescoping air vent will either have to be removed or modified in order to install larger after-market air cooling on the CPU. Closer examination shows us that cutting the vent down would be a better solution as the filter is held in place by the base of the vent.


As a hardware enthusiasts’ site, one of the questions we’re often asked about our choice of case is how best to manage wires within the case both for looks and for good airflow. Many mid sized cases appear at first glance to have everything going for them, yet once hardware starts piling up inside of them the reality of poor wire management possibilities rears its ugly head.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, once again we’re struck by how much forethought went into the design of the B2 Stealth Bomber case. Providing space for unused wiring in a mid-tower case is usually an afterthought, but in this case it’s obvious that IN-WIN incorporated wire management into the original design concept. Not only is there ample room in these recessed areas on the back side of the case, there are also plenty of access points for routing wires into them. If that wasn’t enough, including yet another well placed wire clamp further cements our view that IN-WIN had us users in mind when they designed this case.

In concluding our tour of the case internals, what can we say that hasn’t already slipped out during our descriptions of what we've found? Not only does the B2 have every feature we’d want to see in a mid-tower case, all of those features have been well engineered from the bottom up. Make no mistake; this isn’t your father’s IN-WIN case.