They're finally available, FWIW. $69 from Newegg for the black or beige versions.

A lot of people have been waiting for this nice looking case. The caveat of course is the apparently poor ventilation due to the lack of any openings on the front bezel. Rumor has it that MikeC actually has one of these to review but he hasn't coughed up any definitive info about the possible ventilation issues yet.

no provision for a firewire port on the front bezel, or is it just not shown? the pictures on the GMC site seem to imply that there is no firewire option. these pictures also suggest that there is some way for the air to get in through the front, but it's not as obvious and likely to not be as effective as an open and obvious air passage.

There is no FireWire port on any version of the NeoClassic. Which is odd. I'd rather have Firewire than an IDE connection.

If I had a drive that I wanted to connect often enough to warrant a port for I would either install it or buy an external enclosure for it. An external enclosure in either USB 2.0 or Firewire would be much more convenient than an IDE.

But what's nice about that panel down there is that it fronts a conventional 5.25" bay. It would be a great location to suspend an HDD, and put a perforated bay cover in place of the IO panel that is there.

That would help solve this otherwise excellent case's poor intake situation. As is the only air intake is on the underside of the front bezel and it is blocked by that IO panel they have there.

That IDE port on the front is odd. Maybe if it was a server case I would understand, but this isn't. Maybe they are just trying to be "different".

Help me out here. What's so "excellent" about this case? I viewed the pictures at newegg and.. uh.. ? so?

1mm Thick steel
11 drive bays
Built-in dampening on case interior, including backs of drive covers
Silicon coated to reduce vibration and resonance
Comes with 4 15dBa ADDA fans
Includes silicon dampening pads for PSU and fans
Decoupled HDD cage
The interesting bottom mounted 5.25" bay.

And it's 30% less expensive than the Sonata

It looks to be something similar to pax.mate on the inside to me plus no room for 120mm or even 92mm fans. Does anyone use this and like it?

I've been waiting for this case to hit the U.S. for a while and ordered it as soon as it was available. I got the beige one today and guess what...

It appears to be a cheap knockoff or bargain version of the "Real" Neo Classic Case.

The silicon coating on the inside of the case - missing
The antivibration pads for the inner panels of the case - missing
The Clamshell pack with the antivibration pads, colored screws, etc - missing
Two of the silent case fans - missing

You get the picture. The whole purpose for this case (silence) is gone.

I'm returning mine for a full refund since it appears that every Neo Classic case NewEgg.com has in stock is the same. Big Problem!!

I'm not sure wether to blame NewEgg for this or GMC??

Well Caveat effing Emptor!

That's odd..

Did you have Newegg check the other boxes to see if the "accessories" were missing from them too? FWIW, the pictures on Newegg's site don't show any of the accessories that you can see in the pictures of the "same" case on the GMC site

(emphasis their's) But it only says that on the listing for the Black case, so you could infer that since the white case doesn't say that, that it does include the extras.

But the pics do show the acoustic dampening installed, and the sticker that they show on the front of the case does show all the other extra's included.

And since Newegg doesn't explain what the "extended package" is you may have a claim.

Newegg will probably come back by quoting their " Please note: due to manufacturer version updates, pictures may vary from the actual item. Newer versions of this item may be shipped before the picture shown is updated" disclaimer, but to that a good response would be, " not including the extras is not a manufacturer version upgrade, its a downgrade to a cheaper version. It's like showing a 2Ghz CPU and then shipping me a 1Ghz"

So give it a shot.

Pics of the beige one (the one I linked and the one that DImblum purchased) don't show the accessory stickers on the front bezel nor does it even mention them in the product description so I'd say he could easily be SOL.

ok, so who DOES sell these cases in the configurations that this community wants to see?

Yeah, I got stiffed with this case too when I bought it from a German dealer. No silicon coating, no sound damping, no clamshell, no fans. I was under the impression that the whole selling point of this case was its modifications for silencing, without which we have a pretty regular steel case IMO. The IDE for me is a bonus as I have a spare noisy HDD which I'm not willing to install but would like to use for backups, otherwise I'd have returned it. As it stands, I've added some MagicFleece, bought four Panaflos and a fan controlller and plan to get it up and running tomorrow.

But I agree - what gives?

Cams,

I think you have the right idea. If they are not going to sell the Neo Classic with the correct components in the U.S., then maybe we can purchase the parts seperately.

I was able to locate seperate silicon power supply washers ($6) and silicone washers for 80mm fans ($20 for four).

Add some sound dampening material on the panels plus four silent fans and bingo.

This would duplicate the real components of the Neo Classic minus the silicone coating on the inner walls of the case.

What is your experience with Magic Fleece? I have heard that certain sound dampening material smells worse than !@#!..

I'll check into the total cost of these extras and maybe keep the case afterall.

I'll let you know when I get it up and running which should be in a couple of hours all being well.

Here's a place that distributes the NeoClassic black version and specifically claims that it's the silent version with the dampening material and coated case walls. Here's a blurb from their ad copy:



Just for grins I followed one of the links on their page to Compusa Business and they actually are selling them for a measly $129. Here's the link.

And here it is at Buy.com for $104.