Outside

Cougar obviously wanted to give the Spike some character, but outside of the front face plate, its a very standard box regarding the exterior. The face plate does have add personality to the case, featuring many accents within a raised frame. The three external drive bays, two 5.25" and one 3.5", are flushed against the inner most surface accompanied with the USB ports, one 2.0 and one 3.0. The fan area protrudes back to the frame's height and declines to the bottom of the case sporting a honeycomb mesh design for improved air flow. 

As mentioned, the remainder of the case is fairly vanilla: straight, flat surfaces except the left side panel with features optional fan mounting areas. While the MSRP is certainly a big perk of the Spike, you can feel it in the material. The metal is pretty thin and can seem a bit flimsy.

The side panels come together with thumb screws on the back of the case, and the PSU cutout is an obvious giveaway that it will be top mounted. No grommets are here for any sort of water cooling adapation.