Picking A Case

The Lian Li case that I went with for the Lunchbox 3 build was perfect for what we needed. It was small, had a built in handle, and had just enough room for me to pack a few high-end components into it. For the past three years we have been using it faithfully. The problem I ran into though is as much as I loved the build, it really flew under the radar. Even with the custom Star Wars artwork on the side, almost no one noticed it at events with the exception of right after I published out coverage and a few people wanting to check it out. I’m not saying being flashy is a requirement, but I did learn that it is fun to have people walk by and say how much they love your PC and Lunchbox 3 didn’t do that. At all. So when picking out a new case I was really aiming to find something that would fit everything but would at least catch your eye a little. I came across the Raijintek Metis and with its color options, It fit the bill. Its all-aluminum design was anodized red and with a window, people could actually take a look inside of the build without me having to run with the side panel off at all. So let’s take a quick look around the case. Our Metis came in this tiny box with a basic line drawing of the case on the outside. The box ended up getting banged up in shipping really good but the foam around the case on the inside kept everything safe. My one issue though was the tape Raijintek used to keep everything together in shipping, when pulling it up it left a lot of residue on the case that took a lot of time to clean off.

The Metis is bright red but has a silver machined edge around the front of the case. The front panel is actually just a thick aluminum panel but they did slip the Raijintek R logo down at the bottom and up top it has a Vander style power button that is also aluminum. The right side panel has an acrylic window installed in it. The window is a little unusual, it is actually mounted to the outside of the case where most are mounted from the inside these days. You can also see the thick socket head bolts that it is installed with as well because they are chrome and sticking out.

The top of the Metis wraps around the sides with its rounded corners, matching the rounded corners on the front of the case. The front I/O panel is up at the front edge keeping it near the front power button. You get two USB 3.0 ports with microphone and headphone jacks in between. The split design is a great way to make sure there is more than enough room around the USB connections for thick thumb drives.

The left side panel would be considered the back side panel because it is behind the motherboard tray. The side panel is held on with four screws so don’t expect easy to use thumb screws to get in and out of the Metis. The side panel is covered half way with drilled holes for ventilation. Considering the lack of airflow on the front, top, and other side this vent is a good portion of the cases airflow.

In the back, we get our first look at a panel that isn’t bright red. The back is made out of a thin wall steel and is finished in a flat black that looks great with the red. The rear I/O hole takes up a large portion of the back. Then the cases only fan sits above it as a rear exhaust fan, the fan is 120mm. The two PCI slots have a plastic box covering the top, I’m not a huge fan of this but it does cover the gap on top of the PCI slots. Normally cases will have a sliding panel to cover those gaps but the Metis doesn’t have that space because right next to that space is a rear mounted power cable connection. This allows for a non-rear mounted power supply, something that is needed to fit everything in such a small space.

On the bottom of the Metis, we can see where the power supply mounts with its large hole. In addition to that, there are a few holes over on the left for the two SSD mounting locations. For feet, the Metis uses a weird triangle shaped rubber feet on each corner. They lift the case up high enough for the PSU to be able to blow air out the bottom of the case.

The inside layout of the Metis really can’t get much simpler. Being a small Mini-ITX case most of the case is actually the motherboard. The motherboard tray just has the four mounting points and a large hole in the middle to get access to the back of the CPU though most cases are going with a slightly larger hole these days. With ITX boards the CPU moves around a lot more depending on the manufacturer. Beyond that, the rest of the case is taken up by the full ATX power supply that sits vertically up front.

The bottom of the case has two 2.5 inch mounting points. The mounts all have rubber grommets to help keep the vibration down. The power supply mount is over on the left and sits up slightly to fit the right angled power cable that runs the power plug back to the back of the case.

Up on top Raijintek also slipped in a bracket up above the two PCI slots up top for a 3.5-inch drive if you need one.

For cooling the Metis only has the 120mm exhaust fan pushing out the back and the holes drilled in the left side panel behind the motherboard tray for intake vents.