A visual examination
The Studio XPS chassis is a mix of plastic that sits on top of a metal frame. Finish quality isn't the best, as the same chassis is used on lower-end models, but the cool styling deflects some of the budget origins of the case.
A single button is located on the front, just above a grilled/ventilation section that, to some extent, aids internal airflow.
Externally, a total of three 5.25in bays are shown, but the lowest one is fronted by a push-down door that hides various ports.
And here it is pushed down and locked into place. Four USB2.0 ports are decent and the mini-FireWire400 is also sensible.
Knowing how small the chassis is, standing at 36cm high, gaining access to these ports requires the user to kneel down alongside, so top-mounted ports would have been a better idea, we reckon.
Just to put it into perspective, here it is lined up against a regular-sized Cooler Master 110B (the best chassis ever made - ed).
The back houses an 92mm exhaust fan that helps remove the heat build-up caused by having a small chassis with some hot-running components. There is no front intake fan, though.
Connectivity options, once again, are good, and you can see the TV tuner card, graphics card, and soundcard at the very bottom.
Opening the chassis up by removing a couple of thumbscrews, the mATX X58 board becomes apparent.
The motherboard does without some of the fancy gadgetry found on partners' retail examples - it's a basic board that provides the necessary supporting core logic - X58 and ICH10 - for running the various components from.
