ENERMAX HOPLITE ST ECA3261-W ATX Case

INTERNAL IMPRESSIONS Pt. 1:
COOLING

Cooling In the Mid Tower HOPLITE ECA3261 allows:

One Upper 140/120mm Fan fits above the frame under the upper shroud. There is not room for a radiator on the outside of the case frame. Inside cooling options will require planning with motherboard, memory, bridge/choke heat spreaders  that could be in the way of a radiator/fan option here.

One Front 120mm fan port and one clear bright white LED fan comes supplied for cooling. However, unless you remove ALL HDD internal drive bays there is no radiator space here. A MOD removing the lower drive bay section which is riveted in place could open up radiator space but no internal drive bays would remain.

Recently I built in a case three times the price of this and had to remove the connections to pull out the internal drive bay to get at the lower front fan. I like this idea attaching the front fan to a swing out door secured to case with one screw. It’s smart solution to fan repair and replacement when the riveted lower drive bay section in the way.

One Rear 120mm fan port. One clear bright white LED fan comes supplied for cooling. 
There is some space internally for a radiator depending on motherboard layout in the rear at 120mm sized radiator.
I think design planning missed a popular option here. A rear exterior radiator is not possible due to the lip of the side panel and a cut around would have allowed some options, even a external fan. If desired a mod would have to solve this by trimming the panel lip and relocating the panel thumb screw.

Acrylic window vents for two 120mm or smaller with holes pre-made. I’m not a fan of the pre-made grills in side panels.
Holes for every size fan 120mm down and BTW I think a 140mm would of fit on this panel. Why not set-up for a 200mm too? For the builder that’s planning a air cooled system and not wanting to mod you should be happy. Luckily for the Modder the acrylic can be removed easily with the pop rivets and used for a template to remake.

Now this isn’t a full blown high wattage per channel fan controller. Matter of fact I could not find any rating per channel for this controller and would only use one fan per connection with three fans controllable from the three speed front panel slide switch.
Look close, every port and switch here is recessed and safe except this fan slide switch that sits above about 1/8th inch. I think this could have been a roller switch or three button recessed switch and it all would have been good.

All front drive bays and lower front panel are mesh for air flow with sponge dust filter.
Removable by Pinch catches on each side that feel higher quality than expected for a budget case.

Closed Loop water cooling units such like Antec KUHLER H2O 620 or 920, Corsair Hydro H80 work in the rear location of the case. I would still measure and watch for heatsink or memory height.
The upper case can only be used with the closed loop units like the Thermaltake Water2.0 Performer, Antec KUHLER H2O 620 or Corsair Hydro H60 with the fan on the outside of the case when using a full ATX Motherboard, measure carefully. Units like Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro, KÜHLER H2O 920 or Corsair Hydro H80 are too thick for the upper section option. Thermaltake Water2.0 Extreme, Corsair HYDRO H100 will not fit without modification.