Gadgetory

tell us your PC wishlist and you can win a custom PC from NCIX and hardware connects check the description to learn more so you guys know our history with cases and one common aspect between all of them was the lack of initial user flexibility and sense that you just received an end product from manufacturer but if you ever wondered what it'd be like to choose your fan mount side panels top panels case feed color configuration front panel connectors and Bay covers to really customize your chassis to your own personal preference and hardware well there aren't that many companies that do that so today we're taking a look at a fully customizable chassis from case labs this is their mercury s5 with a pedestal now here we have a full ingredients list if you will for all the possible side panel options and such but the base price for the s5 and the pedestal are 260 and 150 respectively now your experience with case lamps starts with a chassis of your choice followed by a huge list of customizable options so you just need to have a preconceived idea of what your final build will look like as getting separate panels after your order is complete is a bit costly the case will arrive disassembled and putting things together it's really simple and actually a lot of fun you'll be working with 100% aluminium construction which is really light but super sturdy as well and very modern friendly 2.3 millimeter thick frame and one point six millimeters for doors and exterior covers you really have to work with the case to see how amazing everything feels but you can also just trust me all the panels are sitting on these two last hinges so removing them is really simple you can also replace the hinges after some time as they might get loose for example on our sample we're not tight enough to hold the panel and the polls just kind of went through but you can manually tighten them as I did here now one comes to bay covers case labs has you covered the s5 has seven five in the quarter inch drive base and depending on your build different Bay cover sizes are available both in solid and ventilated formats a dual 120 millimeter fan bracket is available there is a very popular option for a 240 millimeter radiator or a single 140 millimeter with a standard 2 4 remember really are installed with the tubing at the top it will prevent clearance for the top bay but using a low profile fan controller will work and of course flipping the radiator with tubing at the bottom will clear up the top base slot the s5 has a 120mm that cutout leading into the pedestal for tubing to pass through it's exactly what we'll be doing for our water cooling setup but first let's check out the rest of the chassis the front panel connectors are replaceable and our unit is equipped with PR buttons and only two USB 3 ports coming to the top if you are using the pedestal to house all your radiators and window panel would be sweet to show off your hardware but of course we do have ventilated options as well with a top rated or bracket a slightly taller ventilated panel is also available that allows fans to be installed above the bracket for just a little extra internal clearance if you decide to do push and pull I also like to point out that none of the panels are dust proof which as you know I think should be a standard with all cases and we followed up with case labs about this and it's something they're working on and due to the variable nature of what people are doing with the chassis they'd rather let users decide on the type of filters that they use now on topic of panels we have a full window half window or ventilated panel again that would depend on your budget and system preference for example having a full window on the left showcasing your GPU and the drives while only a half window on the right side to cover up all the cables from the power supply now let's take off the panels and see how the mercury s5 handles the system the optional pedestal is attached with four screws so you can just easily remove it the s5 supports two mechanical drives with four SSDs that are installed in their own chamber the 3.5 inch drives are mounted using insert method with really high quality rubber grommets and the drives are facing the cutout for proper SATA pass-through from the power supply chamber mounting SSDs however is a little more work you do have to screw the drives in place and that means taking off the SSD bracket which also means taking out your toolbox to unscrew these nuts so you will need a wrench I really would have preferred thumb screws or at least a screw that I can you with a regular screwdriver but once in place you can also see there is quite a bit of unused room closer to the front that I think could potentially house another SSD cage the front panel cables we pass through a single rubber grommet and underneath the motherboard tray that is also removable for those wanting to work with a motherboard off the case the CPU cutout as you can see it's fairly large and right underneath there there's the ventilation for your power supply so case labs has pretty much thought of everything users would need when building a system into this micro ATX chassis the pedestal underneath is really meant for housing radiators optional power supplies are used for additional storage all these options are of course available at your initial order and of course anything to place in those bay covers and here we have a 360 member radiator bracket along with a 240 slash to 80 millimeter bracket on the other side both are easily removable and given we have a little over 11 inches of width for the case push and pull on each side with thick 60 millimeter radiators is actually doable the smaller radiator bracket allows for drive base to be populated and that's exactly what we'll be doing with this dual bay pump reservoir combo provided from dosmo comm and using the cutout at the top to route all of our tubing to attach anything in the drive base we first need to mount these Bay brackets very simple to do and everything just fits in place now the large brackets are okay for optical drives or dual pay reservoirs like you see here but key slabs also includes a pair of low-profile bracket to be used with the low-profile fan controllers and with the reservoir installed at the bottom we still have over 11 centimeters of clearance so push and pull with thick radiator is a possibility now we are using dark side radius from dash mode we first mounted everything onto the bracket and then into the s5 which is totally hassle-free also if you are mounting radiators on both sides of pedestal you can remove the floor with a few screws to get access to tubing which is something very clever and totally useful we also get a fan mount in the basement either for exhaust or for intake depending on how you set up your radiator cooling and finally starting with the assembly we get our bottom and top exhaust ready install our front to 40min rad which is super easy to do with just a few thumb screws and we're also mounting a 360 rad at the top as well since we have the taller top panel for the fans to be above the frame we are using an ek supreme water block provided from dash mode that has an awesome Canadian mark on there with a maple leaf and mounting that onto the motherboard and we are good to go now we've got everything set up before running all the tubing and I just have to say that this open design and the flexibility of the s5 is a total pleasure to work with when it comes to water cooling radiator brackets are really convenient to do all the fan mounting off the case and then just drop the brackets in place plus if anything needs to be changed down the road it's as simple as popping off the panel removing four screws for that bracket so here is me doing all the tubing and while I may not do such a clean job it's an absolute breeze to work in tubing is routed into the pedestal where two more radiators can be housed and with the whole system assembled the one area the s5 is lagging I think is cable management there's just nowhere to secure the cables and it is really left to users creativity to come up with a clean system for example I would have loved to see something for the eight pin cable and maybe if you came with a notches underneath the motherboard to secure the 24 pin cable the power supply is held securely by the screws at the back but there is some spacing at the bottom so for 1200 watt units or higher a support bracket is available but the aluminum is thick enough to handle even very large power supplies now I personally love the look of this incredibly simple design that turns out to be extremely functional and super flexible since the very beginning also who knew that I would enjoy the case wheels this much so I'd certainly recommend them for convenient transport now there are a lot of things to like about the mercury s5 and the case labs company as a whole for one 100% aluminum construction is seriously amazing guys we have so much flexibility from the initial order that allows users to really build a system that would work for their configuration what a cooling is a total breeze with separate radiant brackets and while the s5 is an excellent case on its own own the pedestal adds a new level of working configuration storage options or extra power supplies so all know it is very appealing now of course with all that said I do think that there are a few aspects of the design that could be changed for the better now for one you require a wrench to remove the SSD and hard drive gauges that is out of line for this whole concept of user-friendly assembly a few thumb screws instead would be a lot better cable management is also a bit lagging and we have nowhere to secure the 24 pin cable there are no dust filters included and I would have liked to see some magnetic options available and lastly the price we've gotten very accustomed to pricing between 100 to $200 cases and the pedestal alone will set you back to $150 plus the initial configuration for the s5 is 260 and to give you a whole roundup our total configuration with windowed side panels radiator brackets and the pedestal came to over $500 now I wouldn't consider the price at con necessarily however I could see many people wondering why pay so much for an aluminum box and the answer is very simple it's because you get to customize the case basically from the ground up and of course that 2.3 millimeter thick aluminum is expensive so you buy into the amazing build quality and we're giving you the hard knocks damn good award now last thing before we end this video is we'll be giving away this entire mercury s5 with the pedestal and that cherry on top is the full water cooling kit in the near future so hit that like button and don't forget to subscribe to be notified about the official giveaway video so huge thanks to case labs and dosmo comm for making this review possible so thanks guys for watching and we'll see you in next video