Cubitek Mini ICE ITX Enclosure Review

The ITX form factor is steadily gaining mainstream affections, with recent feature-filled motherboards like ASUS's P8Z77-I Deluxe boasting of everything including overclocking abilities. How does Cubitek's latest extruded aluminium enclosure fair in our water-cooled HTPC build?

Introduction

Cubitek is one of the newcomers to the scene, with the Taiwanese company leveraging on their decades of experience to create more ambitious enclosure designs for the upper echelons of the market. One of their newest product ranges is the brushed aluminium ICE series, featuring different models from mini-ITX to HPTX sizes.  In this article we will attempt to build a watercooled mini-ITX HTPC, and see whether the Cubitek Mini ICE is any good.

Externals

The outer layers of the Mini ICE enclosure is made from extrusion aluminium, giving it structural strength and corrosion resistance. In front, a pair of Power/Reset buttons and Blue/Red LED activity indicators for Power/HDD can be found, together with a pre-installed 5.25-inch black bezel for the only external drive bay. 

Four minature thumbscrews hold the side panels on each side. 

Cubitek have also modeled their logo badge and kept it small in order not to spoil the minimalist look of their case.

On top, we can see a large 140mm fan exhaust cutout and a row of I/O ports including USB 3.0 (blue). We're pleased the designers have gold plated the audio ports to keep the audio signal fidelity high.

From the back, the Mini ICE isn't too different from the typical enthusiast ITX case, with two slots for that PCIe graphics card and a pair of holes for water cooling piping. Annoyingly, a standard ATX power supply is to be mounted on top of the motherboard, which makes the installation of tall HSF towers impossible despite the case being fairly wide.

Hi-Fi like anti-vibration feet can be found at the bottom of the case, which is a nice touch.