Velocity Micro Edge Z55 Intel Core i7 Gaming System

Name: Velocity Micro Edge Z55 Intel Core i7 Gaming System - Page 2
Brand: Velocity

by Sarah Miller — Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 08:36 AM EDT

Design & Build Quality

You can select a number of different full-sized desktop cases, with or without removable front doors or side windows, in either black or silver color schemes for the Z55 system. Our test system utilized Velocity Micro’s all-aluminum, signature GX2-W case with a side window to display the system’s craftsmanship.

The front of the case is pretty simple, with three 5.25-inch drive bays, two of which are populated with Lite-On 20x DVD+/RW- Dual Layer Burners. There’s also one floppy bay, which houses the 8-in-1 media reader. Below the bays, you’ll find a grill with two fans. There’s another fan on the back of the case. All of the fans, including the fan on the CPU heatsink and the fan on the chipset heatsink, have blue lights. If this isn’t enough light to suit your tastes, you can upgrade to a single or double blue cold cathode chassis light kit ($20 for one light, $40 for two).

The case is sturdy and well built. The system isn’t terribly light, but it is portable enough to tote to and from LAN parties perhaps. For the really mobile-minded, however, we’d suggest investing in the optional $30 wheel kit.

The Edge Z55 Intel Core i7 Gaming System doesn’t have any legacy ports, instead opting for ten USB 2.0 ports, two of which are found on the front side of the case, and the other eight on the rear. There are also two IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports, one on the back and one on the front side. You’ll also find two eSATA ports and a RJ45 Ethernet (10/100/1000) port on the back of the machine. You can add an 802.11g PCI-based Wi-Fi adapter for $24 if you like. Rounding out the ports on the back, you’ll find line in, line out, mic, and optical digital line out (Toslink) audio jacks. Next to the front USB and FireWire ports, you’ll also find standard 1/8-inch mic and headphone jacks.

The GX2-W case doesn’t offer any doors to hide the system’s drive bays or power button from little hands, but other case options for this system do offer this additional protection.