Hex Gear R40 Preview Build

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You've likely seen a few interesting case mods around recently. They looked like mods, but were probably scratch builds because you didn't recognise the case. If you'd delved into the respective project logs however, you'd have seen that they were actually made by Hex Gear , a UK-based company comprised of two well known bit-tech modders - p0Pe and E22, aka Hans Peder Sahl and Nate George.They've been busy beavering away on the design and construction of the £200 R40 for most of this year, with Hans Peder doing the design work and Nate with the arduous task of puting the case into production, marketing, shipping and all that jazz. A select few modders received early samples of the case to showcase it but this week, bit-tech was the first website to receive a final release copy to cast our critical eyes over this gorgeous-looking micro-ATX case. What follows is a preview and build - the case is DIY - and we'll follow this up with a review with thermal testing in the next week or two.There are quite a few bits to contend with here, but thankfully the instructions that have been put together leave little to worry about - it's all straight forward although you will need to set an hour or two aside to build it. Perhaps the most unique part of the case are these aluminium profiles. There are four of them, sitting in each corner.The front and rear of the case are made up of two sections - a metal outer piece and acrylic insert that sits behind and is available in a range of colours.We'll be using the blue pieces as black seemed a little moody for a summer's day. The parts on the right are dampening strips that sit between the case the top and bottom panels that slide into place. You attach foam to one edge and this cuts out vibration.There are a number of different screw types to deal with but they're all referred to by letters and numbers, with the key in the front of the manual. The side panel also sports a couple of strips of anti-vibration foam.The motherboard tray uses standard motherboard standoffs and there's also a plate that can be swapped out for different parts depending whether you want to mount a reservoir or D5 pump next to the motherboard - these are available via Hex Gear's website.