Interior and Build Process
Before entering the Shogun, you have to remove those glass side panels – and these are the thickest I can remember seeing:
The second photo shows a look behind the back panel, and the inside of this back glass is covered in black paint to hide the cable mess behind the motherboard tray.
As a rule the wide-open interior designs of the modern, optical-drive-free enclosure are easy to build in, but the Shogun does have some notable design elements – including the side-facing SSD mount panel that showcases your drives with RGB lighting.
Removing this is not required to assemble the system, but its removal does afford us a better look at the case floor. On the left we see padded feet upon which the PSU will sit, and over to the right there is a floor-mounted 2.5-inch drive caddy.
Moving around to the back of the enclosure we have a generous amount of cable routing space, supplied velcro straps to secure the cables behind the motherboard tray, and our first look at the primary storage support.
This storage support includes dual 2.5-inch drive mounts on the backside of the motherboard below the CPU cutout, and a row of six (as configured – these cages are modular) 3.5-inch hard drive mounts on the left side.
Six plastic HDD trays are included, and these have a nice locking mechanism and seem like they would hold up well over time.
This standard ATX motherboard fits as expected with ample cable-routing cutouts around the perimeter.
The Shogun is equipped with three of what BitFenix calls their "GPU Safe" component, which is a padded bracket that can be positioned to support the end of your GPU and prevent sag.
It's a good idea, and my graphics card was just long enough to make use of one of these – as we will see on the next page.
Can you please give details
Can you please give details on the ASUS AURA logo in the lower bracket?
Without performing a detailed
Without performing a detailed chemical analysis I can only conjecture that it is of wood-pulp based paper construction, adhered to the metal panel using some sort of chemical fixative. It is approximately 0.5 inches in diameter, and features text and colors imprinted in the surface using either toner-based laser or inkjet printing (no evidence of thermal dye sublimation processing noted).
“The Shogun’s front panel
“The Shogun’s front panel appears to offer a 5.25-inch bay, but this is a cosmetic choice with no official 5.25-inch support.”
This is quite possibly the dumbest case design choice I’ve ever seen.
The smooth rounded edges are
The smooth rounded edges are too much, but the side glasses looks cool. Was a bit confused with the top radiator photos, you did a pull on that right? That 2.5″ drives show-off panel is a new idea, a bit too bulky though.