The Mercenary v1 Rig

As I mentioned a while back, I was putting together some spare parts along with some extra parts I acquired when building the Kentfield rig. I originally planned to use a Bitfenix Merc Beta case as it's rig, but found out soon after ordering that NCIX does not carry anymore of them. As such I switched the order to the Alpha version so that I could still use it for another build. Enter the Mercenary v1 rig.

First I will go into which parts I used in the build. The part list is as follows:
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Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 6300 @ 2.8GHz
Motherboard: ASUS P5N-E SLI
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 4GB (2x2GB) @ 800MHz
Heat-sink: Intel Extreme LGA775 Heat-sink w/ Copper Thermal Chamber
Power Supply: Thermaltake SMART 650W 80+ Bronze
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD4850
Hard Drives: N/A
Optical Drive: Samsung DVDRW
OS: N/A
Case: Bitfenix Merc Alpha with 3 Xigmatek XSF-F1252 fans.
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When I originally built the Merc Beta I used my old Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 750W to show off most of the cable routing and see how well this rig can hide cables and it's overall appearance. Soon after taking most of these pictures though, I picked up a Thermaltake SMART 650W to be the permanent power supply for the Mercenary Rig. So keep that in mind when you see these pictures, the system was equipped with the Toughpower PSU and NOT the SMART PSU.

Bitfenix seems to make some pretty damn good rigs, and the Merc Alpha appears to be no exception (even at it's low price). I picked up the Alpha for approx 30 dollars, and it comes with quite a number of features for such a low price. Bottom mounted PSU, black powdercoated frame, almost completely tool-less assembly are just some of the good features that come with the rig which most rigs at this price point don't really touch.

The Merc Alpha Box

Decent packaging for a budget case

The box is pretty straight forward, showing off most of the outer features of the rig. It seems that Bitfenix uses the same box for both the Alpha and the Beta rigs, so it has pictures of both on the box. We will be focusing on the fact that the Alpha comes equipped with top fan mounts (as that is the only distinguishable difference between the Alpha and the Beta rigs).

The Merc Alpha Out of the Box

When removed from the box, the Alpha appears pretty plain but still aesthetically pleasing. The matte black finish is resistant to fingerprints. The front bays that are removable include 3 5.25" bays and 1 3.5" bay (for a card reader or floppy disk if you still use those). The top fan grill area is a bit convex but doesn't stick out enough that you could place something on top of the rig if you don't use the top fan mounts. The holes on the side panel can allow you to mount several different sizes of fans if you should choose. I later decided to mount a 120mm fan to cool the GPU, but I will cover that in another post.

The Top I/O of the Merc Alpha

The Alpha rig comes equipped with 4 USB 2.0 slots, headphone and mic ports, the power and HDD activity lights (which are blue LEDs), and the power and reset switches. I quite like how the I/O is on the top of the rig as it allows the front to look extremely clean. The reset button is also small so you don't accidentally push it instead of the power button for whatever reason. The buttons feel like normal buttons (unlike the Corsair 300R) and give solid feedback when pressed. The LEDs for the power and HDD activity are quite bright, so that's something to keep in mind. The original Alpha comes equipped with 4 USB 2.0 ports, however there is a newer version that comes with 2 USB 2.0 ports and 2 USB 3.0 ports to keep up with the newer generation motherboards.

The Rear of the Merc Alpha Rig

The rear of the Alpha rig isn't overly impressive. But for this price point, I'm not expecting it to shoot fireballs out the back or anything like that. It comes equipped with a 120MM Bitfenix labeled fan (but is actually just a generic fan and not one of their performance fans), a standard sized I/O hole, a bottom mounted PSU hole (which allows the PSU to be oriented in either the upward or downward position), two removable slot covers that have holes in them for airflow, 7 total PCI slots (which is standard on a mid tower rig), and two removable holes to install rubber grommets for liquid cooling. One thing I wish they did include was the actual rubber grommets (because they cost next to nothing) but for the price point I can understand the exclusion. The rig also does come with lock rings so it's able to be equipped with a lock for either a business environment or if you plan on taking it to a wide spread LAN party.

The Front of the Merc Alpha w/o the Sticker

The Front of the Merc Alpha w/ the Shiny Sticker

Bitfenix opts to not install their logo from the factory which allows for a bit more of a clean look to the front of the rig. Bitfenix does include a shiny metallic sticker of their logo which can be placed on the rig if the owner chooses to show off the manufacturer of their case. There's no specific area cut out to install the sticker so it doesn't ruin the smooth lines of the rig. I'm not very good and sticking stuff on straight, so the sticker came out at a bit of an angle, but it's not overly noticeable in person.

The Inside of the Merc Alpha Rig

For a budget rig, Bitfenix did not skimp out on cable routing. There may not be fancy rubber grommets covering the holes that are often found on more premium rigs, but there are plenty of holes to route all your power supply and other various cables through. Bitfenix was a bit ingenious about the cable routing as well by making a popout area past where a standard ATX board would mount to allow for plenty of cables to fit through without making the right side panel bulge. There is a massive CPU cutout on the motherboard tray for mounting the backplate of a CPU heat-sink to a motherboard without having to remove and reinstall the motherboard should you want to swap coolers. The rig supports mini-ITX, mATX, and ATX motherboards for installation with all the necessary hole mounting areas. One thing to note (much like the Corsair 300R) is that the motherboard has built in protruding standoffs on the motherboard tray, so it is not required to install any additional standoffs other than the one that the rig comes with. Unfortunately none of the hard drive cages are removable, so you are a bit more limited on the size of GPU you can install into the system. But with this being a budget rig, I doubt you'd be seeing anything that would cause a spacial issue. Also can be seen is a 120mm fan mounting spot available on the bottom of the rig (should you have a short enough power supply to utilize it). Along the bottom of the rig there are also screw holes to use the included PSU hold bracket should you have a power supply that aligns correctly to a set of those holes. But more on that later.

The Rear of the Motherboard Tray

The Corner of the Cable Routing

There isn't much going on behind the motherboard tray. There are no loops or anything like that to strap cables down. Here you can see a bit more of the cutout of the CPU hole. As can be seen, there's also a cutout to install your 8-pin CPU connector through. Also can be seen is the cable routing indent that would store most of the power supply cables in behind the motherboard tray. It is quite a large indent so should serve just fine for even the 24-pin power connector.

The Mounting Hardware Included with the Merc Alpha

The Manual Included with the Merc Alpha Rig

As with every rig that requires actual installation of any parts, the Alpha comes with a manual which states what the rig comes with for accessories as well as how to install various items into the rig. Included in the rig are plenty of screws for mounting various things in the system. It comes with 8 long silver screws to attach two fans to the front of the rig, 8 black thumb screws for HDDs, 4 black thumb screws for ODD/FDD/SSD, 8 black round screws for ODD/FDD/SSD, 2 brass motherboard standoffs for mATX motherboards (to replace the middle pin style standoff that is equipped in the rig as it comes from the factory), 6 black hex shaped screws for PSU and PCI bracket mounting, the power supply bracket (as mentioned before), 28 black hex screws for mounting the motherboard and HDDs (should you run out of thumb screws for the HDDs) and the aforementioned Bitfenix electroplated silver sticker.

The Fan Screw Installed on one of the Case Fans

The fan screws install onto the fans by simply slipping them through both sets of holes and then screwing it into the front area that the fans are allowed to be installed on to. I personally prefer to have the fans mount the other way around using the standard fan screws that comes with every fan. However with the limited space in the rig it's understandable that they would have it mount this way instead.

The Front I/O Headers

The Alpha rig comes with the standard headers you would find on most rigs. It comes with the HD audio header, 2 USB headers (for the 4 USB ports on the front I/O), and the led and switch headers. The cables all have black sleeves along the entire length of the cables, so there's no worries about any sort of snagging or damage of the header's wires for whatever reason. The newer version of the case that comes with front USB 3.0 ports includes the applicable header to plug into a newer generation motherboard.

The Rear of the Front Panel

Like a number of cheaper rigs, the Alpha's front panel has the front I/O attached during removal. It's important to pay attention to the cables during removal to verify none get damaged or unseated. Removing the front panel is fairly simple as it does not use any screws to secure it to the rig. Simply pull on the front panel hard enough from the bottom and it will detach itself from the frame of the rig. To remove the bay covers, simply push the tabs in slightly and remove the cover. At the bottom of the front panel there is a mesh  area for the front panel fans to allow for a bit of a front intake.

The Front of the Merc Alpha Frame

After removing the front panel of the Alpha rig, you gain access to the mounting area for the two front 120mm fans. Unfortunately Bitfenix does not include any fans for front intake, but at the budget price point it's certainly understandable cost wise. At first glance, it would seem that a 140mm fan could be installed instead of the 120mm fans, however there is no mention of this on Bitfenix's website. There isn't much else noteworthy on the front of the frame aside from this however. I didn't bother to check as I was content with just mounting my two 120mm fans on the front. With this shot you can also see the 2.5" mounting area on the bottom of the case. This is where you can mount a SSD without the need for a 2.5" to 3.5" bay adapter.

The Xigmatek Fans Installed in the Merc Alpha Rig

For the front fans, I decided to go with the value pack Xigmatek fans as it's not a high end rig so does not need maximum cooling. The fans are XSF-1252 4 pack fans which have a maximum CFM of 45.2 which is adequate for such small intake on the front. Now, Xigmatek does make 2 different XSF-1252 designated fans, the value pack version (which uses the 45.2 CFM) and the (now discontinued) high end version (which moves 72 CFM) so it can be a bit confusing when looking it up on their website. Just something to keep in mind when looking at temperatures of the system.

The Core 2 Extreme OEM cooler beside a packaged up CPU

The heat-sink I acquired for this build was an Intel Core 2 Extreme LGA 775 heat-sink. It comes OEM on the Intel Core 2 Extreme LGA775 CPUs and as I'm only doing somewhat mild overclocking of the system I didn't require much investment to keep the system cool. The heat-sink has a copper thermal chamber in the middle to help dissipate the heat away from the CPU and into the aluminum cooling fins. The thermal chamber is similar to the newer OEM heatsinks that come with a lot of the LGA 1150/1155 CPUs. The fan has a switch on it which acts as a fan controller so you can set it high or low RPMs to adjust noise if you're going for a low noise system. If you want to know more about this heat-sink, visit the link HERE.

The PCI Slot Retention Bracket

The PCI Slot Retention Bracket Secured

One thing that's interesting about this rig is how the PCI slots are retained to the rig. Rather than using the standard screw it in from the inside, they have a retention bracket that keeps tension on the PCI slot shields in place which has one screw to keep it tensioned in place against the PCI cards. The screw that holds the retention plate in place is installed on the inside of the rig. I think it would have been nicer to have it the other way around with the screw being on the outside as that way it would look cleaner rather than seeing the screw threads sticking out from the retention bracket on the back. You can still screw in the specific cards etc after as well for increased retention, but you can use just the retention bracket if you don't have screws on hand or are just lazy.

The Motherboard and GPU Installed

After installing the ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard into the system (with the CPU and heat-sink installed) and removing the retention bracket, I installed the HD 4850 into the system. The motherboard is a bit of a different sizing compared to more recent offerings as this was before ATX utilized 3 rows of screws. This motherboard in particular is also a bit taller than standard ATX boards (which we will get into more later). Everything is tidy in the rig thus far and the motherboard goes fairly well with the nice black powdercoating of the rig frame. Due to the location of the CPU socket and heat-sink, I could not install a fan into one of the top exhaust fan slots as it would be right against the heat-sink aluminum fins and possibly damage them. That being said though, the system has plenty of ventilation coming in from the front that all that should be needed is one exhaust fan on the back and one on the top.

The Rear of the Motherboard Tray after Hardware Installed

After installing my old Thermaltake Toughpower Grand into the system (as a temporary power supply until I could obtain one specific to the system) I routed all the cables through the large bottom hole of the motherboard tray to their appropriate areas. The indent used to hold all of the cables worked quite well as it's deep enough to even support the 24 pin connector without causing the side panel to have issues installing. As there's quite a bunch of space in the indent, I expect that you could probably install more than just the bare minimum for the system without the side panel bulging too much.

The 4+4 Pin Connector Blocked by the Motherboard

As I mentioned before, the ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard is a bit taller than standard ATX boards. As such, the 4+4 Pin connector does not fit into the cutout that it should normally install into. I had to take the motherboard out, pull the cable through and then reinstall the board. However this would not be an issue with standard ATX boards as it would fit perfectly into the cutout indicated in the picture.

The CD Drive Installed with Thumb Screws

The CD Drive Installed with Flat Screws

As can be seen above, the included thumb screws can be used to install the CD drive in a tool-less manner if so inclined. I however decided to install the flat screws simply because they stick out less so it looks cleaner in my opinion. You only need to install screws on the one side as the other side of the drive bays has fins with little tabs that lock into the holes on the drive to keep it in place (adding to the tool-less business in the rig).

The HDD/FDD Bays

As can be seen above, the HDD/FDD bays are clearly marked so that you can determine which screw holes to use to line it all up correctly with the front bays. One thing I found interesting is how there is 2 FDD bay sets even though there is only 1 external bay available. That being said, with the nice indentation on the bays, even with thumb screws it sits fairly nicely and allows for good tool-less operation. I tested it out by installing a dummy drive (essentially a broken drive) into the system to see how it mounted and they fit perfectly in and insert in far enough to allow for a clean look. That being said however, I didn't have an actual hard drive to go into the system at this time, so the build was unfinished when building v1.

The Thermaltake Toughpower Grand Installed

This is how the system looked after hooking all of the cables up inside the system with the Toughpower Grand. All of the cables that were installed fit nicely into the cable routing holes with plenty of room to spare. That being said, the Toughpower Grand has since been swapped to a SMART 650W which also fit quite nicely into the system and looks a bit more aesthetically pleasing without fancy stripes offsetting the clean look of the rig. The rig itself is an excellent budget choice, as are most of the Bitfenix offerings. I have since repurposed the rig with some more newer gen hardware, but I'll cover that in another post (Mercenary v2) to keep this post less confusing. The motherboard and hardware attached to it has since been relocated to another older gaming rig case.