Verdict: Looks much better than it performs

In addition to it being a chassis manufactured by Gigabyte, the Aurora is also rumoured to be a top-secret US spy plane, allegedly capable of streaking through the upper atmosphere at Mach 6. In contrast, the Gigabyte 3D Aurora looks more like a Cylon Centurion from the awesome new series of 'Battlestar Galactica'.

The 3D Aurora is available in silver or black, but whichever model you buy, the entire case is illuminated by the blue LEDs embedded in the fans. Cooling is provided by a single 120mm fan that draws in cool air through a vent in the front and sides of the front panel; the air is then pushed out the rear of the case by two additional 120mm fans. Further ventilation is provided by a large grille that occupies nearly half of the left side panel. Behind the intake fan is the hard disk cage, which has room for five 3.5in drives, while above it are five 5.25in external and two 3.5in external drive bays.

A lot of thought has obviously gone into the creation of the 3D Aurora, as it boasts several unique features designed to make building your PC much easier. Foremost among these are the two pre-cut holes in the rear panel, which are ideally placed for the tubes of a water-cooling kit, negating the need to drill holes in the case, or remove a PCI bracket. There are also several sensibly placed clips inside the case to hold cables out of the way, so that they don't obstruct airflow.

On paper, the placement and number of fans inside the 3D Aurora is impressive, but the transversely mounted hard drive cage impedes much of the air drawn in by the intake fan. This has a terrible effect, as air isn't able to flow freely over the hot components before being blown out the back of the case by the two exhaust fans. Even with the test PC sitting idle in Windows, the temperatures of all the main components inside the 3D Aurora, with three 120mm fans, were much hotter than those of the other cases. For example, the GPUs were a toasty 67ûC, compared to 60ûC in the Antec P180 or 61ûC in the Akasa Mirage.

With the PC fully warmed up by 3DMark06, the 3D Aurora proved to be even worse, with some components running incredibly hot.

For example, the GPUs were heated to a sizzling 106ûC, some 5ûC hotter than those in most of the other cases tested. Even more worrying was the hard disk, which was almost cooking at 52ûC, only a few degrees shy of the maximum temperature recommended by most hard disk manufacturers. The infrared photograph shows what happens inside the 3D Aurora - the hard disk is practically glowing, since insufficient cool air is being drawn into the case.

Despite the 3D Aurora's very stylish sci-fi appearance and three 120mm fans, its design is fatally flawed by the lack of clear airflow through the case. When you can buy the superior Antec P180 or Akasa Mirage for just £10-20 more, the 3D Aurora isn't worth shortlisting.

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