The SS50 enclosure
The SS50 houses its unique motherboard in undeniable style. In truth, the SS50 is not really a cube; it measures 200mm by 181mm by 280mm. So it's more of a toaster than a cube. Either way, the SS50 is very compact, and it's neatly designed to accommodate all the necessary drives, cards, and chips to make things work. For the most part, it's not even all that hard to work on.

Yank off the cover, and here's how it looks

With the drive tray removed, it's possible to swap DIMMS and CPUs

Obviously, the SS50's contents are pretty cramped, but the removable tray for two 3.5" drive bays makes access to the processor, memory, and internal I/O ports fairly painless. The drive tray isn't quite as suave as the SV24's slide-out 3.5" drive tray, but it's easier to use. Overall, the SS50's slightly larger size helps. Yes, compared to a nice ATX case, working on an SS50 feels like playing a game of "Operation," but the little dude's nose probably won't light up quite as often as with the SV24.

Speaking of lighting up, the SS50 does have one feature that annoys the heck outta me. Its front-panel LEDs are brighter than half the Harvard faculty (and with sounder political judgment, no doubt). The blue power indicator, which is always on, emits a laser-like concentrated beam of light that casts a blue shadow on the opposite wall in a lighted room. The orange-amber hard drive activity indicator is nearly as bad. Have a look:

The SS50's too-bright LEDs shine into the (mostly) opaque surrounding plastic

Shortly after this picture was taken, the SS50's LEDs laser-cut dual holes
through my hand, charring both flesh and bone and cauterizing the wound

The overdone lighting is a shame, because in my view, the SS50's appeal lies in its understated style. Brushed aluminum in a clean, square case doesn't exactly call out for a light show. If folks want to cut windows in the sides of their SS50s and add neon lighting or somesuch (hmmm...), that's fine, but the default option ought to be a little more muted. Just give me an indicator when the hard drive is active, not impromptu cataract surgery, thanks.

The SS50's power supply looks like it's lifted from a notebook. It's only rated to 160W, but with no AGP slot to power and only two PCI slots, it should be adequate.

One more thing about the case: there's gobs of room for PCI cards in there, especially in the slot closest to case wall. You could put a PCI Voodoo 5 card in there if you really wanted. It would fit. Anything smaller is just easy.