Features:
InWin never cheaps out on their case boxes - they're always full-colour and glossy, right up to the flaps at the top. The Maelstrom box is just that; a large glossy picture of the case with the name, a slogan and some key feature/specification highlights. Oh, and it's a big box for a big case I might add.

Unboxed, the large size of this case becomes very apparent. The Maelstrom is a dream case for those running large setups, those who need lots of fans and especially those who want to comfortably fit a water cooling setup inside their case. The entire outside of the case, chassis frame included, is flat black in colour. This is accented by the two horizontal green bars across the front, some green fan mounts on the side and of course an array of green fan blades inside the case. It was great to see that InWin didn't hold back and also chose to paint the frame as well - it surprises me to see the large number of fancy cases out there with just a plain shiny metal frame to them.

Looking closer at the front you'll see five 5.25" drive bays. The bay covers themselves are fairly open to provide better airflow (see pictures below). Glued to the back of each bay cover is a black mesh to help collect dust (so remember to vacuum this once and a while to keep the airflow as uninterrupted as possible). One of these bay covers has a removable center piece which serves as an external 3.5" drive bay. The middle portion of the front bezel is highlighted by the two large, horizontal green tubes. These serve nothing more than aesthetic purposes, and certainly do look very cool. The lower portion of the front appears to have more 5.25" bay covers, but these are simply decoration because a 120mm fan is mounted behind them on the frame (hence no devices can actually be put here).

The majority of the left side panel is an outset mesh design, punched with fairly large holes so you can see into the case as well. Mounted on this panel is a very large 22cm fan with a small switch beside it to control the blue LED on/off state. You'll notice this fan is mounted on four large green rubber grommets but surrounded by three squares on either side of black grommets. These actually give you the ability to mount up to six 120mm fans on this side panel if you remove the 22cm fan - overkill? You tell me!

 
(Click to see enlarged)