NZXT Aperture M 5.25″ USB 3.0 Card Reader

Here we get our first looks at the Aperture M 5.25″ card reader.  We see a nice mesh bezel to the front of the unit to match (almost) every cases’ 5.25″ bays.  We also have 4x holes on each side in order to fix the unit to the chassis.

Unlike most other card readers, this one has 2x cables to complete the installation: 1x USB 2.0 and 1x USB 3.0.  The USB 2.0 plug is used for the “card-reader” section of the unit while the USB 3.0 header is used for the USB3.0 plugs.  The USB2.0 header also supplies power for the activity LED located on the bottom-left of the units front (next to SM).  As mentioned before, NZXT has included plenty of cable length to this unit in order to reach to any part of a motherboard.  Lets say that you don’t have a USB 3.0 header on your motherboard yet you want this unit added to your rig, well Corsair makes a USB3.0 to a USB2.0 header adapter available here.  The only “downfall” we have to mention here is the plastic (and rather flexible) skeleton to the unit.  This unit will bend and flex if only 1 side of it is fastened to the chassis (often the case with some of the recent Tool-less designs).  It doesn’t take much effort to push (or bend) the unit into the chassis when only one side is fastened.  This adds to the installation time with some cases but not a big deal if both sides are securely fastened with the included screws.

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