Awesome! Funny I had a hard time explaining the cost as well! I'm sure your wife will love it as well, or at least be happy that your happy
The box comes well packed, it does not have wood reinforcements but just heavy cardboard. The case is also covered with a white cloth bag. I've been using the white bag to cover the case when its not in use. (got a cat that likes to jump on things).
I think the mesh on the top panel is separate, sorry dont know for sure, but by looking it seems separate and sandwiched in. If i decided to install the new touch panel I would have to take it off it seems. Also i'm thinking of leaving my over sensitive touch panel in because I can adjust the leds by hovering my finger above and not leaving finger prints on the case
. Also putting a screw driver in the top panel screws might damage the black paint on the screws, I'm sure there is some sort of method to prevent this from happening.
The air from the front fans must come from the gaps between the case and glass at the front. So you might have to be a bit creative there. Maybe a small dust filter to fill the gap.
The beauty of pc building is you can do what ever you want, I'm sure a lot of people will question the decision to not water cool,but it's your build do what you like best! I have people question why I run fe cards, and the truth is I like the style of them and I know they have a well tested design, pcb, power and I dont care about an extra 5fps that aftermaket cards offer. I sort of dont like the GEFORCE GTX logo though. But the angled design suits this case as well. I was pretty lucky with my build that I could find hardware that I liked in black and white and not really have to mod anything. Also the sli bridge was the icing on the cake for me
Have you seen the in win rgb fans? They look pretty cool, I was thinking of getting some if they were available, but I would only really want them white. And I have noticed the white in rgb is not as good as white led. Was very disappointed in the white of my rgb ram, all ways has a hint of another colour.
I did see that tou build, and it was great, I was a big fan of the chrome tubing, I almost used it myself.
You should start a build log of Sapphire due to all the cool glass mods your going to do, I am sure a lot of people will find it interesting.
Also sorry I am away from my beast at the moment so I cant measure the case, sorry.