4U Rack mount Case Review

Background

Today I am reviewing a 4U rack mount case that I purchased from Compubid2 (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Compubid2-Computer-Supplies?_trksid=p2047675.l2563) on eBay for just £39.99.

Case walkaround

The case comes as standard as a matte black. First impression is that the case has been made reasonably sturdy, certainly the main body of the case is strong and made from 3-4mm steel, the top panel does feel thinner and does flex to the touch, however, cases of similar price (from Maplin) have been made from far thinner and flimsier material. Two very rugged handles either side of the front fascia provide a grip for pulling out of the rack.

Front view of the case

A sleek semi-opaque black Perspex panel makes up the majority of a key lockable security panel. On the far left of the front fascia are two USB ports. It would have been nice if these two had been behind the security panel to prevent malicious attack such as with key loggers, however the addition of front mounted USB ports is very welcome as rear access when mounted in a rack is all but limited, probably impossible in the vast majority of installations.

Also on the front fascia are vents, on the inside of the case good mountings are available for fans which I personally recommend to help create a draft through the case, as opposed to using roof mounted fans which simply push the air about inside the case.


The security panel is opened using one of the two provided keys, behind which can be found the 5.25 drives, the on/off, reset and keyboard lock switches. The USB ports of the far left are just USB 2.

Case with security panel open

At the rear of the case two thumb screws (removed) are all that is needed to remove the top panel.

Remove the thumb screws

With the top panel removed, we can first of all see that two 80mm fans come provided. If you look in the bottom right corner of the roof panel, you can see a point dent, the metal work is easy to deny. Inside, you are welcomed by a cavernous volume.  As you can see, I’ve managed to build a full ATX system inside and this was done comfortably. The 5.25” rack comes with spacers to allow 3.5” drives to be installed without trouble and up to 3 5.25” devices can be installed here.

For the remainder of the width of the case is a side mounted 3.5” rack for further drives.

Full ATX PC

Both the 5.25" drive bay and 3.5" drive bays are mounted to the chassis via a bolt with a 15 mm spring to provide insulation against shock (quite reasonable in a rack mount environment, I know I shove my cases in the rack).

Spring shocks

It should be noted that the 5.25" drive bay mounting comes with a 3.5" adapter that allows you to mount your HDDs horizontally, but it is a royal chore to do this however.The first step is to remove the drive bay from the chassis, undoing four bolts.

 One the bay is out the case (as shown above right). You then have to release the 3.5" adapter from this chassis with another four screws to release the U-shaped adapter (shown below):

 At this point you can now mount your drives in the bracket. Having had to do this the once, I'd never want to do again so I'd recommend installing hot-swap drives here.

One of my favourite features is the use of a cross brace bar across the width of the case. In most cases this is used for adding stiffness to the case, or in some cases, fans are suspended. This case has several adjustable risers that can be used to provide support to extension cards, in the picture below I’ve used them to brace my graphics card. Given that his case is going to be slid in and out of a rack and brutally handled, and with my experience in the past that graphics card are incredibly sensitive, this is a welcome addition.

Supports for graphics card

Thermal Testing

In order to test the thermals of this case I am using an AMD based system with a GTX260 graphics card. The exact details of the full equipment used are provided below:

• Power Supply : Antec VP350P
• Motherboard :
• Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3200+
• Hard drive : Fujitsu
• Graphics Card : XFX GTX 260 896 MB
• Operating System : Windows XP 32-bit SP2

Note: in some of the images above a 120 mm fan can be seen resting on the motherboard, this was removed for testing. Only the fans that came pre-installed in the case and those that came as part of the motherboard (in the cooler) and the graphics card (in the cooler).

In order to test the temperatures, the system is put under load using the Folding at Home (FAH) software. FAH is a scientific computing application that processes and analyses the behave of proteins for research for Stanford University. The application can be configured to use between 10 and 100% of available processing power on both the CPU and any graphics cards installed. Both the CPU and GPU will be loaded at 100% for maximum heat generation in the case.

Temperatures are recorded as reported by Speed Fan.

The FAH client was ran for 30 minutes in order to stabilise the system temperature. After this time, the temperature was recorded once per minute and then the results averaged and the temperature reported by Speed Fan recorded below:

Sensor	Reading 1	Reading 2	Reading 3	Average
CPU	75	75	75	75
GPU	82	82	82	82
Local	65	65	65	65

The problem that the fans have on the roof panel is that they don't actually move much air, especially since they are trying to draw through the holes in the roof panel. Consequently there is a poor airflow around the case. I tried just inserting a 120 mm at the front of the case to promote a draft and 10 degrees was pushed off the temperatures straight away. So I’d recommend moving the fans to push the air from front to back as opposed to through the roof. This demonstrates that the case doesn't have a major issue with hot hardware such as this, but a bit of effort is needed to set the fans up to promote the good cooling that is available.

Summary

Cooling – 10/30

The default configuration with the basic two 80 mm fans on the roof panel resulted in poor airflow, arguably producing more heat than they helped to dissipate! But when just a single 120 mm fan was placed at the very front the air flow was drastically improved and 5-10 degrees was shaved off the running temperatures. So whilst the case can tolerate hot hardware, which is quite likely if you are using equipment in a rack mount environment as part of a file server farm perhaps, it does take some extra investment in terms of time and most certainly money to get some high CFM fans that can just the air through the case. Flipping the 80 mm fans around to exhaust gas out of the case and using a pair of 120 mm fans to pull cool air in from the front should keep hardware running at far more respectable temperatures.

Features – 13/20

The locking security panel is a nice touch that adds a good dose of aesthetic pleasantries. The front mount USB ports are also a welcome sight. The single biggest feature has to be the adjustable braces on the cross bar, ideal for securing expansion cards such as graphics cards.

Design – 18/30

The general chassis, particularly internally is very sturdily made with think steel work, the handles are solid plastic and again feel sturdy and reassuring. The two thumb screws for removing the top panel are a welcome relief from cases requiring the removal of a dozen screws that secure the top panel down. The roof panel and front security panel all fitted well with no distortions and importantly the case conformed to the 19” rack standard meaning it can be bolted in.

The lack of a back plane means that cable routing is really non-existent unless you are able to trap cables under the motherboard perhaps. Ample drive bays both 5.25 and 3.5” are available meaning that this could work as a file server with numerous drives. The interior is cavernous and easy to work in.

Value for money – 15/20

For just under £40 you get a lot of case for your money, for the most part the case is rigid and well built with good metal work as the chassis and metal work to build onto. despite the top panel being slightly flimsy and easy to dent. The materials are good and the case is comfortably large but not excessively heavy.

Overall – 56%