Mike Cumings
TL;DR: This is an excellent, well-built case. The tight quarters of its small form-factor do add some challenges, but these are not uncommon. I did run into a few minor areas for improvement (detailed below), but overall I am extremely pleased with my purchase and am mentioning them only to pass on knowledge I have gleaned.
This chassis ended up being exactly what I was looking for, and as it turns out is the manifestation of a rare combination of features/traits. Among the features I was specifically looking for were, 1) high 3.5" storage density, 2) small form factor (4U was my absolute max), 3) use of a standard ATX power supply and motherboard, 4) silent operation, 5) effective cooling. I immediately replaced all fans with Noctua equivalents (without even trying the stock fans), given that I wanted a low acoustic signature. With that as context:
The amount of storage density that is present in this case is excellent, providing 16 host swappable drive bays connecting to direct attach backplanes. Each tray has screw holes for mounting either 2.5" drives or 3.5" drives. The 4x direct attach backplanes are fed with a single molex plus a SFF-8087 connector and serve a horizontal row of 4 drives at SATA3 6Gb/s speed.
The fan wall is excellent. The 120mm fans allow high airflow with less speed and therefore less noise. The fans plug into a backplane which is supplied power from a single molex connector. One thing I was pleasantly surprised by is the fact that this backplane supports 4-pin PWM control for each fan. Pins 1 and 2 are power and are fed in common by the single molex connector. Pins 3 and 4 from each fan are separately routed to a 6 pin header (2x3). I created a custom cable to attach these pins to my motherboard's connectors, giving me PWM control and monitoring of the 3 fans. This is excellent!
As the other reviewer pointed out, cable management is tough given the tight spaces involved. This comes with the small form-factor territory though. I only had two minor issues, both of which were easily resolved by temporarily removing the fan wall: 1) Running the 4x Molex connectors to the HDD backplanes was tough, given the number of cables being run through the same small hole at the side of the fan wall, given that space is also needed to insert and remove the first fan as well as supply the fan power and pin-3/4 cables. 2) The holes in the sides of the fan wall were smaller than the connectors I needed to pass through. I solved this by removing one small piece of metal at the outside edge of the hole. Given the 120mm fan dimensions and the standard server width, there is very little room for actual improvement here but I wanted to mention it.
Areas for potential improvement:
The rear of the drive cage where the backplanes mount could be improved to allow better airflow, as the backplane boards themselves form a bit of a wall. There are holes at the back of the 5.25" bays which allow a lot of airflow from the 3.5" drive bays but if the 5.25" bays are filled this may result in less airflow around the 3.5" drives. I do not yet have my chassis significantly populated, so this is only speculation.
It would be nice if the backplanes could be upgraded to SFF-8643 Mini-SAS HD connectors. This may be a problem limited to my specific scenario however, as my motherboard has 2x OcuLink connector for which there does not appear to be an OcuLink to SFF-8087 breakout cable available anywhere I searched.
The PCI slot covers are break-off only. They cannot be replaced once broken off. It would be nice to have reusable ones that would better allow for reconfiguration of the PCI slots.
Very nit-picky, but the LEDs on the front bleed a lot of light into their neighboring LEDs, making it difficult to tell which are actively illuminated and which are being illuminated by their neighbor. A bit of optical separation would help here.
A more in depth photo gallery and/or a small, downloadable user manual to demonstrate the full capabilities of the case would be an easy win.
Review Submit 19th Oct 2020
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
Call us today on 01283 576162 to talk directly to one of our server specialists
Who we are
Europe's specialist value added distributor of server chassis, server components and server systems.
Server Case is a specialist server chassis distributor based here in the United Kingdom, with an extensive range of 19” rackmount cases built to suit a variety of environments; including remote industrial servers and everything in between. Furthermore, our distribution partnerships have allowed us to develop and deliver Server Barebones and fully configured systems to the vast IT Channel and Enterprise customers.
Latest Blog
Exploring the World of Barebone Servers: A Comprehensive Guide
Posted on: 5th Apr 2024
In the ever-evolving landscape of information technology, businesses are constantly seeking efficient, cost-effective solutions to meet their server needs. One option that has gained popularity in recent years is the barebone server. Offering a customisable, budget-friendly alternative to pre-built servers, barebone servers provide businesses with the flexibility to tailor their hardware to specif... [...] Read more
Latest Video
View more of our reviews, unboxing and installation videos on YouTube.
Business Links
Site Information