4U Standard Chassis 6x 3.5" HDD + 2x 5.25" Bays

John Roberts

Very good case for my requirements. I'm building a rack for a home recording studio, and wanted to keep all my amps, interface units and effects together, along with the dedicated PC. Most of the server cases are really deep and would stick out of the back of my rack unit, but this one is slightly shallower. Service was excellent and the case arrived the day after I ordered it. The price was very good - much cheaper than a decent PC tower case! The case is heavy, and far more robustly made than home PC cases - this is clearly a professional piece of kit and well designed. I found it was best to completely dismantle the case prior to building the PC. You need to remove the drive rack to get to the motherboard screws, and to do that you need to remove the front panel. While it's apart you can also remove the protective film on the metal panels. Dismantling takes about five minutes, as the screws are all easy to access and in proper threaded holes, not chewed up self-tappers like a home PC case! The case accepted my Micro ATX motherboard with acres of space all round. Don't lose the bag of motherboard standoffs which comes with the case. The ATX power supply sits nicely out of the way, and has plenty of airflow. Two 5.5" drive bays is very useful because I need an optical drive to burn and read CDs, and the other slot is loaded with a front-accessible hot-swap drive bay for the data drive so it can be removed and stored separately in case of theft. The 5.5" bays come loaded with 3.5" HDD adapter trays. The build was pretty straightforward with that much space, until I re-installed the drive rack. I appreciate that this is a server case, but not everyone needs provision for 6x3.5" HDD, and the drive rack sits directly over the risers for the motherboard ATX supply and the SATA risers. There is adequate clearance above those connectors so nothing is strained, but it's easiest to connect them before refitting the drive rack. If you plan to fit a graphics card, you will need to use a short one. A full-length card won't fit, and if the power connector is on the end of the card rather than the top, it's really tight. If there was an optional drive rack with a just couple of vertical HDD slots next to the optical bays and clearance for a full-size graphics card, this would be a six-star review. To be fair, it would be very easy to modify the drive rack as everything is screwed together. The drive rack itself is good, with the drives held in quick-release trays. This is probably standard on server cases, but as someone who is used to naff PC boxes, I'm impressed! I didn't order rack rails, but I strongly recommend them. Fully loaded, this case is heavy and I have had to support the rear edge with a 1U tray screwed to the rear rack mount. I'll order some rails soon.

Frank Hayhoe

Excellent service from Server Case UK - online ordering and delivery went smoothly and quickly, and was backed up by great support service from Chris Wilson I'm hard to impress but these guys did it!

Craig Tolley

Great case. Looks the part, screwless HDD caddies and lots of room with PSU, 6 HDD, M-ATX motherboard + 3 add in cards. If needed you could even get another 2 HDD in the 5.25" bays as the bays have the brackets included.

Martin Taylor

Very sturdy (and heavy) case, only 40cm deep but holds full ATX MB and PSU easily. Just a bit fiddly to get the PSU plug into the board as it's under the HDD mounts. Comes with six HDD caddies (no screws needed). No front fan position, just two rear fans.

Nuno Vieira

Simply awesome case. Very professional look, easy to assemble, High quality finishes. It was an awesome choice for my IPTV Headend project.

Richard Parry

This is a test review

Allen

Danny Smith

Joanne Higgs

Mark