SUPERMICRO CSE-512L-260B Black 1U Rackmount 14" Mini Server Case Thermal control 260W AC power supply with PFC

Pros: Decently priced and seems to be of quality construction.

Cons: The PSU does not support motherboards needing separate CPU power.

Other Thoughts: With aside from the 24-pin motherboard connector, the PSU only has two molex connectors, so this looks to be an older model that will work best with similar vintage internals.

Pros: Good craftsmanship, no sharp edges, quick release top lid, 14" depth, doesn't require rails, plenty of space for hard drives for a 14" case.

Cons: Non standard IO shield opening, proprietary front panel connector, noisy fans, not designed for SATA.

Other Thoughts: I was planing to build a low-power fan-less NAS server based on an Intel DN2800MT motherboard. This motherboard doesn't have a 4-pin fan connector and can't throttle the case fan, which is very noisy (but also very powerful) when run at full speed.

With the fan removed, cable management for two 3.5" SATA drives is acceptable, but I still had to use extension cables for power. Cable supplied with the board was too short.

DN2800MT is a miniITX board with external 12V power. With the stock PSU removed, this case has lot's of space for extra drives on both sides of the board. However, none of the pre-drilled holes match up with 3.5" or 2.5" drive mounting points.

I was aware of IO shield height problem with the 1U cases. DN2800MT comes with a standard, and a half-height IO shields. My plan was trim the top off of the full-height, or install half-height and cover the gap. Turns out, the opening in the case is non standard in both directions and even the half-height shield doesn't f

Pros: Great small size 1U rackmount chassis if all you need is a small case with only one hard drive.

Cons: There is space for two hard drives, but it's very difficult to fit two drives in there. One drive fits fine, but it's still a bit of a challenge to get it in, especially if you have big fingers.

Part of the problem with getting a second drive in there is the old style Molex power connectors for the hard drives. I had problems with the Molex to SATA power adapter getting in the way of at least one of the mounting screw holes for the hard drive, making it virtually impossible to seat the drive properly. It seemed the only way for the power wires/adapter to go was under the hard drive (which isn't such a good idea anyway). It also made it so the case would not close properly.

Other Thoughts: Others have mentioned that the front panel connector is proprietary Supermicro, meaning that it is a single connector that fits the panel pins on Supermicro motherboards perfectly. This is only a drawback if you use motherboards other than Supermicro. Since I use Supermicro motherboards exclusively for my servers, I consider this an advantage rather than a drawback.

Pros: -Affordable 1U case that can fit mostly any ATX or M-ATX motherboard
-Rack mountable

Cons: -Power supply does NOT have SATA power connectors. Really SuperMicro??
-Breakout cable for front panel controls/lights needed if not using SM board
-If using a non SM motherboard your IO shield won't fit on the back of the case. If this is going into a datacenter this isn't a problem, but for anywhere else it allows for excess dust to enter the chassis
-H-U-G-E FAN PROBLEM! Seriously, on the newest revisions of this case the case fan will interfere with your SATA communications and mess up your HDDs. Ferrite chokes didn't really help, nor did a direct lead off of the power supply. The fan generates some type of interference when its on and wreaks havoc on SATA communications. That's why this case got 1 Egg...this problem is SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE!

Other Thoughts: If you buy this case and run into the fan issue I've described above you need to purchase SM part FAN-0038 or FAN-0038L. How do I know this? We had a few spare fans around the office from older SM cases. They don't interfere with SATA and FAN-0038 is the only model that you can still find on the internet in large quantities.

It's sad that a company as large as SuperMicro has not notice this issue. Maybe they are under the illusion that everyone still uses molex and IDE drives! (it's what the case supports out of the box anyways!)

Pros: Very compact and efficient use of space. Can squeeze in 4 drives.

Cons: Cabling can be tough. You need everything to be the right length. Expect to custom make power cable/splitters if you use 2 or more drives. With non SM motherboards, the blower induces noise into the power supply rails which interferes with SATA comms. Our "usual" MB has the fan power jack right next to the SATA connectors and hard driver transfer rates toggled all the way down to 1MB/sec. The fan really needs a separate, direct off the power supply lead plus a couple of ferrite chokes.

Pros: Great case, one of the few I've found with room for 2 drives (see cons however), and a full ATX mobo to boot! Fan performs well, and keeps the whole system cool.

Cons: Drive bay clearances are EXTREMELY tight. You'll want to get leftangle satacables and power adapters from a store such as sata-cables.com (sorry newegg, but you don't sell them anyway).

Other Thoughts: Great value for your money in 0.5u depth space. We've got 63 of these babies with Core2Duos in them in a 42u rack, and they all work great, kept at about 50 degrees Cel, under load.

Pros: - Very Space Ideal
- I/O Plate Matches Most SuperMicro Motherboards
- Very Good Price

Cons: - No Fan Redundancy
- Extremely Loud System Fan

Other Thoughts: What can I say, it's a great case. The only thing I don't like about it is that there's no fan redundancy. While that can be replaced, it's hard for a person like me who lives ~1500 from the data center. Just as a side note, be sure to get left angle sata cables or it won't work at all. Also get a P4 to sata power connector as well (right angle). I haven't seen any on NewEgg but do some browsing. These cables are absolutely essential or your configuration won't work.

Pros: Small form factor, comes with a solid power supply, room for 2 3.5 hard drives, no sharp egdes, standard Super Micro steel and form, in my opion one of the best in the after market case companies. Great for home NAS small office or a server case that will not stick out to far in a 2 post rack and mounts without any extra hardware. o and the Price :).

Cons: The blower fan can be loud but the moboard stepps the fan down to its lowest setting 99% of the time, with the atom moboard from super mirco :), 1% for the start up time about 10 seconds ever few months for cleaning. My PC is louder. I am using a Intel Atom Proc so that may have something to do with not needing the fan on high.

Other Thoughts: Would be sweat if it had a air filter for the front. other than that it is awsome for the money, I plan on getting a second one for somthing :). I didn't think I would like the 1U design but after I built the system (supermicro intel atom moboard crucial mem WD harddrive 1 TB and Freenas) this has been so far the best setup I have used. I have always built way to big in the past and have payed the price. for a home NAS to a small office file server you cant go wrong, you froget it is even thier. I used a SATA CF flash card adapter that mounts in the PCI card slot on the case and it hold the OS (Freenas). you could use a USB flash but i was looking for something a little more neat.

Pros: 1U chassis with decent power supply. 2 3.5" bays (see below). Chassis fan moves a considerable amount of air.

Cons: Requires molex power adapters for HDDs (requiring molex to SATA adapter if using drives manufactured after 2003). Even with right angle SATA power and data cables I had to removed the fan assembly in order to mount the drives. Far to cramped in my case to use the fan while mounting 3.5" drives. PSU has 4-pin motherboard power adapter. Using a Supermicro MBD-X7SLM-L-O I still neede the 4 and 24 pin extensions in order to hook power to the MB.

Other Thoughts: Luckily the HDDs I used with this chassis run quite cool, so between the active CPU cooler and the PSU fan I don't anticipate overheat in the rack. If you were using a passive cooler, counting on the chassis fan to cool it you would be in a bad way. Maybe if you used 2.5" drives with an adapter it wouldn't be impossible.

Pros: Compact. Easy to gain access. Has two drive bays. Does not require rails.

Cons: 1) Difficult to wedge one 3.5" SATA drive in, let alone two. With proper adapter brackets, 2.5" drives may work better.
2) I recommend this be used only in a data center, not a home or office environment due to noise from case blower and CPU fan.
3) When rack mounted, will droop without support from other equipment. Could be a problem when several of these are installed together.