iStarUSA D-200-PFS Black Steel 2U Rackmount Server Case 1 External 5.25" Drive Bays

Pros: I did a substantial amount of research before this purchase to house my media center pc. I really like this case!
1. This is the only 2U case that newegg sells that has 3 internal 3.5 bays, 1 external 5.25 DVD/BR slot, and takes a standard ATX power supply and ATX motherboard. That is huge for my hardware scenarios.
2. The price is right.
3. Minor detail but I like the quick release thumb screw for the cover.
4. Compact for what is holds.

Cons: Can the case be improved? Yes but there were no showstoppers for me.
1. Depending on your make of power supply, it may not match up to the assembly holes inside if you need more room for power supply cabling. In my case, I let it float instead of drilling new holes as other noted -- it does remain an option to drill some holes later.
2. My power supply fan vents upward into the top cover. The cover venting holes probably should have been moved to where the power supply is located near the front instead of on the back part of the case. This doesn't seem to be an issue however. The cover, case, and power supply all remain cool to the touch.

Other Thoughts: 1. It is a little tight with the cabling but I wanted compact. Get a 3u or 4u if you want more room. Zip tie the cables.
2. This case will require riser cables (purchased 2 off another site < $20). The cards mount horizontally to the motherboard.
3. Numerous complaints about air flow in the reviews. It might be an issue for overclocking and/or big graphics cards but for a media center PC with 4 drives, the case has plenty of cooling. I did purchase two variable silent fans from newegg to replace the 2 stock fans as I wanted to ensure this unit was as quiet as possible. The fans are never on high. N82E16835226037
4. I purchased iStarUSA TC-RAIL-20 Mounting Rail and they worked great for my server rack. <$40 from another site.
5. I was a little worried my CPU fan might not fit but wasn't an issue.

Pros: Will take a 12x10" ATX MB in a 2U case with a regular PSU. Solid construction. Cools HDD's well by rear fan.

Cons: A bit fiddly to build.

Other Thoughts: For those complaining about the PSU airflow - you need to look more closely as this case is more clever than you realize. The front fan pulls air from the PSU outlet back into the case. All air is then exhausted by the rear fan. You do need to have a way to know if that rear fan fails though! Also be sure to use a PSU without bottom inlet or fan!

Pros: Uses standard power supply, includes cooling fans.

Cons: Numerous shortcomings. Power supply exhausts out the front, while rear cooling fan exhausts out the back, so you need to reverse the fans in your power supply (and thus void its warranty) to get proper airflow. HD bracket between PS and rear fan in good location for cooling, but bracket screws in from bottom of case (and has no guides), making removal awkward. Case has removable mounting plate for motherboard, but screw holes are located under the motherboard (and screws are inserted from top of plate), making the feature unusable. There's an 8-pin header near the front of the case, but there's no documentation with the case, so I have no idea what it's for. Front USB headers are single-pin blocks, not the 10-pin block that's now standard. My case was missing the internal power cable that connects the power supply to the power jack on the back of the case, rendering the case unusable.

Other Thoughts: I had high hopes for this case, as I need to build 15 identical machines to replace some older servers. However, I think there are too many shortcomings with this case for me to use them, so this one's going back. The existing machines use some now-discontinued Evercase 2u cases that are much nicer...I'll just reuse those for this project.

Pros: Great 2u case, great cost. Case is in no way flimsy. 2 fans in the case, plenty of room for hard disks. Front is plastic, but enough airflow with filters.

Cons: What's with the lack of a fan between the front mounted position of the power supply and the back. of the case where the power plug is? I haven't called the supplier yet (holiday weekend), but someone else mentioned this problem. Ticks me off enough to drop this review from 4 stars to 1. Also, there is no fan on the left side of the case, over where the motherboard CPU and DIMMS are.

Other Thoughts: Great product made much more irritating by a basic mistake.

Pros: Solid construction, lots of interior space to work in. A few sharp edges but nothing out of the ordinary, and certainly fewer than I expected for the price. Just enough height to fit a stock i7 Intel cooler, though you may have to remove or reposition the cross-brace depending on the layout of your mobo.

Cons: In addition to being able to fit a standard ATX PSU (which is awesome), it looks like there are brackets to fit a standard server PSU instead if you prefer. It would have been nice if they had made the front ATX PSU bay re-usable as another set of 5.25" or 3.5" bays in that case.

Other Thoughts: I suggest mounting your drive bay components first before attaching any of the front panel header cables to your mobo. The channel these cables run through is created by the removable drive bay cage, and if you connect them first and then take out the cage to install drives, it's a pain to try and keep the cables out of the way and get the cage back in without squishing all of them.

Pros: Very sturdy construction. Fits ATX, miniATX motherboards extremely well. Comes with tons of screws and standoffs - I have several spares from each case. Also ships with two keys. Takes standard power supplies that normally fit ATX cases. Hard drive, power supply, CD/floppy brackets all unmountable. Front panel locks, preventing access to power/reset switch, CD drive, USB, floppy drive. Power switch is a momentary rocker rather than a push-button like most tower cases. Reset button is bright red and very noticeable - all the better for preventing accidental resets.

Cons: Front panel doors are plastic, not metal. Awkward metal crossbar must be removed to insert motherboard easily (possible to do with crossbar in, but difficult). USB motherboard cables come with pins separated, not as a single four-pin or eight-pin unit. Case can still be opened without unlocking the front panel (hope your rack locks). Power supply is placed in the front corner of the case, making it difficult to stretch the main 20/24-pin cables to some motherboards. No hot-swappable drive bays.

Other Thoughts: Bought four of these to transfer existing ATX tower servers into a Compaq 9000 rack. Transfers went smoothly except for the normal rackmount caveats (none of which were this case's fault) - CPU fans too tall, power supply fan placed on the wrong side, IDE/SATA cables too long/cluttering case, need a riser card for the PCI slots, etc.

Also, I received the first one I bought without a shipping label or the screw kit. Newegg said they could only credit me shipping costs, and to contact iStarUSA for the parts; I did so, and they shipped me a replacement within the week.

Finally, the way the case handles the power supply is slightly strange: the rear power socket comes with a cable that connects it to the ATX supply, which is placed in the front left corner of the case. This means the supply itself must always be on (unless you want to open the case every time you need to switch it).

Pros: Excellent construction, no flimsy chassis design here. The paint is resilient. The design allows only a ps2 power supply - which makes this a perfect choice for a server build using regular pc components. It fits an am2 board with oem cpu fan just perfectly, and allows the fan to pull air from the vents in the top of the chassis. The handles are solid and won't snap off like so many other cheap cases. The riser support doubles as a chassis stiffner, keeping the case from skewing even with the cover removed.

Cons: The orientation of the power supply will be such that it will blow air out through the front instead of inhaling from the front like normal. Since there is an air filter in the way, this makes the psu fan ineffective. Also the psu fan will be pointed at the portion of the front plastic door that is solid, instead of the vented side. I open my psu and flip the fans (warning: voids psu warranty.) The bracket for the psu allows some movement, so I aim the psu slightly toward the vented portion of the plastic door. It looks a little off without the cover, but works great. Ultimately after correcting the airflow in the psu, it will flow from the front to back, crossing the hard drive on the way.

Other Thoughts: I don't understand how this quality case can be offered at this price. They cut a few corners like making plastic doors on the front, but they are thick and strong. There is no riser included, and no front keyboard/mouse extension. But it still baffles me. I have purchased quite a few of these and I keep coming back for more.

Pros: Solid steel. Looks great, particularly in sets.

Cons: Noted.

Other Thoughts: I have two of these and will be adding at least one more. The systems are quiet (even more so after replacing the standard CPU fans) and haven't given me a bit of trouble.

Pros: Strong case, decent air-flow and it takes a standard 1-fan PSU (if your PSU has a fan on the top/bottom, it may not work, as the case's lid blocks that air-flow).

Cons: Because the PSU is in the front of the case, one needs a cable to go from it to the back of the case, where a connection is made to the outside cable. Said inside cable was missing from my box! I called and NewEgg was more than happy to send that cable but the sent the wrong one - which I waited 2 weeks to get. I ended up making my own cable with spade connectors but I'm sure that voids every warranty this thing has! Better placement of the PSU would've done away with this issue altogether.

Other Thoughts: Though not an issue per se`, if one doesn't look at the pictures, they might overlook the fact that a PSU with a top/bottom fan may not work since there's no vent in the case's lid for that style of PSU. Make sure you get a single-fan-PSU so you don't have an issue. A vent placed in the lid, for the PSU, by the manufacturer, wouldn't be a bad idea...

Pros: great new case for my rack. Everything fit great and for roughly $100 shipped I'm not sure I could have beaten it.

Cons: The cdrom drive makes for a tight fit next to the motherboard, but everything fit fine.

It would be nice if the front 80mm fan blew directly over the heatsink on my mATX board, but it makes sense since you would expect a full size board in there.

Other Thoughts: Each time a removed a screw I really could see this case was thought out better than many rackmounts I've seen in the past. That's something I wouldn't expect for a bargain 2u case, but definitely worth the money.

This case houses a mATX nvidia board with an e8400. The stock cooler fits without issue.