Athena Power RM-2U2022S47 Black Steel 2U Rackmount Server Chassis w/ V2.2 Micro PS3 EPS-12V 470W Power Supply 2 External 5.25" Drive Bays - OEM

Pros: Tiny little 2U case, good for making small servers with whitebox desktop hardware.

Cons: The power supply isn't beefy enough to power even normal desktop hardware with no video card. Both the Intel Core i7 3770K and the FX-8350 node I built (I bought two) required a new power supply to be stable. 470W is a rather optimistic rating for this piece of junk.

Other Thoughts: It's so cheap that it might be worth it just for the case. Rails aren't really a great option here - more for mounting in telcomm racks or whatnot with four screws on the front plate. It's such a shallow case that this works fine.

Manufacturer Response:

We at Athena Power apologize for the inconvenience. We do offer higher rated power supplies for that rackmount's PSU form factor. For additional information please visit our website at http://www.athenapower.com or you can contact us directly at (626) 810-5008. Thank you.

Pros: The constuction is solid. Nice clean look. 15" depth is great! Comes with two case fans.

Cons: The power supply works, but is buzzing. Needless to say, I am worried. As mentioned in another review, the 5.25" cover plates are not replaceable and removing them will take some of the paint off the case (even if you are very careful). The case will only hold four 3.5" hard drives only if you use a Mini-ITX board, otherwise the RAM is in the way and you can only fit two. The multitude of stand-offs has me worried that it's going to create a short. Front fans are not 3-pin and cannot be plugged into the MB, thus cannot be slowed down (they're not THAT loud, but I had to replace them).

Other Thoughts: I'm worried about the buzzing! It work.. for now. I'm going to contact the manufacturer about it. I don't like the false-advertising about how many hard drives it can hold.

Pros: This is a great, compact 2U chassis. Installed a FlexATX board and 3 low-profile NICs for a custom router/firewall (pfSense). The supplied PSU is REALLY quiet. Barely audible at all. Usually anything shipped with the case is loud and terrible, but not this time.

Cons: A few of the posts for the motherboard seem to be off but there were enough to mount the board without any problems.

The 5.25 bay covers are punch-out, so once they are gone there is no way to replace them.

Other Thoughts: Quiet, solid, functional. What's not to love?