ARK IPC-4U600 Black 1.2mm SECC Zinc-Coated Steel 4U Rackmount Server Chassis 3 External 5.25" Drive Bays

Pros: Inexpensive Plenty of space Fits EATX mainboards Large fan for hd's

Cons: None yet

Overall Review: I was looking for a cheap solution for a test server with an E-ATX motherboard and the selections were limited. I got this case and have zero regrets. Normally in the IT industry you get what you pay for, but this is one of the rare situations where you get a lot more. I would have no problem using this case for a production server.

Pros: Almost every part of this case except for the rear fans is removeable by standard screws, easily adaptable to almost any layout you would like. Machining is good, not great, but if you don't do anything with your hands you aren't supposed to you won't get cut. Excellent packing (solid foam) arrived on time from UPS in perfect condition, which for a cross country shipment is saying something. Removeable cages for drives which get securely mounted. Price is excellent for a product of this quality. Front door is removeable, air filter in front is removeable and of good quality. Thick steel construction will last a long time, but not overly heavy, specs say 28 pounds but it seems somewhat lighter than that. Good paint, finish holds no figerprints, etc. Plenty of mounting holes and hardware come with it. Should hold any ATX board and any add on cards easily. Good front to back airflow.

Cons: If you had a full rack of drives installed the airflow might suffer. I would think temps would still remain in the tolerable range. If you were installing an EATX board in this thing with a full set of drives things might get a little tight, but for an ATX board and 4 to 6 drives you will have plenty of room.

Overall Review: Newegg did a great job on the order, shipped promptly for free UPS ground. Can't beat that. Purchased this case to build a system this year and was tired of standard ATX cases always sitting on the desk. Eventually this will make its way under the desk or onto a wall mounted rack. Quality of this case and the ability to easily mount it in a rack out of the way for this price is tough to beat since the price on good ATX towers has gone up.

Pros: This case is VERY deep. That being said, the is plenty of room inside for your parts. There's quite some distance between my drives and the motherboard. This is a critical point if you're going to be mounting one or more large graphics cards. The entire construction is metal. This does add to weight, but it is SOLIDLY built. There are no custom, snap-in bits of plastic to worry about. Everything screws down. Another user mentioned that the drive cages were difficult to access and that the screws stripped. I didn't have that experience. The glue holding the rubber gaskets in place is a little spotty, but that's nothing a couple dabs of superglue can't fix. The box also comes with a HEALTHY amount of extra screws, offsets, etc. If you're building a brand-new machine this is a wonderful bonus.

Cons: I found no instruction manual. That would be nice, especially for specs on the fans. Speaking of the fans. I found them to be pretty noisy. Ark should consider a second line of cases with premium ultra-quiet fans. I don't mind paying more for quiet fans from the get-go, rather than having to find the right size and make of quiet fans to work with the case. But for the base price it's a small gripe.

Overall Review: This is my 3rd rackmount case. Of the brands I've owned, this is the best for the money.

Pros: Spacious, solid construction, all the parts were there, zero issues on build, lots of room to expand in the future, like the front door with the fan filter in it.

Cons: very deep (hardly a con really) and heavy (again, not an issue per say) .

Overall Review: Built my DAW in this box and it's huge size allows for lots of cable management as I see fit. Fans I replaced from the drop, but airflow is great throughout. You have to drop the cages to add drives; but that's no big deal. For the money, I am very happy.

Pros: This case has plenty of knuckle room for those of us that like to cut ourselves when we work on computers. More than enough hard drive space. Easy install for all your hardware.

Cons: It is heavy but what else do you expect for a steel case and 10 hard drives? Plus this thing is not going to be moved.

Overall Review: I had originally bought a 2U server case, but it didn't have enough room for what I wanted to do. Should have gotten this case right off.

Pros: Strong, rugged case. Plenty of drive space; hard drives and CD-Drives. I currently have 5 hard drives installed and 2 DVD-Drives. Lots of room for adapter cards and cooling fans along with connector cables.

Cons: No front audio or firewire connections. Missing mounting holes for E-ATX motherboards. Had to completely disassemble the case in order to drill 2 mounting holes in order ot secure a E-ATX motherboard.

Overall Review: This is a good case for a server or workstation. I am using the case for a video server and only wish it would accomodate a fire wire and audio connectors on the front panel. Otherwise, I recommend this case.

Pros: - Spacious, good to work in

Cons: - Included fans (120 mm in the front, and a single 80 mm in the rear (there's space for 2)) are 2-pin only. I replaced these with 4 pin PWM fans so the motherboard can control the speed. - The latch on the front rotates a bit too easily, I feel like it will accidentally rotate & the front door will fall open. - The air filter is in the front door, which doesn't seal entirely. There's a half-inch gap in the bottom of the door around the filter.

Overall Review: - Front panel USB connectors are 2.0, you'll need to buy something separate if you want USB 3.0 on the front. - I'm not sure what the 'Fan Fail' light on the front is supposed to hook to.

Pros: Incredibly solid. Made of steel and very 'industrial' quality. It has plenty of room inside for cable management and giant video cards. The steel is really rugged and the foam on the front (for filtering air) is great. I can't believe the price is so low, really the best bang for the buck of a case I've ever had! All metal edges are perfectly rounded and smooth; all holes line up perfectly; E-ATX motherboard fit beautifully and i7 Extreme heatsink fits fine. Power switch is awesome. Optical drive lines up perfectly.

Cons: This case doesn't have those white silicone stoppers you find under hard drive cages and PSUs, so your PSU will be floating in the air and torquing the screws on the outside. I had to cut the molex connectors for the HDD LED to connect it to my motherboard because the case comes with 3pin with one blank while motherboards use 2 pin connections. Comes with fan mounting brackets that decide how you connect your 80mm fans. The 5.25" optical cage is super hard to remove, just use brute force. Overall it's a rather noisy case.

Overall Review: Reset switch is TINY, seriously, you can barely see it! The case comes with a bracket for multiple hard drives and 'support' for PCI cards: just toss it, there's no way this will fit back into your case if you put a motherboard in. For me it doesn't matter, but I built a studio/workstation with 2 hard drives and not 9. Also, I was planning to put watercooling into this machine: forget it. There's an icecube's chance in hell of fitting a watercooling system in here unless you do some serious cutting and welding. Not to say it isn't a roomy case, it is, but I'd say if you're thinking of building a watercooled beast, just get a rackmounted watercooler and go that route. This case feels very heavy because it's awkward to lift and move around.