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Sam R.

Sam R.

Joined on 09/01/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Great for NAS

iStarUSA S-35-DE5RD Black Aluminum / Steel Tower Compact Stylish 5 x 3.5" Hotswap Trayless mini-ITX Tower - Red HDD Handle
iStarUSA S-35-DE5RD Black Aluminum / Steel Tower Compact Stylish 5 x 3.5" Hotswap Trayless mini-ITX Tower - Red HDD Handle

Pros: Small and compact, but with reasonable ventilation. Accommodates, but does not include a 120mm fan, don't forget to buy one. Five trayless SATA hotswap bays - awesome Has a full height expansion slot header Nice exterior finish, glossy black with brushed metal

Cons: Accommodates a power supply that is intended to be mounted with one side facing outside, but this case has it mounted internally, using an included IEC power extension cord. This works, but the power supply fan does not blow outside. Also, the mounting location causes the cables to come out on the opposite side from where the ATX header is on my motherboard. I had to buy an ATX extension cable to reach it. Chintsy construction, the cover is made of scary thin sheet metal and the drive bay door hinges have a lot of slop. Construction does not feel strong and solid. No reset button. How can you leave out the reset button? More expensive than other options

Overall Review: Other than the power supply shenanigans, I'm happy with this case.

Most Critical Review

Small, Cute, and Cramped

APEX MI-100 Black / Mirror finish Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply
APEX MI-100 Black / Mirror finish Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply

Pros: This case is quite pretty on the outside. It is painted a pleasant glossy black. It has a full height expansion slot. Front panel wiring is well engineered and easy to connect. The optical drive door flap is cool in an Apple sort of way. Comes with sticky rubber feet that can be put on the bottom or the right side. A good deal for everything included.

Cons: This thing is CRAMPED! The optical drive I initially tried to install was too deep and I had to pick another one. The vertical hard drive mounting spot on the left side blocks airflow to the CPU, so I moved the hard drive to the bay under the optical drive, but the screw holes are too low and make it impossible to bolt in the HD. Front panel LEDs are very dim.

Overall Review: I built a router out of this case using an Intel 945GCLF Atom board. I spent at least an hour repositioning the wires and internal components to get the best airflow, and even after that the temperature monitors say 60C on the CPU while idling. Otherwise, so far it seems to work well and I'm pleased.

Failed after 17 months

Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 2.5" 60GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDEC60GB
Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 2.5" 60GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDEC60GB

Pros: Fast, cheap, worked well while it did.

Cons: Installed in server which was left on and rarely power cycled, maybe 5 times its entire life. After powering the server off to move it, the drive started reporting itself as having capacity of 32kb. Nothing irreplaceable on that drive, but spent a very long time setting it up. Not happy at all!

11/21/2016