- Aug 25, 2001
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I bought one of these cases on sale for $15 or so, about a month ago. Well, I had a chance to build with it today, and I thought that I would offer a review.
First off, very thin metal, too flexible. The side panels, after I removed them, were already bowed. (No P4 air duct, for those of you that care.)
Next, the ATX I/O bracket is not screwed in, it's part of the case metal. Worse yet, it's attached on both sides! So you cannot just "flex" it out to get rid of it to put in the mobo's ATX I/O bracket. I had to resort to some cutters to snip the bottom part where it was attached, and then flexed it to detach the top two connections, then I had to bend the bottom part of the metal back in place. (Which wasn't hard, given the thinness of the metal.)
Third, the mobo's standoffs. Some of them come pre-punched in the mobo tray, others require you to install brass standoffs. (There were only three brass standoffs in the parts bag, btw.) Worse yet, the screws needed to attach to those standoffs, are different depending on whether the standoff was built-in or attached! The built-in standoffs require large-thread screws (HD screws), and the installed brass standoffs require small-thread screws (CDROM screws). Talk about bizarre! For my micro-atx board, I used three built-in standoffs and all three attached standoffs.
Forth, attaching the HD and CD-ROM. They use standard screws, but the screw holes had burrs on them. Not nice.
Fifth, the expansion card slot holder is kind of non-standard. You need to unscrew a plate that covers the screw holes to get at them. I guess that's the price you pay for a case that is slightly less deep than a standard mid-tower ATX case.
Bottom line: This is one el-cheapo case. Yet, the price isn't that cheap when you factor in geeks.com's expensive shipping. $15 for the case, $15 for shipping. Why bother, when you can get an Antec 300 case at Microcenter for $40 + tax out the door.
Edit: The good - no sharp edges to cut the fingers that I could detect.
I bought one of these cases on sale for $15 or so, about a month ago. Well, I had a chance to build with it today, and I thought that I would offer a review.
First off, very thin metal, too flexible. The side panels, after I removed them, were already bowed. (No P4 air duct, for those of you that care.)
Next, the ATX I/O bracket is not screwed in, it's part of the case metal. Worse yet, it's attached on both sides! So you cannot just "flex" it out to get rid of it to put in the mobo's ATX I/O bracket. I had to resort to some cutters to snip the bottom part where it was attached, and then flexed it to detach the top two connections, then I had to bend the bottom part of the metal back in place. (Which wasn't hard, given the thinness of the metal.)
Third, the mobo's standoffs. Some of them come pre-punched in the mobo tray, others require you to install brass standoffs. (There were only three brass standoffs in the parts bag, btw.) Worse yet, the screws needed to attach to those standoffs, are different depending on whether the standoff was built-in or attached! The built-in standoffs require large-thread screws (HD screws), and the installed brass standoffs require small-thread screws (CDROM screws). Talk about bizarre! For my micro-atx board, I used three built-in standoffs and all three attached standoffs.
Forth, attaching the HD and CD-ROM. They use standard screws, but the screw holes had burrs on them. Not nice.
Fifth, the expansion card slot holder is kind of non-standard. You need to unscrew a plate that covers the screw holes to get at them. I guess that's the price you pay for a case that is slightly less deep than a standard mid-tower ATX case.
Bottom line: This is one el-cheapo case. Yet, the price isn't that cheap when you factor in geeks.com's expensive shipping. $15 for the case, $15 for shipping. Why bother, when you can get an Antec 300 case at Microcenter for $40 + tax out the door.
Edit: The good - no sharp edges to cut the fingers that I could detect.
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