Zap
Elite Member
I had recommended the SkyHawk MSR-4610 case as a budget unit on several occasions even though I've never used one or even seen one in person. Since I kinda-sorta needed another case I decided to put my wallet up to the test and see if I have been giving good advice.
I purchased my case here:
Dealsonic $25.99
Shipping cost $15.24. No tax, shipped total of $41.23. This is my first time dealing with this vendor. They shipped it next day even though I didn't pay the extra $1.99 to speed them up (that's a joke that even Newegg participates in, making pure profit from impatient people).
Initial Impressions...
Scheduled delivery was Thursday 9/8, so I was pleasantly suprised to receive it a day early. Cardboard box is in decent shape. A bit softened from handling and a few dents/holes from contact with other stuff. Hmmm, lots of things rattling in it - not good. Opened up the box to show some nice soft foam and more cardboard with handles. This foam is IMO better padding than the typical styrofoam used with all other budget cases.
I pulled the case out and surveyed the damage.
Something sharp had poked through the box, through an inch of foam and into the top of the faceplate. The bulk of the faceplate is aluminum, but the backing is plastic for attaching to the chassis and the plastic extends to the top of the faceplate. There's a gouge in that plastic and a scratch in the nearby aluminum. This gouge also was powerful enough to break the plastic. There are four plastic pins and six plastic pins with spring-steel tipped ends that help hold the face to the chassis. The design is similar to any other case where the face plate pops off if you give it a good yank. Well, three of the four plastic pins broke, and four of the six plastic/metal ones broke. Broke, as in they were rattling inside the case. The two remaining plastic/metal pins are bent a bit and looking at the holes in the chassis where it attaches, I can see scrapes showing the pressure they were exerting.
Now to see about Dealsonic's RMA policy. If I have to pay shipping to return this baby, I'll probably just fix it up myself.
The Good...
The chassis is pretty rigid. For everyone thinking the 1.2mm aluminum would be much more flexible than the 2mm used in higher end cases, fear not. I've seen many budget steel cases (and some aluminum ones) show up dented or tweaked even though the cardboard box didn't show much damage. This one survived intact, minus the pins on the faceplate. Even the bulk of the faceplate is the same thick aluminum - nice touch compared to other aluminum cases that have just plastic face plates.
Design is pretty decent. The power supply bolts onto a piece that allows you to slide it out the rear of the chassis, similar to the slide out motherboard tray. The external 3½" drive bays are actually removeable through some screws accessible from the front after the face plate is removed. The internal 3½" HDD bays are also removeable through three small screws accessible from the bottom exterior of the chassis. These two removeable drive bays use the same thick aluminum as the rest of the case. There are two internal braces, one between the power supply and 5¼" drive bays and the second right above the motherboard area. These should help to make the chassis even stiffer. I've been told before that stiffer is better...
The flimsiest part of the whole case seems to be the side panels. I call them flimsy because the rest of the chassis is so rigid, but indeed the only reason they are the least bit flexible is because they are just one large sheet of metal. They are as flexible as the sides on a steel case, and more stiff than other cheap aluminum cases and even more stiff than the sides on my Antec Super LAN Boy case. The only case sides that seem more stiff are the ones from my CompuCase LX-6A19 and that's because it is 1mm steel made into a box-section on two edges.
Airflow is really good for a SkyHawk case since they moved to an 80mm rear fan instead of their previous 60mm fan spot. Front face actually has holes for airflow unlike many other case designs, plus another spot for a fan (not included). There are two side panel spots for fans, plus the rear is drilled out for airflow.
There are flip-out feet on the bottom of the case similar to many other, usually taller cases.
The Bad...
Besides the case being busted up?
Though airflow is good, can be better. After all, three other cases I own have 120mm fan spots both front and rear, so I have high expectations for airflow. There are four 80mm fan spots (front, rear, two side) and the hole pattern on all of these spots impede airflow. My first duty would be to dremel out these atrocities-for-vents and install finger guards (or leave it open like on my CompuCase, I like living dangerously).
A minor issue is lack of some 5¼" stealth drive bay covers. Even some cheap Athenatech cases comes with these. Silver drives aren't all that common and AFAIK this case isn't available in black.
A more major issue is placement of the internal 3½" HDD bay. It is right up against the motherboard side of the case. The manufacturer claims extended ATX motherboard support, but those larger boards will interfere with the drive bays. Indeed, standard ATX motherboards that use the last row of mounting holes may interfere with drives if you use adaptors such as IDE-to-SATA. The drive bays should have been put farther away from the motherboard side, indeed there is almost 3 inches between the drive bay and the non-motherboard side. IMO the case designer had a retard moment. Well, since the drive bay can be easily removed with three screws, not too difficult to relocate this piece with a bit of minor drilling. Hmmm, perhaps with some drilling and bending, can make this piece suitable for suspending a HDD for decreased noise...
Final Evaluation...
If it weren't for receiving it damaged, the case is a GREAT value at just over $40 shipped. It works okay stock, but has modding potential.
Dealsonic seems an okay vendor, shipping the next business day from the time I ordered. Now we'll see how they offer to deal with a damaged shipment.
FedEx Ground... never liked them and still don't. I used to live in the Imperial Valley and ordering from CompGeeks using FedEx Ground would send my order from Oceanside, CA, past the Imperial Valley, all the way to Phoenix, AZ, then coming back to Yuma, AZ, and finally to me. Imagine drawing a straight line. The end points are CompGeeks and Phoenix, and are about 300 miles apart. Draw a dot 1/3 of the way and a second 2/3 of the way to Phoenix to represent me and Yuma, AZ. Package leaves Oceanside, goes all the way to the Phoenix hub, returns to the Yuma regional office where it gets put on a delivery truck to my door. Retarded.
I purchased my case here:
Dealsonic $25.99
Shipping cost $15.24. No tax, shipped total of $41.23. This is my first time dealing with this vendor. They shipped it next day even though I didn't pay the extra $1.99 to speed them up (that's a joke that even Newegg participates in, making pure profit from impatient people).
Initial Impressions...
Scheduled delivery was Thursday 9/8, so I was pleasantly suprised to receive it a day early. Cardboard box is in decent shape. A bit softened from handling and a few dents/holes from contact with other stuff. Hmmm, lots of things rattling in it - not good. Opened up the box to show some nice soft foam and more cardboard with handles. This foam is IMO better padding than the typical styrofoam used with all other budget cases.
I pulled the case out and surveyed the damage.
Something sharp had poked through the box, through an inch of foam and into the top of the faceplate. The bulk of the faceplate is aluminum, but the backing is plastic for attaching to the chassis and the plastic extends to the top of the faceplate. There's a gouge in that plastic and a scratch in the nearby aluminum. This gouge also was powerful enough to break the plastic. There are four plastic pins and six plastic pins with spring-steel tipped ends that help hold the face to the chassis. The design is similar to any other case where the face plate pops off if you give it a good yank. Well, three of the four plastic pins broke, and four of the six plastic/metal ones broke. Broke, as in they were rattling inside the case. The two remaining plastic/metal pins are bent a bit and looking at the holes in the chassis where it attaches, I can see scrapes showing the pressure they were exerting.
Now to see about Dealsonic's RMA policy. If I have to pay shipping to return this baby, I'll probably just fix it up myself.
The Good...
The chassis is pretty rigid. For everyone thinking the 1.2mm aluminum would be much more flexible than the 2mm used in higher end cases, fear not. I've seen many budget steel cases (and some aluminum ones) show up dented or tweaked even though the cardboard box didn't show much damage. This one survived intact, minus the pins on the faceplate. Even the bulk of the faceplate is the same thick aluminum - nice touch compared to other aluminum cases that have just plastic face plates.
Design is pretty decent. The power supply bolts onto a piece that allows you to slide it out the rear of the chassis, similar to the slide out motherboard tray. The external 3½" drive bays are actually removeable through some screws accessible from the front after the face plate is removed. The internal 3½" HDD bays are also removeable through three small screws accessible from the bottom exterior of the chassis. These two removeable drive bays use the same thick aluminum as the rest of the case. There are two internal braces, one between the power supply and 5¼" drive bays and the second right above the motherboard area. These should help to make the chassis even stiffer. I've been told before that stiffer is better...
The flimsiest part of the whole case seems to be the side panels. I call them flimsy because the rest of the chassis is so rigid, but indeed the only reason they are the least bit flexible is because they are just one large sheet of metal. They are as flexible as the sides on a steel case, and more stiff than other cheap aluminum cases and even more stiff than the sides on my Antec Super LAN Boy case. The only case sides that seem more stiff are the ones from my CompuCase LX-6A19 and that's because it is 1mm steel made into a box-section on two edges.
Airflow is really good for a SkyHawk case since they moved to an 80mm rear fan instead of their previous 60mm fan spot. Front face actually has holes for airflow unlike many other case designs, plus another spot for a fan (not included). There are two side panel spots for fans, plus the rear is drilled out for airflow.
There are flip-out feet on the bottom of the case similar to many other, usually taller cases.
The Bad...
Besides the case being busted up?
Though airflow is good, can be better. After all, three other cases I own have 120mm fan spots both front and rear, so I have high expectations for airflow. There are four 80mm fan spots (front, rear, two side) and the hole pattern on all of these spots impede airflow. My first duty would be to dremel out these atrocities-for-vents and install finger guards (or leave it open like on my CompuCase, I like living dangerously).
A minor issue is lack of some 5¼" stealth drive bay covers. Even some cheap Athenatech cases comes with these. Silver drives aren't all that common and AFAIK this case isn't available in black.
A more major issue is placement of the internal 3½" HDD bay. It is right up against the motherboard side of the case. The manufacturer claims extended ATX motherboard support, but those larger boards will interfere with the drive bays. Indeed, standard ATX motherboards that use the last row of mounting holes may interfere with drives if you use adaptors such as IDE-to-SATA. The drive bays should have been put farther away from the motherboard side, indeed there is almost 3 inches between the drive bay and the non-motherboard side. IMO the case designer had a retard moment. Well, since the drive bay can be easily removed with three screws, not too difficult to relocate this piece with a bit of minor drilling. Hmmm, perhaps with some drilling and bending, can make this piece suitable for suspending a HDD for decreased noise...
Final Evaluation...
If it weren't for receiving it damaged, the case is a GREAT value at just over $40 shipped. It works okay stock, but has modding potential.
Dealsonic seems an okay vendor, shipping the next business day from the time I ordered. Now we'll see how they offer to deal with a damaged shipment.
FedEx Ground... never liked them and still don't. I used to live in the Imperial Valley and ordering from CompGeeks using FedEx Ground would send my order from Oceanside, CA, past the Imperial Valley, all the way to Phoenix, AZ, then coming back to Yuma, AZ, and finally to me. Imagine drawing a straight line. The end points are CompGeeks and Phoenix, and are about 300 miles apart. Draw a dot 1/3 of the way and a second 2/3 of the way to Phoenix to represent me and Yuma, AZ. Package leaves Oceanside, goes all the way to the Phoenix hub, returns to the Yuma regional office where it gets put on a delivery truck to my door. Retarded.
