View Single Post - Ultra Products Aluminus ATX Case

Kilamon · Rated XXX

I also won an aluminus case, though I opted for blue.

I immediately took it apart. Grin

The front holder for the fan is, in fact, removable, but the tabs are located in a very inconvenient place on the inside. Removing the holder is mostly unnecessary, however, as the screw holes provided aren't large enough to hold standard fan screws and require boring out with a drill if you intend to screw your fan in. I found the fan (a $14.99 one from Best Buy) to fit pretty snugly with the only problem being the wiring (the holder has a cutout for the wires but it's mostly useless).

I agree with Das Cap; the side window has 2 vents and both are non standard. Neither one uses air filters and only has what looks like a ripoff of modder's mesh. The duct for the CPU is fixed and not flexible or extendable (think "bendy straw") which is something I'd like to have seen. The rearward fan is 120mm only with more modder's mesh.

Once I had decided that I was going to build up a new server to replace the old scavenged dell optiplex I'd been using as my file/print server (I had almost all the parts I needed for a p4/1.7, 1g ram, 2x250gb HDD to do raid, etc), I put them all in a pile and started assembling.

I removed the tray for the motherboard, which was decent and seemed sturdy but unlike the Lian Li trays, where the pci slots are attached, this one is just the motherboard tray. My only nit here is that all the case manufacturers never seem to give you enough brass standoff screws for your motherboard. I had some spares though, it was all good. Spent some time (ok, 3 days) looking aorund the house for my extra P4 mounting kit for the cpu cooler. Once I put the tray back, I moved on towards the hard drives.

The hard drives each have their own little tray and each tray has 4 rubber grommets so instead of using the side screws, it's screwed on the bottom of the drive. That was pretty sweet. Then I realized the geometry of the case was off somehow and the cage that held the hard drives was off by about a quarter inch. A little careful "assertiveness" and the cage was mostly corrected. The factory could have solved this with a small span of riveted aluminium to keep the square cage in square.

One thing to note here is the use of the grommets. That's pretty sweet. It made me wish that there were more, however, as using some of those for the fans would reduce noise from rattles. Now that it's all assembled, it makes a bit of a racket since that front fan draws in through those fins. A speed adjustable fan would be advisable here.

I like their solution for the front USB, something your reviewer seems to have glossed over. It is mounted inside a 5.25" adapter. If you remove it from it's mounting, you can put it in the 3.5" space and, if you're like me and have decided that floppy drives are a thing of the past, then it will look a lot more finished and clean when you put it there.

Another thing I'd like to note is how much room is in this case. I was able to hide all my wiring and get a clean look without too much trouble. The drive cage has holes reminiscent of a ML370 for cable routing.

Mine had some minor defects which seem to be endemic to the use of 22 gauge aluminum. I'd like to see some sturdier plates used in the construction, maybe 16 gauge or 18 at the least. If the thinner aluminum is used, then more U channels are needed in order to strengthen it. The side panel's holes should be a standardized size with filtration added. The front holder for the fan could stand to be made easier to remove and some sound dampening here would be wise.

In all, for winning the case, I think it's pretty cool. It looks good and functions as it's intended. There's definately room for improvement and physical room if you want to do a water system. I would not, however, advise anyone to buy it unless they had a few extra bucks to spend on improving it.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5.