Hardware Analysis - What do you guys think of my new case?

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

Mark Curtis — 2008-03-31T12:03:54-05:00

That's strange, my brother and I both got our rebates back a month ago.

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

john albrich — 2008-03-31T11:28:39-05:00

john albrich said:

I ordered one the day before yesterday (Dec 19, 2007). Figured for US$25 it's hard to go too wrong for that style case....

Coolermaster
Cooler Master Elite 330
Promotion #14260

My Cooler-Master Elite rebate on-line status STILL says "We have received your submission and it is being processed.".

It's been stuck at "it is being processed" for something like 2 months now.

edit to add-
I still like the case. It's been very easy to work with, although I think the drive mount "tool-less" securing system should be a more robust design.

edit to update 20080426:
My online rebate status just within the last 3 days switched to indicate the rebate finally has been mailed. It took a while, but it looks like they finally came through.

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

john albrich — 2007-12-29T03:25:18-05:00

Matt BillyBob said:

Damn John....and here I was thinkin I was being too patient for politely taking my case back when the door hinge was broken on my case
I hope you verbally stabbed someone for those...minor indescretions on your case. Glad you like it though. That's the main thing I suppose.

I'm kind of a utility guy when it comes to computers. They don't have to look like a showroom Ferrari or Bugotti (but, it's nice when they do) they just have to do their job flawlessly.

No verbal stabbing of anyone, but I did write Newegg customer support about the case damages and what I considered to be fan misrepresentations to let them know what's going on at their manufacturers.

I was stunned when...
Newegg apologized and issued a partial credit. Newegg gave up what probably amounted to a decent-sized chunk of its profit on the sale because of a manufacturing problem on a product they sell.

The apology was excellent customer relations. The credit was outstanding customer relations.

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

Matt BillyBob — 2007-12-28T13:04:44-05:00

Damn John....and here I was thinkin I was being too patient for politely taking my case back when the door hinge was broken on my case

I hope you verbally stabbed someone for those...minor indescretions on your case. Glad you like it though. That's the main thing I suppose.

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

john albrich — 2007-12-28T08:48:52-05:00

Well, I moved my most used system over to this new case, and I really like it in spite of the "issues" I raised above.

It's a lot easier to access any component, and temps are better by a few degrees C, even though I'm now running 4 HDDs internally instead of 2 IDE internally and 2 eSATA externally.

This case is also noticeably quieter than the old one. The system fan is running a good 700rpm slower than in the old case.

I also made the LED mods I talked about. HDD activity is now indicated by the ultra-bright blue LED "ring" around the power button and shows-up much better. System "power-on" is now indicated by a ultra-bright red LED that replaced the old plain red LED (that used to display HDD activity)

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

john albrich — 2007-12-27T20:05:26-05:00

My case arrived today as scheduled, but not in the claimed 3 day shipping period.

DAMAGE NOTED UPON ARRIVAL
**PAINT**
There is a 7mm long scratch on the front top of the case in a very obvious location.
The scratch goes through the black paint into the silver steel below, so it really stands out. There are also 2 extremely small spots where dust kept the paint from being properly applied and there are 2 tiny pits in the paint and it's rough at those points. The 2 pits are easily hidden with a black permanent ink marker. The scratch will be pretty obvious no matter what I do.

There is no excuse for them to have missed this during manufacturing or pre-shipment inspection.

There was no damage on the clear over-wrap so I know the scratch was made before it was packaged and shipped.

**ASSEMBLY**
Also, one of the knurled side-panel retention screws (the kind designed to be tightened and loosened by hand) was either installed crookedly into the case or damaged by a very strong lateral force applied after installation, and as a result had to be removed by FORCE. Someone was careless when they screwed-in the fastener on the manufacturing line. In addition, the metal around the screw-hole has been substantially deformed...so I'm fairly certain the damage was caused by a very strong lateral force applied to the screw after or during installation.

Also found out that 2 of the mobo stand-off screw-holes are stripped.

**DESIGN**
The right-side panel of the case is designed in such a way that it is almost certain to vibrate against the mobo mounting plate and make a racket when the computer is powered on and fans are spinning. I fully expect to have to install a small piece of foam to dampen the vibration.

The case itself however, is a very aesthetically pleasing design. I would be extremely happy if the case hadn't been damaged. The pre-installed 120mm rear case fan is a 3-wire RPM sensing 7-bladed CoolerMaster branded fan. However, it is so quiet that it can run at full throttle 100% of the time, and so does not need to take up a speed-controlling fan socket...unless you just want to know the RPMs or use a fan-failure monitor.

When I ordered the case, I was offered 2 "special deal" Rosewill 12V 80mm fans:
RFA80-K and RFA80L-B. Even though bearing the EXACT same model numbers as those fans in the pictures (which are clearly 3-wire fans) they do NOT contain an rpm sensor. They are 2-wire fans instead of 3-wire fans. They are also, as someone noted, noisy...and not because of the sound of air, but because of a mechanical "burrrring" sound that comes and goes...a bit like a fan lightly rubbing against a wire though there is no wire being rubbed. I didn't really expect much because they're ultra cheap fans, but I did expect them to at least match what was displayed since the model numbers matched exactly. Both the LED version and the plain fan were 2-wire fans, and BOTH make the "burrrring" sound.

**FAILURE** (extra 80mm fan only...not CoolerMaster case fan)
Within 10 minutes of being powered-on, the Rosewill Fan with 4 blue LEDs (in addition to the "burrring" sound) 1 of the 4 LEDs started flickering. Within 20 minutes, the LED apparently failed completely. I will assume this is an LED wiring failure exposed after 10 minutes of power-on vibration. I doubt it's an actual LED failure.

The Rosewill fan is now very annoying audibly AND visually.

I think I should emphasize that even the Rosewill fan boxes actually say "3-pin connector ideal for Fan Controllers" Yes, they are connectors with 3-pin HOLES, but only 2 of those "pins" have an actual metal receptor connection in them. To me, this is blatantly false advertising. It is at the very least highly mis-leading.

edit-add info about 120mm case fan, and
misleading 3-pin connector Rosewill 80mm fan claims
edit-20071230 add info about failing Rosewill Fan LED

edit to add-With appropriate tools I was able to overcome the mechanical defects. The only issue that still bothers me is the cosmetic damage. Newegg satisfactorily recognized and dealt with my concerns.

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

Tam the Bam — 2007-12-22T00:48:19-05:00

Hehe I like you're arcade cab Squire! Well cool

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

squire strahan — 2007-12-22T00:19:28-05:00

thats a great case! im currently using it for on of my arcade cabs
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a181/boranes/arcade%20games/...G_4701.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a181/boranes/arcade%20games/...G_4702.jpg

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

Mothow — 2007-12-21T23:29:56-05:00

I hate the Antec 900 seriously.I dont even like its looks anymore

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

john albrich — 2007-12-21T23:19:35-05:00

Mark Curtis said:

Just ordered it, can't wait for it to arrive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115
The front is all mesh....

I ordered one the day before yesterday. Figured for US$25 it's hard to go too wrong for that style case.

However, the "Free 3 day shipping" is actually projected to take over 7 days. No surprise, I guess, given the season. But, Santa's sleigh is going to be light on Christmas Eve.

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

Tam the Bam — 2007-12-19T19:05:12-05:00

I also said i am past the stage of fancy cases. The clear perspex is just to visually
inspect my coolin system

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

john albrich — 2007-12-19T15:14:31-05:00

I mentioned earlier I like a case with a lot of cooling. Well, this just popped up in my mail at $59.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
If you want something with lots of air cooling, this looks like a beastie that will work for ya. It's got front fans, a back fan, a top fan, and a place where you could mount a side fan (or duct) And, it looks like it will have a lower center-of-gravity than many rigs.

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

Mark Curtis — 2007-12-19T11:27:35-05:00

The only reason I ordered this is case is because I just built my bro a system using the same exact case. I just loved it too much to pass it up, and when he offered to buy me one......well

It is built pretty well compared to my current case.

Tam,
I hear you man, but I'm past the stage for fancy glass sided cases.

I had even cut a side panel in my emachine case back in the day

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

FordGT90Concept — 2007-12-19T04:08:36-05:00

Mark Curtis said:

Just ordered it, can't wait for it to arrive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115

The front is all mesh

I dig that price. Sub $50 cases are usually quite rubbish and the market is saturated with poor products. I wish companies like Thermaltake and Silverstone would invest more in that market.

Re: What do you guys think of my new case?

john albrich — 2007-12-19T04:04:33-05:00

Nice case. As usual, I wish they'd provide better forced-air cooling for the HDDs.

BTW, you might consider doing what I sometimes do...change the PowerLED out with the HDD activity LED (sometimes I've even changed the LEDs to change the colors and brightness).

On cases I've done that to, the HDD activity really shows up as the "Power" button optics almost always provide much higher visibility. If you like blinkin' lights, it's a good mod worth the 5 minutes it takes to do.*

The power LED is usually so blah, I amp it up with an ultra-bright LED. On one case, I replaced it with a "multi-spectrum dynamic LED" (changes colors every few seconds) It depends on the circuitry used to drive the LEDs.

*Of course, don't modify the power indicator for systems you plan to give or sell to someone, as the lawyers will come after you for violating some safety regulation or other, or you might get sued by some idiot that can't remember the difference.