Nice looking aluminum (sort-of) full-tower case. I'm mostly interested in it because of the height and width, which are slightly bigger than average. Couple of new ideas I want to work on...

NewEgg has it for $100......quite a bit less than elsewhere, where it can go for $180. Anybody know anything about this case?



Modification by Bluefront....

off-the-cuff first reaction: Intake & exhaust look miserable... It's going to need cutting.

MikeC's right about the intake.....totally restricted. Hard to figure what designers were thinking. The stock exhaust setup looks ok to me.

Since my idea involves a rear/bottom intake and closing off the front intake holes, this is not a problem. What few reviews I've read on this case seem promising.....But the case will need some mods to run cool.

I have it's little brother, NewEgg
It is a really good quality case. Yes the front intake is the pits. But they do make a quality product.

That's certainly no problem for Bluefront and his carbide tipped, plasma cutting chain saw!

Heh....I'll admit to enjoying cutting on computer cases. Mostly because I have yet to find a case that cannot be improved with a few intelligent mods/cuts. I prefer a cheap case to experiment on....but for a final design with a new technique, I prefer a quality case to start with.

This particular case looks pretty good on paper, since it's the right size for the project. But I'm still looking...

I bought this open-box when the microcenter near me had what seemed to be a truckload of stuff that had been exposed to water/beaten-up. I didn't expect much, but other than the box appearing to have been saved from a shipwreck it was a big case and $60ish. The build quality is amazing for a case that price-or frankly any case I've seen. It's easily comparable to my lian-li 1100 in terms of workmanship and I haven't treated it like a $200 case.

Unfortunately, you're right about the intake being comically stupid. The front bezel comes in 2 layers, steel and plexiglass and completely block any airflow over the hard drive cage, which is the next problem. The way it's designed really doesn't leave much room for anything but the drive suspended by 4 screws, i wedged some bumpers in but that's it. Seeing as the intake fan is useless unless you cut the plexiglass, it's hard to take advantage of the great size and space the case has--it begs for hard drives but they're tricky to cool. The rear 120mm, which you'd want to replace actually keeps everything but the drives cool well and the grill is easy to cut off. I have no regrets about buying it, since it's really a $200+ case for around half of that and even the most expensive aluminum cases have some real flaw. If you're more skilled and ambitious with it than I have been and overcome the front intake issues you've got an amazing case, and there are plenty of cases almost as flawed(silverstone's flagship comes to mind) if you can't work around it for a lot more money.

Well thanks for the info. Your comments mirror some of the reviews, but amazingly, none of the reviews touch on the intake problem......which is quite easy to see in the pictures. I already have one case with that plexaglass bezel setup....very nice looking.

Well after spending more than a month trying to find a case that would work with my new ideas, I settled on the CF-1009. And I'm very pleased. This is the most impressive case I've ever seen.....the intake problem aside. The pictures do not show you now impressive this case is in person. It is sturdy 2mm aluminum....and strong. I think you could stand on it without any damage. There is no way any part of this case will vibrate or resonate.

But the best part about it is how it is constructed....it comes apart easily, even the top. This case is a modder's delight. The drive cage is not de-coupled, but it comes right out, leaving a big opening for any sort of HD mounting you can think of.

As you can see the case is about 4" taller than normal, with the extra space above the std PSU location. This setup is the main reason I bought this case. My new idea involves a larger opening in this exact location and it looks like the AMS CF-1009 will do the trick. More to come.....

Photos

That's a good looking case. It's a shame they did such a poor job on the front intake - but we know that you'll correct that, Bluefront!

Heh....guess you can never find a perfect case out of the box. But I just ordered a new air-powered nibbler to fix the problems.

FWIW. It looks like you could easily space out the entire front bezel, say about 1/4", from the case. This would dramatically open up a large intake area around the edges....at the same time maintaining the neat simple look of the case, without doing any cutting. I spent the whole week-end going over various options....

That's an interesting idea - the front IS nice and simple.

I did a system for my G/F using a Raidmax case that had an acrylic front like this one, and I didn't want to cut it because it looked so nice. It had the same intake problem, but came with 2 x 80MM fans on the side panel for intakes. I replaced them with Panaflo's.

I'd be more interested in this style if the clear plastic on the front could be easily removed. Anyone tried to remove it yet?

Abe

The plastic comes right off in one big piece....nothing is attached to it. There is an identical 2mm aluminum panel behind the plastic. The two pieces are held to the front of the case by the six visible chrome screws.

The switches and ports are held to the case itself, not the two bezel panels......the mod opportunities are endless. You could put a piece of colored paper behind the plastic front and change the whole look of the case....without any painting or permanent changes.

Thanks, Bluefront!

I was thinking of removing the plastic rather than enhancing it. I've seen many similar cases (similar in having a plastic layer over the metal) and I don't care for the look, preferring a simple aluminum face.

Do you think that there would be enough rigidity if I permanently removed the plastic, or is the metal that remains too thin? 1mm is not unusual, but the case was presumably designed to have the plastic there, and I assume that it would be seen by the designer as a permanent structural element.

Abe

NewEgg doesnt have it, anywhere else?

Nice case, redesign intake, tons of room for watercooling, etc.

Directron has it for $109. I think this version comes without a window....

The two front bezel panels are not needed for any structural integrity, as far as it looks anyway. The aluminum panel behind the front plastic panel is not highly polished or coated......so if you would attempt to use it without the plastic, it would need to be finished/painted to look good and to match the rest of the case. This is a very sturdy piece of aluminum, and it could be used that way, but I won't do it. That plastic looks good.

It does seem to be out of stock at Newegg.....

FWIW....The panels are 2mm thick. Did I say 1mm somewhere.

Ok...I've got the first version of this setup started. I'll probably do some temp testing before I go much further. The Silverstone NT01 cooler I'm using is a completely unknown factor, as is this Chaintech Zenith board. I'll be using a P4 3.2 Northwood, a fairly hot CPU.

None of the fans you see or the PSU are intended to be in the final version....this is being a setup to test the cooling ability of this computer using this new technique. And I want to find out if Speedfan will work on this MB.

The upper chamber will be sealed off from the case, so the air blown into it from the CPU fan and the PSU fan can only exit at the rear of the case. The upper two 80mm fans will be controlled to only turn on at high temps. I may not need them at all. The right side panel and top of the case will be part of this heat collection area.....so they will help remove heat, since they are aluminum.

The princible intake will be at the rear 120mm opening, filtered of course, with a still to be constructed duct to the Silverstone heatsink. This will give a very short airflow path directly to the heatsink, then right out the case. What this does is releave the PSU from most of the heat off the CPU, and I can probably run it's fan very slow.

What I'm shooting for here is a PSU fan at less than 900rpms, and a CPU fan about the same.....remains to be seen however. I'm looking for idle temps of 30C and max temps in the low 40's.

Six more photos

I've spotted the smaller version of this case in black at a computer shop near me, and must say it looks very nice, and solidly built. My one concern is that the perspex front panel may be prone to scratches.

Has anybody who has one found this to be the case? (no pun intended )

Nice, Ill get one from Directron, ty.

I was thinking, cut the intake for 1x 120mm, and make a custom drive cage for my 2x raptors. And put the 2x120mm radiator INSIDE the upper section. Open the top back and fill with modder's mesh to match the vent of my SuperFlower 550W PSU in appearence. Inside air goes through radiator, and out the upper vent opening in the back.

lots of room for well isolated drive cage and WC pump on the bottom of the case. Use modders mesh as grille in 120mm intake fan opening to give it a pro look.

On scratches.... you can always paint the front gloss black, and DVD and floppy.

Endless posibilities, looks like you found the next modders dream case.

FWIW....That front plastic piece is pretty tough, supposedly a hardened material. I don't think it'll scratch too easily. Rather than painting it, you can place a piece of colored paper between the plastic and front aluminum panel. It looks good like that.

And if you really want to paint, you can paint the inside of the plastic, avoiding any scratches on the paint. This case would make a great WC setup.....

Link to Coolcase mods of AMS cases

Well I'm mostly finished with this project, and I'm pleased with the result. I'm running a P4-3.2 on a chaintech board. And this computer has the ability to be my quietest one yet, with the capibility of running cooler than any high-performance computer I've ever seen. I have a few more mods to finish, but the basics are done. When finished I'll have a detailed description in the system forum.

For now I posted more photos, with the front bezel mod.....a nice cut-up poster behind the plastic front panel. This picture can be changed out easily if I get tired of the look. Actually it's very nice, with a purple pastel color that goes well with the silver case.

link

Wow, that's a serious amount of modding there, with yet more original ideas! I can't wait to see your write-up, as I'm sure it will answer some of my questions that spring to mind (such as: is that a bag of icepack gel the HDD is sitting on? And is that a PWM fan controller below the floppy?)

I actually bought the midi sized version of this case recently (the CF-2029) as I like the look, but what amazed me about the stock design is how they have put a 80/120mm fan grille on the front, then the bezel fits right in front of it with no air gap at all and no intake holes in line with the grille. Bizarre design decision.

But that didn't bother me one bit as I've modded mine to intake all the air through a large bottom mounted filter. In fact it is quite good at preventing sound escaping the case from the front!

Also, is that a sneaky naughty image you've put in the middle of Photo 11?

Well I'm still finishing up a few details and I have a few decisions to make. The case has two 120mm Globe fans, which I may change out for two orange Yate Loon fans (I got in on that recent deal). I may also get a T-Balancer to control fan speeds.

In the meantime I've been playing around with a secondary cooling system, controlled by the DigitalDoc5 you see in that one photo (it's cut down to fit in the space under the floppy). Using a fan(s) in the upper exhaust chamber (in the upper two openings), and another fan under the CPU heatsink, which I can have the DD5 turn on at high temps......enables me to run the main two fans very slowly, and at max CPU usage the secondary cooling fans start up. Works very well.

The hard drive is sitting on a gel-pac for vibration reduction.....heatsinks on the side, and a Yate Loon fan that only turns on at 30C. It usually runs fanless.

This has been a fun project....as a bonus it's working great.

Picture? What picture?

I believe that's "WTF"-worthy.

Inspiring work as ever bluefront - I've been thinking about the "emergency" fans idea for a while, glad to know it wasnt foolish.

The other thing that caught my eye was the foam or whatever round the i/o panel - is that to stop noise dust or both?

griff

Using a DD5 to turn on extra fans is a neat idea.....you can turn on up to eight different fans at any temperature(s) you want. And you get eight sensors on long wires to monitor any hot spot. The things work flawlessly. Plus the control is not OS dependant.

This is a negative pressure case.....and you need to go to great lengths to keep dust out. Using foam, silicone sealant, and felt strips I think these ports are leak-proof.

A very nice job! Certainly looks like you've found an ideal case.

I like the look of the HDD heatsinks. Were these a cut down extrusion or something made up yourself?

I'm digging that kids playmat foam as pictured on slide 33.
My daughters would kill me if I butchered their ABC playmat in the quest for silence.

Your work is inspiring, as always!