The Case
The case
is completely made out of aluminum. We received
the black version of the case, 3R System also provides
a silver one. The case colour is very strong and
dark, so dark that it was hard to get my camera
to focus on the chassis. The design of the case
is very simple but to my eyes just as effective
and appealing. There are no fancy decorations or
even visible air vents on the M Station; the entire
case, save from single line at the front where the
VFD and optical drive tray reside, is entirely flat.
The lower front of the case is actually a magnetic
door, which if closed can easily remain undetected
by unwary eyes, but when opened it can provide the
user with a lot of options. At the left side there
are two USB ports, two audio ports (microphone and
headphones) and a firewire port. The right side
is covered by an all-in-1 card reader and its 2
LED lights.
The rear
of the case is rather simple, save for the fact
that it is missing the PSU area. The PSU is actually
mounted at the front of the case as you will find
out later. A venting hole for an extra 80mm fan
took its place. There is a power connection cable,
which is actually a mere extension cable to the
PSU area at the front of the case.
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By removing
6 small screws, the top cover of the case comes
off and the insides of the case are accessable.
You will notice that there are many vents at the
bottom of the case, in order to make up for the
missing air vents at the sides and top. The drive
case is located at the front of the case which can
hold only a single optical 5.25” drive and
two 3.5” hard disk drives.
The card
reader and ventilation holes are below it. You have
to remove the drive cage from the case in order
to install any drives there, a process that you
may find annoying as most “normal” sized
screwdrivers will not be long enough to reach the
screws at one side, as it will be obstructed by
the chassis. You need to find a long screwdriver
in order to effectively work on this. That said,
the installation of the drives is simple as you
only have to screw them in place and re-install
the cage in the case. The optical drive will need
a little bit of extra work, as you have to replace
the stock faceplate of the tray with the provided
aluminium one.
After installing
the drive cage inside the case you simply open your
drive, remove the stock faceplate and then close
it again. Afterwards stick the provided one on the
tray and you should be done. I can see this being
a problem for some drives, as some tray faceplates
cannot be removed it would be possible to run into
alignment issues. We had not a single problem with
the NEC 3550/4550 drives.
The power
supply unit as we mentioned before is mounted at
the front of the case, right behind the iMON VFD
display. It is mounted on the air duct which covers
the left side of the case and stands on two metal
poles. Of course not directly on the metal poles
but on two rubber pads, meant to absorb all vibrations
that the power supply unit might generate, reducing
noise to an certain degree. There is also a silent
80mm fan mounted on the air duct, helping to cool
the case. The area below the power supply unit is
perforated, for those power supply units with a
second fan to draw fresh air from the outside of
the case. We would recommend power supply units
with an internal 120mm fan as these should work
best in this case, drawing air from below the case
only.
Before mounting
the power supply unit in place, make sure that the
switch is set to “on” as you will not
be able to access the rear of the unit once it is
mounted. Two more mounting places for 60mm fans
are right above the I/O panel at the rear of the
case, with one silent 60mm fan pre-installed.
Finally,
one interesting detail about this case is that all
of the front USB/Audio/Firewire cables are ending
to both a standard pre-set plug and as separated
single connectors. This was a nice idea, since most
people can simply use the plugs, but in case their
motherboards are using some unorthodox internal
connector they can still use the separated connectors.
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