The Tech Station is made of nonconductive, scratch-resistant
plastic. No metal screws or brackets are exposed
in any of the sensitive areas. The motherboard sits
on protective rubber standoffs, the top shelf has
a neoprene surface, and the test bench sits on 4
rubber feet. These features provide testing without
the worries of frying your hardware like if you
were working on a metal bench, your bedroom floor
or where ever else you decide to do your testing.
Assembling the Tech Workstation should take you
around 30-45 minutes and highSpeed PC have the installation
instructions available as either a PDF
or a Word
document. Before you start find
a nice large clean surface to layout all the parts
and the instruction sheet so that you later you
are aware where everything is. HighSpeed PC recommends
comparing your enclosed parts to the instruction
sheet to make sure that you have all the required
pieces to complete your project. The only tools
you should require would be a phillips screw driver
and possibly a power drill to speed up the process.
Above shows the parts included as well as the bottom
platform with the 4 rubber feet installed. This
is the first step of the installation process. The
next step is to install the 4 grey support rails
that will be used to secure the top platform. During
the installation I had some issues getting the top
surface to sit flush with the support rails. After
backing the screws out then re inserting them I
was able to get the surface to sit flush and snug
against all 4 rails. The top platform is for stacking
the additional pieces required to complete your
system, like CD-ROM drives, floppy drive and power
supply.
After attaching the top surface I had a struggle
to get the plastic caps to close properly to cover
the 4 screws. I'm sure that if things are screwed
tight enough the caps will all close but unfortunately
during my attempts I snapped one of the light weight
plastic caps off. This will have no effect on the
performance but it is not as appealing cosmetically.
I ended up removing all 4 of the caps to keep the
look uniform.
The "Standard" model that we are looking
at today is 14" x 9.5" which is designed
to handle the majority of ATX style motherboards.
This version can be purchased from HighSpeed PC
for $79.99 USD. Personally I find that rather expensive
especially considering there is no PSU included.
Without too much effort one can find many cases
available that include a a 300-400 watt PSU for
that price. If you happen to own an Extended size
ATX mainboard you would require the "Large"
model that is 14" x 13". Once again the
large model is not cheap either weighing in at $139
USD. The additional 3.5 inches of width should take
care of any ATX based mainboard. The top shelf helps
to protect the motherboard below from any possible
impact from above. On the underside of the top platform
you attach the 2 clear plastic hard drive rails
as well as attaching the supplied 120mm fan. The
hard drive rails can hold a maximum of 2 hard drives.
If space for 2 hard drives is not enough for your
situation HighSpeed PC also has a larger version
of their Tech Workstation that comes with 2x120mm
fan and has room for a second set of rails that
will allow the use of 2 additional drives.
Once the fan and the top shelf have been attached
you can then mount the support railing for the cards
you will be using in your system. The support rail
will secure up to 7 devices and this way none of
the cards that you install are left loose and unsecured.
Once the support railing has been attached you are
ready to add the components that you are going to
use in your test environment. If for any reason
the workstation does not suit your size requirements
feel free to submit the size requirements to HighSpeed
PC and for a small additional setup fee they can
design a workstation to meet your specific needs.
If for any reason you lost or damaged any parts
of your workstation HighSpeed PC sells additional
parts on their accessories page. One thing I see
that would be of particular interest is the optional
10" grey side rails. The additional 3"
of clearance should allow the use of many of the
oversized CPU heatsinks on the market today.
One last feature that I feel needs particular attention
is the ATX Control Kit. The kit consists of 5 small
switches that are used to connect to the matching
set of jumpers on the motherboard. You get your
power led, hdd led, reset switch, power switch and
one to disable your computer speaker. This means
startup and shut down are just a button push away,
no need to use a small flat head screwdriver to
cross the jumpers to power on the system.
Pros
