Enermax CS-1018S Server Case

Reviews: Cases

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
Maxpoint
Apr. 26, 2003

Love at First Sight

When the UPS man dropped off this box on my porch, I noticed that he had gotten a bit jealous and mishandled my fragile merchandise. Luckily, Maxpoint (Enermax) surrounded the case with plenty of foam to protect it from the disgruntled UPS man. When I opened the box I was immediately greeted by the top access I/O interface. Once I pulled this heavy case out of the box, I immediately realized how stylish the front door is. Upon opening the front door, I found a set of keys taped to its backside. By inserting a key (both are the same, one is a spare) and turning it 180° counter-clockwise, the entire door unlatches, allowing access to the front fan cages and 3.5" drive bay cage. In most cases you would have to open the entire case and unlatch small clips from the inside to get the front off, it is a very nice feature that the entire front can be opened as a door.

About the optional fans in the front of the case, the bottom aluminum plate allows 60% airflow for your front fans. It would be nice to have more airflow, but this should be plenty to keep your hard drives cool. Something that is always a concern when you have a case with a door is whether you will have room for controllers and other things that may stick out beyond what the normal cd drive would. No worries here, the door on this case leaves enough room for fan controller knobs and the like. Enough about the front door, lets take a look at the side panels and inside...

The Cavernous Innards

To take off the side panels you will first need to take off the thumbscrews that hold them in place. Once the thumbscrews are taken off, you will need to unlock the left panel before taking it off. To unlock the left panel, open the door (both first and second) and turn the lock to the right and then remove the panel. To take off the right panel, just remove the thumbscrews and slide it towards the back of the case and then pull away from the case. Something to note on the left panel is that there are holes to allow for airflow where the fans may be placed. When you remove the left panel you will find the side-fan panel for 2 x 80mm fans. If you don't plan to install fans on the side, this side-fan panel is completely removable. With the right panel removed you will notice the usual motherboard plate and the only places for you to put wires through to the back-side are over the top of the tray and through the 5.25" drive bay cages. Time to go inside!

Once inside the case you will notice that the 3.5" hidden bays are all facing towards the left panel. You will also see plenty of mounting rails for up to 6 hard drives, and then some larger rails for the 4 x 5.25" bays. These drive rails are actually quite nifty. Some other drive rails, like the ones Chieftech uses, use screws to secure a drive in place. These rails, however, simply use small pins that go into the screw holes. These pins are part of the drive rail, they do not come off, this means toolless installation of drives. Using these rails you can install and uninstall a drive in just seconds with a perfect fit every time. You will also notice a blue and white checkered box. This box contains a variety of screws, some zipties, and the back I/O motherboard plate.

Something else you will notice inside the case is that there are a lot of wires to plug into your motherboard. All the wires are neatly clipped to the side of the hard drive cages, and there are enough wires to keep you busy when you install your motherboard later on. This is a good thing, and you should take the time to plug all the wires in to the correct places. To figure out where the wires go, consult the manual that came with your motherboard.

What was that about PCI whatsen-hoosits? This case features hands-free PCI slots... Okay, seriously, this case features toolless PCI card installation. Using plastic sliders to hold in your graphics card and the likes, you no longer have a need for screws when installing new PCI cards. Yet another nice feature is that this case has small clips on the side of the hard drive cages to provide extra support for all those extra long PCI cards (for servers etc...). You will also notice just above the PCI slots that there are 2 x 80mm fans already mounted and just waiting to be plugged in. These are great quality fans, they blow more air than my LED fans and they are quieter as well. It would have been nice if 4 more fans were included, but they can't give you EVERYTHING... or can they?

Quality Inspection

To start the quality inspection, I examined the case door. As with most other cases with doors, this door is pretty weak. The hinges and backside of the door are made of plastic, making it easy to swing too hard and knock it off, or to yank open when locked. When the front door is completely locked you can also pull up on the whole front a little bit, it is not firmly secured. Actually prying this door off when locked would take a good deal of force, but it could be done. In my opinion, doors should be made strong enough to ensure that they will not brack and can not be pulled open without a crowbar. To do this the manufacturers would need to use all metal for the entire front door so that no plastic pieces will easily snap off. The downside to producing high-quality durable doors is the cost, both to the manufacturer and the buyer. For this reason, Enermax decided to go with plastic hinges and doors. This is acceptable but I still have to take points off because now that doors are popular, they should start to improve in quality.

As I said earlier, the left panel also locks. The lock that keeps the panel from beind opened is also made out of plastic, but they set it up so it would still be very hard to take off without being unlocked. We tried to pull of the left panel without unlocking it but were unsuccessful. With that said, the left panel is good enough, but I would still like to see all-metal locks just for quality assurance.

A very minor annoyance was the fan clips. If you decide to replace the back exhaust fans, you may notice that it is difficult to clip in the new fans. Even with the Enermax fans these clips do not fit perfectly with the fans, they are just a tiny bit too shallow. An extra mm would suffice to allow enough room for the fans to seat properly. This problem is a minor one, and you can get the fans in with a good amount of force to the clip, pushing it over the fans edges. The other fan clips do not have this problem, it is only the clips in the back of the case. The side-fan clips fit perfectly. Speaking of the side-fan panel, Enermax was generous enough to provide fan filters to put over your fans. Fan filters do block some airflow, but they also block dustballs from getting sucked into your case.

Something I haven't really talked about is the top of this case... On the top of the case there is a blowhole with a pre-installed fan to let out all hot air. Also on the top of the case is the I/O interface. This I/O interface can be opened by pushing it in, it will pop back up for you to open. The I/O interface allows for easy access to sound output, mic input, 2 USBs, and a firewire port. The sound output and mic input are very nice to have for those with short headphone/mic cables that cant reach around the back of the case. You can also plug in other devices such as digital cameras via usb or firewire in the top for easy access. For those like me who don't like to see exposed wires, you may not find this very useful. Nonetheless, it is a very nice feature to include. Now for a little more about the front of the case... When you open the front of the case completely, you will expose the front fan cages and 2 x 3.5" drive bay cage. To take these out simply remove the screws holding them in place and pull them out. This makes installing 3.5" devices extremely easy. It also makes it very easy to get your fans out and clean the filter if needed without fumbling around the inside of the case.

The End

Well that just about wraps it up... so um.. yeah. Oh wait, I suppose you would like a conclusion eh? Okay, okay, here is the conclusion...

Conclusion

Overall this is an amazing case loaded with great features that are impossible to find at such a low price. This case comes with more fan mounts than you can shake a stick at, toolless PCI installation, side facing hidden bays for easy hard drive installation, I/O interface on the top of the case, and a stylish design that will make all your friends jealous. The only thing I did not like about this case was the fact that the left panel lock was plastic and a lot of the front door is plastic with just an aluminum faceplate. The weak door is common in cases with doors but I think doors should all be stronger, even if it means paying a little bit more. If you want a great looking case that is packed with features, I highly recommend this product!

Pros

Entire front opens as a door
Front-removable 3.5" cage
Front-removable fan cages
Top I/O interface
Removable left & right panel
Thumbscrews included
Side-fan panel 4 x fan filters included for intakes
Toolless PCI installation
Sideways hidden 3.5" cages for easy HDD installation
Drive rails are toolless
Case feet for extra stability
All aluminum
Looks great

Cons

Plastic used on front foor & left panel lock
Plastic behind door blocks some airflow
No removable motherboard tray

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