Enermax MaxFlow Full Tower Case

Reviews: Cases

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
Maxpoint
Feb. 17, 2005

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Quality Check

Overview

Our quality check basically consists of three things: Structural Integrity, Installation, and Safety. Structural integrity testing is where we apply pressure to the case from different directions and check to see if the frame can be easily bent or twisted out of shape. Installation is the process of installing the various system components and making sure that installation goes smoothly. Lastly, the safety testing is a result of the installation process. After installing everything, we check for open wounds and warn you which trouble areas to watch out for.

Structural Integrity

With the case sitting on my desk I went about trying to twist it as much as possible. The case is like a rock and only responded with some squeaking from the plastic feet. A large portion of this strength can be attributed to the bar running across the case just below the drive cage and over to the 5.25" bays.

Where you do have to be careful of is the face of the case. The mesh is held on at the sides and, if you press on it, it will bend inwards. At least if you do bend it out of shape, you can open the door and easily bend it back.

Installation

As this case is very large and mostly toolless, installation can be quick. The largest bulk of time in my experience was tying the cables together and trying to keep everything clean and tidy. Unfortunately the reversed nature of the case makes things difficult in the wire management area and the small opening from the power supply/drive area to the motherboard tray became a bit of a bottleneck. (Kurtis' Note: That's clean and tidy? Ha.)

The metal rails are rather thin but fit tighter than I would have expected. My 5.25" drives have very little play and I noticed no vibration from the rails. The rails for the interal 3.5" bays are essentially the same as for the 5.25" drives and fit just as well. The rails for the external 3.5" bays are plastic and don't fit nearly as nicely as their metal counterparts. My floppy drive is very loose in its slot and easily wiggles around.

The inside of the Enermax CS-718 is quite large which makes it very easy to position the motherboard into place. It also helped with attaching the heatsink as there seemed to be more room around the heatsink mounting bracket than in a standard ATX case. What may cause you some trouble is the wind tunnel itself. You must pay attention to your wiring for best airflow, and some heatsinks will not be compatible. You can see from my pictures that I had to turn the ThermalTake Fanless 103 heatsink around from its standard orientation in order for it to fit.

Safety

Enermax did a good job of folding edges and keeping sharp areas to a minimum. You do have to twist off the 5.25" bay covers, but you're supposed to do that with a screwdriver and not your fingers anyway. The most damage I sustained from this case were some sore fingertips when trying to pull the side panels off; I don't want to sound like a whiner over this, but they really are the low point of the case in my opinion.

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Page 4 of 5

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions
Page 3: Inside the Case
Page 4: Quality Check
Page 5: Testing & Conclusion

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