MaxMercury
07-12-2004, 11:44 PM
PCC has been kind enough to allow me to provide my own case for the desktop system they're building for me -- I'm buying a Chenbro Genie and having it modified for optimal cooling by the folks at http://www.coolcases.com, run by Jim Hanson, owner/founder. Richard asked me to provide some more info on coolcases, so here goes:
Over the last four years, I've bought two modified cases from Jim. His business philosophy is similar to PCC's -- provide quality, honest, personalized service at reasonable prices. You deal with Jim from the beginning to the end of the transaction. This reminds me a bit of Jon Bach, who makes himself readily available to PCC customers.
Aside from providing excellent cooling, one of Jim's priorities is making sure the inside of your case stays clean. We all know how vulnerable our electronic components are to damage from too much dust accumulation. Jim achieves a clean case via his modifications -- creating a positive pressure system -- and he also provides a variety of filters, most of which aren't supplied with the factory version of the case.
Jim cares not only about your case but about your entire system. So, when choosing a case and modification package, he puts a tremendous amount of time and effort into discussing details with you: a) What's most important to you in a case? b) Are you a "silent pc" enthusiast, a "quiet pc" enthusiast, or is noise level unimportant? c) What sort of environment will the case be in? d) How much future expansion do you expect to need? And so on. He's extremely thorough. He's also flexible and will go to great lengths to make sure you get what you want from one of his cases and mods packages. For example, he will create a special mod "melange" package just for you if one of his pre-configured packages comes up short.
In addition to caring about your system, he cares about the person or people who are going to be dealing with wiring, upgrading, etc. The merits and flaws of each case you're interested in are described in detail, and he'll make recommendations to maximize ease of maintenance. If your case will be going under your desk, he can provide casters for some models, like the Genie, and he'll provide extension cables to make it easy for you to roll out your system and work inside. Jim is sensitive to changing times, so he can provide you with handles for his smaller cases so you can transport your case to LAN parties. He can also provide adjustable speed fans; a fan controller rheobus that fits into a drive bay; multifunction transfer panels that provide front access to USB, Firewire and audio ports; rounded cables; two or three different styles of windows; lighting; excellent power supplies; and so on.
As for the types of cases, I suggest visiting http://www.coolcases.com to see what Jim offers. You'll find a good selection of sizes from a couple of mATX cases from Enlight and Lite-On to a full tower Addtronics. In terms of colors, it appears that many cases are available in either beige or black. Although Jim now offers a couple of aluminum cases, he specializes primarily in rugged, durable steel cases that might be considered boring, ugly and outdated compared to the plethora of highly stylized gaming cases, brushed aluminum cases, painted cases, etc. But Jim's goal isn't to build an elegant case, although in my opinion that's often the result. As you could surmise from the name of his website, he's primarily interested in the protection and longevity of your system by providing superior cooling without deafening you in the process. A drawback to steel, of course, is its weight, but once the case is on casters or a mobile CPU trolley, it shouldn't be a problem.
One of Jim's most interesting cases is the Chenbro PC-610. Although it's steel, it's a bit lighter than others with similar features. I asked Jim to explain, and this was his reply: The relatively light weight of the case is really due to an ingenious manufacturing technique -- this case is honestly "engineered" with sheetmetal characteristics in mind, and they were able to use lighter-gauge steel because of such things as sheetmetal stampings to stiffen it ... and a one-piece design for the tops and right side. It is much more like the "unibody" construction of automobiles now ... Because of this kind of construction, it also is the most sturdy "small/economy" case I've seen, with the heavier kind of (plastic) die-cast bezel that you see on the Chenbro Net, for example. ... In sum, then -- extreme rigidity out of lighter (.6mm?) steel -- and still good quality steel, with higher tensile strength than is found in economy cases. That's a prime example of Jim being thorough in his responses. :thumbsup
The PC-610 also features USB 2.0, Firewire and audio ports on the front bezel so you don't have to use up a drive bay if you want front access ports. This is a welcome, up-to-date feature that's not offered on older models like the Chenbro Genie.
Jim's website offers a vast array of information. If you take the time to read through it, you'll be richly rewarded. For example, in the Appendices section of his Catalog, there are two interesting articles: One focuses on good case design; the other discusses two of his most popular cases, the Chenbro Genie and Lite-On FS020 and outlines Jim's opinion on which one is better.
You can read user reviews about coolcases.com on ResellerRatings.com. As could be expected, he gets high marks. Oh, and Jim loves his work. This and his friendly nature come through in all of his e-mails. :)
Finally, here are links to reviews of some of Jim's modified cases. Enjoy:
On the Chenbro PC-610
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article159-page1.html
Coolcase-modded Chenbro PC-610 Case
May 11, 2004 by Ralf Hutter
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/003/chenbropc610/chenbropc610-1.html
"Coolcases modified Chenbro PC-610 -- beige boxes revisited
by Brian "continuum" Won
Review Date: May 11, 2003
On an AMS aluminum case:
http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/coolcases_modded_cf1009/index.shtml
CoolCases.Com Modified CF-1009 Case Review
Date : Tuesday, 17 February 2004
Author : Diceman
On the Chenbro Genie Jr.:
http://www.tweak3d.net/reviews/misc/geniejr/
Posted: November 18, 2001
Written by: Greg "Dyre" Heasley
On the Chenbro Genie:
http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/coolcases_chenbro_genie/index.shtml
CoolCases.Com Chenbro Genie Case Review
Date : Wednesday, 03 October 2001
Author : Diceman
On the Addtronics 7896:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/01q3/addtronics7896-mod/coolcase-1.html
Addtronics 7896 w/ modifications
by Ben "Ator" Rota
Review Date: 7/2/2001
-- Max
Over the last four years, I've bought two modified cases from Jim. His business philosophy is similar to PCC's -- provide quality, honest, personalized service at reasonable prices. You deal with Jim from the beginning to the end of the transaction. This reminds me a bit of Jon Bach, who makes himself readily available to PCC customers.
Aside from providing excellent cooling, one of Jim's priorities is making sure the inside of your case stays clean. We all know how vulnerable our electronic components are to damage from too much dust accumulation. Jim achieves a clean case via his modifications -- creating a positive pressure system -- and he also provides a variety of filters, most of which aren't supplied with the factory version of the case.
Jim cares not only about your case but about your entire system. So, when choosing a case and modification package, he puts a tremendous amount of time and effort into discussing details with you: a) What's most important to you in a case? b) Are you a "silent pc" enthusiast, a "quiet pc" enthusiast, or is noise level unimportant? c) What sort of environment will the case be in? d) How much future expansion do you expect to need? And so on. He's extremely thorough. He's also flexible and will go to great lengths to make sure you get what you want from one of his cases and mods packages. For example, he will create a special mod "melange" package just for you if one of his pre-configured packages comes up short.
In addition to caring about your system, he cares about the person or people who are going to be dealing with wiring, upgrading, etc. The merits and flaws of each case you're interested in are described in detail, and he'll make recommendations to maximize ease of maintenance. If your case will be going under your desk, he can provide casters for some models, like the Genie, and he'll provide extension cables to make it easy for you to roll out your system and work inside. Jim is sensitive to changing times, so he can provide you with handles for his smaller cases so you can transport your case to LAN parties. He can also provide adjustable speed fans; a fan controller rheobus that fits into a drive bay; multifunction transfer panels that provide front access to USB, Firewire and audio ports; rounded cables; two or three different styles of windows; lighting; excellent power supplies; and so on.
As for the types of cases, I suggest visiting http://www.coolcases.com to see what Jim offers. You'll find a good selection of sizes from a couple of mATX cases from Enlight and Lite-On to a full tower Addtronics. In terms of colors, it appears that many cases are available in either beige or black. Although Jim now offers a couple of aluminum cases, he specializes primarily in rugged, durable steel cases that might be considered boring, ugly and outdated compared to the plethora of highly stylized gaming cases, brushed aluminum cases, painted cases, etc. But Jim's goal isn't to build an elegant case, although in my opinion that's often the result. As you could surmise from the name of his website, he's primarily interested in the protection and longevity of your system by providing superior cooling without deafening you in the process. A drawback to steel, of course, is its weight, but once the case is on casters or a mobile CPU trolley, it shouldn't be a problem.
One of Jim's most interesting cases is the Chenbro PC-610. Although it's steel, it's a bit lighter than others with similar features. I asked Jim to explain, and this was his reply: The relatively light weight of the case is really due to an ingenious manufacturing technique -- this case is honestly "engineered" with sheetmetal characteristics in mind, and they were able to use lighter-gauge steel because of such things as sheetmetal stampings to stiffen it ... and a one-piece design for the tops and right side. It is much more like the "unibody" construction of automobiles now ... Because of this kind of construction, it also is the most sturdy "small/economy" case I've seen, with the heavier kind of (plastic) die-cast bezel that you see on the Chenbro Net, for example. ... In sum, then -- extreme rigidity out of lighter (.6mm?) steel -- and still good quality steel, with higher tensile strength than is found in economy cases. That's a prime example of Jim being thorough in his responses. :thumbsup
The PC-610 also features USB 2.0, Firewire and audio ports on the front bezel so you don't have to use up a drive bay if you want front access ports. This is a welcome, up-to-date feature that's not offered on older models like the Chenbro Genie.
Jim's website offers a vast array of information. If you take the time to read through it, you'll be richly rewarded. For example, in the Appendices section of his Catalog, there are two interesting articles: One focuses on good case design; the other discusses two of his most popular cases, the Chenbro Genie and Lite-On FS020 and outlines Jim's opinion on which one is better.
You can read user reviews about coolcases.com on ResellerRatings.com. As could be expected, he gets high marks. Oh, and Jim loves his work. This and his friendly nature come through in all of his e-mails. :)
Finally, here are links to reviews of some of Jim's modified cases. Enjoy:
On the Chenbro PC-610
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article159-page1.html
Coolcase-modded Chenbro PC-610 Case
May 11, 2004 by Ralf Hutter
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/003/chenbropc610/chenbropc610-1.html
"Coolcases modified Chenbro PC-610 -- beige boxes revisited
by Brian "continuum" Won
Review Date: May 11, 2003
On an AMS aluminum case:
http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/coolcases_modded_cf1009/index.shtml
CoolCases.Com Modified CF-1009 Case Review
Date : Tuesday, 17 February 2004
Author : Diceman
On the Chenbro Genie Jr.:
http://www.tweak3d.net/reviews/misc/geniejr/
Posted: November 18, 2001
Written by: Greg "Dyre" Heasley
On the Chenbro Genie:
http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/coolcases_chenbro_genie/index.shtml
CoolCases.Com Chenbro Genie Case Review
Date : Wednesday, 03 October 2001
Author : Diceman
On the Addtronics 7896:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/01q3/addtronics7896-mod/coolcase-1.html
Addtronics 7896 w/ modifications
by Ben "Ator" Rota
Review Date: 7/2/2001
-- Max