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Installation and Testing

I am now the proud owner of just about the biggest single processor ATX motherboard around - the AOpen AX34 Pro II socket 370 board. This board is very wide as far as ATX boards go so it makes a great test unit for installing in cases. Addtronics sent this case with a 300W power supply included and even sent a set of their luxury castors. This case features all metal construction so I don't recommend you try moving it around like a normal plastic mid-tower. They also sent the standard non-roller feet if you plan to sit the unit up on your desk.

The case only came equipped with one 80 mm intake fan located in the front of the unit. Fans are cheap and I had enough laying around that I added another 80 mm intake fan just below the unit that came with the case and one 92 mm fan as the exhaust fan on the rear of the unit. One thing you get with an Addtronics case is great design and the location of the 92 mm fan shows that. It is set almost level with the CPU's heatsink fan unit. Some mid-towers come with their exhaust fan mounted very low or above the power supply - both are areas that won't help with the cooling of your case much. The pictures below aren't the greatest I have to admit. My new digital camera died so I had to fall back on a camera with a resolution of 640 x 480.

Front Cover
Front Fans
Inside
Rear Cover

Addtronics provided their 300W power supply. I think that anyone who is considering this case should opt for this power supply (unless you plan to get the pricey 400 watt unit). The ATX power connector cable is not short like the units that a lot of other manufacturers provide. Its not a really big deal, but I like having the option to run the ATX power cable over and around the top of the CPU heatsink to reach the power connector without having to go over the top of the CPU heatsink. I've seen the wires from a shorter ATX cable hit the heatsink's fan and stop the fan from spinning. This power supply features six Molex connectors and two floppy connectors that are all designed to work well with the lengths they have to reach in this case. All those connectors definitely come in handy when you begin filling in all those fan brackets.

I mentioned before that I recommend the optional luxury casters for this unit. The reason is very simple: this case empty weighed more than one of my plastic mid-towers with all the components inside. It doesn't take long to get up to 50 or 60 lbs. with a lot of components inside. A big benefit of using this smaller Addtronics case is that it fits easily under a standard sized desk and can even be set on top of the desk. Even with its rollers mounted it rolled under my desk with no problems whatsoever. At $15 you can consider them an investment into a prevented hernia.

 





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