Hardware review: computer tower CS 601
Foreword
An essential part of every computer is its case or tower. Usually complete machines bought for less money feature a loosy case and also many users buy cheap ones and want to kick it away later on (like me :)).
We know the problem: Mini or Midi-towers are nice to transport, not too expensive and fit under every table. But often size is not enough or the whole case is of bad quality.
Big-towers feature enough space but are unhandy and probably don't fit under most tables.
If your space is limited like in my room you maybe want to have something between Big and Midi. I actually thought that this does not exist, but I was luckily wrong: I found the CS 601.
In this article I want to show you the advantages of the tower and recommend it to you, if you are planning to buy a new case or computer. The advices how to build it together are just to show you the features, I guess a demoscener knows how to put together a computer.
What ?
The CS 601 is not a usual tower but a Midi-Server-tower. You will see later on that this fact has a lot of cool advantages. It's very common among overclockers and gamers, but that should not stop us as demosceners from buying it too ;)
Common facts and interior
Let's start with the common things. The CS 601 has the following size: 20cm x 48cm x 54cm (width x depth x height).
It's right between a Midi and a Big tower and features four 5.25" slots and 6 (!) 3.5" slots of which two are external but of course also can be used for HDD's.
The tower is available in standard grey, black, violett and even metallic blue, but that's a matter of taste.
Concerning the weight it's quite heavy: 10kg without anything build in. But that's due to the quality materials used. All metal-parts are strong for every extreme situation. Also all edges are either filed or crimped so that you don't need to worry about killing yourself when working at your box. Because it's a Server (I wonder if it was ever used as a Server :)) it has a lockable front door and a lockable side-door. Usually you won't need that, but see later why it can be useful.
The side doors are very easy to open and close, no fiddling around with hooks that have to fit into small slots. You just open the screws and pull it aside. Inside we see at the top an area to put the Power-supply to. It's mounted horizontally as it should be and not vertically as in some Midi-towers.
Beside it the 5.25" slots, then two 3.5" boxes for each three drives. Here we have the first cool feature. The boxes are not screwed in the case but just locked with a fast-locker. So you just push aside the switch and take it off. Thus it's very easy to mount the drives into the box on your desk or workbench and then put it in the case.
Mounting 5.25" drives is the coolest thing at all. You do not screw the drives into the case but onto two plastic-holders for each drive. Then it's just pushed into the case until it klicks in. Taking it out is then as easy as it can be. Now you maybe see why it's not that bad, that the front door is lockable, because it's now also easy to steal drives.
After all this cool stuff now one (the only) disadvantage of the case. Installing the mainboard can be a real pain in the ass. As we all know, all ATX cases have that panel at the rear side where later on the connectors of the board (like USB, parallel, serial...) are fitted in and those panels usually have some springs so that the board is additionally secured. Depending on your board you now have to use more or less force (and I hate force when it comes to things like mainboards) to put it into a position so that you can screw it to the case.
It's a bit strange, that the holder for the board can't be removed for easier assembly, but instead it's directly attached to the holder in the case.
So what, back to positive stuff :)
Space
As the tower is a lot bigger than Midi or Mini and the Power supply is put apart you might need some power-cable elongations. Also make sure that your floppy and IDE cables are long enough. I had to buy new ones.
Thermal situation
These days temperature in your case and at your components are also important even if you do not own a hardcore overclocked system. As the case is quite big the danger that the cables block airflow around the CPU is very small. If you want to make sure to have a nicely ventilated tower remember: this is a server tower. And what do we see? Yes, four holders for additional case-fans. How nice!
Two are at the rear side, two at the front side. One of the front holders is in the 3.5" drive box, so it can be used for HDD-cooling which is not a bad idea in days of 7200+ RPM drives, especially when you mounted several of them. And as the designers of the case had some brain in their heads all fans don't have to be screwed also, they are just clipped in. All holders are for 80x80x25mm fans (can be bought in every electronical equipment store). You see, when you plan to overclock your system you can make sure to have enough fresh air in the case.
After installing fans, be aware of the fact that the noice level raises quite a lot! I recommmend you to use noice-blocking materials inside the case. Also you should turn down the fans, there's usually no need letting them blow at full power. This can be done with either temperature controlled fans or some electronical device to control speed. Also there are protection grilles in front of each fan that cause a lot of noise as the air flows around it. At the cost of some "security" you can remove them. Btw, I'm talking about my own works here so you can be sure of two facts: two additional case fans work at an acceptable noice level and keep your system as well as your HDD's a lot cooler.
Attaching noice-blocking materials inside the doors makes the case *much* more silent. I used foam-rubber which is used for the inside of loudspeakers. You can buy it for around 5-10 EUR. I can't tell you how good special materials work, I only know that they cost around 40 EUR.
Conclusion
I hope this gave you a good overview on the case. Oh, I nearly forgot: the case can be bought for 139-169 DM, that's 72-86 EUR. The price is for a grey one without power supply. Colored versions usually cost some bucks more. Most shops sell the case in different versions either without power supply or with different strong power supplies from 300-550W.
Be aware: they usually build in Enermax ones, which are of course among the best ones but can easily more than double the price!
I for myself bought the case at a german company called thetaTECH. They had the cheapest price and also cheapest delivery-costs. I never saw the case in a normal shop yet.
The case also has a bigger brother, the CS 6001 (If I remember correctly...) which then is a normal big Server tower with the same features.
To find an online shop selling the case try some Overclocking-sites, they usually link to many dealers selling it.
Here are some German shops where you can also see pictures of the case:
thetaTECH (currently the cheapest)
Listan (features also much other stuff)
IBKS (specialized on cases, cool shop)
Those dealers also sell OC related coolers and stuff.
Signing off,
StyX/HeadcrasH
- didn't buy his case in cologne