Enermax CS-10181 Case Review - Installation
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Enermax CS-10181 Case Review (Black)
Pre-Modded Case Window:
On this unit as delivered to us from Xoxide.com there is a case window pre-installed on the door. Let's check it out..
You'll notice the vents cut into the window and the case door to allow air flow from the fans to pass thru. The window was installed solidly and with a professional appearance, very nice detailed work.
Top I/O Jacks:
We've seen front jacks on a case before, but on this CS-10181 they have built an I/O panel into the top of the case. The panel houses two USB ports, one IEE port, and two audio jacks. Directly behind the jacks in the same housing is a top 80mm blowhole built in. I've already found this to be useful as I take images for this review and quickly plug in my HP 850 digital camera to transfer the photos from the camera to the computer.
This is a pretty nice design with the door locking in with a spring loaded clasp. To open it simply press down and release. It opens easily yet stays shut when you don't want it open. As you can see, to have this many functions within the panel means that quite a few cables need to run off of it.
This brings us to our next feature...
Wire Routing Loops:
To some of you this might come across a bit too detail oriented, but to me it's the small things that separate "good" from "bad". The cabling that comes down from the top I/O panel as discussed above can be relatively cumbersome in a case. This CS-10181 has taken that into consideration and built in wire routing trays, loops, whatever you want to call them.
This is another feature that alone is not the big of a deal, but when put together with the rest of the details of this case add up to a quality piece of hardware. This tells me that whoever designed this case has built more than a few systems and is familiar with the problems/hassles associated with system building.
Rear 80mm Fan Mounts:
The last thing I wanted to mention on the feature list of the CS-10181 case is the mounting device for the rear 80mm fans. There are two rear firing 80mm fans aligned evenly with the CPU height. This is the same design as we've seen on the 710 series and I'm happy to see its return on the 10181.
One thing I've always liked about this design is you'll notice in the rear the way the grill is raised up above the fans. This removes the necessity to bust out the Dremel and cut the grill out. It doesn't restrict air flow and it is still fully functional. I especially love the tooless installation of the fans. A nice feature all around that I'm glad they didn't leave off of this new model.
INSTALLATION:
Alright, installation. I'm not going to cover every single detail of installation for the simple fact that if you're reading this review the chances are good you've assembled a PC before. I will however go over a few of the items that I think are either exclusive to this case, or warrant mention of some sort.
Let me tell you that initially, like the rest of my experience with this case, assembly was a pleasant experience. No major problems or questions arose and everything was relatively self explanatory. Let's take a look at a few details..
Room to Move:
I will tell you right now that I was blown away with the amount of room available in this case once I started to fill it up with parts. We installed an ABIT IS7 into this CS-10181 and as you can see in the below images, there was PLENTY of room!
This was stellar; there was plenty of room above, beside, and below this board, which is not even close to a small board. One of the things that makes all this room possible is the lateral mounting of the hard drives. In a typical case the hard drives extend MUCH further back into the case body, lowering the room available for motherboard mounting and cable routing.
Yes, I'm definitely a fan of a lot of room in a case, especially when it comes in a case that is as relatively small, considering the space available, as this one. Makes me think that maybe this case will work nicely for the water cooling project I have coming up. :)
Drive Mounting:
In the past from Enermax on the 710 series case (which I keep referencing because of their similarities) the drive rail system rails needed to be screwed into the 5.25" drives and the 3.5" drives as well, not in this CS-10181. In this case they utilize a very smart system with plastic drive rails with tabs that lock in place on the drive leaving you with a solidly mounted drive.
You'll notice the four nubbys (for lack of a better, actual word!) on this drive rail. Those nubs fit nicely into the standard screw holes of your 5.25" drives and holds it firmly in place.
Once you have both rails in place, which takes all of fifteen seconds, you simply slide the rail in and it locks in place with an audible click..
It doesn't get a whole lot easier than that folks. Removing a drive is just as simple, simply depress the tabs on the side and pull the unit out..
Mounting the hard drives is just as simple. The only difference is that the hard drive rails only have two nubbys (there's that non-word again) and a tab where the drive sits on both sides. Very sweet..
Beyond that there's not much to mounting the drives in this thing. Very simple, very smooth, and very stable. GooSH!™
Let's go wrap up installation, take a look at the assembled product, then wrap this one up, whadaya say? Hit NEXT!
Next: Finished Product >>
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