Senfu Tech Station Review - Senfu Tech Station Review
(Page 2 of 2 )
Senfu Tech Station
Assembly (continued)
(plexiglas shelves with and without the protective covering)
Now that the frame is completely together, it's time for you to drop your shelves in place. The two equipment shelves are cut so that they will rest on the inner slope of the frame rails of the frame. It is extremely important to make sure that during assembly, all of your joints are tight and there are no obstructions at the corner connections. The first time I assembled the tech station, I had some metal burrs in a couple of the tubes that prevented the connections from being tight. I thought that I had gotten a crappy product because the two plexiglas shelves kept falling through the frame. I only noticed the tube imperfections after I had disassembled the frame to take pictures for this review. I solved my problem with my dremel and a file. Now my plexiglas shelves fit fine. I would however, have liked it better if the shelves were cut so that they rested completely on top of the frame rails instead of on the inner slope. A shelf with a quarter inch overhang all the way around and a notch in each corner for the vertical posts would have been greatly appreciated.
The final step in assembly is to drop the cushion pad onto the top shelf of the frame. This is where most people will place their motherboard. The foam cushion pad is supposed to keep the back side of the motherboard from shorting on the chrome frame rails. As I said previously, a bigger shelf plate and a bigger cushion pad would have made me feel more comfortable with my motherboard resting on top.
Functionality
Now we take a look at how well the tech station will actually function as a bench station. The pictures below depict a generic PC test bench setup with the motherboard, hard drive, floppy drive, CD-Rom and power supply resting on the lower shelf.
Notice how tight it is on the lower shelf. Also notice how the addition of the drive and power cables adds a little clutter to the tech station. The tech station kit includes 24 rubber anti-slip pads but doesn't tell you whether you should stick them to the shelves or to the equipment that will sit on the shelves. If you are going to be swapping out components like the power supply, CD-Rom and hard drive, I guess you would try to place the anti-slip pads evenly on the surface of the lower shelf. A single large rubber mat on the lower shelf would probably be a better idea. three zip ties are included with this kit but they are not really long enough to secure any of the hardware that will sit on the lower shelf. I don't see myself using the zip ties to secure any cables as I will be constantly cutting them and using new ones. Some Velcro cable straps would be a better choice.
Now we get to the last few items in the kit. The motherboard switches, LED's and PC speaker included with the kit are functional but could use some improvement.
As you can see in the pictures, the speaker, LED's and switches have very short leads. This can be a problem depending on the layout of the motherboard header pins. The motherboard in the picture is an MSI board and as you can see, everything is bunched up tight. I would prefer to see the speaker, LED's and switches mounted onto a small PCB with four to six inch leads for adaptability to different motherboard layouts. The final item in the kit is the dust cover and it does exactly what it's supposed to do. It covers the tech station and everything sitting on the shelves.
Conclusions
The Senfu Tech Station is an item geared toward a small subset of the PC enthusiast community. People that want to run their PC's without the inconvenience of dealing with the confines of a PC case and people that routinely swap out PC components for product reviews and overclocking will probably find the tech station useful. Would I recommend it for the average Joe? No. I would not. Would I recommend it for reviewers and overclockers? Yes, with some reservations. I would like to see a slightly longer, wider version with anti-slip protective padding for both the upper and lower shelves. I would like to see an improvement on the provided motherboard connectors. Will I see these improvements? Probably not. These are improvements I can make myself by going to the local hardware store and Radio Shack.
Pros
Strong, lightweight frame that can be expanded with the tech station expansion kit
Open access to hardware on shelves allows easy swapping of components
Easy assembly and disassembly with just a wrench
Small desktop footprint
Cons
Speaker, LED and power/reset switches have very short leads, they should all be mounted on a small PCB with longer leads
Frame could be slightly wider and longer
Should have a full non-slip surface on both upper and lower shelves
Should have better cable management system included.
The Senfu Tech Station is still a very good idea but I would rate it right now as a 6 out of 10. If you are interested in the tech station check it out at HighSpeed PC and if you have any comments on my review or would like to check out some of our other reviews, please visit our forums.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
