AMK "DaBenz" PC Case

[MediaMan]

"A PC case with headlights and a grill? It's true and AMK Computers let us take DaBenz out for a test drive. It has been our experience that many PC cases are the same chassis except for the bezel but AMK chooses their product line carefully. It's not until the "up close and personal" do the reasons why become obvious."

Check it out for yourself. (http://www.short-media.com/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=72&topid=9&Itemid=3)

[profdlp]

Cool. I know people who will want one of these just for the "wow" reaction from their friends the first time they show it off.

Nicely written review, I enjoyed it.

Now, this would take a larger heat sink, but it's my kind of grill:

[MediaMan]

lol at grill. Heat up dem briquettes would ya?

[Geeky1]

The front end looks an awful lot like the front end on the Mercedes CLKs... wonder where they got the name? ;)

Have to get myself one of these things, if just to go with the avatar & sig... :D

[MediaMan]

As I said in my review....wonder how long it will take for someone to mount a hood ornament from said car on it?

;D

[Geeky1]

Well... I do have a few I could slap on there... hmm... ;)

[keto]

Well done, MM ... tho I think ... make that I "no" there's a typo near the bottom of P.2 :p

[Thrax]

Good review, as per the usual expected quality from our fearless leader...But damn the case is ugly.

[Spinner]

I'm looking for cases at the moment, unfortunately, that one didn't really take my fancy. Nevertheless, I nicely written review MM'.

[Nixxer]

Spinner said
I'm looking for cases at the moment, unfortunately, that one didn't really take my fancy

Get a Xaser III. If you like the look of them they are ace.

[Spinner]

Nixxer said
Get a Xaser III. If you like the look of them they are ace.

Could I have a linky winky pleasey weasy?

(I've been drinking, and yes, I know it's early over here):crazy:

[Nixxer]

Here you go, the Xaser III review.

Clicky. (http://www.short-media.com/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=71&topid=9&Itemid=3)

[Spinner]

Thanks. Doh! Didn't realise there was one on the main page.

/me slaps himself

[CyrixInstead]

Ace....? :wtf:

They are horrible (IMO)

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xaser3/v1000cblue.htm

http://www.thermaltake.com/images/products/xaser3/blueSeries/v1000c.jpg

[Necropolis]

CyrixInstead said
Ace....? :wtf:

They are horrible (IMO)

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xaser3/v1000cblue.htm

http://www.thermaltake.com/images/products/xaser3/blueSeries/v1000c.jpg

I like the look of the Xasers.

[Thrax]

I should note that Xaser cases are uglier than this AMK case.

A horrible butchering of a wonderous thing.

[CyrixInstead]

I like something a little more stylish.

I recently bought the Coolermaster ATC 710 in black, to go with my Black TFT screen.

http://www.coolermaster.com/case/products/atc710.html

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/710-gx1.jpg

[Necropolis]

I guess its all down to personal choice at the end of the day :D

[Spinner]

To be honest I'm not quite sure what I think about the Xaser's, but I wouldn't count them out. I've also been looking in the direction of Coolermaster, in my case it was the Wave Master TAC-T01 that caught my eye.

[profdlp]

Spinner said
Thanks. Doh! Didn't realise there was one on the main page.

* Spinner slaps himself
Ya already said ya was drinkin' - how much did that hurt? ;D

[Thrax]

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/11-119-014-03.JPG

/drool

[Spinner]

profdlp said
Spinner said
Thanks. Doh! Didn't realise there was one on the main page.

* Spinner slaps himself
Ya already said ya was drinkin' - how much did that hurt? ;D

Original Message Edited Out by Spinner

p.s (Love you...);)

p.s.s (Your right Thrax, that is a nice case also)

[MediaMan]

If you can hold off on buying a case for a while....I'm digging around for "the perfect case". Whether I'll find it or not is unknown but I'm meeting with a retailer and supplier for 6 retailers this week to pass on our feedback and see what goodies they have.


The perfect case feedback. (maybe)



Average price range $80-125 USD
Removable motherboard tray (slide out back or slide out side)
Drive rails (min 4 external bays….5-6 are better)
Name brand power supplies (ANTEC, ENERMAX, PC POWER & COOLING) They don’t want to buy cases with “generic” PSU of 350 watts that they have to replace with 400 watt name brand PSU’s. Either sell the case w/o PSU or put a decent 400watt PSU into it.
Space for 2 intake fans for active cooling across HDD
Removable hard drive bay (4 drive space) Drives to be in line with case not at 90 degree angle.
Front USB 1.0-2.0/FIREWIRE ports hidden. Prefer mid to top level position instead of on bottom edge.
Rolled edges and no sharp corners
Screwless design
2 exhaust fans
Fans should accommodate 80 and 92 mm. fans (clip mounts not important)
Exhaust grills should be as non-restrictive as possible.
Solid construction. (weight isn’t as important anymore)



Bonus Add-ons


Removable Floppy bay
Space for two power supplies
Fasteners & zip ties. Ring style and zip tie mounts for cable management
Included drive faceplates to disguise beige drives therefore keeping bezel aesthetics
External drive bay hinged door. (no lock necessary)
3 position fan switch for low-medium-high accessible in same area as USB-1394 port and hidden but not behind bezel like Lian Li.
Optional windows for side panel.


Comments


Aluminum or metal didn’t matter. They want sturdy.
Overwhelming favor towards 19”-24” towers for space.
Some asked for more width (especially those who watercool)
Only one floppy external is needed but include a 3.5 mount for the 5.25” bay for those who may have a zip drive. (Rare)
Some asked for power supply cables to be shrunk wrap with sleeving that matches case color. (loom?)
Some are leaning towards 92mm. fans that blow more air at lower noise levels.
Most asked for ducts and channels to hide wires in. A wider channel running down the drive bay vertical line at the non-door side of the bays would be great to hide wires in. Same as horizontal.
People want to be able to have a tornado if they want but make it quiet too. (50 CFM fans) Some said they are tired of buying cases with fans they have to replace because they are too weak.

[Geeky1]

MM... you forgot one thing:

BIGGER FANS

Support for BIG fans is really, really important- not dinky little 120mm things; 172mm/6.75" Comair Rotron units. They're <$20 each, so they're not prohibitively expensive, and they do 235cfm+ apiece, and at 1/2 their rated voltage they're nearly silent while still moving a lot of air.

Also, not only are fan clips unimportant, they cause more problems than any other part of my case. I can't mount 38mm deep fans because the fan clips can't handle them. Screw mounts are just fine. I thought when you were asking for the size, you meant the depth. Depth should be 18"+, and height should be a minimum of 20", up to 27"

Take a look at an Apple G3 case; the wire management is incredible...

And that 2 intake/2 exhaust fans isn't sufficient. If they're 80/92mm fan mounts, 4 intake, 4 exhaust is good. 120mm fans should be 2 intake, 2 exhaust, as should the rotron fans...

[mmonnin]

I would like to have enough room to put front case fans in and still not have my HDDs hang over my motherboard. Sometimes all that is needed is an extra inch or 2 from front to back.

I know with some cases if you put an intake fan in you have to move the HDD a position towards the back of the cases several inches just because there are not enough holes in the HDD mount. Then it hangs over the motherboard and is harder to work the cables.

[Spinner]

MediaMan said
If you can hold off on buying a case for a while....I'm digging around for &quot;the perfect case&quot;. Whether I'll find it or not is unknown but I'm meeting with a retailer and supplier for 6 retailers this week to pass on our feedback and see what goodies they have.


Yes cool, I'll certainly wait as long as I can. However, is it really possible to find or know what a perfect case would be like. As I imagine each persons needs and requirements differ from individual to individual. Perhaps a better title would be, "the best all round case"? Just a thought. I still like those Coolermasters though.;)

[MediaMan]

That is true Spinner. "The best all around case".

Aesthetics are a personal thing. I'm just using opportunities to pass on all the things I've gleamed from the members to tell manufacturers. :)

I'll see what I can dig up for you.

[Spinner]

:) Cool

[GHoosdum]

Geeky... looks like a mod is in your future, if you wanna put some Rotrons in!

[danball1976]

That looks cool

[MediaMan]

I have gone out into the world and met with three different sources. I arrive back on the mighty Short-Media shores before you.

And what bounty did I bring back?

Coconuts....because they are better than what I saw. The only new case I saw was a Chenbro PC61166 (http://www.chenbro.com.tw/product/product.jsp?p=1&s=102) (use the pull down menu) and the UMPTEENTH variation of this case. (http://www.uneec.com/en/product/product_list.asp?cid=1&s_cid=6) Yes the UNEEC is the original and ANTEC, THERMALTAKE, etc. etc. etc. don't build their versions. UNEEC just customizes them because those companies order enough of them. Any case manufacturing company will let you advertise the product as if it were your own if you buy a couple of shipping containers of them.

The new variation of the most popular case of 2002-2004 will have a 500 Watt PSU with clear molding, front temperature gauge, neon lighting and its own assortment of colors. Basically....it's the same case with a couple of new features. Should retail for $195 USD. It has value as buying everything separate would be much more.

Is there anything new out there?

Not really. Sadly disappointing. The ANTEC/THERMALTAKE/UNEEC has been done to death and it is reaching the point where you buy the case and that's it....no fun modding.

I shall keep looking but I looked at over 70 PC cases from Chenbro, Supermicro, and a few other companies that are manufacturing for ANTEC...Thermaltake...etc.

[WuGgaRoO]

im supporting spinners...i believe his case is the nicest...by far

[Spinner]

I see, well thanks very much for your dedication, but I feared as much. One of these companies needs to step out and take the initiative, and design something really off the wall. Perhaps something inbetween the likes of the cube PC and todays midi-towers. A case which can accept standard ATX motherboards, but also be innovatively compact in its design. I really have never seen a case that has set my eyes on fire. I also look for a case to be acoustically sound (if you pardon the pun). A case that keeps it self quiet without turning itself into an oven.

My current case, the Globalwin 802 classic, is probably one of the most functional main stream (i.e doesn't cost more than $70) cases I have ever had the pleasure of using. But as we all know, beige boxes aren't exactly fashionable anymore. It's a tricky topic PC cases, because some people put style over functionality and design, where as some just want to spend as little money as possible. I myself also prefer cases which don't come with their own PSU, as I like to choose my own.

To comment specificaly on your findings, I actually found the below case quite refreshingly bubbly. However, I think it would suit my sisters pad rather than my own.

http://www.chenbro.com.tw/user_file/product/PD54.jpg

That popular UNEEC design however, I find curious, but not really my cup of tea, saying that though I believe Thermaltakes take on it (sorry again) to be very well thought out, however I feel it isn't cosmetically very attractive. But like I said that is my opinion, everyone has their own tastes, which is what makes choosing a case so tricky, because there are more factors at stake than just functionality, at least there is for me.

Thanks again for sharing your findings MM', do you think it would be possible to fashion a case out of Coconuts?

p.s (...and was that whole bounty and coconuts thing supposed to be a joke? you know the chocolate bar?)