Case Master V828 "FireBird" Server Case Review
Cases by jmke @ 2004-03-11
Case Master is a new company ready to make a name for themselves in the enthousiast market. Can the FireBird server case help them on their way? Let?s find out.
Review
Introduction
Case Master is a new company pushing their brand new products unto the market, are they able to claim a place of their own in the crowded enthusiast market?
They send us one of their high-end cases aimed at the power users out there. This case is not faulty labelled “server” case. The V828, nicknamed the “FireBird”, has more features then most cases I’ve seen… combined.
Before we dig into the specifics of this case, take a glance at the exterior of this “black-badass”
It’s hard not to notice the white plastic pad sticking out on the top, it incorporates a carrying handle which is proof tested for up to 80kg, you will have a hard time finding that much hardware to stick inside, let alone be able to pick it up afterwards, but at least it eases your mind when carrying the case around and you see the top plate giving in a little.
Aside from the quite ugly colour of this handle, it’s actually quite neat; two panels can be snapped open with a small push. One reveals firewire, USB and sound connectors, while the other an 80x15mm fan which serves as a blowhole. The fan is whisper quite and pulls a marginal amount of air out of the case.
And the blowhole in action:
One sidepanel is attached with one thumbscrew and uses to a slide/lock system for securing it in its place. Very easy and it even makes the thumbscrew redundant. The other sidepanel can be removed by turning 2 screws counterclockwise.
Most of the installation is tool less, so far I had to use a screwdriver for sidepanel behind the motherboard and to install the 4 plastic feet at the bottom of the case. Now let’s see what resides in its belly ->
They send us one of their high-end cases aimed at the power users out there. This case is not faulty labelled “server” case. The V828, nicknamed the “FireBird”, has more features then most cases I’ve seen… combined.
Before we dig into the specifics of this case, take a glance at the exterior of this “black-badass”
It’s hard not to notice the white plastic pad sticking out on the top, it incorporates a carrying handle which is proof tested for up to 80kg, you will have a hard time finding that much hardware to stick inside, let alone be able to pick it up afterwards, but at least it eases your mind when carrying the case around and you see the top plate giving in a little.
Aside from the quite ugly colour of this handle, it’s actually quite neat; two panels can be snapped open with a small push. One reveals firewire, USB and sound connectors, while the other an 80x15mm fan which serves as a blowhole. The fan is whisper quite and pulls a marginal amount of air out of the case.
And the blowhole in action:
One sidepanel is attached with one thumbscrew and uses to a slide/lock system for securing it in its place. Very easy and it even makes the thumbscrew redundant. The other sidepanel can be removed by turning 2 screws counterclockwise.
Most of the installation is tool less, so far I had to use a screwdriver for sidepanel behind the motherboard and to install the 4 plastic feet at the bottom of the case. Now let’s see what resides in its belly ->
Inside
The plug and play attitude of this case is simply amazing; with a few clicks and tricks you have the whole case disassembled and ready for motherboard insertion. Although it suffers from the known “un-removable motherboard-tray” feature, the inside offers enough room to work with even the largest motherboards on the market (Dual Xeon/Opteron would fit nicely inside)
What storage media can fit inside?
4 optical drives
8 HDD
2 floppy
Combine this with a high end system and you’ll have a little oven to warm your room with. To this end the case comes with 2 fans installed. You’ve already seen the first one, the top blowhole. The second is a bit larger in size, +40mm to be exact. With both fans running you can already reduce the case temperature by a large margin.
The included PSU which has to power all the gear inside bears a Case Master badge and delivers 450Watt, unlike its official name suggests: CM-SF420M
SATA ready the label shouts! And yes we found 1 SATA connector among the 12! 12v connectors, the right amount to power those 4 Cdrom and 8 HD drives. The cables are very long and they might give you some grief to tuck away nicely, but the people of Case Master have passed their cable routing exams, this translates into the provision of plenty of places and hooks to guide your cables out of sight.
The PSU features a small switch at the back to control the 2 fans inside. Medium/High/Auto is pretty self explanatory.
When you remove the side panel you are greeted by… another side panel. This one is considerably smaller and provides multi-functionality. Together with a rail at the top it further strengthens the overall sturdiness of this case. It offers you the possibility to install either 2x HDD’s or 2x80mm fans, or any other combination you like. But the fun doesn’t stop there, when you have your server board installed and plugged in those long 64-bit PCI cards you are given the possibility to secure them by the use of a bunch of sliders, the same ones we’ve already encountered in the X710 from In-Win.
The little side-panel is held in its place by a plug and click system , and a small screw (3rd time I had to use my screwdriver)
The panel in all its glory:
With a few clicks the front panel comes loose and gives you access to install your Optical drives, which can be installed tool less, as well as the HDD’s and the floppies! In order to do this you have to open a “secret compartment”, well actually not that secret, but it is hidden from sight when the small side-panel is installed.
Sliding on rails, extra cooling and installation of the system are up next ->
What storage media can fit inside?
Combine this with a high end system and you’ll have a little oven to warm your room with. To this end the case comes with 2 fans installed. You’ve already seen the first one, the top blowhole. The second is a bit larger in size, +40mm to be exact. With both fans running you can already reduce the case temperature by a large margin.
The included PSU which has to power all the gear inside bears a Case Master badge and delivers 450Watt, unlike its official name suggests: CM-SF420M
SATA ready the label shouts! And yes we found 1 SATA connector among the 12! 12v connectors, the right amount to power those 4 Cdrom and 8 HD drives. The cables are very long and they might give you some grief to tuck away nicely, but the people of Case Master have passed their cable routing exams, this translates into the provision of plenty of places and hooks to guide your cables out of sight.
The PSU features a small switch at the back to control the 2 fans inside. Medium/High/Auto is pretty self explanatory.
When you remove the side panel you are greeted by… another side panel. This one is considerably smaller and provides multi-functionality. Together with a rail at the top it further strengthens the overall sturdiness of this case. It offers you the possibility to install either 2x HDD’s or 2x80mm fans, or any other combination you like. But the fun doesn’t stop there, when you have your server board installed and plugged in those long 64-bit PCI cards you are given the possibility to secure them by the use of a bunch of sliders, the same ones we’ve already encountered in the X710 from In-Win.
The little side-panel is held in its place by a plug and click system , and a small screw (3rd time I had to use my screwdriver)
The panel in all its glory:
With a few clicks the front panel comes loose and gives you access to install your Optical drives, which can be installed tool less, as well as the HDD’s and the floppies! In order to do this you have to open a “secret compartment”, well actually not that secret, but it is hidden from sight when the small side-panel is installed.
Sliding on rails, extra cooling and installation of the system are up next ->
Installation
Before we load the inside with tons of hardware I’d like to point out the extra possibilities for increasing the airflow; we already seen 3 blowholes, including the one from the PSU. Add to these 2 in-takes from the side panel and you have yourself a well ventilated case.
But removing the HDD drive cage reveals 2 more in-takes equipped with dust filters, it doesn’t get any better than this!
In the front you can place either an 80 or 120mm fan
At the side there is room for an 80mm
So I placed an extra 120mm in the front and added an 80mm to both sides, in combination with a Rheobus you have silence AND extreme air cooling performance at your fingertips.
The motherboard was placed inside the case faster then you are able to say Nabucodonosor 10 times!
When hooking up the power/reset/hdd wires from the case to the motherboard I was surprised to find those for the speaker missing. Surely there must be a speaker in this case? The most basic of case features? Opening up the compartment that also holds the drive rails I discovered a quite unique speaker buried inside:
What about those hard drives and Cdroms? All those use a very nifty rail system; I never had a hard drive placed into a case as fast as this:
snap 2 plastic gliders in the holes at each side of the drive, and than slide the drive into the rack
2 minutes later I had 5 HDD’s installed:
And they are stuck in there, no trembling, they won’t fall out, I could lift up the whole case just by holding on to one of the HDD’s,
The Cdrom drive rails were equally genius:
You can further secure the optical drives in their place with screws, but I found it was unnecessary; they were stuck in there as snugly as those hard drives.
PCI and AGP cards are held into their place with the help of a particularly effective system:
Just push the plastic lever down over the PCI/AGP card once it is installed, couldn’t be easier
With everything installed it looks something like this
click to zoom in
Yes, the rounded cables were left in the closet for now :)
Very easy installation
Great airflow
No sharp edges
Dust filters
“Didn’t you encounter problems with this case then?”
Well, a few minor ones, read on ->
But removing the HDD drive cage reveals 2 more in-takes equipped with dust filters, it doesn’t get any better than this!
In the front you can place either an 80 or 120mm fan
At the side there is room for an 80mm
So I placed an extra 120mm in the front and added an 80mm to both sides, in combination with a Rheobus you have silence AND extreme air cooling performance at your fingertips.
The motherboard was placed inside the case faster then you are able to say Nabucodonosor 10 times!
When hooking up the power/reset/hdd wires from the case to the motherboard I was surprised to find those for the speaker missing. Surely there must be a speaker in this case? The most basic of case features? Opening up the compartment that also holds the drive rails I discovered a quite unique speaker buried inside:
What about those hard drives and Cdroms? All those use a very nifty rail system; I never had a hard drive placed into a case as fast as this:
2 minutes later I had 5 HDD’s installed:
And they are stuck in there, no trembling, they won’t fall out, I could lift up the whole case just by holding on to one of the HDD’s,
The Cdrom drive rails were equally genius:
You can further secure the optical drives in their place with screws, but I found it was unnecessary; they were stuck in there as snugly as those hard drives.
PCI and AGP cards are held into their place with the help of a particularly effective system:
Just push the plastic lever down over the PCI/AGP card once it is installed, couldn’t be easier
With everything installed it looks something like this
click to zoom in
Yes, the rounded cables were left in the closet for now :)
“Didn’t you encounter problems with this case then?”
Well, a few minor ones, read on ->
Few Issues
Issues? Well I had a few. From major to minor:
Hard drive orientation.
As you have seen on the previous page, we have the HDD’s installed with a 90° twist, this would normally lead to little or no problems, unless in rare cases (no pun intended) like this one. The power cables attached to those drives are poking out of the case and prevent you from easily closing the side panel. With some pushing and sliding it is still possible, but far from easy.
Mini side panel , the hinge
The place where the side panel twists and turns is made out of plastic, and even during the my limited period of usage I experienced some problems when removing and replacing the panel. It will wear out rather quickly and it would have been much sturdier if made out of steel. No big issue, but one that needs consideration by the Case Masters crew.
Mini side panel, the lock
This one can be derived from the previous one, as the plastic holder for the hinge allows for a little bit of movement it becomes hard to “click” the panel in its place, it takes several tries to get it right
De-installation, CD-rom drives
The rails make it very easy to install the optical drives, but when removing them it takes a significant amount of force to get them loose. The hard drives do not suffer from this. I think it is related to the use of metal rails for the optical drives AND the 2 cut-outs as seen here which become hooked behind the case frame.
Rails holding compartment
The plastic holding compartment is good at hiding the unused rails, but placing used ones back in there can take a while as they tend to jump out of there “by their own”.
As you have seen on the previous page, we have the HDD’s installed with a 90° twist, this would normally lead to little or no problems, unless in rare cases (no pun intended) like this one. The power cables attached to those drives are poking out of the case and prevent you from easily closing the side panel. With some pushing and sliding it is still possible, but far from easy.
The place where the side panel twists and turns is made out of plastic, and even during the my limited period of usage I experienced some problems when removing and replacing the panel. It will wear out rather quickly and it would have been much sturdier if made out of steel. No big issue, but one that needs consideration by the Case Masters crew.
This one can be derived from the previous one, as the plastic holder for the hinge allows for a little bit of movement it becomes hard to “click” the panel in its place, it takes several tries to get it right
The rails make it very easy to install the optical drives, but when removing them it takes a significant amount of force to get them loose. The hard drives do not suffer from this. I think it is related to the use of metal rails for the optical drives AND the 2 cut-outs as seen here which become hooked behind the case frame.
The plastic holding compartment is good at hiding the unused rails, but placing used ones back in there can take a while as they tend to jump out of there “by their own”.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Here’s a quick rundown of the positive and negative features of the FireBird.
PRO
descriptive pictures on different parts of the case to help on use of certain functions sturdy construction good airflow by default with rear 120mm and top 80mm cleanable dust filters in front 120mm and side 80mm very roomy inside easy access to hard-drive rack beefy power supply able to power even the most demanding pc configurations plug and play rail system for Cdrom/floppy and HDD’s tool less installation of PCI/AGP add-on cards inner side panel provides possibility to add 2x80mm or 2xHDD plastic sliders to ensure fixation of large PCI cards connectors at the top for sound/USB/IEE1334 Cdrom can be screwed tight for secure mounting carrying handle (tested up to 80kg) extra security can be added at the backside cable management possible and easyCON
power cables attached to HDD’s prevent side panel from being closed easily extra side panel has 2 flaws:1) The hinge is made out of plastic and after a couple of uses looks already worn out
2) Method used for closing the side panel is not easy and it takes several tries to get it closed the way it should be
holding compartment can be hard to manage, reseating used drive rails is far from easy removing CD/DVD drives requires ample force front panel door lock is not very effective as it can be easily broken no manual provided, the stickers in the case do not explain everything.My overall impression of this Case Master "Firebird" is very positive; the small amount of issues can hardly stand up against the multitude of positive aspects of this case. And we haven't mentioned one of the most important yet, the suggested retail price is €125, and I’ve seen it as low as €108.
I can recommend this FireBird for anyone who wants a roomy server case while keeping an eye on the budget!
I thank Gino from Case Masters for sending the case our way, check out their website for their complete product line-up, which is already quite impressive!
My suggestions to improve this case:
Questions/Comments: Forum thread