X-bit labs

Foxconn System Cases Roundup (page 3)

Category: Other

by Yury Vayukin

[ 03/28/2005 | 09:50 AM ]

To install devices into the “open” bays, you have to remove the plastic front panel by pulling it forward.

The bays – for three 5.25” and one 3.5” device – are originally closed with metal brackets. The 5.25” brackets are kept in place with metal holders, while the 3.5” bracket is disposable – and you have to apply some force to tear it off.

All the devices go into the open bays on metal rails. To install a device, you attach a rail of the appropriate form-factor to its side (each rail has a marking).

Each rail has two juts which fit into the mounting holes in the side panel of the device. The device is then inserted into its bay and is fixed in place with a spring-loaded latch. Two spring-loaded plates are pressing on the device from the direction of the right side of the case. The overall impression is somewhat spoiled by the unfinished metal of the rails – the edges are all rather sharp. The metal is also too soft for such an application. When disassembling the testbed I tried to pry a rail out with a flat screwdriver, and the rail immediately bent into an arc. :(

But all the holders that keep the devices in their proper places have translucent plastic fingerholds for you not to cut your fingers.

The rails are all initially stored in a kind of “parking” below the hard disk drive basket.

There are eighteen threaded holes in the side of this parking box for storing the screws. In the sample of the case that I tested, eight holes were occupied with screws with non-standard cylindrical heads for installing hard drives.