by Yury Vayukin
04/12/2005 | 10:34 PM
You all know very well that ASUS has been working hard on expanding its product range very actively lately. It looks like they are trying to be the No.1 not only in the mainboard market segment :)
One of the actively developing directions is the computer cases business. I have to say that this initiative has been among the tasks of “ASUSTeK enterprise group” for a long time now. In the beginning of the new millennium there wasn’t a single solution hat could successfully compete with a T10A from Elan Vital, which was a member of ASUSTeK enterprise group. A lot of time has passed since then and today ASUS is undertaking another attempt to enter the computer case market with a product line under its own brand name.
Of course, it is barely possible to even try to compete with some noname Chinese-made solutions from the pricing point of view. Besides, it is not what a respectful company would do to its clients. Any manufacturer should strive for the optimal combination of price and quality, if they want to succeed in this market.
At present ASUDS is pushing forward a few system case product lines. Among them I would like to specifically mention TA-21 and TA-23, which have already started selling. However, introducing a top-model is the best trick from technological and marketing prospective that will drive most attention to the company and its products. These are the solutions boasting eye-catching design and outstanding features. However, there is usually another side to this bright picture: high price. But… why should you take it from those people who can afford it?
Today we would like to introduce to you a new ASUS VENTO 3600 system case. Even a quick glance at this model is enough to understand exactly what user this solution is targeted at. These are certainly the people who cannot be indifferent to everything bright and stylish. But what kind of style is that? The case does look like something so familiar, and at the same time doesn’t.
The first association you get when you see this case is probably the Alien monster from the well-known movie. The second one will most likely be the Star Wars theme…
And of course, since the model we got for review boasted aggressively red color, we couldn’t resist bringing up the evident connection with the Ferrari team from the Formula 1 competitions. And when I checked out the front view of this case it also reminded me of the Half-Life 2 locomotive. :) Well, this is definite masterpiece.
The same case is also available in blue and green color. However, I personally would stick with the red one, especially if they finally manage to make the color of the front panel match the color of the rest of the case (at least the model we had suffered from this evident mismatch).
There is a special door on the front panel of the case covering the area for five external 5-inch and one external 3-inch devices. I was very pleased with the bank plastic covers for these bays, which can be easily removed without applying much effort. The covers feature small clips. If you press them in, you will be able to remove the cover easily. You install them back just the same way.
To the right of the 3.5-inch device bay there is an emergency clear CMOS button. I didn’t see it at once, as it is fairly small: you can press it only with a tip of a pen or pencil. The door covering the external drives section is connected to a pair of hinges and is locked with a clip. The paint under the clip has already come off, and so has the paint on the sides of the covering door. So, you have to be really gentle when opening the door, by pressing the clip spot, and make sure that you don’t let it go and hold it until it opens completely; otherwise it will fall down onto the top of the case with a loud knock. I don’t actually know how many hits like that the painted case surface and the covering door mechanics can stand, but I personally didn’t feel like checking it out.
Being very concerned about the robustness of the pointed surfaces I took a closer look at the case and to my great disappointment found a typical graze mark where the front door meets the front panel. This is where the locking clip is situated and where we apply certain effort to open the cover door.
Maybe if they hadn’t painted the front panel at all, but designed it of solid colored plastic, the marked wouldn’t be so visible.
There is a Power On button at the bottom of the front panel, and beneath it in a small niche there are four USB ports. The mic and headphones jacks are also there. There are five cables going inside the case from these connectors, each ending with two rows of pins. This connector design is very convenient for system assembly, but unfortunately the connectors are not marked in any way, so you will have to either guess which one is the sound cable, or to dive into the case and try to follow the cable to the front panel, to see which port it leads to.
There are ventilation holes on both sides of the case, in the lower part of it. These holes are decorated with transparent plastic insertions, which will glow when the system is powered on.
The sides of the case are designed as metal base with decorative plastic panels attached to it. The first side panel of the case is fastened in a traditional way, with two screws. The left side panel is a more sophisticated part. There is a special lever outside the case that is connected to the internal lock holding the panel attached to the case frame. Since the left panel design implies the use of only one screw, this locking lever serves as one more fixation means. By the way, this level makes it real simple to open the case too.
Also there is a ventilation grid outside the left case panel, which is covered with decorative metal grid. If you look at this panel from the inside, you will see a plastic flaring piece attached to the ventilation grid that directs the airflow towards the CPU.
There are four bays for 5.25-inch devices and two bays for 3.5-inch devices inside the case. Note that as we have already said, there can only be installed one 3-inch external device, as the second bay has no front panel access. The hard disk drives are installed into removable baskets, each accommodating two drives. The baskets are equipped with rubber pads eating up the vibrations. However, you can remove these pads if you like, and have the HDD sit firmly in the basket. This option is also possible.
There are special plastic clips fastening the external 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch devices inside the baskets. They lock the devices pretty firmly, but you can also add four traditional screws to make sure the fastening is safe enough.
The mainboard is installed into the designated area the usual way and is screwed to the base. Since the base is initially designed for an ATX mainboard, the stands are stamped onto it by default. For a MicroATX mainboard, you will have to install additional stands that are supplied with the case.
There is an additional fan right under the HDD basket, which sucks the outside air into the case. You can also add one more additional fan opposite to this one into a special spot on the right-hand side big enough for a 92-mm or 80-mm fan.
To tell the truth, I was very puzzled by this engineering solution: the air is taken from the right-hand side of the case and is blows outside the left-hand side of the case. The HDD basket is right above this air flow that is why only the bottom HDD is cooled down just a little bit.
The back panel of the case has seven slits for expansion cards, which are covered with blank brackets. The cards can be fastened to the back panel in a traditional way as well as with convenient plastic clips holding the card really tightly. Also there is a 120-mm fan inside the case on the back panel blowing the air outside the system. At the very bottom of the back panel there is a special indicator signaling when the side panel is open.
The case also features a round metal tab for hanging a case lock against “unauthorized” access into the system. However, if you really want to use it you will definitely have hard times trying to push the lock into the tab.
There is a special device called “management kit” at the back of the case. The developer’s web-site explains nothing about it, but I assume it was intended to arrange the cables outside the case and to protect them against breaking, when you push the case too close to the wall, for instance. This “motion control” device is an excellent solution preventing you from accidentally damaging the graphics card or sound card connectors.
The case isn’t supplied with a PSU that is why the user can actually choose himself, what power supply unit to install. For our tests we installed an FSP 460-60PFN PSU from FSP GROUP INC., with the 460W capacity.
We tested this solution according to the methodology described in our recent article called Foxconn System Cases Roundup with a few small differences. The case turned out too big and it wouldn’t fit into the incubator chamber. So we had to test it in a room, where the temperature was maintained constant with the air conditioner. :)
The tests were run at 23oC, the temperature deviations didn’t exceed 0.5oC throughout the entire test session. The room temperature was constantly controller with the electronic Fluke 54 II thermometer.
The system was configured as follows:
Here are the results we obtained:
And here comes the diagram:
Well, the design of this system case suggests that it is targeted for gamers, so it will definitely be stuffed with some high-end powerful hardware, similar to what we used in our tests today. That is why I believe that we managed to emulate the actual workload the case will have to go through in real life.
The CPU and the HDD are cooled down very well, and the other devices maintain normal thermal mode.
Well, let’s sum up a few things.
There is one more thing worth mentioning: the price. Unfortunately, it is still pretty exclusive, just like that ASUS VENTO 3600 system case itself. Hopefully, the situation will change for the better soon.