A Closer Look:

   If there's one thing about rackmount cases, it's that even in their bare nature, they are highly unassuming. All there really is to see here is four sides of solid steel with a few screws and threaded holes, a locked front panel, and a rear panel somewhat reminiscent of generic cases of old. In some respects, this unassuming nature is a good thing - it entails that Norco has stuck to their guns when it comes to providing a tried and true server design. Impressively, this unassuming exterior stayed in fairly pristine shape (save for a bit of rust) due to the four hard Styrofoam blocks used to hold the chassis in place, yet unfortunately some of the internal workings didn't exactly stay in place.

Perhaps the only thing to note on the exterior are the pair of thumb catches on the top panel, which allow for the top panel to become tool-less, when the four annoyingly small screws securing the panel have been removed.

Maybe the first thing to notice when it comes to the interior is that it's simply plain - a giant expanse of open metal, with nice, high standoffs underneath, and miles of space to the drive coast. Immediately behind the PSU area is a plate with plenty of threaded holes to secure the power supplies into, which are probably necessary in the case that a mini-redundant supply is utilized. Perhaps my one complaint to this interior is the height of the standoffs. Users hoping to pack Thermalright's near legendary TRUE into the case will be sorely disappointed, as the standoffs keep the board far too high up for it to fit, and beyond that, if the backplate isn't secured to the board, or attached by some adhesive, the user will now have to fish it out... somehow.

The remainder of the interior of this enclosure is a two part affair - the first showing the linear design and the bundle, and the second complementing on the superb modularity, and configurability of the interior of this chassis.

Let's begin with the bundle. Packed inside that unassuming little cardboard box are a set if backplates, two for Xeons, one for what I can only assume to be oddball motherboards which feature the socket 478 spacing; either way these three accessories save the users from having to source, then fight with their own mounting equipment.

Also rolled into the package are a set of comically small rubber feet, a wrench, and some screws. It's a hell of a Spartan bundle, if I may say so myself. On the right side of this visible enclosure are the 10 HDD bays - which may unfortunately obscure airflow enough that the high speed delta fans up in the front of the case - may not be able to get air by. Each drive is slotted into place on a set of plastic rails, which though lacking in any method to screw them to the drives themselves, work fairly well. To the left of this is the modular set of optical drive bays, which unfortunately are impossible to remove drives from unless you remove the fan plate, and set of hard drives next to them. This is probably one of the case's few (fatal) flaws. That being said, let's revel in the modularity.

Modular Insanity, Installation, Conclusion:

Normally speaking, the features of a chassis don't make it this far, into the installation section, but this is a special case. This chassis is one of few - hell, maybe the only case at the $80 price point that allows you to completely strip it down - using screws only. That's right - if the user decides to remove all the drive bays, nothing but a good screwdriver will be needed, meaning that installing a nice, wide radiator across the front of the case is really, rather, devilishly simple.

More importantly, if the user decides that they need another 3 5.25" bays, rather than 5 hard drives, the fan plate as well as the drive enclosure can be removed, thusly opening up three new, vertically standing bays - which is definitely a nice touch. Even better, is the fact that if the user decides they need a swath of continuous bays for 5.25" drives - the enclosures which hold 5 drives each can be slotted into either the 3 pre-provided bays, or used in any chassis. Now that, is definitely great.

Keep in mind, that usually a 4-in-3 enclosure for hard drives is around $30. You've got two in this case, and even if the system you built doesn't use them, you're laughing with the spare parts. That slight spiel aside, let's look at the intricacies of installation.

Aside from the height restrictions which kept me from using my beloved heatsink, installing everything into the case is relatively uneventful - one thing I made sure to do was so very carefully install that nice BFG supply in the corner first - I wouldn't want to scratch it up before the review. Even running the wiring was fairly simple, considering the velcro tie-wraps provided with that supply, and the more than ample room to cordon it's thick cables in before they went to the motherboard, and hard drive area.

Those astute users of you might notice that I kept the case in it's stock configuration, and that's due to the fact that for the time being, it's effectively just being used a desktop chassis.

One issue that manifested itself was that due to a design flaw, one of the hard drive cages came loose during installation, replacing which required fighting with the front bezel to remove the fan plate in front of it. While I would normally call this a deal-breaking issue, I really (really) can't argue with the price and flexibility of this chassis. After all, my Coolermaster RC690 was also an $80 case - and it's top panel never lined up. So really, unless you're going for perfection in high cost cases, there are always small flaws, that usually aren't life threatening. It's worth noting that though the cage popped out in shipping, it has since stayed put with the second rails added on.

That relatively painless installation aside, it's time to draw conclusions around this chassis. First off, I'd like to thank Norco for sending this unit my way - far into the frozen north, which definitely must have been a chore considering it's net weight hovers somewhere around 30lb. That's something the user will also need to deal with, but considering this is marketed primarily to the server builder, I don't think it will be much of an issue.

Though there are a few nagging quality concerns - such as the loose drive bay which holds all of your precious data, and a filtered front door which has since snapped off.

These two things, though quite bad on their own, don't obscure the wall of pros that come hurling along with this chassis. Firstly, is the complete modularity, and secondly is the included hardware - being able to fit 11 hard drives which are cooled off the bat is incredible, especially when they're actively cooled. Couple this with the fact that this is one of so very few cases at this price point which are capable of holding an extended ATX system, and the fact that when the door works, the inbound airflow is filtered, the result becomes a very good deal, despite the flaws.

Honestly speaking, When the case first came in the door, I was apathetic towards it. It was simply an evolution of the desktop chassis to me, with the ability to mount in a rack. Norco's flexibility, and inherent attention to detail in design has since won me over. Though I wonder how the army of small screws would hold up to shipping a competed system, I'm confident that it'll be okay. If you're looking for a rackmount casing, I'd sure as hell recommend this one.