SunBeam Tech Freezing Storm Enclosure

Packaging:

Retail front

Specs

Protection

    Like most enclosures, this one arrived in its retail box and survived the shipping process well. The retail box is white with the image of the case done in black on the front and back, along with the specifications on the side panels. The inside protection is with the harder Styrofoam and wrapped in plastic.

Exterior:

3/4 front

Power/Reset

Front I/O

    The Freezing Storm comes in two flavors: one is Silver and the other is Black, and the one I have for review is black. Like always, I start off with the bezel and on this enclosure from top to bottom, the bezel is slotted and looks like a louvered vent. The bezel has seven external bays: five of them are 5.25" bays and two are 3.5" bays. The lower 2/3rds has the Power/Reset switch with clear rings around the switch that glow when in use, and the lower vents are for the front fan intake. On the right side of the bezel are the front panel I/O connections, which are two USB ports and the Audio ports.

Side

Button screws

3/4 Rear

Expansion Slots

    Moving around in a clockwise manner, it's time to look at the windowed side panel. The window on this panel has vent holes towards the back and the option to add an 80mm or 120mm fan on the panel. The rear of the enclosure is the standard layout with seven expansion slots and an 120mm exhaust opening. The right side panel and top of the case are the typical, boring, plain panels.

Interior:

Interior

HDD cage

Tool-less PCI slots

    The interior of the Freezing Storm incorporates the Double Core-Fan Design, which has two 120mm fans on the center bracket. On to the front, the 5.25" and 3.5" bays have the tool-less clamps pre-installed. The three internal bays for the hard drives have clips for a tool-less setup. The back of the enclosure has a single 120mm fan for exhaust, and the PCI expansion slot also has tool-less clips for the cards.

Installation:

Pop the bezel	Rings around switch	Optical in	Bezel on
Lock and Loaded	HDD rails	Lined up	Pressed on
HDD Installed	Tool-less PCI Clips	Hardware installed	Powered Up

    Component installation is just like any other enclosure, with one simple task that needs to be done. That would be the need to remove the Core-Fan bracket so the motherboard can be installed. This is done by removing the screws that secure the bracket to the chassis. For the external bays, the front bezel needs to be removed and this is done by popping the bezel front off, as the bezel is only snapped into place. To use the tool-less clips on the bays, slide in a device and then slide the tab on the tool-less clip. This puts pressure on the side of the device to secure it in; then slide the lock tap down to fully secure. Three pairs of tool-less HDD rails are included, and they work by pressing the pins into the screw holes of the HDD, then sliding the assembly into the drive cage.

Conclusion:

    The last few cases I have reviewed for SunBeamTech and Tuniq have the same interiors, with the only real difference being the front bezel. So this makes coming up with an unique conclusion difficult without repeating myself.

    Something new I can say is that the bezel on the Freezing Storm offers a ton of ventilation. The entire front is slotted from top to bottom. With all the openings up front and the fans blowing the hot air out the back, the internal temperature of the enclosure will remain lower. Actually temps vary due to ambient air temps, but all this ventilation certainly can't hurt. I would've liked to see a filter up front to help reduce dust though.

    With all that said, the Freezing Storm is a decent enclosure for the current $56 pricetag at Newegg and with the option to add more fans the system temps should stay in check. I would like to thank SunBeamTech for sending this item out for VH to review.

Got News? Send 'em in!