Inside (cont'd)

   The inside of the case is plain and clean without any tool less removable parts. The drive bays do have plastic sliding brackets that negate the need for any screws to keep the hard drives and ROM drives in place. This will be quite easy to figure out for anyone who has never had this option before. Attaching the hard drives with the tool less mounting brackets was quite easy. It almost seemed a strange concept at first, but it works quite efficiently.

Lower Bay	Tooless Clips	In Locked Position
HDD Attached	Lower Bay Rails	Non-Threaded Mount
Hold Together...	Locks in Place	Quick Release PCI
Unlocks Inside or Outside	Opened Position	Closeup Open

   Installing a ROM drive of any kind was quick and easy. There are two snap-in clips that keep the bezel drive plate in place. After pulling out the plate, you simply insert the ROM drive in the front bay from the front, slide the beige clip in to the forward position, and press down the lock button.

ROM Drive	Slides In	Aligns to Front
Slide Rail Forward...	Push Lock Down	Locked and Ready

  The option for the front 12cm fan requires you to remove the hard drive bay and front bezel to fully secure the fan by simply removing 2 screws on the inside and 2 screws on the bottom outside of the chassis. The front bezel is removed by pinching the two bottom inside plugs and pulling outward carefully. The USB, IEEE ports and buttons are attached to the chassis so you don't have to worry about pieces falling out. After reattaching the bezel, you can then reattach your hard drive bay. The process is an inconvenience, but many times unavoidable in such a small chassis.

Two Screws on Left	Two Screws on Bottom	Pull Out The Tray
Opened Space	Bezel Dettached	Front Buttons Secure
12cm Fan Inside	Front Bezel Fram	Tray Reattached

Summary:

    If anything could be improved, it would be a tool less drive bay. This should be a standard these days for tower cases, except where HTPC cases are concerned. Tiny, faded, and or misspelled instructions may not give a good impression. In fact it can be quite frustrating when you are trying to assemble or get to know your product's capabilities. Shipping a product in its actual container box is always risky and makes you feel as though you have a beat up product.

   The iStar S-8 Storm Series case is a bit outside of what its series name suggests. It's a clean alternative in the budget priced case sector, so you won't get the case fans or lights. The first impression was a bit rocky at the start with the discarded excess rivet molds. This is a very risky oversight for an industry dealing with thousands of dollars in hardware. Despite this concern, the chassis proved to be a simple solid chassis.

Conclusion:

   The Istar S-8 Storm Case is intended to be a compact solution offering some of the basic features along with a few extras. If you offer the greater products like their server and rack mount lines, then you have to offer a budget solution to your clientele. While the case did have a rough start, it still proved to be a clean case. It doesn't sport the esthetics to satisfy a serious enthusiast or case modder, but it at least keeps a clean form. In the end, a little more attention to detail can make or break this series chassis.

   A big "Thank you" to Istar for their quick response for their products and the S-8 Case. They have many other great solutions which we look forward to putting to the test in the future.