Date: September 10th, 2003.
Article by: Nathan Glentworth
(Owner, Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: CASE4U
<--Shop for this item
PRODUCT COMPOSITION
For the price of US$30-$40, you will receive...
An accessory bag complete with all the screws. connectors,
case feet and wiring harnesses. No instruction were included.
The EOS case, though small, isn't tiny like some of the
mini-itx cases on the market today. The thin profile along with the reduction
in height would make a nice edition to a small workstation. The only thing
I could see improved is the color and the weight. Although it thankfully
doesn't adopt the bland beige color scheme of yesteryear, it's steel and
relatively heavy.
PRODUCT FEATURES & PICTORIAL
What features are packed into this small package?
The case comes equipped with a front door to access your
optical and floppy drives. As you can see, to make the case slimmer, CASE4U
vertically oriented the 5 1/4" optical drive bay. To some that might
seem to be a good idea, but it does have a significant disadvantage. The
only optical drive that you will be able to use is a slot load CD/DVD-ROM
or CDRW. I would find it rather comical to see someone use a normal drive
and have to hold the CD until the very last second so it will stay in
the drive other than falling out or jamming the tray.
*Editor's Note: It has been brought to my attention that
the vertical CD problem might have been isolated with the optical drives
I was using during the review. Even though there is some type of CD retention
at the bottom, I was still having problems with the CDs tipping out of
their holders. That is why I put this warning in the review. Make sure
your optical can be used vertically without facing the problems I did
during the review.*
A power and reset button is installed in the front door
for easy access, but oddly I could not find any HDD activity LED.
The power LED is installed into the front sphere where it
will glow bright blue when the power is on and the computer is running.
A nice addition are the easily accessible USB ports and
microphone/headphone jacks.
|
