Logisys CS888UV: Glowing Acrylic!

Final Words

Acrylic cases still have quite a ways to go before they can crawl into mainstream uses along with metal cases. The combination of a lack of certain features, and those implemented features that do not offer much value, keeps acrylic cases from entering into the case market in full force. Until manufacturers can make some changes, it will be difficult for acrylics to compete with steel and aluminum chassis.

The CS888UV has some nice features such as the room for expansion. With eight 3-1/2" drive bays, it has the potential to be a mod-happy enthusiast's choice for a small file server. The blue glow may turn some enthusiasts off, but that is more of an issue of personal taste.

Our benchmark results showed that the CS888UV is a worthy opponent when it comes to cooling. With the four 80mm fans, it does a great job of circulating air in and out to help cool each component as well as keep the general ambient air temperature at a cool and stable operational level of 26.4 degrees. The temperatures of all the other components were also comparable to those results that we attained in metal cases; for example, after 30 minutes of use, the CPU temperature was 46.2 degrees.

The CS888UV really took a hit in terms of sound production. Though cooling was efficient in this chassis, the sound that these fans produced lowered the overall attractiveness. At a 66dBA level, this case produced more sound than even the loudest metal case that we reviewed, Aspire's X-Navigator at 62dBA.

If Logisys can work on some of those suggestions, we believe that they can create a product which will readily compete with not only other acrylic cases, but even metal cases in the market today. But for now, even with all of the features that it has, the CS888UV has a few too many downsides for it to be a competitor in the case market. We hope that Logisys can make some improvements in their next model.