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Mid-Tower Mega Roundup

 by Joshua Buss on September 8, 2005 12:05 AM EST
48 Comments | Add A Comment
48 Comments
DynaPower F3323 (cont'd)

With the ability to hold extended motherboards and full-size expansion cards, the interior of the F3323 is very spacious - especially for typical desktop components.

DynaPower has made a great effort to keep the system entirely tool-less, and most of the implementations of this goal actually turned out really well. The retention clip for the 5¼” drives, for instance, simply applies pressure to hold the drives until the user depresses the large, color-coded tab to release them. The single external 3½” bay has a similar system, but uses a coiled spring to apply pressure to the mounting pins.


Click to enlarge.

We were a bit shocked to find that the F3323 only has dedicated space for four hard disk drives. Being a server case this large, we feel that it really would've made more sense to make it slightly larger if that's what it took to allow the case to hold twice as many. As it is currently designed, there is actually quite a large portion of unused space in the front bottom of the chassis.


Click to enlarge.

Perhaps more annoying than the lack of more hard drive bays, however, are the rails themselves. Once in place, they hold the drive steadfast with no issues. Actually, getting the rails to stay in place on the drive while one loads them into the bay, however, is not all that easy. If they were simple push pins, this would not be much of an issue, but they're actually pieces of metal that run the length of the rail and are then bent at the tips into points meant for insertion into the drive's mounting threads.


Click to enlarge.

One also has to be careful that their IDE cables will be long enough - the case's extra depth made it just barely possible to use our standard ribbon cables.

Another possibly big gripe for a lot of users will be the omission of any case fans in this enclosure. While having a case ready to use out of the box is certainly important to many people, DynaPower must feel as if it makes more sense to let the user determine what kind of fan to use, if any is used at all.


Click to enlarge.

Since we wanted to make the case comparisons as close to "out of the box as we could, we were reluctant to add any fan at all - but this would be rather rare in our opinion, so we included a spare Panasonic Panaflo 120mm fan for testing. Known for its air-pushing prowess, we chose to include an in-line fan speed controller to keep the fan from creating overwhelming noise.


Click to enlarge.


DynaPower F3323 DynaPower F3323 (cont’d)
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  • Quanticles - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    $200 for a case really isnt that bad when you're paying $400 for a GPU, $300 or more for a CPU, $200 on memory, etc etc etc. If you're building a budget system, then of course this would be a horrible buy. But if you're building a nice system, then you might want a nice case. I have a black v1000 w/ window and it looks great, and was great to work with. As far as noise, I have 4 120mm fans in here, but the system is nearly silent with the help of a cheap sunbeam rheobus.

  • OvErHeAtInG - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    Exactly. Check out the V1100 , it comes with sound-damping precautions. I'm a 3-year user of the PC60 (old kind before they changed it) and I still love it. Yes, a little loud, but hey. Drooling on the V1100.

  • flatblastard - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    ...to only include one fan with their best-looking case. Then the P-180 comes with 3 fans, more features/functionality and doesn't really cost that much more than the sonata. I guess the Sonata is the better value overall considering the included PSU but damn that P-180 doesn't look too shabby either. Dang ole decisions, decisions...man, i tell ya whut....man, dang ole Antec man.

  • swtethan - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    made the right choice buying one :-)

  • imaheadcase - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    Because half of those cases just screamed "Burn me in the nearest fire!". lol

    I mean seriously, why do case manufactors make these crap cases, I would rather have a plain beige case than something made with freakin lights all on the outside covered with cheap plastic peices. Not to mention looks like they had there 3 year olds draw out the designs on ourside.

    I don't care care if its the best case in the world inside, if its ass on the outside im not buying it. I can get the same thing in beige..hehe

    Some of those look ok though..except.

    1. Aspire: Oh please tell there designers to stop asking there 3 year old kids to do there work for them. This case screams crapplastic. it would prob melt if your coffee was to close..
    2. Dynapower: This one does not look half bad, the drive bays could use a all black cover or a matching grill cover.
    3. Sunbeam: Pretty cool looking case. Remove the lame blue circles though, all the stuff you can do when on the PC, who is going to glance at that anyways when most are on the floor or out of the way.
    4.coolmaster: What would make it cool is without the pillars of salt on the side...hehe Remove those it would look sweet.
    5. Both Antec cases: Looks good to me. Antec seems to make some nice cases in the budget area.
    6. ThermalRock: What in gods name is that red circle for? That ruined the front of case, without that red circle it would look good.
    7. Lian Li: Ohhhh Ahhhh! me likey alot.

  • Bonesdad - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    Gotta agree on the Coolermaster case...I got the Centurion 5 last year...glad I didn't wait. The older Centurion 5 is a really nice looking, well made case that looks like it was made for someone with a level of maturity over 16 years old. I can see using this case for many years to come...

  • manno - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    you're not kidding out of all those cases the only ones I would touch with a 10' foot pole were the Antech's, and the Lian Li. For the love of god stop putting side windows on your cases it's drinking beer with a straw tacky.

  • Tamale - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    a LOT of people still look for windows on the side - it's still a fad that's 'catching on' to most people.

  • Quanticles - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    I have a window so I can check my watercooling easier. Besides, they look cool.

  • ElFenix - Thursday, September 8, 2005 - link

    no, they look dorktastic.
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