Updated
3/6/00
|
Installation
/ Setup With the Alaska
Cool-Case |
Wired
for sound. |
|
Set
up and access with the Cool-Case is
excellent for the most part. You can
gain access to the inside by backing off
two screws from the side panel and sliding
it back and off.
(click
images)
Once
inside, the case gets a little cumbersome
with all of those wires going
around. If you plan to use all those
fans make sure you take the time to tie
them off neatly, so they just aren't
flapping in the breeze inside
(literally). You do get a fair
amount of extensions and added cabling
with the case, to hook your fans up.
The
motherboard compartment is fairly roomy
although a bit short and shallow compared
to some premium cases. It is nice to
have 2 - 3.5" bays available in
addition to the three 5.25"
bays. One more 5.25" bay would
have been perfect but then again this IS a
Mid ATX case, not a Full Tower.
There are Full Tower models available as
well from CDI.
The metal used in the construction of the
case, is a decent gauge and has smooth
edges so you don't go cutting your digits
off while trying to install components.
The
fans used in the case are all of decent
quality. I have never heard of
"Life" fans but that doesn't
mean much anyway. They seem to be at
least 4K RPM fans. Individually,
they are fairly quite fans. Fire
them all up in unison and this thing
sounds like it is going to fly away.
It wasn't too overbearing. However,
if you need to be stealthy, this isn't
your type of case. I would hope that
most of you folks looking at this case
would be more interested in it cooling
performance versus acoustics. On the
other hand the mesh is attached with clear
tape and card board which leaves something
a question of doubt as to durability in
the long haul.
The
power supply seems also to be of good
quality. It was a 300 watt unit from
a company called "Star".
Again, I am not familiar with them but it
seems to be a well built unit.
So,
how does this custom turbo-prop driven Hot
Rod perform?
Mid-Tower
ATX Case Alaska Cool Case from CDI
w/ 300W PS, Pentium3 -500E Overclocked
to 750MHz.(Provided By OutsideLoop
Computers),
Soyo SY-6BA+IV motherboard, 128MB of PC133
HSDRAM, WD 18G 7200RPM DMA66 Hard Drive,
Elsa Erazor X AGP with 32MB , Kenwood 72X
CDROM, Plextor 8432 CD-RW Drive, 56K
Modem, TV Tuner Card, Sound Blaster Live
Audio Card
I
don't want to speculate on the relative
performance of the case within a given
environment. I can only tell you
what our experiences were with our
particular setup. Ambient air temp
in our room was about 70F. The case temp
while idle and running was 76F according
to Motherboard Monitor and other utilities
for PC Health Monitoring, that we
used. Once under the strain of an
hour long gaming session, things started
to heat up a little bit but not even close
to where we see most cases with the
standard 2 fan set up. The case hit a max
internal temp of 82F. This obviously
would be higher if ambient temp was higher
but 12 degrees over ambient with fan
cooling is excellent.
Casing
the joint...
I
am not sure what impressed me most about
the Alaska Cool-Case, the incredible
amount of cooling fans or the slick
paint job this baby has. The quality
of the components was good as was the
functional characteristics of the case
itself. I would have preferred a
little more room in certain dimensions
like depth for a wider motherboard
mounting area but it was still very
workable. On the down side,
the quality of the fan mounts inside
the case was a little rough a were the
mesh grill attachments. The price on
this case, as we received it "with
Color and Cool" was $275. That
is a little steep for a case but remember,
9 fans in all, a 300 watt power supply and
a killer paint job. Is it worth the
dough? That is your decision.
We
give it a Hot Hardware Heat Meter Rating
of....
|