AMK-33333-300 Case Review

Author : Wayne Date : 14th January 2001

3DVelocity would like to thank AMK Services , and in particular Andrew, for their invaluable help and generosity in supplying this case for review.

The inner sanctum:

The first thing I did was to remove the right hand panel just to see what was behind there. Although AMK consider this to be a fixed tray model (in AMK's words "The "removable" motherboard tray in our opinion is not one. To us a motherboard tray will slide out from the back"), it actually can be removed. That is if you want to drive out five retaining screws, and of course, because the expansion card retainers don't come out with the tray, you'll need to remove all your cards before you do. I should point out that the motherboard stand-offs are of the pressed tin "clip in" variety, and although they work just fine, there's no doubt that the threaded brass variety are far better.

The arrows indicate the five motherboard tray retaining screws.

Next I removed the left hand panel. The first thing that greeted me was the remains of one completely shattered fan. Closer inspection revealed that in fact three fans were broken, one of which I was able to repair, the other two I had to replace. Also during shipping the front fan's retaining cage had unclipped itself and was cracked. The final icing on the cake was when I noticed that these loose components rattling around inside the case had snapped one of the wires off the internal speaker, and that I was going to have to warm up the old soldering iron.

This was the unfortunate sight that greeted me as I opened the case.

The top fan has has been snapped completely out of its frame, while the bottom fan had a section missing, and a crack in one of the remaining arms ( AKA knackered ).

And finally the broken speaker wire.

There's no way I can blame AMK for the fact that the shippers treat our valuable parcels like worthless junk, but it's not the first time I've seen this happen, particularly with Sunon fans. What happens is that either the case falls over sideways, or more likely is dumped down on its side from a height while being loaded at some point, and the sheer weight of the fan/motor assembly tears it from its rather delicate arms. To AMK I would offer the following advice. Before you ship these cases, particularly overseas, you need a strip of fairly heavy tape across the inner face of each fan, so if the parcel does get dumped on its side, the tape will stop the fans from ripping themselves apart. Does the tape work? sure does, I've shipped cases like this on several occasions with ne'er a broken fan.

Forgetting the damage, the rest of the case's internal space was as you'd expect. The inclusion of five rather than the usual three 3.25inch bays is a nice touch, as is the fact that the power supply comes as standard, but as power supplies go, this one may be a touch limiting.

 

 

page4 and conclusion>>>

 

Home