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A
Closer Look:::...
Whip
off the side panel and first impressions are that
despite the hard drive rail being 90 degrees to the
normal orientation as is becoming popular all of a
sudden, things look pretty much as you'd expect them
too.
The
picture above was taken after I'd removed the accesories
box with was firmly screwed into place, a simply brilliant
idea after having had the insides of so many cases
demolished in transit by unruly accessory boxes left
unrestrained.
Being
made from plastic, the box can be used to keep all
the spare bits and pieces in once you've finished
your assembling, or use it for your jewelry if you
prefer! Your call.
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Accessory
Box
|
Inside
the accessory box are your drive rails, a pretty rudimentary
manual, an I/O plate, a couple of cable ties and a
cable clip and a selection of screws, stand-offs and
retention pins.
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Accesories
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3.5"
Drive Rails
|
The
3.5" drive rails are screwless in design. Each
has a pair of rubber grommets fitted and through these
you posh retaining pins which slip inside the threaded
mounting holes in the side of your drive.
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3.5"
Drive Rails, Pins Inserted
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Retaining
Pin
|
The
rubber grommets help to isolate drive vibration from
the chassis and so reduce noise but I feel that the
retaining pins would have been more like to fit snugly
had they been knurled where the post sits inside the
drive screw holes.
The
other drive rails are also screwless in that they
feature small tabs that locate with the drive's threaded
mounting holes.
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Drive
Rails
|
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Drive
Rail Locating Tab
|
To
the right hand side of the drive cage you can see
the location for the additional 120mm fan. That side
of the drive cage could possibly have benefited from
having a bit more of an open structure as it looks
certain to impede the airflow and possibly increase
the noise slightly too. A bit of a lattice pattern
cut into the cage on that side would certainly help.
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Drive
Cages
|
There's
room inside for four 5.25" optical and five 3.5"
internal drives though users wanting a floppy drive
and 3.5" card reader or baybus may be disappointed
to see only a single external 3.5" drive bay.
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Drive
Cages
|
Mounted
in its blue cradle, the YY-5603 comes equipped with
just a single 120mm fan which was a bit of a shame.
It's better than none but I'm all in favour of Yeong
Yang charging a touch more and populating both 120mm
fan locations.
The
fan cradle again negates the need for screws.
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Rear
Mounted 120mm Fan
|
And
while we're on the subject of not using screws, even
the expansion cards are held in place using spring-loaded
bracket. I'm not a big fan of these because a single,
ill-fitting card can make them a real bitch to close
but there are are threaded holes there too if you
even need to revert to the more conventional way of
doing things.
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Card
Retainer
|
In
keeping with the low-noise, high-ventilation ethos,
our review sample came equipped with a Delta Electronics
120mm fan equipped 300watt power supply. It's hardly
high-end but it should prove to be okay for regular
use.
Seasonic
do a nice range of more powerful 120mm fan-cooled
power supplies for when you decide you need more.
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Power
Supply
|
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PSU
Specifications
|
In
all honesty, with just five four-pin Molex connectors
on offer I think you'd soon be scrambling for power.
In its favour though it does come with a SATA power
connector too.
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PSU
connectors
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