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Beantech BT-85


Date
: 08/29/04 – 01:34:20 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer
: BeanTech

Price
:

I always find case reviews fun to do. Every time I pop a motherboard onto a new tray it feels like I'm installing a brand new computer. Today I get a chance to revamp my test bed. For those who have seen my previous reviews know that my Abit NF7-S test bed consists of all the components placed on a little rack. As the school year approaches, I'm going to need something a little more durable and movable. Having a ton of fancy looking equipment in my case means I have to be able to show it off. Everyone knows there is only one way to do that – windows! With my new case, Prisma Prime BT-85, all I have is a window. It's Plexi-Time at Overclockers Online.

Many of you may not have heard of BeanTech. They were established in 2000 with a three point mission:

In less than 4 years BeanTech has grown to a company staffing more than five hundred dedicated personnel. They make case and case related accessories key to an enthusiasts need.

Page 2 : Package

The BeanTech BT-85 arrived in it's retail packaging. This was one huge box!

To ensure nothing but absolute quality, a sticker reading "This transparent case have been fully QC before send to your hand. If you find damage on our case — Please don't open the seal (or sticker). Thanks!" ensures that you are the only owner of this case.

If you step back from the box you'll see that there is a lot of Styrofoam protecting the case.

After removing the case, the following picture sort of shows you how small the case is compared to the box.

Even if this case was dropped I don't think it would sustain major damage. Very impressive packaging compared to other companies who cut back on costs by taking off valuable protection.

Once you break the quality control sticker and remove the plastic bag you will find two white cloth gloves and a folded up installation instruction manual.

Here are some pictures of the instruction manual:

With the exception of the base of the case, it is entirely shrink wrapped to protect against scratching. You are to remove this wrap with the gloves on.

Inside the case is a bag of special screws you will need to install all your favourite components. The thickness of the Plexiglass prevents you from using conventional screws packaged with your hardware.

Somewhere in the mix you will find a much smaller speaker. It measures about 1cm in diameter.

Let's move on to the actual specifications of the case.

Page 3 : Specifications

Here is a copy of the specification from BeanTech:

This case is available in three different colors. The standard clear acrylic (my evaluation sample), green acrylic and blue acrylic.

My case came with the 4 80mm FloLite Blue LED fans.

Each fan came with 1 80mm chrome grill and 1 80mm laser cut grill fabricated into the acrylic sheets.

Here are the general specifications on FloLite LED Fans:

Page 4 : Exterior

The exterior of the case is very simple. It utilized nothing but acrylic sheets held together at various points using special screws.

The top of the case lacks any form of additional ventilation. Looking at the size, it would of been nice to add an 80mm or 120mm fan at this location.

The front of the case holds four 5.25" bay devices and two 3.5" bay devices. Cooling the internal 4 bay drives are two 80mm case fans with a variable control. Also at the front are two USB 2.0 Ports and a FireWire port.

A close up of the USB and FireWire ports:

At the lower left of the case is a silver knob that allows you to control the two front fans. With four case fans things could get a little noisy, but cooling those burning hot hard drives is a good idea.

On the back things are very different:

You will notice that the expansion slots pop out only on one of the two sides.

The fact that the cut-off is only on the on side makes installation and uninstallation a tad complicated. I'll explain more about this during the installation process.

Also on the back of the case are the screws to support the power supply. I tried all sorts of screws for this, but I could never find a perfect fit for my Ultra X-Connect Power Supply. Only three of the four screws mounted properly.

What you want to look for on that picture is the fact that part of the screw socket is covered by the case. This prevents any screw from finding its threads and locking into place. As a result of this failure, I grinded away at both the case and the nice finish on the power supply.

Let's go inside now.

Page 5 : Interior

The interior of the case is like any other mid tower chassis. This one features four external 5.25" drive bays, two external 3.5" drive bays and another four internal 3.5" drive bays.

Mounting the drives into the drive bays requires special screws due to the additional thickness of the acrylic sheets. You will find two bags of screws similar to these:

One of the truly innovative features on this case which I really like is the cable managwment with the LEDs and switches. Instead of having wires connect directly to the motherboard pins, it is now a two piece system. One piece connects directly to the motherboard and the other is connected to LEDs and switches. The two piece can then be connected together or pulled apart. Now when you remove the motherboard, you can keep all the little plugs connected to the motherboard and only remove the single large connector.

With all acrylic cases and cases with windows cable management is imperative. A sloppy wiring job is better off in an aluminum or steel chassis with no windows. You would of thought that BeanTech put a little more thought into this when they created the mini-fan rheobus.

On the side of the rheobus are the FireWire and USB Ports.

There is one connector that plugs into the FireWire and USB controller. I would have preferred two connectors; one for FireWire and one for USB. Not everyone needs the support of FireWire, and by having two connectors you can reduce the number of cables inside the system.

The last thing I'd like to bring up are the power switches, LEDs and speaker

Let's move onto putting everything together.

Page 6 : Installation

Here is what I put into this system.
Abit NF7-S rev 2.0
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2500+ @ 200*12
Ultra Products 2*512 MB PC3200 Dual Channel Kit
HIS ATi 9550 VIVO Stock
Asetek KT03A-L30 WaterCooling
Ultra Products X-Connect Power supply
10 GB ATA 100 5400 RPM Hard Drive
LiteON SOHW 1213S Provided by LiteON
1*120mm fans @ 12 V
1*Swiftech RadBox
2*80mm FloLite Fans

With the removable motherboard tray installation of everything is very easy.

Although most cases only have six positions for screws to hold down the motherboard, BeanTech gives you all ten. This ensures that the board is secured and the weight is evenly supported. You would not want your motherboard and massive heatsink to rip the board off the tray.

Using the ABit NF7-S motherboard, I knew the back IO plate had to be changed. Although BeanTech provides the most commonly used back plate in the acrylic form, it is made out of very thin acrylic. This makes its removal very easy. Just about all removable portions on the motherboard tray are made from thin plastic. This warrants for extra care when handling.

The removable portion on the expansion slots is only on the one side. Had BeanTech removed a little bit from the side, where the side is screwed down, it would make removing expansion cards a lot easier. Right now, once I've inserted my video card, I can't seem to get it out. By angling the card, one of two things get in the way. Either the card is clipped down onto the motherboard via AGP retention clip or the CRT port bolt hits the side.

In red, I've marked out the rest of the area BeanTech should have removed to make card installation and removal a lot easier. Nothing a Dremel couldn't fix.

Once you find all the proper screws to use, installing any of the drives becomes very easy. You must pick the right screw as you do not want to thread away the metal inside the drives.

Here's a picture of a pre-wired case.

The big blue box on the back is the Swiftech RadBox I used to convert an 80mm fan to a 120mm fan bracket with radiator mount.

Things get a little chaotic when everything is wired into place:

Page 7 : Conclusion

Well another case review all wrapped up. I'm very pleased with how some of the things worked. There are a few things that I would like to see fixed, but nothing that would tarnish the image of BeanTech.

Acrylic cases are very cool and if you don't want to pay for your own case, you can built your own. Check out Nick's article on how he built his very own LANBox.

Before I list some advantages and disadvantages of this case, let me show you some more pictures.

Advantages

It's one big window!
Lots of cool blue 80mm fans
Removable motherboard tray

Disadvantages

Scratches easily
Can't easily remove expansion cards
Can't mount power supply properly

Many thanks to BeanTech for making this evaluation possible.