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Sunbeamtech Samurai


Date
: 01/24/05 – 11:34:51 PM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Sunbeamtech
Price: $60

Since the day O² started, many cases were reviewed and most of them were done by me, bombarding me to the official "O² Case Guru". I've seen several kinds of cases over the years: full tower stainless steel heavy weights, sophisticated aluminum cases, cases with prefitted watercoolers, bare-bone cases and even premodded cases. With LAN-parties becoming more popular every day, everyone wants something different from the next, not just a standard beige computer case but something appealing to the eye, and turninh to case-modding gave their rig a more personal touch of exclusiveness. Unfortunately, not everyone is born with a Dremel tool in their hand or a jigsaw up their sleeve, so premodded cases became quite popular. The market of premodded cases evolves continiously, and today I'm taking a closer look at a new kid on the block: the Sunbeamtech Samurai case. Does the Samurai has something other don't have? O² puts on their investigation goggles and zooms in …

Page 2 : Specifications

To hit this off, here's a copy/paste from the specifications for the Samurai case, straight from the Sunbeamtech website:

Front Panel

- Stylish 3D Front Panel Desith

Body

- 0.8mm SECC steel Body
- 451mm(D)*200mm(W)*430mm(H)
- USB 2.0*2+Audio Port*2

Drive Bays

- 5.25" Extemal*5
- 3.5"Extemal*1+Intemal*4

Side Window

- Unique Large Side Window Design

Airuent

- 80mm Front*1
- 80mm Rear*2
- 80mm Side*1

Fan

- 80mm Fan
- Stylish Fan Grill

Lights

- Diamond Power Switch With Multiple bright LEDS

Colors

- Red/Silver/Black

Page 3 : Exterior

When I took the case out of its box, I immediatelly noticed the Samurai was not just another premodded computer case. First of all, there's the eye-catching frontbezel design which reminds me somehow of "Optimus Prime" from the Transformers. Having a second thought, it also makes me think of those samurai warriors you often see in video games and movies, wearing a mask to protect their face. Behind the frontbezel, which is made entirely out of plastic, you'll find the external drive bays, five 5.25" and one 3.5" to be exact, neatly hidden from sight.

About two-third down the frontbezel, there's a big blue plastic "ball" which is in fact the powerbutton of the Samurai. Once powered up, the ball lights up thanks to four embedded bright, blue LEDs. On the left side of the powerbutton, you'll see a small red LED that acts as harddrive activity LED and on the right side there is a small, black reset button to save your soul when you overclocked your frag-machine a tad too far.
Right next to the frontbezel, on the left side of the case, you'll find two USB ports, a line-out and a line-in connection. I'm sure those will come in handy at your next LAN party! The two audio connectors are linked to two 3.5mm cables that need to be plugged into your soundcard, making the system compatible with any soundsolution out there. Also note that there is room for an 80mm fan at the front bottom of the case.

Shifting to the side of the Samurai, Sunbeamtech installed a not so casual case window, continuing the samurai lines and containing a blowhole that allows installation of an 80mm fan. Although the fan is not included, you do get a cool looking, chrome fangrill that looks like a ninjastar.

The back of the Samurai continues the trend and comes with two 80mm fan-mounts, of which one is already fitted with a fan, making sure the hot air is quickly pulled out of the case. The included fan is rated at 27CFM with a noise level of 28dB, while spinning at 2500RPM.

Page 4 : Interior

Concluding our tour around the outside of the case, let's see what's on the inside. The Samurai does not feature a removable motherboard tray, but it does give you enough room to work with, without endangering the life of your motherboard. Standard stand-off's are to be installed before the board can be screwed in.

A very interesting feature of Sunbeamtech's latest, is the tool-less installation of all 3.5" and 5.25" devices like cd-rom's, harddrives, … You just slide in the drive, push the plastic bar to the front and lock it with the slide-button … and you're done!! It's as simple as that. I have seen other tool-less devices before, but they still require you to screw rails onto the device … not really tool-less after all huh? Well, that's all over with the Samurai design!

And the tool-less design does not end with the 5.25" and 3.5" devices, Sunbeamtech also fitted a similar system to mount the add-on cards. Put the card in the slot, flip the plastic knob until it clicks in place and you're ready to go!! Only negative point on this system: when you have a card where the PCB reaches very close to the side of the mounting bracket, the hold-down can't click in place very well and might come loose … I had this problem with one of those add-USB2-FireWire-ports brackets to your motherboard … Apart from that, it does work very well indeed.

Page 5 : Testing

When I received the Samurai case, I was just about to configure a new workstation for myself and I figured I'd might put the Samurai to good use. Afterall, is there a better way to test a case besides actually building a system with it? Here's a list of what parts I decided to put in:

After I had unpacked everything, I continued with the installation. Again, the tool-less design was a joy to work with and I had all drives and cards installed in 5 minutes or so!! In around 20 minutes, I had put everything together (and I was not in a hurry), did some wiremanagement, setup all the jumpers that needed to be setup and was ready to install the OS.

About two hours later I had my system up and running without any problem what so ever, performing fabulously and looking good too. Of course, O² would not be what it is if I would not overclock the rig … in short, I already had the system spinning along at +2.4GHz with the standard aircooler from AMD!! Talk about a sweet CPU … there will be an article dedicated to this CPU somewhere in the future, very soon @ O².

To wrap up the testing, I am very pleased with the Samurai case and it is serving me well, giving me plenty of expansion room for the future and ready for some extra case mod adventures, which I will elaborate on in the next Sunbeamtech review @ O², where I'll look at some fancy add-ons!

Note that the system temperature never went higher then 6 degrees Celsius above the room temperature. The 3200+ was humming between 45 and 49 degrees Celsius, with only the rear case fan running (and of course the CPU fan). Pretty good results if you ask me! The presence of the blowhole will surely be doing some good as it allows the CPU fan to suck air from the room instead of the case itself.

Page 6 : Conclusion

Sunbeamtech's Samurai case managed to surprise me in a good way, offering a light-weight case with a cool looking design. The case is fitted with all the tid-bits you need nowadays like the frontal audio and USB connections, an original case-window with prefitted blowhole, plenty fan-mounts with one fan already preinstalled and last but certainly not least, an excellent tool-less design that makes adding hardware to your rig a joy instead of a pain in the bottom! Add to that the more then fair pricetag and you just know that you can not go wrong with this case, whether it has to serve as a LAN-party box or a workstation setup. Recommended for everyone who is looking for a good case with good features, but who doesn't want to spend an arm and a leg!

Pro's
+ design
+ price
+ tool-less design

Contra's
- Tiny reset button

Special thanks to the nice people at Sunbeamtech for making this review possible! Also big thanks to Mario & his team @ Tridis Belgium for their excellent service in providing us the samples!