Print this article

Sansun Galaxy


Date
: 09/19/06 – 02:56:02 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer:
Sansun

Price:
N/A

Cases are to some the most important part of the computer. They serve many purposes: to protect, enclose, and most importantly, they have to look pretty. Sansun has built quite a reputation due to their introduction of the Sansun Bat case. Some found it attractive due to its theme, but to others it was an utter joke. Though Sansun is primarily known for their cases, they also manufacture power supplies, keyboards, and mice. Currently, Sansun is not a name that will immediately come to mind in regards to cases or anything for that matter, but this small company based out of Taiwan is here to stay, and today we are going to take a look at the newest member of their lineup, the Sansun Galaxy.

Putting their flagship Bat case aside, the Galaxy does not even resemble the Bat. Bearing a sleek black look, an external front panel display, and a 250mm side fan, this is a review that is bound to be interesting.

Page 2 : Package and Content

The Galaxy arrived safely in an unattractive box, with almost no markings to tell me it's a Galaxy except the Sansun logo. The cardboard box did take some damage, but the case arrived safely.

The front of the box labels "Sansun" in the middle, and a very obvious "MADE IN CHINA". Manufacturing in China is very cheap, and hopefully this case does not suffer from the reputation of bad quality products made in China.

The side of the box gives the model number, and weight specifications for shipping purposes.

When taking a peek inside, one immediately sees the front panel display. This would excite the customer quite a bit, as it is not very common to see such a feature on a computer case.

The case was shipped in the box with a pair of foam guards which did a good job of keeping the case safe from any shock damage during shipping.

The box contained nothing else, so off we are to the specs of this case.

Page 3 : Specifications

As on the Sansun website, these are the specifications:

The features are:

They did not mention the 250mm fan, which was surprising, because it would be considered a major sales pitch. Without furthur delay, let's move onto eyeballing the product.

Page 4 : Exterior

It is safe to say that the very sleek and smooth design by Sansun has got us all stirred up.

The front of the case features a mesh that covers the gloss finish plastic of the front door. There are two fans covered by mesh and embroidered with a grey outer circle, and of course the centre display with the power switch built into the grey outer ring.

The top and side of the case is in a finished black matte, which contrasts the gloss plastic featured on the front panel. The front, or should I say side, connectors include 2 USB ports, a microphone port, an audio port, and an IEEE1394 FireWire port. There is also a very large 250mm fan behind a larger circular mesh.

The back of the case hints of a BTX-style interior layout. The PCI slots are on top, with the rear connectors beneath. There is also a 120mm exhaust fan visible, and of course there is no included power supply unit.

There is a back clip that replaces the usual screw to hold the side door in place. With no manual to guide me on how to use it, it took quite some time to figure out that it basically locks the door in place. The option to use a screw to keep it locked is up to the user.

As you can see in this picture, the left side of the case is bolted, which prevents the panel from being removed. This would especially be bad for those who love to organize wires because as we all know, the area behind the motherboard tray is one of the best places to hide wires.

The bottom feet are made of hard plastic. This would tend to be a horror story about to take place as many computer users put their cases on the desk. The case could easily slip if there is no grip on the feet of the case.

Upon opening the front panel, there are eight 5.25" drive bays, one 3.5" drive bay, two 90mm fans in a front panel, a small reset switch, and multiple wires running into the side.

The front 90mm fans appear to be guarded by a plastic grill, and fan replacement is impossible as this plastic grill appears to be stuck to the front panel.

Getting the drive bay covers off was quite the problem without a manual. But after using a little bit of force, the covers finally popped out. This showed that there are five metal plates for the 5.25", and a large metal fan grill that covers an additional three bays, but it seems to be removable.

The metal plates that cover the 5.25" bays have instructions engraved on each about how to remove them. It generally states that you are to use a screwdriver, not your hands.

Also, upon closer examination, the magnets that keep the front panel door closed appear to have rust on them. The case originally came in this condition, and it says alot about the quality control of Sansun's products.

The Galaxy case may be initially very visually appealing, but after closer inspection, there are flaws. Now that the exterior has been covered, on to the insides of the Galaxy.

Page 5 : Interior

Initially opening the side door reveals the "Sansun" branded side fan and also a pouch of screws secured by masking tape. It is also very apparent the messy nature of the wiring for the front panel.

The case fan is very large, and the material is made of a glossy plastic. The centre features a sticker that says "Sansun" and "Made in China". Hopefully this fan performs as well as it looks!

At second glance, the number of wires are bound to give anyone a headache. There are wires for the front connectors, power and reset switches, power plugs for the front fans and display, temperature probes, and 3-pin fan sensors for RPM readings on the front display.

The front connectors consist of a USB plug, audio plugs, and an IEEE1394 plug.

Among the wires, there are 3 temperature probes, which are labelled as "CPU", "VGA", and "SYS".

There are also three 3-pin connectors for already existing fans. They are most likely to show RPM on the front panel display and to possibly vary the RPM speeds using a variable resistor.

The hard drive cage is located at the bottom of the case, and allows the installation of four internal hard drives.

The PCI slots have a screwless design, and they are all initially covered by a metal plate.

The PSU is mounted on the bottom of the case, which hints at the BTX compatibility. The 120mm exhaust fan has a 3-pin connector, and seems to allow for RPM sensor usage as well because it has all three wires running into it.

This case does not have anything fancy going on in the interior of the case because there really are no special features. The screwless PCI card feature is the closest thing to a good ergonomic design on the interior of the case, but other than that, it is just a regular case with not much to present. The biggest problem with the interior is the large amount of wiring for the front panel. The left side door cannot be opened, which means these wires cannot be easily hidden. This really poses a problem for wire management for enthusiasts who like to have neat and tidy interiors. Now that the interior has been covered, let's see how installing your system into the Galaxy would be like.

<<INSTALLATION>>>

First step is to put the motherboard in. This went about pretty problem-free as there are a lot of included brass standoffs, more than enough to secure the motherboard tightly to the case.

Plugging in the power switch and reset switch was a little tricky because of the amount of wires.

The hard drive went in without any problem, but securing it was a different story because there are only holes on one side of the hard drive for screws, and the other side is blocked by the base of the case.

Upon closer examination, the underside of the case actually has holes to screw in the hard drive. This was confusing at first, but was easy after figuring it out.

This shows the step by step procedure on how to use the PCI clips in order to secure a video card. The mechanism seemed to secure the card very well.

Putting in the power supply was no problem at first. Managing the wires is another story. Luckily I had the OCZ ModStream that come already pre-sleeved. Otherwise, if a user were to use an unsleeved power supply, things would easily become very messy. Even with the ModStream, things did not seem at all pleasant.

When installing an optical drive, the first step is to remove the metal plate blocking the way. I followed the instructions of using a screwdriver, but this took quite a while until things finally came loose.

After removing the metal plate, inserting the drive and securing it with a single screw did not seem to be problematic.

After a while to thinking, a second screw had to go in through the other side. The side door does not budge, so figuring out that these neat little holes are for screws took quite some time. It is also very hard to put the screw in the sweet spot in order to screw it in properly. Also, the screwdrivers that are a little thicker cannot fit through this little hole.

Finally, after a grueling two hours, the installation was complete!

After finally booting up, the case came to life and the blue LEDs did an excellent job accenting the black.

The front panel display shows the temperature of the probes as well as the RPM readings of three different fans. The display cycles over the three probes and fans once every 30 seconds. There is no button to manually cycle through the readings, which is inconvenient because if you want to know the CPU temperatures, you have to wait until it cycles to it.

Now that the system is finally put together and fully running, let's see how the Galaxy case performs against a computer without a case!

Page 6 : Testing

The testing is set up to test thermal cooling performance of the case. The specifications of the system are:

The system will be put under load by Prime95 for three hours, and temperatures for CPU, PWMIC, and the chipset will be recorded from MBM5. A temperature probe will be also used to record the temperature of the hard drive, and the wall of the power supply. The system will then be on idle for three hours with minimal processes running. Temperatures will then be recorded in the same manner. This process will be first used in the Galaxy case, then the system is removed and put on a table top without a case and the testing process will repeat.

The ambient temperature remained at 27 degrees throughout testing. Here are the results:

The results are not to get too excited over. Even with two 90mm intakes, one 250mm exhaust, and one 120mm exhaust, it seems that running a system without a case is a better choice thermally. The Galaxy does in fact cool the hard drive and the chipset better than having no case, but the CPU temperature seems to tell otherwise. The culprit is probably the inability to effectively wire manage inside the case, and get better airflow. With five fans in motion, there is no reason that the case cannot perform better than having no airflow.

The case is very noisy. The noise level is mostly generated by the two small front intake fans, and running the computer without them plugged in is much more pleasant. The large side fan, however, is actually very quiet. The disappointing part of the fan, is that it did not push as much air as everyone would think. If the fan were overvolted and set as an intake fan, I'm sure that the performance of the case would be much better because of all that air hitting the motherboard directly.

Page 7 : Conclusion

It's great that Sansun has continued to strive in the computer case market. With the debut of the Bat case, many people did not like the theme of the case. The introduction of the Galaxy is bound to attract some of those people back. As one of the many who has never paid much attention to Sansun, I'm sure that Sansun will continue to produce more and more computer electronics with nifty and attractive ideas.

The Galaxy looks like an excellent case from the outside. However, unfortunately, the interior is poorly done. The wires were a headache and restricted airflow into the case. The front panel display was a very cool idea, but it is not going to make life easier when installing the unit.

To the user who completely loves the exterior of the case, it is certainly a good find. The look and feel of the Galaxy is certainly something that would please even the most picky customers. Sansun now has there work cut out for them, and, like every evolving company, I'm sure we'll be seeing improvements as the time goes on.

Advantages
Attactive exterior
Nifty front display pannel
Plenty of room for CD/DVD drives
BTX ready

Disadvantages
No included manual
Left side door is bolted, inability to hide wires
A lot of wiring for the front panel, very messy and unorganized
Mediocre cooling performance
Limited availability

Overclockers Online would like to thank Sansun for making this review possible.