jmke

Today we have a look at the Cooler Master Lab open casing, which is built and designed for people who switch hardware on very regular basis. Ideal for reviewers and overclockers and luckily I am both.

http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=967

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Faiakes

I must say it would have been nice if you had compared this to the HSPC Tech station, which is cheaper, plastic (special insulation material), and just plain simpler (which is good).
There is no need to any screws (at least I don't bother with them). It is taller, which means you can stack more components.

Since you reviewed the Cooler Master, would you have a go at the HSPC, too?

JimmyJump

I thought the review was good; comprehensive and explanatory, which is what a review should be, right?

That there's no manual included is no surprise to me, as things should be pretty clear to folks who tend to use these set-ups for testing.

The complaint about the rudimentarity and the fact that the rig hasn't space for a second hard drive, to me doesn't hold ground, because the rig is for testing/overclocking purposes, so, how many discs do you want to hang onto a test set-up? Granted, if/when you would be testing a new PSU, a multi disk set-up could come in handy. But then again, if the discs are already built into the case, it could prove easier to just connect the new PSU to the computer harbouring the discs, instead of disassembling your computer to connect the lot to the testing rig...

My two Eurocents.

jmke

having space for multiple disks does come in handy, especially for benchmarks, some apps work better under a certain OS, with multiple disks installed you don't need to swap them out, just connect the sata/power plug differently

@Faiakes: we have another test bench incoming for review, not a HSPC though

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Faiakes

@ jmke
Thanks, that will be interesting!

I forgot to add that even the buttons are not necessary. Quite a few boards have them onboard now or you can buy a very cheap set for your motherboard




Here is my old setup.





The cooldrive contained a Raptor and as you can see I could easily add a second one.

jmke

effective setup

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Faiakes

Thanks jmke
I know you're not a fan of no case 24/7 setups

Since I'm showing off...I might as well show what the whole setup looked like:



(that's my 24" BenQ FP241W, Accoustic Energy - Aego Series M 2.1 speakers, Enermax Aurora keyboard)

jmke

never said I'm not a fan of it
if I were to test motherboards, ram, hard drives, it would be an essential part of my test gear; but for case, cooling and video card tests it's not needed

you got a clean desk, was that on purpose for this pic?

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Faiakes

Fair enough

No, I'm a bit of a neat freak. I like minimalistic, clean environments.

Plus when I play I don't want anything interfering. I tend to set the keyboard to the left and use the arrow keys instead of WASD, so I need the space.

jmke

my desk is a little bit more... uhm.. populated?

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