CompuCase Tower Cases

Reviewed by James 06.23.2003

Features

One of the most noticable features of this case is the weight, coming in at 34lbs shipped weight. There can be no doubt that CompuCase is a division of an auto-parts manufacturer. No fear of denting side-panels, crushing plastic pieces, or damaging the window even comes to mind when handling the case. The magnetic latch for the front panel access for the USB, Firewire, and Audio ports is a further testament to the quality construction, as it works almost flawlessly with just a well-placed tap of the finger but doesn't open with randomn bumps of the case. The CI came with a pre-modded side window which looks quite nice, giving an eerie glow regardless of almost all light conditions (completed darkness must be excluded). With a nice sidebar going across the top for added stability, it can also be used to hide a cold-cathode light to enhance the window's effect. A blue light would produce a great dark-purplish glow.

The height of the case indicated plenty of expansion room for more harddrives and modding. The LX is smaller and notably lighter than the CI. This is not to say, however, that the LX is not made with the same quality construction; in fact, just the opposite is true. The LX is made with the same material and process as the CI, just on a different size scale. This case, however, is not meant for flash. What was most exciting about it, at least initially, was that it had side-panel latches, rendering the thumbscrews on the back useless, saving time and effort at the discrestion of the owner.

CI		LX

Screws or Not

The CI comes with 2 removable 3x3.5" bays. CompuCase touts "Shockproof" pads on the 3.5" bays, a great implementation for mechanical shock sensitive devices such as hard drives. However, these pads are only on the lowest each of the bay holders. If you have more than two drives, you are deprived of your shock absorbancy. The LX, however, does not have this issue. It's inner configuration consists of a 2 bay cage for the exposed drives, with no shock absorbers, and a 5 bay cage for the unexposed, all of which have shock absorbers. Another advantage of LX in this area is the use of screws. While the cages in the CI are removable, and phillips screwdrive is required to remove a screw holding the bay to the front of the case, and then the quick latch can be undone for easy removal. This screw absolutely defeats the purpose of a quick latch, as it requires me to grab my tools to get to my harddrives, which is annoying. However, with the screw removed, the cages in the CI seem stable enough, if any different than with the screws in place. As a further testament to the stability without the use of screws, the 2 bay cage in the LX uses the exact same latching mechanism with no screw in place to maintain stability. Nevertheless, the CI could have at least implemented a thumbscrew to allow for toolless access, which was remembered in the LX's 5 bay cage.

Slide rails for easy installation of your 5.25" equipment come with both cases. The advantage of the tall CI case is that they had room to install holders for the rails on the bottom of the case, unlike the LX which comes in separate packaging and must be kept up with for the duration of your ownership of the box. However, none provide any for the 3.5" bays. This is somewhat disappointing but in the end, makes some sense. If the cage is removable so easily, why do the drives need to be easily removed? Well, we can all probably think of a dozen reasons, but alas, they are not available.

The front panel of the LX is far superior to that of the CI simply because it comes off much easier. Not only is the Mobo-side side panel not removable on the CI, making undoing the latches a little difficult, but no system is in place for allowing easy removal of the front panel. One must pry the tabs from the chasis and pull the panel away. Luckily, the tabs are only present on the exposed side. The LX on the other hand has two buttons on the bottom sides of the front panel wich allows for the panel to be taken off with a flick of the wrist. Also, if you so desire, the mobo-side side panel is removable with two phillips head screws, no thumbs here.

The optional screwless PCI slot system in the LX is well thought out. Most manufacturers use a simple, single flip bar to hold the cards in place, but CompuCase went so far as to give an individual holder for each slot. This probably makes the system more stable; if one fails, they all don't go. The CI came with screw-driver only screws to hold in the PCI cards. Well, they never claimed the case was toolless.

The CI's drive cages. Notice shocks only on the bottom bay of each.	The LX's bottom drive cage. Notice that each bay has shocks to prevent HD damage	The PCI card holder system on the LX.	The drive rails of the CI, held on by clips on the floor of the case.