Case Master V828 "FireBird" Server Case Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by jmke @ 2004-03-11

Case Master is a new company ready to make a name for themselves in the enthousiast market. Can the FireBird server case help them on their way? Let?s find out.

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Inside

The plug and play attitude of this case is simply amazing; with a few clicks and tricks you have the whole case disassembled and ready for motherboard insertion. Although it suffers from the known “un-removable motherboard-tray” feature, the inside offers enough room to work with even the largest motherboards on the market (Dual Xeon/Opteron would fit nicely inside)

What storage media can fit inside?
  • 4 optical drives
  • 8 HDD
  • 2 floppy

    Combine this with a high end system and you’ll have a little oven to warm your room with. To this end the case comes with 2 fans installed. You’ve already seen the first one, the top blowhole. The second is a bit larger in size, +40mm to be exact. With both fans running you can already reduce the case temperature by a large margin.

    The included PSU which has to power all the gear inside bears a Case Master badge and delivers 450Watt, unlike its official name suggests: CM-SF420M

    Madshrimps (c)


    SATA ready the label shouts! And yes we found 1 SATA connector among the 12! 12v connectors, the right amount to power those 4 Cdrom and 8 HD drives. The cables are very long and they might give you some grief to tuck away nicely, but the people of Case Master have passed their cable routing exams, this translates into the provision of plenty of places and hooks to guide your cables out of sight.

    The PSU features a small switch at the back to control the 2 fans inside. Medium/High/Auto is pretty self explanatory.

    Madshrimps (c)


    When you remove the side panel you are greeted by… another side panel. This one is considerably smaller and provides multi-functionality. Together with a rail at the top it further strengthens the overall sturdiness of this case. It offers you the possibility to install either 2x HDD’s or 2x80mm fans, or any other combination you like. But the fun doesn’t stop there, when you have your server board installed and plugged in those long 64-bit PCI cards you are given the possibility to secure them by the use of a bunch of sliders, the same ones we’ve already encountered in the X710 from In-Win.

    Madshrimps (c)


    The little side-panel is held in its place by a plug and click system , and a small screw (3rd time I had to use my screwdriver)

    Madshrimps (c)


    The panel in all its glory:

    Madshrimps (c)

    Madshrimps (c)

    Madshrimps (c)


    With a few clicks the front panel comes loose and gives you access to install your Optical drives, which can be installed tool less, as well as the HDD’s and the floppies! In order to do this you have to open a “secret compartment”, well actually not that secret, but it is hidden from sight when the small side-panel is installed.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Sliding on rails, extra cooling and installation of the system are up next ->
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