Size comparison

Here's a size comparison of the Sunbeamtech Automaton compared to a 1m80 human;

The other boxes are the cases we tested previously here at the site with the same hardware; we can see that the Automaton on par in height with the average, while it’s a bit wider due to the bulky design of the side panels. You can mouse over the rectangles to see which case it represents, click on them will take you to the full review;

(Mouse over the towers to see the brand and product name)

An important factor if you have a high end VGA card(s) is the depth of the case, as you can assume that a case with more depth will have a higher chance of fitting the current generation of single and dual GPU powerhouses.



This case is the longest case of Sunbeamtech we’ve come across yet; in theory should pose no problems for larger video cards, depending on how they arranged the HDD drive bays.

Look Outside

With the plastic wraps removed we can see a black piano finish of the Automaton; you can also immediately spot the large flaw in this case on the picture below:



They added a window in the right side panel, showing you nothing fancy, it should have been completely black, without an useless air intake at the back of the motherboard panel?



At the other side the window does make more sense, and while the cut-out looks good, it would have been aesthetically better if the window would not show the aluminium 5.25” drive bays. You can spot a small spoiler at the back of the case, which doesn’t just serve to make it look sleek but has a valid practical purpose: noise reduction. Don’t know if they did this on purpose, but by covering up the top section of the case like this and having it stick out a few inches, it will reduce noise from the PSU.



Back to the front panel, the plastic door opens only up to the left, inside the door there’s a blue LED light; behind the door there is power and reset button.



At the bottom of the front panel a nice eye for detail, a metal grill for air intake, we can also see this grill in the side panels:


At the top of the case are I/O inputs, we have headphone jack and microphone, two USB ports and one Firewire; nice addition is the volume control, very practical addition. The power and reset button should have been featured near this panel too though, keeping everything in the same location.

Let’s take a look inside ->