Ultra Aluminus? Other cases with removable mobo tray?

rhuebner · Post by **rhuebner** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:03 am

Anyone have any experience with the Ultra Aluminus case? For my next system, I want something with good basic design and functional airflow... and a removable motherboard tray!

I had a case with a hinged, fold-down motherboard tray once, and it was a joy to work on. I don't know why they went out of fashion.

I'm tired of fighting to install modern huge heatsinks like my Ninja without one. Either you mount the heatsink before mounting the motherboard in the case, risking scratching the backside traces against the standoffs as you try to delicately wrestle it into place, and making it hard to get to the mobo mounting screws, or you mount the heatsink with the motherboard alread mounted in the case, making it hard to keep from screwing up your thermal goop application as you fight with the heatsink mounting clips/screws/whatever.

The Aluminus looks pretty much a lot like my current SLK3000B, except that 1) it's aluminum (meh), 2) it's got a big side window (meh), and 3) it's got a drop-in removable tray (Yayyyyy!).

Since I like my SLK3000B a lot except for the mobo tray thing, this looks pretty good. I figure the drop-in tray is a bit safer for these huge tower heatsinks than the slide-in type, which might catch the top of the tower on the corner pillar going in.

So, any thought/comments? Anyone know of any other alternatives with good functional design and a removable tray?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:21 am

There's at least one problem with a removable tray....big problem. It lessens the useable width of the case interior about 20mm or so. This can make a modern/big heatsink impossible to fit. The fix is to make the case bigger to begin with....something that costs more, and probably doesn't sell as well. Smaller is better.....

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:25 am

A second problem is that unless the tray is very securely fixed, it becomes another sources of rattling and/or lower level vibrations/noise. I've found this to be true of the handful of cases with removeable mb trays I've tried.

rhuebner · Post by **rhuebner** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:35 am

Bluefront: I guess that's a downside for the Aluminus drop-in tray style; it has handles that could block a heatsink that wanted to stick out past the edge of the board. But it appears to allow some extra space around the board, probably as much as most cases would between the board and the power supply. In general, I don't agree that smaller cases are better. I like big cases with plenty of room for cabling and for drives that don't stick into the mobo space and hit the video card(s).

I've wondered if you couldn't significantly reduce board and CPU temps by simply making the case taller and providing a generous "attic" area to hold risen heat harmlessly above the components, with either the power supply or a an exhaust fan at the top to remove it.

MikeC: Thought about that, but figured I could just stick a couple strips of stick-on weatherstripping to the bottom of the tray if it was a problem.