Nexus EDGE Full-ATX Tower Chassis

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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rpsgc
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Nexus EDGE Full-ATX Tower Chassis

Post by rpsgc » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:07 am

Nexus announced the newest addition its case lineup. The Nexus EDGE, measuring 64.2 x 23.9 x 57.6 cm (L x W x D) is a full-ATX tower, compatible with most Flex-ATX, M-ATX, ATX, and E-ATX motherboards. The case has a fine brushed-metal finish with polished, rounded-off edges. The external drive bays can be locked off behind a metal front-door. Although the exterior reveals 13 5.25" bays, only 8 of them are accessible. The bottom five bay covers protect the 4-bay 3.5" drive cage inside, which neighbours two 2-bay drive racks that hang above the PSU area. This area is separated from the motherboard area, and shares room for a 120 mm fan with it.

The motherboard tray has room for 7 expansion slots. It has an opening where most motherboards have the CPU socket, which provides accessibility to CPU coolers with bolt-through retention mechanisms. Another 120 mm fan bay is located above the rear-panel, an a 140 mm fan to ventilate the entire case from its top. The case provides a degree of noise control with its noise-absorbtion wave foam padding. The utility panel is located on the top, and is a standard issue with a couple of USB ports, an eSATA port, and audio connectors. The Nexus EDGE is expected to retail for around 160 EUR.
Image Image Image Image Image


Source: TechPowerUp!
Product page

KadazanPL
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Post by KadazanPL » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:19 pm

Two words: too big ;)

Seriously though, I like its aesthetics and 1mm steel augurs well for structural stability. Shame for no HDD dampening!

qviri
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Post by qviri » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:56 pm

But does it come with a freezer, too?

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Mon Jul 13, 2009 2:03 pm

qviri wrote:But does it come with a freezer, too?
That's optional.

1kbyte
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Post by 1kbyte » Mon Jul 13, 2009 4:50 pm

Internal design is similar to PowerColor Eruption.

Shamgar
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Post by Shamgar » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:19 pm

Just don't complain that they didn't give you enough room. Or should I say, a room. If times get really tough, you can use it as a form of temporary shelter.

On the serious side, it has some positive points on construction. If they can transfer this thinking to a smaller mid tower, it might be worth considering. But... it still seems so yesteryear. Reminds me of the old Chieftec server cases, with a few modern twists.

EsaT
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Post by EsaT » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:50 pm

1kbyte wrote:Internal design is similar to PowerColor Eruption.
Or NZXT Whisper with extra height and few changes.
KadazanPL wrote:Two words: too big ;)
Shame for no HDD dampening!
HDD trays look similar to NZXT Whisper's trays which are copies from Antec.

And space is good but just start looking at airflow/cooling design carefully:
For example that lower chamber is supposed to have 14cm intake fan in front but 5.25" bay covers look entirely solid!
Or what about main chamber: No intake at all!
You could have that optional 12cm rear fan as intake for CPU cooler and 14cm top fan as exhaust but from where rest of the chamber would get air?
Again you could put two 3x5.25" fan devices to front for good intake airflow (and two free 5.25" bays left) but that would work only as long as you keep door open!
Or then turn top fan to (dust) intake with fans in rear as exhaust.

Pretends to be big performance case but with this messy... well, lacking airflow design hard to see it being able to cool itself even when just half full.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:11 am

Could be from below, it has a lot of openings on its bottom. No way to tell from those pictures.

EsaT
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Post by EsaT » Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:05 am

rpsgc wrote:Could be from below, it has a lot of openings on its bottom. No way to tell from those pictures.
Pics of product page are well enough for stating that only way for that to work would be by cutting big hole to plate between chambers...
And that wouldn't correct front HDD cage's lack of airflow.

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Post by thejamppa » Tue Jul 14, 2009 1:19 pm

I wonder if those 140mm fans will come for retail sale separetely... They look good ^^

swivelguy2
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Post by swivelguy2 » Fri Jul 31, 2009 8:37 am

thejamppa wrote:I wonder if those 140mm fans will come for retail sale separetely... They look good ^^
Yeah, I hope so too.
Image

Model: DX14SL-12
RPM: 1000 RPM
Noise level: 18 dB(A)
Airflow: 46 CFM
Connectors 3-pin & 4-pin
For comparison, the 12cm version (D12SL-12) is listed by Nexus at 18 dB(A), 38.9 CFM

Rikardo
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Post by Rikardo » Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:39 pm

Saw one of these cases yesterday at work. Didn't impress much. The front door may be aluminium, but the front panel where it is attached is plastic which also rattles against the case itself.

Although it might be ok with little modding and stuff :roll:

EsaT
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Post by EsaT » Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:17 am

Rikardo wrote:The front door may be aluminium, but the front panel where it is attached is plastic
So having loose door in your hand after years of use is real possibility even without abusing it...

danimal
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Post by danimal » Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:45 pm

the hinge for the p18x series is plastic, and it holds up pretty well.

need more data on the airflow possibilities when the front door is shut... you could rig up some air filtration where those 3.5" drive bays are pretty easily.

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Post by bonestonne » Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:27 pm

I find it a little hard to envision this case, considering it's more than 14cm taller than my existing case...adding ~7 inches to the height just makes me think of how much i don't want to kick it if it's under my desk...or how similar it would be to a wall if it's on top of the desk.

CoccoBill
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Post by CoccoBill » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:04 am

Bump.

Has anyone actually bought one? I'm looking for a new file server case with some rather tricky requirements:

- minimum 6 free 5.25" front bays (for 2x 5in3 SATA backplanes). 9 free bays would be nice to allow for adding another backplane
- must have a front door (don't want those backplanes blinking in the dark, plus should insulate their noise a bit
- besides the 6 5.25" bays, at least 7 3.5" hdd bays, preferably more
- doesn't have to (and obviously won't) be whisper quiet, but I'm not looking for data center grade vacuum cleaners either, it should be no more loud than a "normal" pc, preferably significantly more quiet

The Nexus seems to fit the bill, except for that double front door thingy. Can the inner door be removed and will there be enough room and airflow for the drive cages (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6817121405)? Any other cases you'd recommend? I can't seem to find anything suitable, except maybe for the old CM Stacker 83x series which are nowhere to be found.

EsaT
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Post by EsaT » Sat Apr 17, 2010 1:46 pm

CoccoBill wrote:The Nexus seems to fit the bill, except for that double front door thingy. Can the inner door be removed
Don't worry about that inner door... outer door will do excellent work at blocking all airflow.

How many drives you're trying to fit in?

CoccoBill
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Post by CoccoBill » Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:11 am

EsaT wrote:
CoccoBill wrote:The Nexus seems to fit the bill, except for that double front door thingy. Can the inner door be removed
Don't worry about that inner door... outer door will do excellent work at blocking all airflow.

How many drives you're trying to fit in?
Completely blocking it just restricting? I can live with some restrictions. Do you have one of these or judging from the pics?

Currently 15 drives.

EsaT
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Post by EsaT » Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:36 pm

No holes in that door or slots in its sides leaving only this 10+ years old cases reminding small hole for whole front end:
http://www.sweclockers.com/imagebank/20 ... k=bbf6ebf8
Going to be rather restricting with so many fans fighting for that airflow. It just isn't the door of Antec P-serie...
And cooling for half of HDDs in that bottom chamber relies on faith of airflow knowing what complex high impedance route to take while there's nice low impedance bypass route available.

Lian Li PC-A71 has ten HDDs bays and five 5.25" bays so it could have 15+1 HDDs assuming one optical drive. And that door has only minimal airflow blocking effect.

PC-A77 would have 12 5.25" bays and three HDD bays so it would be very good for such file server but unfortunately it lacks door making it unfitting.

CoccoBill
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Post by CoccoBill » Mon Apr 19, 2010 6:25 am

Hm bugger, A71 would be good if it had 6 5.25" bays, is the door in the older V2110 any better with airflow? I noticed you had already commented on it in another thread but it looks like it could be a wee bit better?

EsaT
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Post by EsaT » Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:57 am

CoccoBill wrote:is the door in the older V2110 any better with airflow?
Worser, it has only few small slots in side.
http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload ... 110f03.JPG
But you could remove (partially or fully) that rubber strip blocking ~4mm gap between front panel and door for getting more open area.
And in file server use without hot graphics card and hot running CPU use of 5.25" bays dropping intake airflow to upper chamber wouldn't really matter so it should work well enough.

themaster1
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Post by themaster1 » Fri Apr 23, 2010 9:14 pm

I wanted this case a couple of months ago, too bad i couldn't find a retailer with this case

Pierre
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Post by Pierre » Sat Apr 24, 2010 3:39 am

I would like to ask those who own the case and have worked with the case whether it is possible to connect two hdd installed in each of the the smaller hdd bays with a single sata power cable...that is whether the distance between the horizontal bays allows for a psu sata power cable to connect to two hdd installed beside one another in the smaller hdd bays...
This case bears almost the same design as the Î

eha
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Re: Nexus EDGE Full-ATX Tower Chassis

Post by eha » Tue Oct 26, 2010 3:33 am

Guys, take a look at this picture:

Image

To me it looks like the following: All of the 5.25'' brackets are actually dust filters, and not whole plastic, thus letting air flow in through the entire front of the case (also notice the 12cm fan at the bottom). Of course, how this behaves with the front door closed might be another question. Also, notice the vent holes in the metal brackets. This should be enough to keep the air flowing, but I guess airflow would increase more by removing them.

Note: I don't own this case (yet), I'm just curious.

In conclusion, perhaps the air flow problem described by all of you above just isn't a problem at all?

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