Installation

The total time for installation took about 20 minutes, which was due to the lack of a "screw-less" design.

Adding a power supply to the Nimiz is simple. Since the motherboard sits about an inch lower from the power supply carriage, there is more than enough space with which to work. The case comes with both a standard power supply (PS) face plate along with a face plate for redundant power supplies. They are easily interchangeable by removing 4 screws on the back.



Click to enlarge.


The motherboard took about 5 minutes to install due to the "screw-in" design of the motherboard tray. Add-on cards usually are not a time consuming installation with the screw-in method, but using sliding clips to lock the cards in place would have also been a time saving feature.

SilverStone provides a manual in its package, which is identical to the manual posted online. The layout is straightforward, gets right to the point. It shows step by step instructions for installation of all the necessary components in clear English. The only misprint that we found was with the dimensions; the height and width were switched. There were no instructions for the front panel adapters, since each motherboard has its own layout.



Click to enlarge.


Drive installations were straightforward. The front bay panels were attached to the case by 2 screws, which were easy to remove. A small disadvantage of the 5-1/4" drive bays, again, was the lack of platforms for the drives to sit on. Those who usually slip a drive in and use one screw to hold it in place are out of luck and would need to open up the other side to add screws to the mounting.

Motherboard Tray Benchmarking
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  • lbmcleod - Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - link

    Nice case, except for the fact that yet again the drive bays have been rubbishly constructed -just a peice of bent alu without even guide platforms machined out. Even cheap cheiftecs and aopen cases have better drive bay construction
  • Zepper - Thursday, March 18, 2004 - link

    The UL file number on the silverstone PSU is listed as Enhance, which makes decent PSUs.
    .bh.
  • Zepper - Thursday, March 18, 2004 - link

    The price is around $250. on newegg.
    .bh.
  • TrogdorJW - Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - link

    Forget the Silverstone cases. I'm just not that interested in a light aluminum case. What I would like to know is how their power supplies perform. Any word on that? Specifically, I'm wondering if the 120mm fan is really quieter and if the power supplies are a good alternative to the 350W Antec PSes that I usually get.
  • puravsanghani - Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - link

    #5-#6: The links are put at the top of the page by the marketing company. We passed on to them information about the error and have removed the link.
  • hirschma - Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - link

    #5 - Oops, they have the wrong price listed. Anyone know how much this thing actually costs?

    And yes, I think that my Lian-Li is worth every penny. It comfortably houses my Tyan Dually Opteron board, as well has 7 hard drives, and is quiet and cool. Like this case, you can upgrade to one of those neato redundant/hotswap power supplies. It was very difficult to find anything that would do the trick.

    Jonathan
  • hirschma - Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - link

    Why is this case expensive at $85?

    I just bought a Lian Li PC-75 for a big server I'm building. It is an excellent case, but missing some nice features that this case has - and it goes for over $220. The two are directly comparable.

    What am I missing here?

    And yes, Aluminum is the way to go with the big cases, unless you want to damage yourself lifting the machine once you've built it :)

    Jonathan
  • Schadenfroh - Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - link

    crap, i just ordered a sonata, this thing looks cooler, darn, should have waited 1 more day
  • araczynski - Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - link

    >personally< i don't understand the fascination with aluminum cases. the only benefit of them is weight reduction, other then that, its all prepubescent hype with a higher price tag

    my >personal< taste (if i wanted to bleed money) would be to get an IBM industrial PC case (anyone that worked/works in the automation industry might know which i'm referring to). If you know the older IBM AT keyboards and love(d) them, you would drool over these things. They're about the only thing that has ever impressed me from IBM, and quite frankly the ONLY case that has ever impressed me. solid design/engineering.

    anyway, since working with these cases a few years back, almost everything else since then has felt/looked cheap in comparison, and i would put these aluminum cases in that same (cheap) category.

    maybe i'm just 'old school' ;)
  • decptt - Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - link

    It's cool. I love 03 but too expensive for me.

    to webmaster, Anandtech deal shows wrong model 'TJO1' instead of review 'TJ03'

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