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CoolerGuys Windtunnel II Case Review
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Date Posted: Mar 10 2001
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Author: Joe
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Posting Type: Review
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Category: Case Reviews
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Page: 3 of 5
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Article Rank:No Rank Yet
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Note: This is a legacy article, imported from old code. Due to this some items on the page may not function as expected. Links, Colors, and some images may not be set correctly.
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CoolerGuys Windtunnel II Case Review By: Joe
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Coolerguys.com - WindTunnel II LAN Gamer Case
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The True Test: Put my system in it -
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Now overall this case has impressed me. If you are a
gamer who doesn't have the time, tools,or parents wont let him bust out the cutting torch in his bedroom, then I think its a good match.
But I guess the real test is, can it work for someone NOT gaming all the time but just LAN's now and then but does some serious work other times. Also wanted to see if it could fit a big system in this lil case. So, my MAIN box, The machine I do everything on, all ProCooling has been made on this hardware, and has run faithfully for 2 years, is going to be moved into the new case. ( this was the original Project: Double Header 1 machine.) I had to feel comfortable with the Windtunnel 2 case or I wouldn't have touched my main box for this.
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I've had that Enlight 7237 Case for over 2 years. Its been a faithful and solid case, I cant think of anything I disliked besides the drive rails. But the
time for change is here, and the Wind Tunnel II will help a lot with my heat issues I have in the old case.
In almost in Length and height the Coolerguys case is smaller, but in width they were the same. Now lets see the challenge.
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It doesn't look that hard to move does it? No HD's in the case, just 2 CDroms, a Mobo,and that's it.. Simple eh? hehehe
Nothing is simple when its my project...
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The Mobo is an E-ATX Tyan Thunder 100 GX Mobo.
As you can see it covers practically the entire mobo tray in the enlight. Now remember the Coolerguys WindTunnel case is SMALLER then the
Enlight. This should be fun.
At first glimpse and some quick measurements the case DOES fit the mobo.
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Well I needed to do a lil bending of folded down lip of the 5.25" bay thats above but I got it to fit.
You can see the Neoprene behind the board there. There isn't any bolt downs there and I cant risk shorting the board or cracking it when pressing
connections on. So I put the Neoprene there to hold it up.
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I ran my SCSI Header right under the front panel IO header.
One word on that IO header. Its Nicely rounded. I have seen many of these deals what use a ribbon cable that were, messy to say the least. This is nice and clean.
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A Necessary evil in case building is of course those 5.25" razor blades that put in the front of cases.
Well this is the one good side effect of using this thin steel, its pretty simple to get these front tabs off.
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The First casualty of the case being a hair smaller. You CANT
use the bottom 2 5.25" bays for CDroms if you have a board that's the FULL ATX size or EATX. This covers MOST Socket A, Dual Slot or Socket boards, and most any board that's "big". It overlaps by 1cm.. what a freak'n bummer.
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The Second problem comes with the Fans on the side. They don't get along with a Voodoo5 5500 well at all. In fact its not possible to use the filters on
the front AND the V5 at the same time.
So, simple. Take the filters off. Actually after a while I put the filters on the outside, and the grills on the inside, this works very well as it still
filters the air and the grills inside keep the wires from getting in the fan.
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I ran the header wires to their proper
ports and everything was happy, and get this, it even booted first try! How often can you move a machine from case to case and have not one error!
I was impressed this 300watt PSU could
power both CPU's, a power hungry board, the fans, and the Voodoo5.
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Random Forum Pic |
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From Thread: Heatsink To Heatpipe? |
| ProCooling Poll: |
So why the hell not? |
I agree!
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67%
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What?
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17%
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Hell NO!
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0%
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Worst Poll Ever.
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17%
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Total Votes:18Please Login to Vote!
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