BeanTech Igloo-9 Aluminium Case
with Transparent Side

	Reviewed by: JohnL. Item by: BeanTech Igloo 9 w/ Transparent side window. Manufacturer: BeanTech Price: Estimated at £105 on release

Introduction.

When you speak to BeanTech they just simply ooze customer satisfaction. Our Contact Nannini has got to be one of the nicest people I have spoken to in a long time. Not only is their customer service excellent but in recent months have offered up some of the best made cases on the market and at a price that can't be beat. The Latest in their Igloo range is no exception, see if you can spot the flaws.....

Technical Specs

Anodized Aluminum Alloy Medium Tower Case

483(L) X 209(W) X 442(H)mm

Folded Edges Everywhere to Protect Your Fingers

Thumb Screws Used For Easy Removal & Install Slide -in Removable Motherboard tray

Easy Removable Front Panel

Total 10 Cleverish Device Bays

4 X 5.25" & 2 X 3.5" Opening Device bays with Slide locked Paneling For Quick Mount Devices

4 X 3.5" Hidden bays With Shock Absorber Silicon Rubber Ring for HDD

2 X USB & 1 X 1394 Fire wire Ports on Front Panel

Total Three 80mm Cooling Fans; 2 At Front Of Case with Rotary Speed control One At rear side To Provide Excellent Airflow For The Best Heat Dissipation

Removable Fan Filter

Optionals:

A: Transparent Side window (in review.)

B. Additional Cooling Fan in Top Cover

C. One-Ball-Bearing Fan

D. Two-Ball-Bearing Fan

So What's it like....

Well the case comes not in the standard brown packaging boxes we are all used to, but a full color glossy box. Exploded diagrams on the sides giving you a taster of what's to come. One thing that puzzled me was the writing on the side.... it reads :

"ALL Aluminum Material Including Front Panel"

Now I'm hoping its a generic box unless the wonderful BeanTech Boys have managed to turn metal into plastic. I will point out for those that are a little baffled that this case has a Acrylic front and Door.

Once you snip the packing straps you dive into a world of wonder, like the Acrylic case we had before it comes perfectly protected by a cocoon of foam and card. Not the standard Polystyrene here, no this case is destined for greater things.

Remove the end supports and remove the plastic bag. now just as an added safety feature they ship the case with a layer of foam between the door and the case to stop it breaking or jarring.

Ever got a case from a manufacturer and found the bag of screws has been left loose in the bottom? your case is now scratched inside and the window useless.

Not this one; they even tie the screw bag to the chassis to stop it moving in transit. Little things please little minds, and I'm impressed already.

Eyes Front.

Starting at the front of the case it is glaringly obvious it has a door. A green door, a green acrylic door. The door can be made to open either way by a quick swap of screws. Lovely touch to finish the acrylic door with hex bolts. Small, shiny and looks damned nice. The door closure itself is a simple push lock switch similar to those found on the front of most TVs. There is NO access to any of the front drives, buttons or bays once the door it closed. So for those with baybus and fan monitors maybe you should look away now. The door has frosted effect where the drives are placed, almost as if to try to mask their presence.

The Acrylic door also covers the front grate for the fans, which could increase noise levels and reduce airflow.

To the right side of the front panel are 2 USB ports and a Firewire port. The USB plugs directly into the main board header, however the Firewire does not have such an option and has to be plugged in to a port. So unless you have an internal Firewire port it has to go out the back and into the rear ports. This isn't a major problem cos BeanTech even supply a blanking plate to allow you to do this without gapping holes or lose wiring. Simply unscrew the plate, feed the wire and remount the plate. DONE.

The front cover simply pops off in the same style as the Lian-Li cases do. Underneath are a few bit not noticeable at first....

Just under the power switches is a rheostat switch used to control the fan speeds. In the centre are the two front 80mm fan holes covered by a fan filter. Dual Evercools provide the case with a nice match between flow and noise.

Drive mountings

The drive bay covers attach in a peculiar method, two thumb screws secure it. One at the front and one at the side. Bit odd as to remove a drive bay you need to remove the front and the side panels.

Two types of mounting are on offer inside the case, first is the NO screw option:

After removing the Drivebay covers you have NO screws to fit the drives. I love this case more and more..

You simply slide your drive in and lock it in place using a slide clip that presses lugs into the drive screw holes to secure it. on the other side there is a spring clip used to secure the drive. The slide clips are then locked into place with a simple flick switch. Now downside to the mounting system was I broke it.

Within 10 secs of me playing (as I often do) I had managed to totally detach one of the slide mountings from the case. Oooops, it did however go back in with minimal effort, but certainly something to look out for.

Next way to mount hard disks is on the anti-vibration grommets so lovingly provided by BeanTech. A row of 4 bays able to house hard drives mounted against the rubber grommets. The Rubber grommets absorb a lot of the vibration and therefore noise of high spin speed hard drives.

Motherboard Tray

The whole motherboard tray and rear I/O Shield comes away from the case by removing 4 thumbscrews from the rear of the case and sliding it out. All the PCI slots and the rear fan are attached to the motherboard tray. The motherboard attaches with the standard spring clip stand-offs. All the PCI cards are held in place by thumbscrews and the fans by plastic press studs.

From a reviewers perspective, if I didn't have the Twin test beds this motherboard tray alone could become very useful.

Overall

The basic construction of this case is very sturdy indeed, the chassis is solid and with the removable motherboard tray it needs to be. You get the standard BIG-BAG-O-SCREWS with the case as mentioned before, you also get a couple of security tags. they fit to the rear of the case to allow you to secure BOTH sides of the case with a security cable or padlock. You get 3 bags of screws all clearly marked as to their uses, no mixing threads here.

Spare thumb screws and the ubiquitous cable ties. I have lost track of the amount of cable ties I use in a singe PC build, but certainly 3 is not going to cover the front cabling let alone the whole case. Come the days I get a handful of cable ties per case and I'll be smiling.

All the edges of the case are neatly finished and rounded off to stop those annoying nicks and cuts. The rear mounting for the PSU however was very rough and unfinished, shame really cos it spoilt the overall finish.

The case itself is hard anodized to protect the finish. It is a lot rougher than I expected, after using Lian-Li and Coolermaster cases the Igloo 9 almost had 'cheap' finish to it. Not quite cheap but rough.

The Transparent Side panel is nicely finished for a pre-modd. Nice large surface, the window is held in place by rivets. Good quality thick Acrylic is used to protect against bumps and knocks.

Conclusions

Over all a lovely case and could happily take a spot in my office, but firstly I would have to buy a new system to put into it... bank manager isn't going to like me for that. Secondly if I bring another computer into my house to stay the Girlfriend might move out. I can justify it if she thinks its going back out in a week.

A few finishing issues on the case, but nothing that would warrant a BIG NO NO banner. Most PSU mountings are rough even my Lian-Li's. The vibration grommet mountings for the drives is great idea, the slide locks are a nice touch but not sure how good they will last with long term use.

So heres the quick list for the lazy ones:

PROS:

• Nice Finish
• Removable Motherboard tray
• Drive mounting systems
• Door to protect drives
• Side window (saves modding it)

CONS:

• Few rough edges
• Door maybe restrictive
• Air flow issue with door in place
• I broke the drive mountings (Fixed it after)

SMALL BITS:

• Security Tabs
• Front USB and Firewire
• Rear Firewire outlets
• Anti-Vibration grommets
• Thumb screw assembly

So all in all a good buy if your looking for an alternative to the Pricey Coolermasters and Slightly less Pricey Lian-Li cases. This case could certainly give both a run in the market and gets The Modfathers Bronze Award.

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