When I recently built a new
Pentium II based PC for myself, I found myself needing to get a new ATX case. I had a nice
Enlight 6680 AT case, but, for a good Pentium II motherboard, I thought I needed to go the
ATX route. I picked up a Enlight 7237, and it lives up to my expectations from Enlight.
The Good
The 7237 is solid as a rock, as most Enlight cases
are. At the same time, it is well designed enough for excellent upgradibility. Let’s look
at these features:
Like most Enlight cases, 5.25″ drives are
easily removed or installed. You simply screw the provided drive rails onto the drive, and
from then on you can slide it in or out of the chassis in a matter of 5 seconds.
Hard drives and floppy drives are installed into a
drive rack. the case has one drive rack, and it can hold up to three drives. Like the
5.25″ drives, this entire rack can be removed from the case for easy hard drive of
floppy drive swaps.
To get into the case does not
take any screwdrivers, thanks to the latest effort by Enlight and others to make their
cases “screwless”. To remove the cover, you simply tug on the bottom of the
front panel and remove it. Then, the entire shell of the case comes off at once. This
means that the cover comes off in two pieces, better than the four pieces of the EN-6680.
And, unlike the EN-6680, the front panel of the 7237 comes off quite easily.
The motherboard, like other cases, is mounted on a
removable motherboard mounting plate. Unlike, the EN-6680, though, you must remove four
screws to remove the plate. Although this is still much easier than motherboard removal in
a traditional cases, it is not quite as easy as the spring loaded system of the EN-6680.
The Bad
Since every case is basically a tradeoff of
features, this case like all others has a few things which I would prefer be different.
First of all, I like the drive mounting system of
the EN-6680 better. All of the drives in the 7327 must be mounted on the same rack since
only one drive rack is provided with the case. In the 6680, one was provided with three
separate drive racks, all holding one drive. This means you could use a master and slave
hard drive, and store a spare up near the power supply. The floppy drive, unlike the 7237,
does not require a spot on the drive rack. Therefore, you really can’t fit as many drives
into the 7237.
Lastly, the type of screwless slot covers used on
this case are rather difficult to back once an expansion card is removed. I found myself
swiping old slot covers off a spare case and screwing them on instead.
Final Take
This case is a great ATX case. Its good far
outweighs the small annoyances. If you are building a new ATX machine, I would definitely
recommend a look into the EN-7237.
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