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#866 - Gigabyte iSolo 210 Case |
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Written by Zach Jeffers
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Tuesday, 04 September 2007 |
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Page 4 of 5
Interior:
Opening the Gigabyte iSolo case is as simple as removing the two included thumbscrews from the side panels. With the left side panel removed, you can see the mesh that has been mounted by screws and tabs. The mesh is easily removed and you could easily replace the mesh with an acrylic window. The inside of the iSolo case is pretty basic. It features a fully tool-less mounting system for all seven expansion slots, the five external 5.25” drive bays, the two external 3.5” drive bays and tool-less drive rails for mounting three drives in the three internal 3.5” drive bays.
 
At the back, you can once again view the two rubber hose grommets along with the tool-less latch-style retention system of the expansion bays. To the right of the expansion bays are the I/O plate and PSU mounting areas along with the included 120mm fan. Note that the Gigabyte iSolo series can facilitate the higher wattage, extended form factor, power supplies. The included fan also incorporates a push-pin mounting system not requiring a screw driver. The fan also sports four rubber grommets to keep vibration to a minimum.
 
At the front of the iSolo case you will find the included 120mm intake fan very close to the internal 3.5” drive bay. There is only about 2-3mm gap between the fan and the drive bay. This helps push the cool air over the internal drives but does cost your overall case air flow as it is disrupted right from the get-go.
The leads for the iSolo case have all you would ever need for USB, Firewire, Audio, internal speaker and power switch. Note that there is no Reset lead as there is no reset button on the front of the case. In my opinion, reset buttons are on their way out as with most current operating systems utilize the soft-off option by holding down the power button for five seconds, so no loss there. Note in the picture that the power switch lead is very short. The lead is actually much shorter than all the other leads. I do not know if this will be the case in all the iSolo cases, but something that you may need to keep an eye out for as it barely reaches the front right corner of the motherboard area where the power switch header is usually located.
With the front I/O leads out of the way, you can view the four-pin, pass though style, Molex connector for powering a blue LED that aluminates the front of your desktop and the bottom of the front bezel. There is also a three pin fan lead that actually is a splitter for both the front and back fans. These fans spin a low RPMs and do not draw much power. This enables you to plug in both fans into a single fan head on the motherboard. The ultimately results in inaccurate readings of fan speeds, but does eliminate some of the cable mess inside the case as the back fan’s power lead has already be manages around the case for you.
 
Installation:
To install a 3.5” drive into the drive cage, all you simple do is attach two drive rails to your hard disk’s existing mounting holes, then slide it into one of the three available slots. The cage has holes between the three drive slots for cooling of the drives.
 
To install any external drive bay devices, you will first need to remove the front bezel. This was very simple and only consisted of two clips. Though the bezel only required these few clips, the bezel still holds firm and steady while in use.
With the bezel removed, you can see the inner PCBs for the front I/O area. In the center you can see the two Blue LEDs on either side of the power button. Notice the label covering the top 3.5” drive bay. This is duplicated on the top 5.25” drive bay as well. This was irritating as these paper stickers left ripped paper on the sides of the drive bays. These are easily removed with some effort, but a simple bay cover like the rest of the bays would have been simpler.
  
The back of the front bezel is plastic and you can see that the front bay covers are also simply held into place with a couple of clips. Each cover has its own filter that can be removed for cleaning and/or modding. The surrounding mesh of the front bezel can also be removed as it is only held into place with numerous screws.
 
Once you have the bay cover and plate removed from the iSolo, installing an external drive is very simple. Slide the drive into the open slot with the retention bracket (on the inside) in the unlocked position and slid back. Line up the drive to where you want it and slide the retention bracket on the inside to the front of the case and lock it into place. That is all it. Very easy and very clean looking.
  
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