by Vasily Melnik
05/03/2007 | 09:11 PM
Conceptual innovations in the area of compact system cases for the PC are rather rare. Such systems are usually shipped ready-made, with a preinstalled mainboard and a unique cooling solution. It stands to reason since non-standard components have to be used to minimize the size of the resulting system. The pros and cons of this approach can be argued but there is really only one conclusion: off-the-shelf barebone kits shipped with a mainboard of a unique form-factor are hardly suitable for further modernization. This is normal for corporate environments where the PC fleet is not upgraded but just updated wholesale after a certain time interval that often depends on the lifecycle of software the corporation uses.
<%BANNER[article]%>What is normal for the office may not be suitable at home, though. The main limitation is the impossibility of further upgrade. As long as the system requirements of modern games are increasing to the next level once every six months or even sooner, a barebone kit designed for only one platform does not seem an appealing option. That’s where other machines step on the scene. They are not barebone kits proper, but mini PCs. The recipe of making one is simple: it must be a small system case for a mATX mainboard, with bays for at least one optical drive and a couple of hard disk drives, and with a full-size power supply. The opportunity to install a full-size graphics card is an obligatory requirement, too. It’s simple with CPUs today. Even well-overclocked models from the Core 2 Duo series do not need high-performance cooling systems, which gives more freedom to developers of compact system cases.
Well, this is just a set of basic characteristics any desktop mini-tower PC has. It is not enough to provoke an interest in a home user. An attractive exterior design is necessary at the very least, and also something that an ordinary PC case lacks.
Thermaltake’s engineers must have thought long over the target audience of the developed product and hit the mark well. Generally speaking, why do you need a compact system case that permits to use full-size hardware? Not to save space because such systems have a smaller height, but at least the same or bigger footprint on the desk as a classic desktop PC. So, such system cases will be most interesting for those people who often change their place of residence or have to carry the PC with them for some reason. Thermaltake found one such reason which is reflected in the product name. Yes, the Lanbox is advertised as suitable for LAN parties, yet it can appeal to other user categories as well. Let’s check out what are these categories by examining the product itself.
The system case comes in a pretty-looking colorful box:
There’s more than enough information on it. Besides a photo of the product, there is a kind of an assembly guide on the back side of the box along with a description of the capabilities and functions of the case:
Inside you will find this cute barebone case with a handle for carrying it around:
The exterior is original particularly due to the translucent side panels:
They are symmetrical and have large vent holes. Without dust filters, this will make you clean the system regularly. Four feet with soft soles protect the furniture you will put the barebone on:
The most conspicuous element is surely the handle. It is rather an impressive thing:
Cast elements aren’t often used in PC cases and this one looks impressive and unusual. The coloring is original, too. It is the same color as the case, but the paint is interesting:
This material resembles hammer enamel, providing a specific coarse surface. This is a lucky choice. The fully assembled system is going to weigh quite a lot and the additional security provided by a reliable, not slippery, handle won’t be unneeded. The only problem is that it is thick in the grip area and is going to be not very comfortable for people with small palms.
There is a large vent hole at the back. It lacks a dust filter, either:
The front panel is designed perfectly, too:
It looks nice and is made from a noble material, a 5mm bent sheet of aluminum. The front-panel components are placed in a proper way, too.
Most of the front panel is occupied by two faceplates of the optical drive bays:
They are shaped so queerly (the faceplate is much larger than is necessary for the drive) because it is possible to install a 7” display from Thermaltake into the top bay. This display (the serial number A2413-01) is already selling. The faceplate of the second bay is shaped in the same way for the sake of symmetry, I guess. The faceplates are made from plastic with thin plates of aluminum glued to it.
This is done to maintain the uniform style of the front panel. Plastic, even if painted appropriately, won’t be the same as a milled aluminum plate. There is one 3.5” bay to the left of the 5.25” ones.
This is just the right place for a universal card-reader.
In the bottom left of the front panel there is a group of interface connectors:
The Power and Reset buttons are located on the right:
These are designed superbly. Thermaltake didn’t use trivial plastic for them, and the buttons look gorgeous to match the overall appearance of the system case. There is a front air intake between the buttons and the interface connectors.
It is the only one to be equipped with a dust filter, but its efficiency is negated by the large hole between the front panel and the case on which the intake fan is located:
As a result, the air goes where it meets less resistance, partially bypassing the dust filter. Thus, this dust filter serves a marketing rather than technical purpose. There are three more vent holes in the top and side panels of the case that lack dust filters. Theoretically, you can do with the front dust filter alone, but you have to modify the front panel to block the hole in its bottom part. After that, you have to create an excess pressure in the case with the front fan (by replacing the fan or reducing the speed of the other ones). This will solve the problem of dust, but will instead produce the problem of noise. It’s up to you to decide which problem is the worse one of the two.
The back panel is quite typical for system cases of this form-factor:
The only thing that strikes the eye is the abundance of thumbscrews. There are enough of them here for a couple of system cases of the ordinary form-factor. I’ll tell you shortly why they are needed here. Two 60mm fans exhaust hot air out of the system case:
They have done well in Thermaltake’s HTPC cases (the Bach, Mozart, Tenor models). Notwithstanding their small size, these fans feature good performance at low noise level.
That’s all about the product’s exterior. Let’s now see what’s inside.
I unfastened three screws at the back panel and pulled it backward to remove the top cover.
The handle is fastened to the cover by means of a bar that distributes the load along a large area:
This is a proper solution since the system assembled out of full-size components is going to be very heavy.
The chassis elements are packed rather densely inside. There is a 5.25” cage in the front part of the chassis and a HDD cage under it. The frame for the power supply is at the back:
You don’t have to take the PSU frame out of the system case unless you want to lay the cables in the tidiest way. Let’s start with the top cage for 5.25” devices. It is held by two thumbscrews, one on each side:
When these are unfastened, the cage can be moved into the case along the rails and lifted up:
It moves on the rails using four supports:
This is a good idea, but it is not implemented well. The stiffness ribs at the top part of the case have to be released to take the cage out. On the other hand, if you often have to take the cage out of the case, you can leave it unfastened with screws. The cage will be held in place by friction.
The design of the cage isn’t very convenient, either:
You cannot install 5.25” drives if the vertical 3.5” bay is occupied. A HDD in that bay would block the access to the fastening holes on the right. The faceplate of the 3.5” bay is fastened right on the cage:
This saves the user the trouble of more manipulations with the front panel. It is also easier to remove the faceplate this way. As I wrote above, there is an additional cage for two HDDs under the main cage.
It is located in the best possible place, right behind the intake fan, so you shouldn’t worry about the thermal conditions of your HDDs. The fan has a diameter of 80mm and blue LED highlighting:
To the right of the cage there is a braid of cables going to the front interface connectors:
Thermaltake must have taken the cables from some other system case. Otherwise I can’t explain why they are two times the necessary length. Another drawback is the use of a cumbersome Molex to connect the front fan:
It just takes too much space which is so precious in such a compact system case.
Then you should extract the mainboard mounting plate. It is fastened with screws at the back panel. Pull at the loop to take it out.
You should have something like this as the result:
A bare chassis with a frame to mount the power supply. I’ll install it shortly. Let’s first take a look at the mainboard mounting plate:
This is a very delicate thing. The plate is molded from a thin sheet of aluminum and has low torsional stiffness. You have to handle it as gently as possible. A drawback, the exhaust fans are connected via Molex connectors:
I’m especially surprised that there are two separate connectors. The fans could easily share one connector, considering that they are anyway going to be connected in parallel. The problem of centering the mainboard on the poles is solved originally – one of the poles has a jut:
This helps avoid misaligning the mainboard during installation. I took a mATX mainboard from Intel and a Zalman CNPS8000 cooler.
Its dimensions match this barebone perfectly. There is enough space between it and the power supply for normal air intake.
I had no problems as I installed the mainboard:
The graphics card comes next. To install an expansion card you have to remove the protective panel:
Expansions cards are fastened with screws, which is good. Screwless latches are handy, but are not as reliable as screws. So, the card is installed:
The hard disk drive goes into its place then:
Just insert it into the cage and fasten with four screws. It’s somewhat more difficult with the optical drive. There is no clear marking on the cage as to the position the drive is to be fastened at. So, you should fasten it first in such a way as to leave it some freedom to move along the rails:
Then you put the cage into the case, press the drive against the front panel and see which mounting hole to use:
Then remove the cage, fasten the drive and mount the HDD cage:
If you don’t have a second HDD, you can use the free room in the cage to tuck away the interface cables. You shouldn’t yet put the 5.25” cage back in its place so that it didn’t get in your way during the rest of the assembly process.
It’s time to mount the PSU and install the mainboard on its plate. One problem occurred, though:
As you can see, it is hard to use a graphics card with a reverse-side heatsink in this barebone. Particularly, it is impossible to put the mainboard plate in its place when such a graphics card is installed. As a result, I replaced the graphics card with a less advanced model that had a normally located cooling heatsink.
Besides being compatible with our barebone, this cooling system has one more advantage: the PCI card can be installed right next to the graphics card without worsening the latter’s thermal conditions.
The manufacturer recommends installing the PSU with its intake fan facing upwards:
This is a proper solution: the CPU cooler shouldn’t be deprived of its air. Just as I had anticipated, there was more than enough room between the PSU and the CPU cooler for the latter to work normally:
The optical drive cage goes into its place. The cables get attached, and the system is almost assembled:
Just put the cover back and appreciate the result:
This looks fine, although it is going to take some time and effort to normally lay out all the cables in this barebone. There’s too much of excess cabling in there. The front part of the case is highlighted with a mild blue light from the fan:
This looks nice and is not irritating at all because the light is not intensive.
So, the system is assembled and can now be tested. Here is a brief specification of the system case.
Dimensions (W*D*H): 300 x 430 x 280 millimeters
Material: aluminum
Cooling system: 90mm front fan with blue LED highlighting (1500rpm) and two 60mm exhaust fans (1800rpm)
Mainboard form-factor: Micro ATX & mini ITX
Open bays: one 7” (to install the 7” Bay LCD Monitor (A2413-01); it is covered with an additional 5.25” faceplate), one 5.25” bay, and one 3.5” bay.
Internal bays: two 3.5” bays
Front interface connectors: Two USB 2.0 ports, one IEEE1394 (FireWire), and HD Audio
Max expansion slots: 4
Weight: 4.2kg
I tested the system case as it was, i.e. without changing the default speed of the preinstalled system fans. The tests were performed on a closed and fully assembled case and at a constant ambient temperature maintained by an air conditioner. Unfortunately, it is impossible to lay the cables in the case neatly unless you remove the unneeded ones and shorten the long ones with a soldering iron. The Lanbox is just too compact.
The following system was assembled in the Lanbox:
This system is ahead of the entire Core 2 Duo series in default mode in terms of CPU heat dissipation. This is quite enough for our testing purposes.
There were four test modes:
The temperatures of the CPU and mainboard were read with Intel Desktop Utilities which were supplied with the mainboard. The GPU and graphics card temperatures were read with RivaTuner. The HDD temperature was reported by HDD Thermometer. The temperatures were read only after they had fully stabilized. The ambient temperature remained constant at 23°C throughout the tests.
The noise of the preinstalled fans is evaluated below. The system case comes without a power supply, so I don’t count it in as a noise source.
The diagrams don’t actually need much commenting upon:
The Thermaltake Lanbox can be used to assemble a top-end gaming system with impressive performance (at least I successfully finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on this system at nearly maximum graphics quality settings). Large top-end graphics cards like GeForce 8800 GTX cannot be installed into it, however. This card will only fit into the Lanbox if the 5.25” cage is modified, making it impossible to install the 7” display. However, this is the only reason why you cannot install such a graphics card. There are no restrictions in terms of cooling and ventilation.
The Lanbox is also good in terms of noise. The front and exhaust fans are all very quiet. They may only be disturbing in the evening when there is little or no background noise. Improving the cooling system to make it silent will only make sense if you’ve installed an appropriate graphics card. For example, the adaptive fan speed management of my X1800 didn’t help much – the noise of its cooler was dominating even in idle mode.
Thus, the Lanbox is indeed an excellent system case. If its market positioning and intended applications are just what you need, you shouldn’t even seek for alternatives.