Introduction

Many people think of PC compatible computers as solely being used for personal and office use. The power of today's personal computers is far greater than some of the computers used as servers from just a few years ago. This has made it possible for small business and individuals to have the ability to build their own servers from standard ATX computer components.

The problem with using a standard desktop computer system as a file system is that it is not designed to fit into a standard server environment. Tall tower cases are design to fit under a desk, not to reside in a rack or cabinet inside of a data center. Users wanting to build a web, mail or game server to fit into a data center need to also build their system to fit in.

Server space is very critical in these centers. This is where the standard sizing comes into play. Most commercial servers are typically designed around a 1U 19-inch wide platform that is only 1.75 inches tall. To fit components into such a small space, special components need to be used. This can be very expensive for an individual or small company trying to put together a small server. Larger rackmount cases allow for them to use standard ATX PC components.

I-Star is one of the companies that designs cases for the rackmount PC. The Storm series of rackmount cases can be used for a wide range of servers and come in various heights and depths and even designed for different purposes. Today we are looking at the D-200 Storm 2U rackmount case that can be used to be a fairly low profile inexpensive server platform.

The Exterior

As mentioned earlier, rackmount cases are design around a standard height called the U. Each U represents 1.75 inches of height. The D-200 is classified as a 2U rackmount server that has a height of 3.5 inches. The case uses the standard 19-inch width for rackmount cases and provides a fairly standard 20-inch depth. Other designs are available with addition depth. The standard color is black but some models can be found with silver or gold for the front bezel.

Construction of the main case is high-grade sheet steel. This makes the case very heavy at roughly 20 pounds. The front bezel of the case is designed with a hard anodized aluminum construction. Some might be concerned that this would not be strong enough to support the weight of the case when mounted in the rack. This actually is not a concern because the two mounting brackets on the front bezel are constructed of thick steel.

Access to the components of the server can be critical. For this, side mounting slide rails can be purchased as an accessory to allow the case to slide out from the rack. The top access panel can also be accessed with ease. It is held on by an attached spring mounted rear thumbscrew. If the two other side screws are used, the rack access can be a bit more difficult.

Front Panel with Drive Doors Closed

The front panel is dominated by the two drive access doors. They can be locked via a small center key lock that firmly locks the door panels in place. Above the lock are a number of LEDs for power, hard drive status and optional fan status monitor. Behind each door are the access panels for the 3.5" and 5.25" drive slots. The right access panel also houses the power switch, reset switch and two USB connectors. Obviously if the doors are locked, these are inaccessible.

Front Panel Open Showing Switches and Connectors

Airflow is critical in rackmounted system. The tightly packed environment of servers, drive arrays and networking gear leaves little room for air to move around the equipment to cool off the interior components. The D-200 has a generous amount of air holes provide all around the case. The front bezel in particular contains a number of slots to allow air to flow from the front to the back. To help reduce the amount of dust that gets into the system, they have also included foam air filters on the inside of each of the front access doors.

Front Door Air Filter

The back panel of the case has a slightly different appearance from a standard PC case. The most notable of these is the PC card slots that are sideways. Since the case is only 3.5 inches high, it is not tall enough for standard sized PCI cards. To allow the cards to be used in the case, a PCI riser card is used to mount them sideways. This will be touched on more in reference to the interior.

Back Panel of the D-200

The back panel also holds the 350 Watt EPS12V/ATX12V compatible power supply and a standard ATX interface plate. The interface plate can be removed and replaced with ATX plates designed for the particular motherboard installed. Above the ATX interface plate are two punch out connectors for additional serial or parallel port connectors.

The Interior

Interior of the D-200 Case

The interior of the Storm D-200 case is very spacious for its very short dimensions. The front portion of the case is dominated by the drive cages and the single 80mm cooling fan. Each of the drive cages can be unscrewed from the chassis and removed. This makes it much easier to add or remove drives from the system. Each drive cage holds a single 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch drive and has installed a removable bezel for the front. For most installations, only one of the chassis will be required, but it is nice to have the option.

One of the D-200 Drive Cages Removed

The primary form of cooling through the entire case is a single 80mm cooling fan. It features a 3-pin fan connector to plug into a standard motherboard fan header. The fan is fairly fast and moves air from the front bezel to the rear of the case. Noise isn't too much of a problem as it has double ball-bearings. An optional fan and temperature monitoring module can be installed on the flat surface in front of the fan between the two drive cages.

The motherboard space can hold up to a standard sized (12" x 9.6") ATX motherboard. The rear portion of the case is dominated by the various mounting holes for the stand offs to fit the various ATX board sizes. One major thing to point out is the PCI slots. Since the case is short, it requires a riser card to mount the slots sideways. Only the large size ATX boards will allow for the use of the riser card in the appropriate location.

Included PCI Riser Card

This is where the major flaw of the D-200 Storm case is presented. The case comes with no documentation. This can lead individuals who are unfamiliar with the proper installation of a PCI riser card or even how to properly connect the various front panel headers to a lot of frustration.

The D-200 Storm case is available with or without a power supply. The version in this review came with the TC-2U/25 350W power supply. This is an EPS compatible power supply connector. This is a large 24-pin power header that is larger than the standard ATX power connector. It is still fully compatible with the ATX power supplies bit 4-pin will reside outside of the power header on the motherboard. This could cause compatibility problems on some tightly packed boards.

Conclusions

Overall, the I-Star D-200 Storm 2U Rackmount case is a very good design. The interior space and layout make it easy to install components for a fully functional server. The only real problem with it is its lack of documentation. Users who require PCI cards will need to be familiar with the use of a PCI riser card. Also, connecting the front panel headers and USB ports could be problematic without good supplemental documentation from the motherboard.

Another thing to note is the price. The I-Star D-200 Storm is actually a fairly inexpensive case when it comes to rackmount server cases. That doesn't mean that it is inexpensive. Rackmount cases have many more requirements for their design that increase the costs of production. For the same price as the D-200, a very high quality aluminum tower case can be purchased.

Finally, this is a rack mount case. That means that it is no design with low noise in mind. Data centers that hold the rack mounts have a large amount of drives, fans, power supplies and even air conditioners that produce a large amount of noise. This style of case is not designed to be used in a home or office and will produce a lot of very distracting noise.

Manufacturer's Site