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Product:
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I-Star S-9000 Server Tower Case Review |
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Price:
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$142 (CDN) / $129 (U.S)
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Supplied By:
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I-Star USA
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Author:
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Hi-TEK
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Date:
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September 3rd, 2006
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Rating:
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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The top portion of the I-Star S-9000 Server Tower Case features a series of HD activity LED's (8 in total) that extend from the top to the
bottom. Each LED is marked with a device number and is mounted on a small PCB circuit that sits behind the bezel. The LED's are controlled by a
series of power cables that connect independently to each hard drive. Also included with a HD activity LED's is a single Power LED which
also connects directly to a motherboard using a regular 2-pin header. I-Star advises that the PCB circuit also includes a built-in
alarm mode and error features which I assume must be supported by your motherboard.
The S-9000 Server Tower includes a removable HDD/FDD 5.25" panel which also houses the Power and Reset buttons. This unique panel can
be positioned in any of the free 5.25" drive bays in the top or bottom portion of the case. A series of extender cables protrude from
the rear of the unit and connect to the appropriate headers on a motherboard. This is a luxury not offered in most standard server
tower cases currently on the market and its nice feature add-on if you are particular about your component installation.
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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As previously mentioned, the S-9000 includes a swing out front panel door which is a nice feature for those individuals who don't want
to stealth or paint stock beige coloured drives. The door encompasses the entire front bezel effectively hiding all the drive bays.
Once the door has been opened, consumers will be pleased at the amount of expansion room available in this case. The case has a total
of 9 x 5.25" external drive bays available for use which provides unlimited possibilities for a server configuration.
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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According to the specifications of the S-9000 Server Tower, the rear portion of the case should include a standard PSU mount, I/O ATX
back plate, expansion slots, and a 120mm exhaust fan mount. I-Star has two versions of this case currently on the market under the
model numbers of the S-9000 and S-9000 ROHS. The ROHS model is designed to use I-Star's wide selection of redundant server power
supplies but since I did not have one included in the package, I knew this would be a problem during the component installation phase.
The ATX I/O back plate that is also included in the package will fit most standard motherboards and includes all the necessary cut
outs for serial, parallel, video, USB, mouse, keyboard, onboard LAN and integrated sound.
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