DanTheBanjoman
11-06-2005, 01:08 PM
[page=Introduction and specifications]
Introduction:
First I'd like to thank Sansun (http://www.sansun.de) for supplying this case. Additionally I removed all Batman jokes from this review.
Personally I've never heard of Sansun before, nor had my colleagues at techPowerUp!. After some research (reading their site) it seems they make quite a lot of different computer related things: computer cases, webcams, mice, USB sticks etc. The Bat is a low budget case with a nice design on first sight. Of course I took a closer look at it to see what else it has to offer.
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="systable">
<tr><th colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Specifications</th></tr>
<tr>
<th width="100">Case type</th>
<td>ATX mid tower</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Suitable motherboards</th>
<td>ATX and mATX</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Bays</th>
<td>4×5.25" and 2×3.5" external, 4×3.5" internal</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Expansion slots</th>
<td>7 (depending on motherboard)</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Front connectors</th>
<td>2×USB 2.0, microphone, headphone, optional Firewire</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Weight</th>
<td>8.3 Kg</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Dimensions</th>
<td>505×265×565 mm (H×W×D)</td>
</tr> <tr>
<th>Material</th>
<td>0.7 mm SECC steel</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Available models</th>
<td>Red, blue and silver</td>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/case packed.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/case packed.jpg)
[page=The package]
The package
The box contains the following:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front above2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front above2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front door.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front door.jpg)
The case of course, protected by Styrofoam and a nice plastic bag. Nothing special here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/screwbag.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/screwbag.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/screwbag2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/screwbag2.jpg)
A little bag with some screws needed to build everything in the case and a little note on how to connect the wires to the board.
And that's actually it. Nothing extra, though you should have all you need.
[page=The case]
The case
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front above.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front above.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front.jpg)
First impression
With Sansun being an unknown company to me I didn't have many expectations. When the case arrived at my home I was surprised about it though. The design isn't as disturbing as I expected from the pictures. I'd prefer to have a more neutral look for a case myself but besides that it doesn't look bad. If you have kids they will surely like it. If those same kids have deeper interest in computers they will like it even more, it actually has enough cooling options. For example a nice duct with a 80mm fan in the side covering the CPU. There is also space for two 80mm fans in the back and another 80mm fan in the front. Let's take a closer look...
A closer look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front3.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front3.jpg)
Here she is.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/topbuttons.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/topbuttons.jpg)
When you put the case under your desk close to the ground, the ports and buttons on top are truly great. You can easily reach everything.
It has the usual ports as well, though my model did lack the Firewire connector. Space for it is there so other models will probably have it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/side.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/side.jpg)
The batwings are on the side, they're made out of plastic covering the case. The side fan is camouflaged pretty well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/case open.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/case open.jpg)
The case opened up.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/expansion slots.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/expansion slots.jpg)
No screws are needed to install expansion cards. Very nice if you enjoy replacing hardware a lot.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/525drivebays.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/525drivebays.jpg)
The 5.25" bays do not require screws which makes installing very easy. The plastic levers feel a bit weak, this shouldn't be a problem if you don't replace 5.25" drives a lot.
The 3.5" bays are split in two racks. Both racks can be easily taken out and put back in for easy installation. Screws are still needed however.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1068.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1068.jpg)
Nice blue lights, and I used to think bats were blind.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/fan.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/fan.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/fanduct.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/fanduct.jpg)
The side fan has a duct that covers the CPU, this should help reducing CPU temperature.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/cables1.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/cables1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/cables2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/cables2.jpg)
A lot of small cables. Where do they go? Well they are labeled, so together with your motherboard's booklet you should be able to connect them correctly.
[page=Installation]
Installation
Now that I've taken a look at the case it's time to see how practical everything is. I decided to put a standard Pentium 4 system into the case. Nothing much to mention, the only uncommon part is its SCSI controller with a single 7200rpm SCSI disk, though this shouldn't make any difference.
The motherboard fits fine, except for the I/O shield, which doesn't match the board. The case's I/O shield can be removed quite easily though. I had no problems at all when adding the PSU. In fact, I noticed quite some space (about 3 centimeters) between the motherboard and the PSU, this could be nice when the ATX connector has to go here. I also noticed the cables of the front ports and buttons are quite long and slim, they can easily be put behind the PCB so they won't be in the way.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1054.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1054.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1064.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1064.jpg)
So far, so good. Though when installing my video card and SCSI controller I ran into a very nasty problem. When trying to insert any card, the plastic that should be used for screwless installation of cards was in the way. There was simply no way I could get an expansion card in. I think this is a really bad thing. Luckily the plastic can be removed with 3 screws, this still made me able to put in the cards and put the plastic back. For the SCSI card this went fine, though my video card, a Radeon 9500 by Sapphire, is a bit higher than the metal back plate. This makes the plastic unable to lock the card into place and results in the card being pushed out of it's slot when plugging in the monitor.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1058.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1058.jpg)
I can only conclude that the system to install the expansion cards is poorly designed and Sansun should look into this when designing new cases.
The 5.25" bays seem to be of better design. If you want to remove the front cover of a bay you will have to pull off the whole front of the case, this goes very easily. There is also a metal cover which takes some more force to pull out, though once it's out you're done with them. I decided to take them out all at once, be done with them once and for all. You can easily put a DVD-ROM drive in (or whatever you're installing of course) and lock the plastic holders into place.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/35drivebay.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/35drivebay.jpg)
The 3.5" bays are a bit questionable. Sure it's nice that you can take them out, but if you want to take them out in a computer that already has the rest installed, you can't since expansion cards and cabling will be in the way. Rotating the bays 90 degrees might have been a better solution for the internal 3.5" bays. Besides this everything works fine and the computer is fully installed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1069.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1069.jpg)
[page=Conclusion]
Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The Bat costs about $80.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Good cooling capabilities
Long cables
Nice design
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
No booklet
Screwless expansion slots don't really work the way they should
Some might not like the design
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.2</th><td>I'm not sure whether this case is aimed at the young computer user or the enthusiast. Perhaps both would like this case. It certainly has enough ways to cool your components while looking nice in the kids room. Its looks are both a good and a bad thing - if you like its looks I would certainly recommend it, if not there are enough cases out there in the same price range with different designs that will suit your needs.</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>
Introduction:
First I'd like to thank Sansun (http://www.sansun.de) for supplying this case. Additionally I removed all Batman jokes from this review.
Personally I've never heard of Sansun before, nor had my colleagues at techPowerUp!. After some research (reading their site) it seems they make quite a lot of different computer related things: computer cases, webcams, mice, USB sticks etc. The Bat is a low budget case with a nice design on first sight. Of course I took a closer look at it to see what else it has to offer.
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="systable">
<tr><th colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Specifications</th></tr>
<tr>
<th width="100">Case type</th>
<td>ATX mid tower</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Suitable motherboards</th>
<td>ATX and mATX</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Bays</th>
<td>4×5.25" and 2×3.5" external, 4×3.5" internal</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Expansion slots</th>
<td>7 (depending on motherboard)</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Front connectors</th>
<td>2×USB 2.0, microphone, headphone, optional Firewire</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Weight</th>
<td>8.3 Kg</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Dimensions</th>
<td>505×265×565 mm (H×W×D)</td>
</tr> <tr>
<th>Material</th>
<td>0.7 mm SECC steel</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Available models</th>
<td>Red, blue and silver</td>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/case packed.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/case packed.jpg)
[page=The package]
The package
The box contains the following:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front above2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front above2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front door.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front door.jpg)
The case of course, protected by Styrofoam and a nice plastic bag. Nothing special here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/screwbag.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/screwbag.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/screwbag2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/screwbag2.jpg)
A little bag with some screws needed to build everything in the case and a little note on how to connect the wires to the board.
And that's actually it. Nothing extra, though you should have all you need.
[page=The case]
The case
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front above.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front above.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front.jpg)
First impression
With Sansun being an unknown company to me I didn't have many expectations. When the case arrived at my home I was surprised about it though. The design isn't as disturbing as I expected from the pictures. I'd prefer to have a more neutral look for a case myself but besides that it doesn't look bad. If you have kids they will surely like it. If those same kids have deeper interest in computers they will like it even more, it actually has enough cooling options. For example a nice duct with a 80mm fan in the side covering the CPU. There is also space for two 80mm fans in the back and another 80mm fan in the front. Let's take a closer look...
A closer look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/front3.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/front3.jpg)
Here she is.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/topbuttons.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/topbuttons.jpg)
When you put the case under your desk close to the ground, the ports and buttons on top are truly great. You can easily reach everything.
It has the usual ports as well, though my model did lack the Firewire connector. Space for it is there so other models will probably have it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/side.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/side.jpg)
The batwings are on the side, they're made out of plastic covering the case. The side fan is camouflaged pretty well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/case open.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/case open.jpg)
The case opened up.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/expansion slots.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/expansion slots.jpg)
No screws are needed to install expansion cards. Very nice if you enjoy replacing hardware a lot.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/525drivebays.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/525drivebays.jpg)
The 5.25" bays do not require screws which makes installing very easy. The plastic levers feel a bit weak, this shouldn't be a problem if you don't replace 5.25" drives a lot.
The 3.5" bays are split in two racks. Both racks can be easily taken out and put back in for easy installation. Screws are still needed however.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1068.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1068.jpg)
Nice blue lights, and I used to think bats were blind.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/fan.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/fan.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/fanduct.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/fanduct.jpg)
The side fan has a duct that covers the CPU, this should help reducing CPU temperature.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/cables1.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/cables1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/cables2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/cables2.jpg)
A lot of small cables. Where do they go? Well they are labeled, so together with your motherboard's booklet you should be able to connect them correctly.
[page=Installation]
Installation
Now that I've taken a look at the case it's time to see how practical everything is. I decided to put a standard Pentium 4 system into the case. Nothing much to mention, the only uncommon part is its SCSI controller with a single 7200rpm SCSI disk, though this shouldn't make any difference.
The motherboard fits fine, except for the I/O shield, which doesn't match the board. The case's I/O shield can be removed quite easily though. I had no problems at all when adding the PSU. In fact, I noticed quite some space (about 3 centimeters) between the motherboard and the PSU, this could be nice when the ATX connector has to go here. I also noticed the cables of the front ports and buttons are quite long and slim, they can easily be put behind the PCB so they won't be in the way.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1054.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1054.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1064.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1064.jpg)
So far, so good. Though when installing my video card and SCSI controller I ran into a very nasty problem. When trying to insert any card, the plastic that should be used for screwless installation of cards was in the way. There was simply no way I could get an expansion card in. I think this is a really bad thing. Luckily the plastic can be removed with 3 screws, this still made me able to put in the cards and put the plastic back. For the SCSI card this went fine, though my video card, a Radeon 9500 by Sapphire, is a bit higher than the metal back plate. This makes the plastic unable to lock the card into place and results in the card being pushed out of it's slot when plugging in the monitor.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1058.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1058.jpg)
I can only conclude that the system to install the expansion cards is poorly designed and Sansun should look into this when designing new cases.
The 5.25" bays seem to be of better design. If you want to remove the front cover of a bay you will have to pull off the whole front of the case, this goes very easily. There is also a metal cover which takes some more force to pull out, though once it's out you're done with them. I decided to take them out all at once, be done with them once and for all. You can easily put a DVD-ROM drive in (or whatever you're installing of course) and lock the plastic holders into place.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/35drivebay.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/35drivebay.jpg)
The 3.5" bays are a bit questionable. Sure it's nice that you can take them out, but if you want to take them out in a computer that already has the rest installed, you can't since expansion cards and cabling will be in the way. Rotating the bays 90 degrees might have been a better solution for the internal 3.5" bays. Besides this everything works fine and the computer is fully installed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/thumbs/IMG_1069.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sansun/SN-C001/images/full/IMG_1069.jpg)
[page=Conclusion]
Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The Bat costs about $80.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Good cooling capabilities
Long cables
Nice design
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
No booklet
Screwless expansion slots don't really work the way they should
Some might not like the design
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.2</th><td>I'm not sure whether this case is aimed at the young computer user or the enthusiast. Perhaps both would like this case. It certainly has enough ways to cool your components while looking nice in the kids room. Its looks are both a good and a bad thing - if you like its looks I would certainly recommend it, if not there are enough cases out there in the same price range with different designs that will suit your needs.</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>