| Article Index |
|---|
| Enermax ECA5000 Uber Chakra Tower Case Review |
| Page 2 - Drive Bays and Installation |
| Page 3 - Cooling |
| Page 4 - The Chassis |
| Page 5 - Other Features |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Uber cool or no? Enermax’s new full tower version of their Chakra case hosts great
cooling and lots of expansion capability for quite a reasonable price. Today at OzHardware we take an in depth look into Enermax’s new flagship tower case.
The ECA5000 (aka Uber Chakra) is Enermax’s second version in the Chakra series of cases, the first of which was the ECA3050. Being of the same series, both cases have an almost identical outer appearance - with a black plastic front panel and black metallic mesh covers over all the external drive bays that match the grill over an intake fan at the bottom. Unlike the smaller ECA3050, the ECA5000 does not have two silver stripes going down each side of the front panel, these have been replaced with black brushed aluminium strips that aren’t as obtrusive or vulgar.
That isn’t completely true actually, the standard ECA5000 has these silver strips and trimmings around the case, however the variant we have here today - which is the only one currently available in Australia - is the ECA5001-B, which has all black trimmings, and includes a 25cm fan in the side panel instead of just a basic air duct. The ECA5001-B retails online for around $160 sans PSU. Below is a basic list of the Uber Chakra’s features and specifications:
- ATX Full Tower Case
- Tool Free Design
- Retractable Foot Stand
- 13 Drive Bays (5 x 5.25”, 6 x 3.5” Internal, 2 x 3.5” External)
- 7 Expansion Slots
- Material – SECC 0.8mm (Steel)
- Dimensions (D*W*H – 55.0 x 21.6 x 55.2cm)
- Top I/O Ports – eSATA, 2 x USB, Audio In/Out
- Cooling – Front 12cm Fan, Side 25cm Fan, Rear 12cm Fan Hole (No fan included at rear)
- Crossfire Certified
As mentioned, there is no power supply included with the Uber Chakra so you would have to be providing one of your own, any standard PS2/ATX power supply will fit without a problem, just ensure they have a decent cable length given the size of the case.
With a massive total of 13 drives bays available, it’s hard to imagine someone running out of room for their drives in this case. 5 of these bays are 5.25” bays for your optical drives, tape drives, removable hard drive bays etc, and there is a 6-bay 3.5” hard drive cage inside the case located right down behind the front intake fan to keep them nice and cool. There are also two externally accessible 3.5” drive bays either for floppy drives or even more hard drives if you really need the room.
Any and all drives being installed into the Uber Chakra are done so with no tools whatsoever. Simple screw less drive slides attach onto both 3.5” and 5.25” drives and they are then slid into place, it’s as simple as it can possibly get. Perhaps a little too simple as there is no provision for extra restraint for any of the drives as a precaution when the case is being shipped or just travelling in general. However having said that, the hard drives are installed sideways into the case, so it’d be hard for them to get into the rest of the case if they did become loose.
The main 3.5” hard drive cage is located down the bottom of the case, right behind the 12cm intake fan at the front of the case. Sadly the design of the drive cage in terms of airflow is quite poor, and would serve to do little more than block most of the airflow for the rest of the case, but enough will get through to keep the hard drives installed down there nice and cool.
More on cooling on the next page...
The cooling system in the Uber Chakra is simple yet very effective, a single 12cm fan is included in the front of the case which blows air directly over the hard drives. While it runs very quietly, it also doesn’t move a whole lot of air (unfortunately no specs available for this fan), a built-in air filter helps keep the case dust free, for the front fan at least anyway.
On the side panel of the case is an extremely big figure-8 shaped cut-out, covered in black mesh and screen printed with the Enermax logo. On one side of this figure-8 is a massive 25cm cooling fan that will spin at just 650rpm, but move a rather substantial 90cfm of air at 17dBA, so it keeps everything whisper quiet. This side fan has two switches on the side of the case, one is to turn the LED lights within the fan on or off, and the other controls the fans direction, whether it blows air in or out of the case, or you can turn it off completely, sadly there is no air filter on this fan so it could get dusty quite quickly if you’re using it to blow air in. Both the front and side fans are powered by Molex power connections so sadly there’s no feedback to your motherboard’s monitoring software.
There is a fan location in the rear of the case that can take an 8, 9 or 12cm case fan, however a fan is not included here as standard so you have to add your own.
The chassis of the Uber Chakra is quite solidly constructed with very few screws used throughout the case, as all the drive cages and panels are riveted together with pop rivets and there’s really no chance of them coming loose.
The case is a steel construction, yet remains reasonably light, weighing around 11kg in its base form without components or a power supply. So while it’s not as light as some of its aluminium competitors it’s not doing too badly, and the steel construction helps keep the price down.
The motherboard area of the Chakra is big enough to accommodate full sized server boards up to 12” x 13”, so just about any motherboard on the market will fit into this case and it shouldn’t have a problem with full-length expansion cards either, so fitting big and long video cards certainly won’t be a problem.
Expansion cards are also held in without the use of screws, a retention latch is used to hold all the expansion cards firmly in place.
Other Features:
There aren’t a whole lot more features on the Uber Chakra, it’s a fairly straight forward case that’s made to look good (or interesting at least) and be as practical as possible. There is an I/O panel on the top of the case which is a great location for convenience, in this panel you get 2 x USB ports, a headphone and microphone port (which support HD Audio header connection) as well as an eSATA port, which I think is a great inclusion and one that is long overdue for case manufacturers, I hope we see it included in more cases in the future.
Retailing for around AU$160, the Enermax ECA5000 Uber Chakra couples together an interesting look, although I’m sure not all will like it, together with a very practical layout/design and the typical high build quality we’ve come to expect from Enermax over the years.
The cooling system is more than adequate for most systems out there, however an extraction fan in the top of the case would have been a welcome inclusion to give further assistance to the cooling. When the lights go off in your room the Chakra gives a nice blue glow without being overbearing and remains quiet, something I find very important.
I wouldn’t have a problem recommending this case to anyone, so long as they like the look of it.
OzHardware Rating – 8/10
This product can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Link)
