articles
FORUMS!
links
contact

PC Database

Folding Team

SETI@HOME Team
RC5 Team
Genome Team

OCAU chat

Senfu sent me a bunch of stuff recently, including some of their water-cooling gear and a few oddities. I class this particular unit as one of the oddities. What is it? It's a kit, if you like, for building a frame for putting your PC into. Kinda like a case without walls. Why? Well, for someone who's constantly ripping components in and out of their PC, not having to wrestle with a case is good. If you wanted to get some monster air cooling you could stick one of these in front of an air-conditioner or something. Not too portable, though, and obviously lacking the protective features of a case. The name is kinda misleading, too - you could of course use this regardless of overclocking or not. This is the "Standard" model - there is a "Plus" unit which for US$26.00 has a third shelf.

Assembly was, to be honest, an exercise in frustration. There are instructions included but they're fairly general. They don't explain how exactly you're supposed to construct the unit. The kit consists of various lengths of square-section steel tubing connected by cast joints which slot into the ends of the tubes. The theory is that you put one of the joint posts into the end of the tube and rotate it so it sticks firmly inside the tube. This is not something you can do by hand (well, not with my hands). The instructions helpfully suggest you'll need a wrench (spanner) but one is not included in the kit and there is no explanation or diagrams of what you're supposed to do with the wrench. I eventually worked out a system of holding it the bar still with the wrench and using some pliers to rotate the joint. This lead to the discovery that the joints are large enough to deform the ends of the bars slightly and expand them, so my cheap monkey wrench ("shifting spanner" to some, blame my English/American upbringing if this is not the preferred Australian vernacular) got kinda jammed onto the end of the bar. This lead to an entertaining 30 minutes of trying to rip the wrench off the bar. If you're trying to assemble this yourself, I recommend putting the wrench in the middle of the bar, using another wrench or pliers to hold a free peg of the joint and rotate it into position.

1. before..	2.  insert the joint	3. Rotate it so it sticks

Basically it was very frustrating to put together and when I finally finished I discovered that the bottom joints have a little flat space for putting rubber feet on and I'd only gotten 1 of them oriented correctly. Yeah, maybe I shoulda checked more closely before building it but clearer instructions would be nicer. They don't have to be in English, many other manufacturers get by with diagrammatical instructions and this is a mechanically very simple device so the instructions should be similar. Anyway. I had to go have a becs and a nice lie down afterwards. Oh alright, it was a few pints and a few games of pool..

Senfu include some interesting fiddly bits with it, switches for resetting and powering on, LED's etc so you can tell when your system is powered or accessing the HDD, and a little piezo speaker. They also include a sheet of rubber feet and a few cable ties. There are 2 perspex boards included (for shelving) and a sheet of foam for resting the motherboard on. You get everything you need except a wrench and, of course, a power-supply unit. You'll need to get a separate PSU to go with this kit.

Well, not much more to say. Basically, if you read this review and went "Wow! That's exactly what I need!" then you obviously fit into the target audience for this product and would most likely be happy with it. Most people would have no real need for it - I found it useful for a while, but have discovered that a minitower with a removable side is almost as convenient for a testbed and I can save space by resting a monitor on top of it. The "DIY House" is very solid once constructed even if the construction itself is a little frustrating and it's fairly cheap for what it is (shipping may kill that, though). The jumpers, switches and other included fiddly bits make it more attractive than welding together something similar by yourself. As I said - if you've been looking for this kind of product then Senfu's offering seems a pretty good option.