You could run out of ideaswhere to stick the fans and drives with this one
Streacom may be a newname to some, but the companywith its head office in Holland andmanufacturing plant in China has been around since 2010. It’s made its name in SFF cases and passively cooled bits and pieces, which makes its latest product, the F12C, a bit of a departure, as it’s been designed to support ATX motherboards.
So, it’s a standard PC case then? Well, no. It just happens to be one of the most innovative cases we’ve seen for a long while. It’s a desktop format case, ideal for building a serious home theatre PC, but oddly the case doesn’t have any front I/O ports. In fact, it doesn’t have an I/O panel full stop. There’s nothing on the front bezel apart from the power button, power LED and the window for an IR unit. Streacom also has a weird take on what a thumbscrew is – what it calls thumbscrews are actually a pair of thumb wheels, which, after turning four or five times, release the lid.
Once you open it, the cleverness of the design takes a little while to sink in. With the lid removed, you’re looking at an empty box. There are no drive bays or drive trays. Or fans, come to that. What you do see, at first glance, looks like two braces running from front to back. These are the top fan mounts that support fans from 92mm up to 140mm, or a 240mm water-cooling radiator.
Then you notice eight (four per side of the case) straight metal brackets, which is where the clever bit comes in. These are ‘Universal Brackets’ that can be used in any position along the side panels. Yes, they have no fixed position, so you could go for some funky-looking setups. The brackets are held in place by retention clips at the top, which can be quite fiddly to fit. Your cooling fans (up to 140mm) and drives (2.5-inch or 3.5-inch) are screwed to these brackets. Drives can be placed vertically or horizontally, and, just like the top fan mounts, the brackets also support liquid-cooling radiators.
The top of the case holds three long cooling vents, while on each side there is a pair of square vents. Each of these boasts a plastic mesh that is easy to remove to keep clean. A nice touch is that the metal frames holding the mesh in place are held by tiny magnets embedded in the case. These, along with the lid, are the only toolfree items in the case. For everything else, you’ll need a screwdriver.
How many drives does this Streacom case support? Well, the maximum number is… wait for it… up to 24. Yes, 24 2.5-inch drives, or a dozen 3.5-inch drives, but only if you’re using a mITX motherboard. With a standard ATX board, it shrinks down to a comparatively measly couple of 2.5-inch drives and four 3.5-inch drives.
After all that, it seems a bit boring to discover that the PSU and motherboard are fitted in the traditional way. The case supports ATX, mATX and mITX format motherboards, plus PSUs up to 320mm long. There’s a 135mm height limit for the CPU cooler, while the maximum length limit for a graphics card is 310mm.
The build quality is superb. Made from 4mm 6063 aluminium throughout, the outer panels have been sand-blasted for a first-class finish. The case is also available in black and there’s not a rivet in sight, the whole case having been put together with screws – it’s been a while since we’ve seen that. And the manual is excellent, with clear, coloured drawings explaining everything. Even all of the different mounting screws have their own resealable plastic bag. SIMON CRISP
SPECIFICATIONS
Form factor ATX, mATX, mITX
Dimensions (W x H x D) & weight 440 x 320 x 184mm / 4.4kg
Cooling None supplied
CPU cooler clearance 135mm
Graphics card max length 310mm
Storage support 2x 2.5-inch, 5x 3.5-inch (mITX up 24x 2.5-inch or 12x 3.5-inch)