Swiftech QPower Barebones Case

Company: Swiftech
Supplied By: Xtreme Tek Werkz
Product: FS020-H20 Series Liquid Cooled Entry Level Server Case
Street Price: Starts at $283 USD
Date Reviewed: March 27, 2002
Reviewed By: Jason

Taking a look inside the case, you can see the rest of the 3½" drive bays under the two exposed ones in the front, as well as a removable cage under the power supply that fits two more 3½" hard drives. The great thing about this case vs. some others out there is that you do not loose any drive bays due to the additional  water cooling components. The water cooling is completely out of the way giving you all the room to work and use your case. Remember too, this is an entry level server case, the pictures by itself really don't show you how big it is! Also, note they included power cord that is taped to the support beam, this is to power the pump. When you get a power supply for the case, they should include a power cord with the PS. Behind the support beam is another bar, I did a little research and it is a support bar for a memory riser (for some server board I guess). I removed that second support completely, just keeping the main cross support.

The water block comes securely mounted to the case, with the P4 adapters on it. You will need a small Allen wrench to remove them if you are going to use this for an AMD installation (like I did). Like I stated before, the system comes pre-filled, bled, and is ready to plug and go. The closed loop system utilizes no reservoir, which saves space, but also requires absolutely no maintenance and their is no fluid evaporation.

Here are a couple shots with the front 3½" drive cage removed. You can see they cleverly hid the Eheim pump behind the cage, tucked away from where you would be working inside the case. It is securely attached via a couple Velcro strips (which reduce vibration and noise), and also a zip-tie. When I first plugged in the system, the pump is literally silent! I had to reach behind the drives to physically touch the pump and feel that it was vibrating (ever so slightly) to make sure it was on! The pump does not dissipate heat into the cooling circuits, and is also rated a MTBF of 100,000 hours!

Also in these pics you can see up close all the tubes are connected via quick-connect adapters. They really work well and ensure that the connections will stay tight and not leak. The tool to uncouple these connections is included should you need it (for maybe upgrading do a dual-CPU cooling setup later on).

At the top of the case is the filling and bleeding components. Since the case is already filled and bled, you don't need to mess with them. Also included are two proper sized tubes that go in each of the two valves for if / when you need to fill and bleed the system. You can see that these parts are off to the side of the actual drive bays. This case is slightly wider than a standard case, since it is originally a server grade case it had to be wider to accommodate certain motherboard that use various risers boards. Swiftech used this extra width to its fullest advantage, hiding the water pump and piping the system through the extra space ensured that all the regular space for components would be unobstructed.

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