SunBeam Trio

INTRODUCTION


Can you remember the days when the typical computer case was grey or beige? I’m not sure who decided to use those colours but you couldn’t call computer cases good looking or cool. Those days are now long gone and these days we expect our to be able to keep our cases out in the open without being ashamed of the look.

SunBeam sent over a new case from them, the SunBeam Trio, which both has a low cost but also look pretty cool.

PACKING UP THE CASE


The case comes in an ordinary box and is well protected. When you open up the package you find the case, some extra screws and a tiny A4 paper, which I guess is supposed to be a manual.

The first impression is pretty positive. I got the black version but you can also get it in silver or a black/silver version.

The case is made out of thin steel and moderately heavy. The front is made of plastic and the top half opens up to show the drivebays.

The most striking feature is the three analogue meters, which allows you to monitor sound pressure, fan speed and temperature. With their blue background the look really cool on the black case.

The case has four 5.25” spaces as well as two 3.5” space. Inside you also can add up to 5 harddrives. All the drives can be fastened using a tool-less system.

On the cooling side the case has a space for one 120mm fan in the front, two 80mm fans or one 120 mm fan in the back and a space for a 80 mm fan on the case window. No fan is however included so you have to buy those separately. While I understand Sunbeam want to keep the cost down it still feels a bit cheap considering other case-makers manage to include fans at a similar price. Still, the fans they used in the Transformer case were extremely loud so I guess it is just as well you have to buy your own anyway.

On the bottom right side you’ll find 2 USB 2.0 connectors, 1 firewire connector and the audio out/microphone connector. There are also two sliders there, which allow you to change the volume and the fan speed. I personally would have liked all these connectors at the top instead since I always keep my machines on the floor.