APEVIA X-Telstar Jr Author: cantstraferight -- Posted: 2008-02-27
Today I will be reviewing the X-Telstar Jr computer case from Apevia. I would like to thank apevia for supplying us with the case.
First impressions
The box looks good. It has pictures of the different types and colours of the X-Telstar Jr. The case being reviewed today is the X-Telstar Jr G type in black. There is also the S type (Which has no window and a large fan) and they both come in black, silver, green, blue and red.
Inside the box you will find the case in between two pieces of polystyrene it also has a bag on it so you don\'t need to worry about it getting damaged during delivery scratched or damaged during delivery.
Inside the case you will find the manual and cardboard box with every thing you need.
In the cardboard box is:
-Standoff\'s
-A cable tie
-A small sticky thing for tidying cables
-A variety screws
-4 screws for fans
-A weight
-6 drive rails for 3.5" drives.
-A small metal thing that I cant work out what its for.
The cases specifications are:
It only has HD audio connectors which is okay if your putting a fairly new computer in the case but if you are putting an old computer in with ac97 audio you may have to no connect the audio ports.
Although there are 2 external 3.5" drive bays only one can be used as there is no hole on the front of the case for the other. I like that it has 5 5.25" drive bays rather than four but because you only have about 5mm of space behind the door it limits what you can fill the drive bays with.
Overall the case looks good and when the LCD display is off it reminds me of HAL 9000. There are two Apevia logos on the case one on the side and one on the door. The one on the side isn\'t too bad but the one on the door is a bit overly shiny.
Installation
Installing the PSU and motherboard.
This is no different than installing a PSU and motherboard in any other case. There are four screws on the back of the case to hold the PSU in and the simply place the standoffs in the right places and screw the motherboard in place.
Installing the drives and expansion cards. (The tool free stuff)
When installing the one of the external drives you first have to remove the metal shielding which you just wobble around until it falls off. Then remove the drive bay cover which you really do need to use a screw driver to lever out. You just slide the drive in place, slide the drive rail along and push the clamp down to lock the drive in place. The drives are only held in place on the left side of the case. I found this to be enough but if you drive rattles or wobbles there are holes to screw it to the other side.
Installing the internal hard drives is very simple. You place a mounting rail on each side of the drive and then slide it into the hard drive bay, it then clicks and that\'s it it. If you want to remove it you simply push the mounting rails towards each other and pull the drive out. This is a great system if your often switching you drives or adding new ones. All together I tried 4 drives and only one couldn\'t use the rails but it was a very hard drive so you should be safe with newer drives.
All you need to do is open the plastic latch remove the metal shield place the card in the slot and close the latch. Its quick and very simple but I have heard it doesn\'t work too well if the bracket on the card is bent.
Connecting all the cables.
This is really simple and the firewire, USB and audio connectors make it easier buy having multi pin plugs rather than a collection of one pin plugs that I know some people can never bother to plug in.
There are not many places to hide your IDE, SATA and power cables so it would be best to use short cables and a modular PSU.
The LCD and Apevia logo led use standard four pin molex connectors. The out put cable from The LCD is also a four pin molex connector that connects to the two case fans.
Testing
General use.
Because the power button and the reset button are behind the door you have to open the door every time you want to turn the computer on, this can get annoying if your computer goes on and off a few time in the day. The power LED and the LED in the Apevia logo are very bright and because the logo is so shiny it makes it hard to make it out. The power LED is so bright it makes it hard to see the HDD LED.
The fan controller/ LCD.
I\'ll star with the good. The temperature probe is very accurate. I found that the the temperature probe was only 1 degrees Celsius off what the hard drives inbuilt temperature probe said. The volume display works well. The fan controller works just the way would expect and goes all the way from the fans off to the fans going at full speed.
Now the bad.
Although the temperature probe worked well it died for no reason, I think that I was just unlucky because I cant find any one else that\'s had the same problem. The backlight on the LCD is very bright and it might have been nice to have a switch to turn it off. The voltage display shows different voltages to what my motherboard tells me I get. Some of the writing is in my opinion wrong. For example the fan speed display goes from 50% to 100% when it should be 0% to 100% and the volume display is described as "voice unit"which led me to believe that it was for the microphone and that some of the wiring was wrong.
Cooling
Both fans are 120mm units. Only the windows one lights up but its bright enough that it doesn\'t matter that the other doesn\'t light up. Temperatures were taken with the fans at full speed and off and it was found that with the fans at full speed the CPU and the graphics card were 7 degrees Celsius lower than when the fans were off. If 7 degrees isn\'t enough you could also install a third 120mm fan for extra cooling.
