The best case you've (probably) never seen: Chenbro RM41300-FS81

EnderW

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I've been looking for a nice 4U Rackmount case for my main computer and after trying the Norco 470 (cheap POS), I found the Chenbro RM41300-FS81.

It looks similar to most other 4U Rachmounts, but here are the reasons I think it's a great case.

1) Solid - this thing is built like a tank. I'm serious, it feels stronger than my old P182. No comparison to aluminum cases.

2) Fantastic cooling - there is a dual 120mm fan intake that sits directly above the motherboard and CPU/GPU area. There is also room for 2 x 120mm and 1 x 80mm fans in the front. Exhaust is limited to 2 x 80mm fans but with room for 4 x 120mm intake fans, positive pressure should take care of that.

3) Spacious and versatile. Has 8 expansion slots and out of the box you get 3 x 5.25, 5 x 3.5, slim ODD/2.5. You can add another 3 x 5.25 cage. It comes with feet, so you can set it up as a pedestal case if you don't have a rack.

4) Almost no sharp edges! The Norco 470 I bought had sharp edges everywhere and felt unfinished. I found a few spots that felt a bit rough, but nothing major and pretty typical of any case.

5) Price. I bought mine at Amazon for $153 shipped. That's more expensive than a Norco, but less than some other brands I looked at like iStarUSA.
However, you will probably have to spend some extra money replacing the fans if you want something quiet. Server fans are notoriously loud and I didn't even turn these on, I just swapped in some Scythe fans I already had.


I'll be posting some pictures of my build soon.
 
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Case looks good... Not really sure why the 2x 120mm fans above the CPU are beneficial in a rackmounted configuration. Wonder why they included them.

Just curious, what are the expansion cards in the bottom 2 pci-e slots?

EDIT: I'm an idiot, sorry. Didn't realize you could mount the case vertically. :eek:
 
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Case looks good... Not really sure why the 2x 120mm fans above the CPU are beneficial in a rackmounted configuration. Wonder why they included them.

Just curious, what are the expansion cards in the bottom 2 pci-e slots?

EDIT: I'm an idiot, sorry. Didn't realize you could mount the case vertically. :eek:
unless your rack is completely full, I think the idea is to leave some room between the top of this case and whatever goes above it
and like you said, you can orient it as a pedestal case - it even comes with feet
I have a lot of open space in my rack so it's perfect for me

bottom cards are a blackmagic intensity pro and LSI 9211-8i
 
Looks cool

Staying in the 4U form factor presents challenges with ATX. I built my own and am quite familiar with just how tight it is. I managed to cram a 120mm in over the i/o space but there is no, and I mean NO, space left. I had to cut slots in the floor for the PCIe cards tabs and the fan is hard against the i/o cans and the top cover. 2@120 front panel inputs is all you get and still fit a 5.25 bay. My 5.25 backplane has an 80mm integrated so I have the same exact front panel intake as you.

I have considered fans in the top cover...but I tend to fill my racks.
 
I've been looking at this case a bit. Mainly because it has spaces for 8 expansion slots, so you can use a video card with a 2 slot cooler in the "bottom" slot.

The main thing that's held me off is the lack of HDD/bay mounting space. From your pictures, it looks like, if you could get ahold of another 3 x 5.25" cage, then it would probably screw right in. Do you know if Chenbro sells the cages? Maybe it came with a flyer listing part numbers?

Nevermind... found it.
 
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With 8 slots the mobo is tight on the PSU...I guess you pick up some room with a steel frame though.

How deep is this thing?
 
I've been looking at this case a bit. Mainly because it has spaces for 8 expansion slots, so you can use a video card with a 2 slot cooler in the "bottom" slot.

The main thing that's held me off is the lack of HDD/bay mounting space. From your pictures, it looks like, if you could get ahold of another 3 x 5.25" cage, then it would probably screw right in. Do you know if Chenbro sells the cages? Maybe it came with a flyer listing part numbers?

Nevermind... found it.
yeah that's it
I actually have one on order from shopblt
http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop...01100500U017_BDV7091P.shtml&order_id=!ORDERID!

with this part, you could fit 2 hotswap 5x3.5 in 3x5.25 cages, plus the 4x3.5 in the middle and 1x3.5 under each 5.25 cage for a total of 16x3.5 slots plus the 2.5 in the middle

there are a ton of possibilities, definitely a lot of versatility with this case
 
With 8 slots the mobo is tight on the PSU...I guess you pick up some room with a steel frame though.

How deep is this thing?
there is plenty of room between the motherboard and PSU

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21.5 inches
 
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I can see that, with my aluminum case I was losing 1/2 inch to framing at both ends, also I only went 19 deep...love the 4U form factor though
 
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Looks like a great case. Unfortunately I couldn't do a 4U case as it is not tall enough (or wide if you stand it on its end) for me. My CPU cooler is 158mm tall (plus I have tall ram heatsinks that my cooling fan has to sit on top of) so I would need a 5U or 6U case (do they even make those?). My currrent case is 206mm wide and my cooling fan is sitting right against the outer panel. I think that a lot of people looking to get into server cases will need to take into account the narrow width of 4U cases compared to most other cases out there. Server cases are often known for having good airflow because they have to. Have you ever seen a modern server case? Those things are crammed full of components because most of them are multi CPU systems.
 
I've use these exact cases and the Chenbro rails currently and I must say, they are fantastic. Very good build quality for the price.
 
I've use these exact cases and the Chenbro rails currently and I must say, they are fantastic. Very good build quality for the price.
Sorry for reviving an old theard, I have several Chenbro RM42300 cases (very similar to RM41300) and was wondering if you could tell me which rail kit you used, from what i see on the product description there are 2 rail kits available for this chassis: 84H323610-034 (tool-less) or 84H341300-002 (non-tool-less), I was about to purchase the latter but saw a review on amazon showing how the rails are not a good fit as shown below:

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You can see how the front of the chassis sticks out a bit and doesn't align with the rack. Could you please post some pictures of your setup? If this is how the rails work by design then I might as well buy a gruber rail shelf kit.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 

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Sorry for reviving an old theard, I have several Chenbro RM42300 cases (very similar to RM41300) and was wondering if you could tell me which rail kit you used, from what i see on the product description there are 2 rail kits available for this chassis: 84H323610-034 (tool-less) or 84H341300-002 (non-tool-less), I was about to purchase the latter but saw a review on amazon showing how the rails are not a good fit as shown below:

View attachment 207509


You can see how the front of the chassis sticks out a bit and doesn't align with the rack. Could you please post some pictures of your setup? If this is how the rails work by design then I might as well buy a gruber rail shelf kit.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Did you figure out what rails to get? I am looking at this case. Thanks
 
So, after seeing this necro I picked up an open box RM42300-F off newegg for $96 plus shipping. Getting it populated today and I am pretty happy with it for the price. This is the shorter (depth) version which is what I wanted for my shallow home racks.

I can report that the Cooler Master hyper 212 doesn't fit, which is really not too surprising. I think I'm going to look for one of the Noctua low profile 140mm coolers.
 
So, after seeing this necro I picked up an open box RM42300-F off newegg for $96 plus shipping. Getting it populated today and I am pretty happy with it for the price. This is the shorter (depth) version which is what I wanted for my shallow home racks.

I can report that the Cooler Master hyper 212 doesn't fit, which is really not too surprising. I think I'm going to look for one of the Noctua low profile 140mm coolers.
I used the C14 back in the day
 
I remember Chebro. I don't know if I've seen this model, but I've seen their cases many times over the years. I've built workstations in these back in the day.
 
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