Introduction

This review is intended to give you a good idea about the FS020, such as construction, operation and features. I will also elaborate on my own reasons for purchasing this case as well as hint at my overclocking plans for it. The performance aspects of this case will not be included here, they will be included in an article later on, including the mods I made to this case to further increase airflow and cooling.

Why the LiteON FS020 you may ask? Well, my intentions for this case are to create a self contained peltier watercooling rig. My reasons for making it self contained is due to the fact that I wish to take it to LAN parties. You know, so I can brag of course ;). No really, my last machine (who’s housing is that modded enlight 7237 you see next to the FS020) Is an overclocked PII 333 to 400, not quite the most powerful thing out there for serious Q3A gaming. I really wanted to make the jump to a system which centered around a CPU that could take me into 2001. I originally intended to get an Athlon system and overclock it using conventional methods like a modded Alpha P3125 or such. I was interested at that time to have a nice quiet system, and since any good conventional cooling via heatsink would demand loud fans, I didn’t like the sound of that (hehe). I started reading some watercooling articles online and it dawned on me that a watercooling system would be much better suited for cooling a CPU as well as removing heat from the case. I later decided to go peltiers, but that’s another story all by itself.

Why This Case?

Okay, so I need a case which could house all the stuff needed for my proposed watercooling rig. This includes a radiator, tubes, little tuperware container and pump. Now for the radiator I wanted to cool it using fans, and I thought to myself, why not use the exhaust fans to cool the sucker? This way all the heat is going to be going right out of the case! If you remember my previous stipulation about a quiet case? Well, that would lean me towards big fans, namely the Panaflow 120mms’. These fans push ~70cfm (depending on model) at ~32dba (nice and quiet). Well if you take a look at the back of the LiteonFS020 you will see this:

Oh my!! Two (count ‘em) 120mm fan mounts!!! Hog heaven let me tell you!

I looked further at the case and really liked it’s size. For this project I really was gonna need some extra size, but I was not going to need a whole bunch of 5.25 bays, so a server case wasn’t really for me. The FS020 is nice and wide, a good height and it’s fairly deep. It just seemed like a well rounded, large Mid-Tower case.

Okay, this sucker is BIG! (no not that, I meant the case ;) I opened the box and looked inside and my jaw dropped. I knew it’s dimensions for quite a while, and compared the dimensions to my venerable Enlight 7237 but I never imagined it to be as big as it is. Here’s a pic of the difference for you all to gander at.

Quite a difference eh? (PS, never mind the trash can ;)

Here are some more pics with a cd case. What cd case?! The Q3A cd case!! What else!!!

ahh gotta love those thumb screws.

Ahh, Quake... ;)

>> Features Part 1