Sunbeam Trio Case

Behind the snappy looks of the Sunbeam Trio is a pretty standard steel grey back plate.  Notice the over and under 80mm fan mounts.  If you look more carefully you can see the mounting screws for a 120mm fan which was included with the Trio.  As far as the venting holes, I prefer a cutout with a finger guard here to keep air flow as uninhibited as possible.  The stamped metal vent holes do their job but are a bit restrictive.  In all fairness, with the back panel accepting a pair of 80mm or a 120mm fan there really isn't any other way to do this.

Pop the hood

Each side panel is drilled so three screws per side can be used to keep things in place.  Our review unit utilized a single thumb screw per side to accomplish this task making for quick and easy access to a reasonably spacious interior.

Below we get an inside view of the rear back plate.  A tool free card stay system is utilized, that in theory, looks to be fantastic.  In practice however, we were unable to get enough room between the stay and the card's bracket to pop in a card without fear of damaging the mainboard.  This assembly is held in place by three Phillips head screw on the back.  Removing these gave us the ability to use screws to mount any cards traditionally without any problems.  The slot covers were the typical pop out variety seen in stamped metal cases, so once they are removed - that's it unless you have an extra slot cover to put back in place.  Sunbeam does include one cover to this end but at least three would have been infinitely more preferable.  The third pic below is of the 120mm exhaust fan that is included with the Trio.  120mm case fans move much more air than their 80mm counter parts and do so with a minimum of noise.

     

Up front we find an interesting tool free drive assembly.  Unlike the card system, the drive system was great.  A simple twist of the center dial of each bracket allows it quick removal.  These tool free bracket are used on both sides of the drive rack to give a solid fit to any drives you install.

  

Here is a quick shot of the front fan mounting area.  Just seeing all the combinations you can use here gives me goose bumps.  Stamped metal holes as we saw in the back.  Same restricted airflow but a cut out wouldn't allow you the range of fan choice the Trio gives you either.

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