Sunbeam Ultra Tech Station Acrylic Case

Manufacturer: Sunbeamtech
Supplied by: Sunbeamtech
Street Price: $75

by Dean Barker (9/09/2009)

Introduction

Sunbeam has put a new twist on an old favorite. Their version of the tried and true "Tech Station" is built out of acrylic to take the styling to another level!  Now here at the OC Cafe' we have been big fans of these open rack set up since the first one hit the market some years back.  That unit specifically would be the Senfu Tech Station we looked at briefly back in January of 2002.  Back then, High Speed PC was the only distributer of the Tech Stations and as such decided to make their own unit selling it under their brand name and dumping the original Senfu unit.

Fast forward seven years to 2009.  Sunbeamtech, a long established manufacturer of affordable PC parts and accessories has decided to get into the game.  The Tech Station open rack idea doesn't leave much room for innovation.  However, Sunbeam is always up for adding a new spin to things; subsequently bringing us the Sunbeam Ultra-Tech Station Acrylic Case.  Today we have one of these work benches with bling up on our bench for a closer look.  Let's get started.

Specifications

• Dimensions w/o system installed: 415 x 290 x 280mm

• Construction: Acrylic

• Drive Bays: (2) 5.25”, (3) 3.5”

• Expansion slots: (7)

• M/B Type: Standard, Micro and Flex ATX

• Board Mounted Access Ports: USB 2.0 (x2), speaker and mic jack

• Cooling: Dude!  It's an open rack!

• Window: Yes - everywhere

• Available Colors: Transparent, UV Reactive Blue

The Kit

As with almost all acrylic cases, acrylic panels are can be to fragile to make a trip in a UPS truck without cracking.  Shipping these units in DIY kits is an easier and cheaper way to do it.  Opening up the Sunbeam Ultra-Tech Station we find a variety of clear acrylic panels, instruction manual, white cotton gloves (prevents fingerprints during the build) and clearly marked packages of assembly hardware.  I say clearly marked because Sunbeam is one of only a very few manufactures who understands the importance of making the end user's assembly quick and easy.  Clear and concise instructions and zero confusion labeling is the only way to go.

  

Total build time from unboxing to done was about 35 minutes.  The instructions were simple and easy to understand.  As far as the white gloves... I can't work with gloves like that on even if they were a size other than a small.  A quick wipe down with a paper towel at the end is really all that is necessary.

NEXT