2011. május 10., kedd

Foxconn G007

Foxconn system cases have been known for a long time as inexpensive solutions. It is no secret that this company used to focus on production volumes rather than quality, turning out a large range of office-oriented models. The G007 is different as it belongs to a gaming series and is positioned higher than the majority of Foxconn system cases.
 
The system case catches the eye with the unusual excrescence in its top front. The G007 might be called a unicorn, we guess. The red edging of the front panel looks daring, too.
The higher market positioning of this product is indicated by its side panel that has a window and a handle with lock.


On the top excrescence you can find a large Power button, two LED indicators and an integrated multi-format card-reader. Take note of the cover of the top 5-inch bay. This bay is meant for an optical drive and the related eject button can be seen nearby.
Behind the excrescence there is a small area covered with a rubber pad. You can store various small things there. Behind that pad, there is another protrusion with I/O connectors: two audio connectors, two groups of two USB ports, and one eSATA.
Running a little ahead, we can tell you that the last “hillock” on the top panel hides a 120mm fan under a vent grid.
The back panel is perfectly standard and even old-fashioned: a top PSU bay, a seat for a 120mm fan with a rather poor grid (too small holes with two much metal in between), and no openings for the pipes of a liquid cooling system.
The G007 stands on a single-piece plastic frame with vibration-absorbing pads in the corners. This tall platform doesn’t perform any additional function because the bottom panel is blank.
There is a plastic funnel on the left panel of the case that is meant to supply cool air for the CPU cooler. As we know from our tests, this solution is only effective with small coolers, similar to the boxes ones, which take the air from above. If you’ve got a CPU cooler with a large or vertically placed fan, this funnel has to be removed or replaced with an 80mm fan. Or, if there is no space left (which may occur in a standard-width chassis if you have a tower-type CPU cooler), you have to leave just an empty vent grid.
The funnel of this system case surprised us a little with its simple removable dust filter.
The interior leaves an ambiguous impression. On one hand, it is a standard chassis and the metal looks cheap. But on the other hand, the metal is 0.8 millimeters thick and the case is rigid enough. The quality of finishing is just as you can expect from a midrange system case.
The back-panel brackets are fastened with screws. These are ordinary screws so you’ll need a screwdriver here.
Take note of the red plastic fan. Judging by its sticker, its speed is 1100 RPM. There is also another such fan on the top panel. The system case has only these two fans by default, which is rather odd because most manufacturers prefer to install one intake and one exhaust fan.
Hard and optical drives are secured in this system case by means of standard screw-less holders.
You can also notice a cable going along the entire chassis from a front-panel button to the box in one of the external 3.5-inch bays.
It is related to the additional highlighting implemented as a shining tube that lies along the left panel. This solution doesn’t look neat to us. On the other hand, you won’t see whether it’s neat or not through the plastic panel whereas the highlighting may please some users.
There is one more fan seat behind the front panel which has to be removed to install an optical drive using a special faceplate (by the way, it is not so easy to take the panel off because it’s difficult to get a good grip on it). Thus, HDDs have an opportunity to be cooled by a dedicated fan. This has to be a 92mm model; you can install it into a special holder when you have taken the front panel off.
The cables of the system case’s buttons and indicators are gathered together and end in a single connector. It would be handy if ASUS mainboards didn’t have a completely different layout of that connector, which may baffle inexperienced users.
 
There are two things we want to note about assembling a computer in this system case. Notwithstanding the length of the chassis (it can accommodate any graphics cards up to 290 millimeters long), it is a problem to lay the cables out in the G007 neatly even if you’ve got a modular PSU. The cables can only be gathered into a bunch and tucked in behind the power supply. It doesn’t look as pretty as we might wish.
The second problem is about the interface SATA cables for HDDs. We strongly recommend using SATA cables with L-shaped connectors. Cables with straight connectors just press against the side panel of the case and you may damage your HDDs trying to close it.
 

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