When it comes to case fans, the AMK-0334 is
full of them. There are two 3" fans in the case. They are both high power Sunon
units. One is mounted on the front of the case to bring cool air inside.
The second fan is a 3 inch "chimney" fan
mounted on top of the case to exhaust hot air. It comes with a finger guard to
protect little hands from getting cut up. All fans have pass though power
connectors so you don't have to worry about the power supply running out of
connectors.
Normally, an intake and exhaust fan would be
enough to get good air flow in a case but AMK wasn't finished yet. The 3rd fan
is a monster 4.75 inch "blow hole" fan that moves a whooping 108 CFM of air!
This fan is mounted on the side of the case and is protected by finger guards as
well. The fan can be set to blow air in or take air out. It comes from the
factory set to take air out.
The AMK-0334 is Target Todd approved. :-)
The only downside to all these fans is noise.
When those fans are spinning, it's quite noisy. You hear a constant hum from the
4.75" fan. It's not that bad, but if your computer room is very quiet the noise
might get to you after awhile. I had no such problems since my computers shares
the room with a 12 feet long high speed copier. It drowns any noise the
computers makes.
To test the AMK-0334 case I decided to
install the Project 620 system into it. The system normally resides in a special
24" In Winn full tower case.
So how does this case perform? Great! Temp
wise it only ran 2F hotter than the Project 620 case, which has allot more fans.
With the Project 620 system inside the AMK-0334, the case temp never once went
over 84F, even after 2 hours of Unreal loops and Prime 95 torture test. Then I
turn off those fans and watch the temperature sky rocket to over 100F! Needless
to say, I turn those fans back on real quick.
One of the benefits I've found with the "blow
hole" is that on hot days, you can turn the computer to face you and have that
big 4.75" fan blow air at you! Great way to keep you cool when the going gets
tough in Quake. :-)
The AMK case is available in several models.
I tested the mid range model. The top of the line unit is the same as the unit I
tested except it comes with TWO 4.75" blow holes instead of one. That's 216CFM
of air movement! However, for most overclock application, the mid range model
should be more than enough.
If you're in the market for a new case and
want one that is overclock ready without any work on your end, the AMK-0334 is a
great choice. For the price you can't beat it. If you add up the cost of a 19"
ATX case with sliding motherboard tray, the cost of the extra fans and cost of
cutting those holes, you'll wonder if
AMK Services is making any money on these cases.
Even if you're not building an overclock
system, this case would be a great choice. The AMK cases can be had for as
little as $47.95US ($69.99 Canadian) for the bare case with one 3" intake fan.
Keeping your components cool, weather overclocked or not, can only extend their
life.
The Goods
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Great price
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Super performance
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No need to do any mods to get the case
ready for your overclocked system
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Slide out motherboard tray
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Rolled edges
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Really powerful fans
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Good for non overclocked systems too
The Bads
Our Rating: 9.5/10
