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Aluminum cases are usually very expensive - their prices often reach $400, which
is not affordable for most. However, we have recently come across the UTT Eagle 4378ETSL case available at $100.
UTT Group was founded around 12 years ago and at present it deals with production of peripherals and accessories for computers such as cases, power sources, monitors, keyboards, mice and network equipment... The company's
office is located in Hong Kong, but it also has representatives in Dubai, Bucharest, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.
Specification:
| UTT Eagle 4378ETSL |
| Description |
Middle Tower |
| Type |
ATX for P4 |
| Body Dimension (DxWxH), mm |
450*200*411 |
| Power Supply |
350W |
| Drivers Bays 5.25" |
4 |
| Drivers Bays 3.5" |
1 |
| Drivers Bays 3.5" (hidden) |
2 |
| Front |
Control Power, Reset, Led Power, Reset |
The case comes with a bunch of wire products, which is enough for several such cases, and a power cable.
Design
The technical design, like any other, depends on two factors: fashion and customer's taste, and as you know, tastes differ... From the technocratic standpoint the design of the UTT Eagle 4378ETSL is stylish and strict. There are no unnecessary details, smooth contours, doors, decorations or sham stuff. Excellent! :-)
Its asceticism is delusive - the case is well thought out and has everything it needs. As usual, great things are simple, but I want to attract your attention to one aspect. With the CD/DVD drive installed the appearance of the front panel changes for the worse. Beige colors typical of such devices do not match with dim lustre of aluminum. The only way-out is to look for CD/DVD devices with removable color front panels.
TEAC: black, white, beige and aluminum colors
The best color is black or aluminum. But panels are usually easy to take off, and you always can start taking up home modeling and varnish the panels however you like.
Aluminum is not only light and heat-conducting metal, but also soft and easily deformable. To make the construction more rigid a lot of components of the case are equipped with stiffening ribs.
Stiffening ribs on the bottom plate
 
Assemblers will really appreciate space left for a manufacturer's logo:
The side panels have handles so that you can disassemble the case carefully - aluminum can make your hands dirty, and the handles prevent that.
Inside
Cooling
However the design can be important, a real enthusiast values more the components inside, handy mounting/access and competent organization of air flows. In this respect the UTT Eagle 4378ETSL is almost ideal.
Blower on the rear panel
It is the first time I see a case with a built-in blower. But you will have to remove it to install a motherboard.
 
Blower with a power splitter
Full reachability
Installation of the blower over the processor
You can see original PCI brackets
The blower is attached with two screws, and you will have to take it off for precise installation either over the processor or over the video card. Thanks to a solid line of holes (up to bottom) on the back panel the blower can be attached anywhere you need in 10mm steps. But you shouldn't use all your forces screwing in the bolts because you can strip the thread in the plastic after numerous mounting/demounting operations.
1 - holes for the blower
2 - holes for standard cooler installation
You can remove the blower at all if you fish the cooler out of it and mount it on its traditional place on the back panel. A great number of holes on the back and front panels allow an overclocker attach as many fans as he wants. One more can be installed right on the front panel - but only if you can bear noise. However, the case doesn't make much noise or vibrate with its own blower and cooler on the 350W power unit.
Power unit
Here the situation is not very clear. On the one hand, at the site they indicate that the power is 240 W, but the calculation (with the indicated voltage and current strength) results in 350 W, which is also proved by the power unit's marking - CTX350WCE.
Sky Hawk CTX350WCE power unit
240 Vac is not power, but voltage
The cardboard package of the case shows two possible power values - 300 and 400 W and below is 350 W written with a felt-tip pen, and it is ticked off... It seems that the case can ship with different power units, that is why you should pay closer attention to what you are buying.
The last thing that should be mentioned about the power unit is its active cooling. In the standby mode, in case of minimal power consumption, the cooler of the power unit will almost stop, but when power consumption is very high the cooler will work at its project revolutions. Another piece of paper on the power unit demonstrates how the number of revolutions depends on the current consumed.
Bays and mounting
The number of bays is typical of a middle tower:
- 4 external 5.25"
- 2 external 3.5" (drive + ZIP)
- 1 internal 3.5" for HDD
How to mount a couple of hard drives and modernize a little the case is written in the next part "Modernization".
It's easy to reach all bays and install drives of any length. That is why it's almost impossible to remove 3" bays; and it's unnecessary because there is enough space inside the case.
The motherboard is attached to a nonremovable panel. Well, today a lot of cases have removable MB panels. I think the developers decided to simplify the production technology - well, they have chosen the right approach.
Modernization
The fact that the case has multiple holes in brackets of 5" bays suggests that if we mount an HDD cooler with its plastic panel removed, we can cover the bay with a standard aluminum bracket instead of losing it. This is a simple and elegant solution. It also allows us to retain the original appearance of the case, add one more cooler into the case without using a file or ax and leave free a 3.5" bay. We used Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler($12), but any other can also fit.
Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler with its own front panel looks awful
The same way we can mount a RAID with two coolers, and we thus leave a couple of bays for DVD and CD/RW.
Installing the Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler into the bay
And covering its with a standard bracket
In an extreme case you can remove even all brackets and expose the whole bunch of coolers. It will look really futuristic.
Conclusion
The case has made a good impression on me. Its primary advantage is a simplified process of frequent assembling/disassembling. All bolts are easy to screw out even without tools. They fasten almost everything in this case - both side panels, the cover and 7 PCI brackets. The cooling system can be easily expanded and modernized up to the needed power - the front and back panels look like a sieve, that is why it's quite easy to make an air flow of almost any density and direction.
The case is meant definitely for enthusiasts and testers which often modernize their systems. Quite often such users do not attach side panels just not to meddle with screw-drivers and make cooling better. You can forget about it with the UTT Eagle 4378ETSL case because installation of the side panels takes only three seconds and ventilation of this sieve is perfect. It's possible to preserve a stylish appearance of the computer.
Highs:
- Aluminum (light, heat-conducting);
- 350W power unit;
- Blower with precise installation;
- A lot of free space inside;
- Easy to disassemble without tools;
- Technocratic appearance peculiar to servers;
- Acceptable price for aluminum cases - $100.
Lows:
- Aluminum (requires maintenance);
- USB only behind;
- Nonremovable motherboard panel.
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