Introduction
Welcome to my second computer component review. This time I’m looking at the EyeT eCute micro ATX (uATX) PC case that I bought from Eclipse Computers. As you’ll see from this link this case is stated in the title to come with a 550W PSU, well I can tell you that mine came with a 650W Win Power PSU so I’m guessing that the page needs updating or they just use whatever’s available. I shall contact them to find out!
Those of you familiar with uATX PC cases are probably aware of the Aspire W-QPack series of cases, well this is a copy of that case but with a few minor differences. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Aspire case, it’s a compact case nearly a cube in shape except for a few inches in it’s length. The front bezel incorporates a handle for easy carrying and also a small LCD screen that can display one temperature assisted by a single sensor.
The case has two 3.5′ bays for hard drives, one 3.5′ bay for a floppy drive and two 5.25′ bays. It has a removeable motherboard tray for a uATX motherboard and it can accomodate a standard size ATX PSU, although you’d struggle to fit an oversize PSU. The case can accomodate a single 120mm fan at the rear and an 80mm fan at the front, only the 120mm fan is provided. The frame of the case is made out of aluminium which is good as it makes the case much lighter and hopefully keeps it cooler, important for a small case.
Asthetics
The Aspire equivilent comes in a variety of colours, however I’ve only seen the eCute in two colours, black and silver and I’ve not been able to find a manufacteurer’s website, it is also available with or without windows in the side and top panels. The front bezel is black and then trimmed in the chosen colour, the side and top panels are black and dominated by the large windows. The black is a high gloss finish and this looks especially good with the windows. The windows come covered in a plastic film for protection during shipping, I would advise keeping it on until the PC is built for added caution.
One advantage that the eCute has over the Aspire is that the side and top is in three seperate sections rather than in one cumbersome piece. The side and top panels are very well designed and slot together perfectly. To remove these sections all you need to do is remove one screw from the back and slide the top off and then with the top removed the sides just pull up and off. Being as the panel removal is so easy it would have been nice to have a thumb screw at the rear to compliment it but that can be retro-fitted by the user anyway. The rear screw holding the top on is also one of the screws that hold the PSU in place. There is a fold down handle on the front of the case for easy carrying, making the case look like it was designed for LAN parties.
Motherboard Tray
The motherboard tray is screwed in at the rear and once these screws are removed the tray slides out backwards. The edges on this part are quite sharp and some care should be taken to not cut any fingers. With the tray removed it’s nice and easy to fit the motherboard, memory, processor, heatsink and fan and any addon cards.
Being made out of aluminium the tray when removed seems quite flexible but once a graphics card is screwed into place it soon stiffens up. As you’ll see from the accompanying photos I’ve taken, there’s very little clearance above the processor for the heatsink and fan and also for any oversized graphics cards.
Drives
The CD and DVD drives are fitted centrally in the case and the hard drives are held in a bracket on the right hand side (left in the picture as it’s taken from behind). The hard drive bracket needs to be removed in order to be able to screw the screws in for the CD/DVD drives, so it’s best to remove the HDD bracket and then fit the CD/DVD drives first before moving onto the hard drives.
Being made of aluminium the hard drive bracket is also quite flexible so it’s very easy to get the drives in which in my experience is often quite a struggle in some steel cases. Two hard drives can be loaded in the bracket and then the bracket slots into place and secures with two screws.
Front Panel
The front panel provides two USB ports, a firewire port and headphone and microphone sockets. The firewire cable can be easily unplugged and removed from the case for use with motherboards that don’t have a firewire header, to avoid additional unnecessary cable clutter (remember we have windows!). The front panel LCD needs to be powered by a molex connector and is wired up with a sensor that will stretch to anywhere in the case. I haven’t cross checked the values read by the sensor but they seem sensible.
Cooling
As mentioned the case comes with a single rear 120mm fan and has space at the front for an 80mm fan. The idea is to draw air in through the front and expel it from the rear by means of the PSU and the 120mm fan. Unfortunately the rear fan is positioned just above and behind the CPU socket, so the CPU fan and the rear 120mm fan fight each other for air and because the CPU HSF needs to be low profile the rear 120mm fan takes a good chunk of the available air resulting in high CPU temperatures. All is not lost though as it’s easy to just turn the rear fan around so that it’s pushing air in towards the CPU fan and then leave the PSU fan to exhaust all the air on it’s own. This results in much lower CPU temperatures, if you have a graphics card with a cooler that expels air from the case like the arctic cooling ones then that’ll also help. The supplied rear 120mm fan is a little noisy and is plain black which for a windowed case like this is a bit too understated, probably best to replace it with a quieter and brighter alternative.
Conclusion
This is a great little case, especially for the price. There’s plenty of room for a small PC and even enough extra spaces for fitting a water cooling setup. Extra long graphics cards should also fit fine as long as they are not excessively wide (may cause problems with the large heatsinks found on passive cards) . It’s designed very well and everything fits nice and snugly. The windows in the panels are attractive and plenty large enough, with a couple of LED fans inside it’ll look the part. It’s a pity that the front of the top window gives a top view of your DVD drives, which lets be honest aren’t usually attractive looking things! Of course a HDD in a cool looking heatsink cooler would look much be better from the top. Although many other reviews have mentioned that the handle on the front seems like it might not hold much weight, I’m yet to hear of one snapping and certainly mine has done the job just fine. The only down side I can see is the limit of having to have a lower profile CPU cooler, but it is a compact case so that’s to be expected.
Pros:
Reasonable PSU included
Nice and compact without compromising space for components
All aluminium build
Very good price
Removable motherboard tray
Cons:
Front panel LCD only available in blue
Low profile CPU cooler required
Overall Score: 9/10
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19 Responses
I just bought one of these cases off the back of this review and I must say I am very happy. I have not put a graphics card in yet so I cannot comment on the clearance issues. However I can confirm that the standard AMD AM2 heatsinks and fans will fit with no problem at all and that the fans on the PSU and the case are very very quiet. The only small gripe I have is over the length of the cables that connect the front panel to the motherboard. They are ok for in the case with a fair bit of give however if you ever need to pull the board out to mount a PCI card you have to unconnect all of the USB, audio and firewire cables to enable the tray to slide out enough for you to screw the card in. It will fit if you have nimble hands without pulling the board out but the PSU blocks access to the screw holes to secure the card.
Posted on November 18th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
thanks for the review
Posted on May 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
hello, would you be able to how much amperage does this power supply have on the 12v rails, because I should think it is similar to http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-ECUTBW <== this one
I want to find this out so i can see whether a nvidia 9800gt will work on the case
Also just one more thing, is the power supply a MATX or just a standard ATX power supply, whether it is smaller than your average psu or the same. Thanks
Felix
Posted on June 2nd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Yes, it looks like the same case just in a different colour. The PSU that came with mine was standard ATX and offered 30A on the +12, 50A on the +5V and 33A on the 3.3V rail.
I can’t vouch for the PSU as I replaced with an alternative I already had and sold the one supplied, unused and as new. I would certainly expect it to handle a 9800GT though as long as the rest of the PC isn’t too power consuming.
Note however these will be fairly cheap OEM PSUs and for added peace of mind you might want to get a big brand alternative to fit instead like a Corsair or Antec.
Posted on June 4th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Hi,
I’m planning my next computer build and have fallen for ecute’s style. However, a drawback for me is that it only takes micro ATX mobos (True?)- and there seems to be a shortage of these. I am planning to use an Asus M3N78-vm with something like an AMD Phenom II processor – (need to confirm the mobo will actually take these). Further, this mobo seems to have onboard graphics but this doesn’t negate a PCI express card does it ?
Admin, What mobo & processor have you ?
Regards
Doctorbob
Posted on July 26th, 2009 at 10:37 am
It is true that the case will only take microATX motherboards. However there are a large selection of microATX boards available these days featuring almost all of the things available on full ATX boards, inc crossfire etc. It’s only the top end chipsets that aren’t supported on microATX such as the Intel X38,X48,X58 etc.
A board with onboard graphics can also be used with discrete graphics cards. My Abit I-90HD has onboard ATI X1250 graphics and I’ve added an Nvidia 7900GS graphics card to it without any problems. I’m using an E2160 processor in it.
The ASUS M3N78-VM
motherboard looks like a good choice and it will support the Phenom II processor – check the CPU support tab on this page. Some processors require a certain revision board or higher so you might want to check these details with your retailer, although a high throughput retailer will usually have the latest revisions in stock. Note that AM3 CPUs will work in AM2+ motherboards, the compatibility between AM2,AM2+ and AM3 is excellent.
Good luck with your new build…
Posted on July 26th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Thanks for your quick and helpful reply Admin. I will splash out some cash in the next few minutes.
Posted on July 26th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
You can actually stick a full sized cpu cooler. You know the Arctic Freezer 64 Pro, or the 7 version for Intel processors. You can stick that heatsick inside it, it just fits in but you won’t really be able to use the second dvd drive bay at the bottom but so what lol. Since the heatsink and fan is facing sideways to the graphics card, it manages to slip in with it’s width inbetween the two metal brackets. However you have to replace the fan from the cooler 64 pro with an ordinary thinner fan since, it is too long in width with that wider fan. but i don’t think this sacrifices cooling at all since i have seen expensive cpu coolers with thin ordinary looking fans. What i don’t understand is that the case doesn’t have air vents in the sides, where the version without the windows does have air vents on the sides. Stick in a PCI fan it does the job very well, stick your hand at the back possibly gets rid of more hot air than the 120mm fan at the top. Also, yes the case can accomodate a large graphics card, to be honest i think you could stick a GTX 295, but the two power connectors will have to be at the front of the card rather than on it’s side because of the metal bar in the way. Currently i have a GTS 250 in the computer, and a phenom ii 720 in it as well. Very happy with gaming performance, Also very happy that it comes with an atx power supply. But unsure about the sidewindows not having air vents at least on the alluminium next to it. Also the huge metal bars inside that restrict space, they should have made them smaller in width as they come across the cpu but kept their width the same near the dvd drive bay and hdd bay.
Posted on September 27th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Also replying to John, get a GTS 250, if you havn’t got a 9800GT yet, they are about the same price and i gurantee it will fit inside the computer case, buy the version with the pci power connectors at the front rather than on the side, such as the xfx version. The GTS 250 is the same as a 9800GTX+ and is slightly better than the ATI 4850, it’s just before the 4870, so it’s good.
Posted on September 27th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Ok,sorry, one question. Would it be possble to stick a domino alc cooler into this case?
Posted on September 27th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Not as it stands. The area around the exhaust fan is tight even for a simple 120 mm fan. The water block would fit on the CPU but the rad wouldn’t fit inside on the 120 mm fan mount.
You might be able to fit the rad to the outer of the case but you’d need to find a way to pass the tubing through to the outside. Basically it’s possible but it would need some minor modding.
Posted on September 27th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
To be honest, it’s not really needed for water cooling, the arctic freezer 64 pro is quite big, just fits in if you don’t use the second drive bay and keeps my phenom ii x3 at 26 degrees at idle and 34 degrees at load. The Arctic Freezer Pro 64 isn’t low profile is it, is it concidered average height for a third party cooler? I took someone’s advice of here, was it you or maybe somewhere else, i turned the 120mm fan the other way round so it was blowing air into the computer plus i have a PCI fan which pulls hot air out of the computer. It works very well i saw a great difference in temperature drop. I’m actually really happy with this machine, i play Call Of Duty 4 with a maximum of 235 FPS at some times with 4 AA and 8 FSAA with a resolution of 1280 x 1024 on my 19 inch monitor. Averaging 95 FPS i think. This computer bundle is actualy amazing i bought it altogether for £52. The PSU is fine for a 150 watt GPU and a 95 watt cpu. The PSU has plently of power connectors too and there is the possibility of a PSU or GPU upgrade as well.
Posted on September 29th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
So when you say water cooling setup what do you mean? You mean one of the base unit type ones that go at the front of the computer? Show me some images if you can.
Posted on September 29th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
There are several options for watercooling with this case but all will require a little modification to the case. The biggest problem really is finding somewhere to fit a radiator. You can always use an external radiator but then you still need to do minor modifications to get the tubes in and out.
I’m planning on a dual 120mm fan radiator mod when I get the time but again it will require some modifications to the case.
Posted on September 29th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
So what is your computer configuration. Despite i already have this case do you rekon it is good for gaming, or competative gaming rather than very high end or extreme gaming? I put some UV lights on mine recently and some blue LED fans, quite a nice gaming machine. It’s possible to get SLI for these things i think, i’ve seen a micro ATX motherboard that does SLI by EVGA. It is actually possible to fit an ATI 4890 in the case i think because it has it’s two power connectors at the front, since the case stretches long and has given plenty of room for the graphics card. As you said, if the graphics card stretches long but has it’s two power connectors on the top of it, then it won’t be possible to attatch the power connectors because of the drive bays right above it.
Posted on October 2nd, 2009 at 9:49 pm
My ecute system is pretty moderate. Based on an Abit F-I90HD motherboard with an E2160 and a 7900GS, it’s my portable LAN rig rather than a main desktop/gaming PC. I went for the red theme, the Abit motherboard is red and I have red RAM (OCZ ATI Crossfire certified). I modded the PSU fan to include a red LED fan and then fitted red LED fans to the front 80mm and rear 120mm positions. I also replaced the blue temp LCD with a red one and fitted a red fan controller in the external 3.5″ slot. Then just to keep the red theme I swapped the cooler on my 7900GS for a red LED zalman cooler.
You can go SLI or Crossfire on microATX these days. The EVGA is now a bit long in the tooth, an ASUS GENE (Rampage II, Maximus II or Maximus III) is the best net for microATX at the moment. Rampage II Gene will give you the option of SLI or Crossfire alongside the latest Corei7 CPUs, very impressive for a microATX board!
Posted on October 2nd, 2009 at 11:53 pm
what is the largets cpu heatsink you think you can put on this case. What is your current cpu cooler. Mine is a arctic freezer 64 pro but i took the wide fan of and put a thinner 25 ordinary fan on. maybe to my advantage, going to stick on a multicoloured LED fan on the cpu. Do you know how else i could get holes drilled in my case other than having to go out and by a drill and do it one time, since most likely i wouldn’t use the drill for anything else again.
Anyway, do you think this cpu cooler would be quite good, possibly better than the Arctic cooler,
http://www.shinyhardware.co.uk/prods/showprod.asp?pid=10149
and this one?
http://www.shinyhardware.co.uk/prods/showprod.asp?pid=10120
Posted on October 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 pm
by wide i mean thick, not the length or width, but the debth.
Posted on October 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Also do you rekon this cooler will fit into this case?
http://www.shinyhardware.co.uk/prods/showprod.asp?pid=10152
Posted on October 3rd, 2009 at 11:13 pm
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