Streacom FC5 EVO Case Review

Inside the Streacom FC5 EVO Case

To open the Streacom FC5 EVO, you must remove its top panel, which is attached to the chassis using four black screws. The motherboard must be installed on the bottom panel. The case supports Mini-ITX and microATX motherboards.

Figure 7: Overall look of interior of the case

The number of storage devices this case supports depends on the size of the motherboard you are going to use. With microATX motherboards, the case supports one 3.5” device and three 2.5” devices. With Mini-ITX motherboards, the case supports three 3.5” devices; or two 3.5” devices and three 2.5” devices; or one 3.5” device and four 2.5” devices. See the diagram in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Possible configurations for storage devices

We built a system using a microATX motherboard, and unfortunately, we couldn’t use the middle 2.5” bay (the one marked with “5” in Figure 8), because the motherboard would prevent us from installing our 2.5” hard drive. After further inspection, we discovered that the holes were drilled in the wrong position. If you pay close attention to Figure 9, you can see how the two holes on the right (which are the holes identified as “5” in Figure 8) are not correctly aligned with the two holes on the left (which are the holes identified with “4” in Figure 8); they are 3 mm off the place where they should be.

Figure 9: The two holes on the right are 3 mm below where they should be.

This problem, however, didn’t prevent us from putting a system together, since we were able to fit one 3.5” hard drive and two 2.5” hard drives. Most people will probably use one SSD as a boot device and a high-capacity 3.5” hard drive to store their media files such as movies and songs, so we don’t think the problem we faced is a real concern.

Figure 10: System built with the Streacom FC5 EVO

With a Mini-ITX motherboard installed, you won’t have this problem. Also, even if we could install a third 2.5” device, this device would be right in front of the motherboard’s SATA ports, blocking them.

Another concern you must have when building a system with the Streacom FC5 EVO is the height of the memory modules. Memory modules must be up to 1.65” (42 mm) tall. If they are more than that, you won’t be able to close the case.