Introduction and First Impressions

A new consumer case from an enterprise company

Supermicro recently entered the consumer space with a new line of enthusiast motherboards and today we’re looking at a gaming enclosure from the well-known enterprise manufacturer.

While many component manufacturers have diversified their product offerings to include everything from cooling fans to thumb drives, Supermicro is not a name that anyone familiar with the company would have likely suspected of this trend. With recent Z97 and X99 motherboard offerings Supermicro has made an effort to enter the enthusiast market with boards that don’t exactly look like gaming products, but this is to be expected from a company that specializes in the enterprise market.

It was something of a surprise to hear that Supermicro had created a new enclosure for the consumer segment, and even more so to hear that it was to be a gaming enclosure. And while the term “gaming” gets thrown around quite a bit the new enclosure does have the look we tend to associate with the moniker, with flashy red accents and a brushed aluminum front panel to go along with all-black steel enclosure.

First we'll check out the specs from Supermicro:


Specifications

  • Motherboard Support: ATX 12" x 10", Micro ATX 9.6" x 9.6"
  • Expansion Slots: 7
  • Drive Bays: 6x 3.5", 4x 2.5", 2x 5.25"
  • System Cooling: 3x 120/140 mm top fan mounts, 2x 120/140 mm front fan mounts (2x 120mm fans included), 1x 120 mm rear fan mount (1x 120mm exhaust fan included), 1x 120 mm bottom fan mount, 2x 120 mm (or 1x 140 mm) side fan mounts
  • Front Panel: Power, System Reset, HDD activity, Power Status LED
  • Dimensions: Height: 18.1" (460mm), Width: 7.9" (200mm), Depth: 19.4" (493mm)

Our thanks to Supermicro for providing the SuperChassis S5 for this review!

First Impressions

Moving past the box (completely plain brown shipping carton) and padding (the case is well protected) we have a look at the S5 enclosure.

I won’t pretend that I was expecting much in the way of looks, but I was pleasantly surprised with the very nice finish of the front panel, which is brushed aluminum with a large fan opening and red accents that nicely set off the silver and black colors.

A closer look at the S5's front I/O

The sides and back of the enclosure are a flat black color, and beyond the front panel the case is very much a standard ATX mid-tower.

Here we see that the entire top is protected from dust by a full-length flexible screen filter, and this is secured with magnets and very easy to remove for cleaning:

Around back is standard ATX with a 120 mm fan mount which is populated with one of the included fans.

The front panel intake is easily removed with a spring latch at the top, and here we have an additional pair of 120 mm fans positioned for air intake. This panel is also lined with a screen material to protect the system from dust.

Finally we have the case bottom, which also has a long screen filter held on with magnets. Unfortunately this means that the case would have to be turned over to pull off the filter.

Before continuing here's a look at the hardware package included with the S5:

Next we'll take a closer look inside the SuperChassis S5 and cover a quick build.

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