bought an etasis... [Archive]

ianm2

01-05-2007, 05:24 PM

WEll, they have both arrived, here are the initial impressions, not tried any in situ yet, sppose that'll have to wait for the new case.

Weightwise...the etasis feels solid, heavy for its size, nicely finished case, gives confidence.

The zippy 600 is different, however, the case feels flimsy, and the metal is very thin, doesn't inspire confidence, its very lightweight, too.

it does have a nice paint finish on it tho.

Peeking inside them both, not had the tops off, gives a better impression, they both appear to be of a far higher internal build....choke size, etc., than budget cases.

One of my favourite quotes I came accross years ago was something to the tune of " I tend to judge things by the way I feel when I look at things, if they look good, they usually are ", so I do give some 'weight' in using the visual criteria of how something looks, not in terms of say sexiness but physical impressions, weight, finish, and all that, and by those standards, I would've been disappointed by the zippy for the cash, it doesn't feel anything special at all.

the box of the zippy is also rather small, the etasis is a nice big box, I suppose when you are paying this amount of cash, you expect something a little more substantial.

One other concern about the zippy, is that there is no 'gromit', the wires just come out of a big hole, and there is loads of space surrounding them, so they could get tugged this way and that, which doesn't bode well, as wires really ought to be fairly immovable where they exit the hole, and also protected from sharp edges.

having said that, both have nicely contained cables in netted sheathing, the zippys being longer, also being a shorter psu unit, that gives the zippy even more length of lead.

That's about it, but the real proof will obviously come when they are put into action....

having taken the top off, as both were bought 2ndhand, the etasis isn't intuitive to get into, so I ain't going a further, and can't see much, the zippy, seems rather nice quality stuff, those decent japanese caps are in abundance, and the internal build seems very nice, so its redeemed itself somewhat. Very impressed with the zippy.

Certainly comparing it to the enermax noisetaker 600w, which always worked ok, btw, its in a different league altogether, that's barely better than a budget one inside.

So as a conclusion based on simply judging the build quality, it seems jonnys appraisals of the top ones seem to be right on the button, I think some of his opinions have been controversial, but so far he has been proven right, as I suspected, when I read some of the criteria he uses for reviewing. Its not an objective or testing review, but no probs. whatsover so far.

Anyone who knows much about engineering, will know that a/ poor choice of parts/materials can ruin an excellent design, and b/ a bad design can't be saved by cutting edge materials/components, so psu's and any other thing has to be engineered( and an engineer is to a mechanic, what a brain surgeon is to a hospital cleaner, not demeaning their importance), in the design sense well, there are many many different solutions to a problem, and largely its skill, knowledge, time ( which is why things come out half baked, asus:crazy: ) and experience,( and perhaps accident and a little magic/black art) all of which to do cost money.

Apparantly, as an aside, the root meaning of engineer, has nothing to do with oily engines and spanners, but stems from the german, ingineer, meaning intuitive.

you don't get 'owt for n'owt.