Gadgetory

I've received a number of complaints about the practice of teasing upcoming content and frequently resorting to potty humor in the intros of my videos I wanted to address both of these issues once and for all if an official statement but instead opted to remind you guys to make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss our upcoming tour of the Sennheiser Factory which is coming very soon and to introduce the topic of today's video with an analogy open air test benches versus traditional cases are kind of like boxers versus briefs the pros and cons of the look is open for debate but we can't deny that while boxers provide more airflow and allow for easier access to key components they just don't wrap things up in a tight little package the same way briefs do and the same goes for test benches versus cases thanks guys you've been a terrific audience the Coolermaster Neptune 240m features an exclusive pump design and their new Silencio fans to provide impressive near silent performance click now to learn more normally on a case I would look at the inside and the outside but the dimmest tech mini v1 and ez v3 are open test benches so there is no outside really so we're going to do more of like a set-up guide thing today then focusing on the mini v1 start by taking off the aluminum fund screws on the sides and sliding out the bottom tray screw the rubber feet into the bottom with your hands next assemble the vandal switches for the front by using the included wiring diagram this was a little jig here the night of Hope because the clips aren't really the right size for the nubbins on the back of the switches but it will work as long as you don't accidentally pull them off take off the fastening nuts put them through the holes in the front then tighten the nuts from the back if you want more complete front i/o the mini v1 has one empty spot for a USB 3 port and the EZ v3 has room for a more complete set but neither of them includes this accessory by default the next step involves one of the coolest pieces of case hardware I've seen in a while the mini v1 includes these nice all metal standoffs that lock the board in place with so much strength that you can actually pick up the entire test bench by the motherboard if you really wanted to but it still allows it to be swapped to lessly it should be noted that my ez v3 came with more traditional screw mounted standoffs for some reason though it's jank time again for this next at the instructions simply say use the special m4 screws in m4 nut to attach the PCI support bracket and I was like ok special whatever that means turns out they meant this one then I went to install it and while dmoz tech could have simply put holes for this instead they went with slits for some reason you know just in case your motherboard has its PCI slots in an unusual location or something it's not a huge deal but it meant that I had to actually put a graphics card on to the bench for a test fit in order to align it correctly next up is the Flex fan and this has to be the most be a snake-armed thing I've ever seen on a computer component anyway the arm screws into either of the two threaded holes that are positioned for easy supplementary airflow over a multi-way graphics card setup or the CPU area it's strong enough to hold a single 120 millimeter water cooling radiator and fan which is fortunate because while the ezv 3 features triple 120 or dual 140 radiator mounts on both sides those are only suitable for a custom loop so that means that neither of these test benches actually has any other position where a prefilled one dual 120 radiator could be installed back to the way most people will be using the Flex arm though especially if they're using a CPU heatsink for a fan I still think the arm itself is great but the bracket could use a little work as it is it requires a custom screw and nut when with a wider hole it could have just used standard fan screws and I think a larger bracket one with eight screw holes for for 140 mill and four for 120 mill wouldn't have cost much more and would have given a lot more flexibility to how it can be used drive installation is taken care of by removing the appropriate drive cage so just undo the thumb screws up the front and slide it forward then by screwing five and a quarter inch tube I indirectly and by putting rubber grommets in place for your three and a half inch devices then screwing them in with the non special screws for a nice stable anti vibrational mount to mount the power supply the manual simply says use 632 screws something that won't be challenging for very experienced builders but may give pause to newcomers to the computer assembly game and then once those are in you're pretty close to done I initially didn't really like the power supply mount because it looked like it was just kind of going to end up hanging there but once you put the bottom tray back in and then screw that in from the sides it rests on it and yeah there's there's no flex left in the back of it so no big deal there the on-the-fly drive mount position on the left side of the mini of you one is super handy just put the appropriately threaded thumb screws into a two and a half inch or three and a half inch drive with a rubber spacer in between stick it in there and slide it into place I wish there were more cable management options it didn't involve running across the top or the front of the bench especially since the power and reset buttons are right there but again not a huge deal given it is an open-air bench which leads us to the conclusion Dima stack actually reached out to us not just to do a review but to ask if we were interested in switching from the high speed PC tech stations that you guys normally see in our videos to theirs exclusively and while the mini v1 and it's bigger brother the EZ v3 are solid well-built test benches that we will use it's not such a slam-dunk victory that I'm ready to throw my tech stations in the garbage let's start with where the high-speed pcs come away with an advantage number one is sheer speed for a bench where motherboard swaps are a daily occurrence the nylon posts are faster for two reasons one they are easier to slide on once the board is in position and two they are plastic so you can move around faster without worrying about scratching the underside of a board potentially damaging it number two is fan mount positioning if you just want to fan the Flex fan system is great for pointing it at wherever your hot spots are but if you want an all-in-one CPU cooler especially a dual 120 rad one the dmoz Tech's fall short and number three is footprint even the mini takes up more space on a desk then the ex-lax high-speed PC tech station which I guess leads us into the dmoz tech advantages number one is if you're using it as an actual case and you're looking to pimp out your bench they've got a ton of really great accessories XL ATX adapters for the mini drive mounting adapters a better power supply support and even their red X trousers let you attack more radiators on to your system number two is they look a lot better than the ones we normally use in person and more importantly for us on camera so if you want your test Hardware to look more presentable let's say you you know want to take photos of it for a forum that your member of or whatever else the ezd 3 and mini v1 come away clear winners here number three is build quality some of our tech stations feel like they're going to come apart when you lift them they've been in use for a couple of years not going to happen ever with the steel construction of these units and then finally number four is assembly time it only takes about 15 minutes even struggling with the manual a little to assemble one of these out of the box for an experienced builder whereas the high speed PC ones do take quite a while to put together so in summary there's room for improvement better documentation in particular would be great and I'd really like to see a better system than a little screw cap container for all the mounting hardware maybe something that clips onto the bench for easy storage but all in all this is a quality product and great as a presentable looking test bench or open air case for custom water coolers and air coolers speaking of presentable looking you guys may have noticed I've been wearing this shirt lately and wondering where you can get one well for the value price of just 1995 you can have your very own keep on digging shirt just like this one here so whether it's our bro hands at Ubisoft telling us about the cinematic experience of gaming at 30 FPS or really any other company that just seems determined to make everyone hate them American ISPs anyone you'll be ready with encouragement and a pixel art shovel if we all work together maybe we can create a network of tunnels through the Earth's core with high speed heat and pressure resistant trains that run through them revolutionizing worldwide travel forever or not also guys that's why I think that should like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment if you feelings more complicated than this also check the link in the video description you can buy a cool t-shirt like this one I kind of already said that you can give us a monthly contribution straight up or you can change your amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code that kind of stuff helps us out a lot thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe