Tech Review - GMC R Series Cases

Tech Review - GMC R Series Cases Hello again, I’m Rodney Reynolds and welcome to another video review. Today, I’m looking at three cases from GMC, the K2, R2 and R3. What is included with the K2 case is a user’s manual, screws, motherboard standoffs, drive rails and a few other things that are required for installation, a fully featured remote control and two triple “A” batteries. This mid tower ATX case has a number of different colors. At the front, it’s black. Around the front bezel, it is silver and on the sides and top it is gray so it should fit pretty much any audio-video setup. The case is mostly steel except for a plastic front bezel. At the front, there are two 5.25 inch drive bays and each come with a flip open drive bay cover to preserve the look on the front of the case. Here is the vacuum fluorescent display which shows system information, song information, graphic equalizer and much more. There is an audio-video sensor with standard play, stop, previous, rewind and volume buttons. Also here you’ll find the reset button and the power button. This case also comes with a nine-in-one card reader and an LED showing fan speed, power status, hard drive activity LED and temperature and a number of launch buttons. As well, on the bottom are the multimedia ports. There are four USB ports, a FireWire port as well as a microphone and headphone jack. The front bezel can be very easily removed by pulling the bottom. This allows access to the drive bays and the 140 mm fans dust filter. Now this filter is removable but it also houses the fan so you’ll need to remove the fan first before you clean the dust filter. There are ventilation holes on each side of the case. This allows the 140-mm fan to intake cool air inside the case. The left side panel has ventilation and an air duct. This air duct also has a dust filter. This air duct can be adjusted and it also comes with a dust filter. At the back of the case at the very top is where a standard ATX power supply gets installed. Here is where the motherboard’s I/O shield plate will get installed and they include a 120-mm exhaust fan. There are seven expansion slots and two thumbscrews on each side panel. Also the left side panel can be secured with an optional lock. This case fits standard ATX form factor motherboards. There is a fair amount of room to work on the inside but unfortunately the motherboard tray isn’t removable. There are four internal 3 ½ inch drive bays for hard drives. To install drives in both the hard drive bays and the 5 ¼ drive bays just use the included drive bay rails. Place the rail on each side of the drive and then just slip the drive into the drive bay. Installing cards in the expansion slots is also a tool less operation because they provide thumbscrews for every expansion slot. There are four audio video style feet with rubber on the bottom. This provides excellent anti-vibration properties and won’t scratch the surface. Finally have a listen to the stock cooling. The R2 and R3 cases are the same except for the front bezel and the color selection. The R2 case is available in seven colors and the R3 case is available in five colors. They are both mostly steel with a plastic front bezel but because they are so small they are extremely lightweight. The front bezel on the R3 is very shiny and reflective compared to the R2. The R2 case has the multimedia ports at the top of the case. There are two USB 2.0 ports, a headphone and microphone jack as well as the reset button. Now the R3 case has the same configuration but it’s at the bottom. The power button is located relatively in the same place on both cases. The R2 case is configured so the optical disk drive tray ejects upward while the R3 cases optical disks drive tray ejects downward. Also the R2 has fins on both sides of the front bezel but the R3 doesn’t. The front bezel on both can be very easily removed by just pulling at the bottom. On the R2 case, the optical disk drive gets installed on the bottom and on the R3 case the optical disk drive gets installed at the top. To install an optical disk drive in the R2 case just place it vertically like so and used four screws, two on each side. Note the vertical orientation and as well the tray which will eject upwards. Also, remember to remove the drive bay cover if you're installing an optical disk drive and here is the push or eject button for the optical disk drive. You could see the mechanism on the inside here to get a better idea how it will eject the optical disk drive tray. Installation of an optical disk drive in the R3 case is pretty much the same except for the optical disk drive points downward and as well the eject button is not on the left, it’s on the right. Everything else is the same with both cases so I’ll be using the R2 case to finish the review. The left side panel has ventilation and an air duct. The right side panel also has ventilation. Note that the air duct can be adjusted. At the back of the case is where a standard ATX power supply gets installed and here is where the motherboard’s I/O shield plate gets installed. They include one 80-mm exhaust fan but another optional 80-mm fan can be added here. There are seven expansion slots and two thumbscrews on the left side panel. The right side panel and the top panel are relative and can’t be removed. This case fits standard ATX form factor motherboards which is kind of surprising considering it’s so tiny. There is not a lot of room though to work on the inside and unfortunately the motherboard tray is not removable. There are two internal 3 ½ inch drive bays for hard drives. Another optional 80-mm fan can be installed in the bottom. It comes with four plastic feet. Rubber feet would have been preferred because they have excellent anti-vibration properties and won’t scratch the surface. Finally, have a listen to the stock cooling. The K2 case is an fantastic product for a home theater PC setup. Also, the other two cases, the R2 and the R3 are really tiny but they still fit a standard ATX power supply and a standard ATX motherboard. You can fit two hard drives inside and one optical disk drive on the front vertically and that is really unique. But overall, all of these cases are great. Until the next time, take care.