Full review here. Mini review below:
Spotswood has been making custom computer cases for a few years now. The Spotswood Tech Station is therefore more of an evolution that came from building such custom cases. It’s a modular case that is easily customizable because it is made out of standard T-Slot aluminum extrusion. Here is the “2T-ATX-Tech-Station” loaded up with some test gear and a Rampage IV Extreme E-ATX board:
The case also comes in an “open frame” version (shown here without the expansion card support bar):
Here it is in use as part of my 17 CPU Water Block Roundup:
Summary after a year of use:
When I first got the case it seemed to me like a decent bench case that inefficiently used the space. However this is a case that I’ve had and used for nearly a year of hard testing and review work and now I really appreciate the design so much more. There is no question of the strength or flexibility of the bench and as a workhorse it is a very good choice. If you need a real benching case it’s also a very good choice because of this. One advantage of this case is that when you modify the design for your needs you’re using removable pieces that can be reconfigured. This coupled the wide variety of accessories and Spotswood’s willingness to create changes customized to you means that this really is the perfect benching and review case. No matter what you need now or in the future you can easily tweak the bench to provide it. My only minor gripe was that the cable management holes were a bit on the small side, but this is easily fixed by using the “open frame version” of the case. The trade off of course to all this customization is space efficiency. The HDD rack for example would be smaller if it wasn’t made out of similar extrusion. With a fixed non customizable design you could no doubt fit the same functionality into a smaller volume, but then you wouldn’t have all the options. The price is also very fair. The normal case comes in at $140 with everything that most people would need. There is also a smaller version for the budget/space conscious that runs in at $110. To me this is a bargain because this is a case that could last you for years. Mine still looks like new after all the abuse I’ve thrown at it. If you’re looking for an open pretty case to show off your rig then maybe you’d be better off with a Banchetto, but as a workhorse this is the best out there.
Spotswood has been making custom computer cases for a few years now. The Spotswood Tech Station is therefore more of an evolution that came from building such custom cases. It’s a modular case that is easily customizable because it is made out of standard T-Slot aluminum extrusion. Here is the “2T-ATX-Tech-Station” loaded up with some test gear and a Rampage IV Extreme E-ATX board:
The case also comes in an “open frame” version (shown here without the expansion card support bar):
Here it is in use as part of my 17 CPU Water Block Roundup:
Summary after a year of use:
When I first got the case it seemed to me like a decent bench case that inefficiently used the space. However this is a case that I’ve had and used for nearly a year of hard testing and review work and now I really appreciate the design so much more. There is no question of the strength or flexibility of the bench and as a workhorse it is a very good choice. If you need a real benching case it’s also a very good choice because of this. One advantage of this case is that when you modify the design for your needs you’re using removable pieces that can be reconfigured. This coupled the wide variety of accessories and Spotswood’s willingness to create changes customized to you means that this really is the perfect benching and review case. No matter what you need now or in the future you can easily tweak the bench to provide it. My only minor gripe was that the cable management holes were a bit on the small side, but this is easily fixed by using the “open frame version” of the case. The trade off of course to all this customization is space efficiency. The HDD rack for example would be smaller if it wasn’t made out of similar extrusion. With a fixed non customizable design you could no doubt fit the same functionality into a smaller volume, but then you wouldn’t have all the options. The price is also very fair. The normal case comes in at $140 with everything that most people would need. There is also a smaller version for the budget/space conscious that runs in at $110. To me this is a bargain because this is a case that could last you for years. Mine still looks like new after all the abuse I’ve thrown at it. If you’re looking for an open pretty case to show off your rig then maybe you’d be better off with a Banchetto, but as a workhorse this is the best out there.
