RAIDMAX Samurai XE 901 Case

One look at the RAIDMAX Samurai XE 901 case and it is obvious it was built to be the antithesis of the traditional beige box. This plastic shelled steel toolless case looks inspired by the the Predator/Alien movie franchises and the design would seem more at home at a Hollywood set as a prop than on a computer desk. As soon as this windowed beauty became available over at Geeks I was quick to request one for site review.

I was surprised at the hulking size of the box the Samurai came in when it arrived at my door. It was probably the largest box I have ever received for review in nearly five years of running this site. To put the box size in perspective it is resting on a 32” TV stand which it very nearly fills. Also unusual was the glossy retail packaging that adorned it, much nicer than the typical case box. It was almost a shame when due to space considerations it came time to throw the box out.

     
After removing the case I noticed a couple of things worth mentioning here. The first is that a good portion of the inside of the box is taken up by two huge Styrofoam inserts. While these did do their job of protecting the case from shipping damage admirably well I feel they could have been a lot smaller and still not adversely affected the safety of the box's contents. The next thing is that the side panels of the case are probably the hardest to open or close I have ever encountered. I mean they are stupidly ridiculously hard to affix and require so much force that I was sure that at any moment I was going to crack the plastic shell casing, or possibly dislodge the window itself. Fortunately that didn't happen and over time you get somewhat used to this, but what makes this ironic is that RAIDMAX seems aware of this issue as they include a little colored folded picture card, (if you look closely you can see in the picture below) which details the proper way to open and close the case.

For some reason this quite useful card was then placed inside the case. DOH! As far as any other documentation like most modern cases you will have to rely on an online manual .PDF file from their website. The problem with this is if you are a single PC family as you are building your new PC you won't have access to the .PDF! This situation is compounded if you are a newbie and this is your first build. For years now I have been banging on this drum with manufacturers like the Caldera Scamp merchant in ES3 to at least include a single sheet of printed instructions. The costs for them would be negligible, the benefits for the consumer large, and I wouldn't have to get up on this damn soapbox here, either. But it seems that they are either deaf, or none of them are listening. I won't dock RAIDMAX personally any points here, though, because this is IMO an industry-wide problem and not limited to one manufacturer.

     
Case Features:

Polished mirror-like car grade paint
Dual lighted front 120MM intake fan
Rear 120MM exhaust fan
2 external front mounted USB 2.0 ports
Front mounted audio jacks
Front mounted HD responsive LEDs
Streamline Samurai Body styling
Superb fan directed air flow
Whisper quiet design
10 drive bays for maximum expandability

As noted earlier in the intro the Samurai's unique design comes courtesy of a molded plastic hard shelled exterior attached to a steel frame. This manufacturing method greatly reduces costs over a comparable one piece steel only design. Unfortunately, the steel skeleton means the case is heavy, weighing in at nearly 25 pounds. Though the Samurai is by no means a small case, usable internal space is reduced by several inches due to the aforementioned plastic shelled steel frame.

     
The paint of the Samurai is so shiny it is almost mirror-like, having more in common with the lacquer appearance of a high-end show car than the typical finish of a PC case. The downside of this is that it is difficult to photograph, and fingerprints show up quite readily. I ended up having to wipe down the case after each time I handled it. Maybe this is because the skin on my Neanderthal-sized hands hold more grease than a Texas oil well, though, so your results may vary.

Samurai case cooling is handled by two 120 mm fans, one in the front and one in the rear. The front fan sports two blue LEDs. The rear fan is not lighted but appears to be a temperature controlled fan. I say “appears” because even though I can clearly see the inline resistor I was unable in testing to get the fan to vary its speed. Perhaps it is defective; much more likely, though, is that my case temps were just too high for it to run less than full speed.

Externally the rear fan is covered by a black Louvre backing which seems to cut down sound levels like a muffler and is also less airflow restrictive than many other case fan coverings I have seen. Those of you looking for maximum airflow may want to mod or remove this piece entirely, though. Another area that could be modded to improve cooling is the dead space section between the top of the metal frame and the bottom of the plastic molding. Doing so, though, would likely ruin the Samurai's good looks.


Case lighting is handled by the front dual LED 120 mm fan already mentioned above, as well as being supplemented by two additional LEDs mounted in front near the bottom-- one on each side of the case. The problem with this setup is that the case is extremely unevenly lit: The bottom front of the case is well lit but the case area directly behind the window in the middle of the case is completely dark. This is the area of the case I prefer to be the most well-lit to show off my pimped gear. After all, what is the purpose of having a case window if you can't see what is inside the case? This oversight could be easily remedied by RAIDMAX making the rear 120 mm fan of the LED variety the same as the front one is. This would result in a much more uniform case lighting appearance. As it is I would have to suggest the user add some sort of additional case lighting like I will be doing later myself.

I decided not to wait until later. One pic here is of the case as it came and the next one is with some supplemental case lighting I added. Neither of these pics are taken with a flash.

     
The drive case door fits flush with the front of the case. The door itself has no lock and is of the push to open variety, power and reset buttons inside the door are in the typical over and under configuration. In keeping with the stealth/minimalist design approach here there is no power LED, the HD LEDs are front-mounted and light up a small crease that runs across the front of the case below the RAIDMAX nameplate when there is drive activity.

     
In front at the very bottom of the case is a tilting cover that slides back similar to how a garage door opens. Behind this cover are two USB 2.0 ports, as well as audio jacks. These are easily accessible and a good job was done by not recessing them so much that they would be difficult to use.


Moving inside the Samurai I found no sharp edges, since they all seem to be rolled. That means you shouldn't get any nasty cuts or scars that those of us doing this for a long time used to take for granted with each build. I also noticed the Samurai utilizes a toolless design, I found this setup to be somewhat of a mixed bag. While the rear card mounting system and its clamp design seems to be a real innovation that I would like to see in other manufacturer's cases, the drive mounting system with its push pin latch design is actually harder to use than traditional drive rails. For instance, when installing a DVDR drive in the 5 ¼ bays two of these push pin latches are used to secure your drive in place--one on each side of the case. While not very easy, to mount there was enough room here to work and things went OK. The 3 ½ bay, though, only uses one latch. The whole thing is so small that it is much harder to see to use, and I ended up scratching up the side of my hard drive casing several times before getting the pins aligned and the latch closed.

     
Apples to apples

If you are wondering how the RAIDMAX Samurai stacks up to the previous case I was using, which was an Aspire X-Alien, it was both better and worse. With an ambient room temp of 24 C Asus Probe reported case temps in the Aspire case to be at 33 C, while case temps in the RAIDMAX case were reported at 39 C. It should be noted, though, that the Aspire case came factory equipped with 6 80 mm fans, and was much noisier than the RAIDMAX case. According to both my ears and my Radio Shack db meter, 5 db louder measured 1" from the side of each case. I guess I may be getting old, but at this stage of my life with a PC that runs 24/7 I will take the quiet over the additional cooling.

Conclusion:

While I was initially attracted to the Samurai case because of its good looks I was pleasantly surprised to learn that its attraction was more than skin deep. Specifically with its two 120 mm fans and rear baffle, it was probably the quietest case I have used. As you would expect, not everything was roses, though. The case lighting being concentrated at the bottom front results in an uneven appearance, and the side panels are hard to operate--especially the first few times. Still, the case's appearance and noise reduction over my previous case will earn this case a spot on my desktop even after this review is over.

Pros:

Very quiet due to 120 mm cooling

Best looking case I have seen to date

Case paint job almost mirror like

Not way over-priced like some theme cases

Cons:

Side panels & drive latches very hard to use

Steel frame makes case quite heavy

Uneven case lighting

I would like to thank Computer Geeks for providing us with the RAIDMAX Samarai XE 901 for review. This item can be purchased for $99 from Geeks. Update. It looks like the Samarai case is currently sold out. Feel free to check out some of their other cases until it is back in stock.

Added: October 16th 2005
Reviewer: Jim Adkins
Score:
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Language: english