iCute 0508ULA-5G1 PC Case

Getting it working

To see how well it copes with a fair amount of heat in it we fitted it with enough hardware to keep even the best ventilated case busy cooling. The specs are as follows:

• Gigabyte GA 81955 X Royal Motherboard
• Intel Pentium 4 3.4EE LGA775 overclocked to 3.73GHz fitted with a Zalman CNPS9500-AT
• 1GB (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2 5400 RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT fitted with a Zalman VF900-Cu
• 2 x Samsung Spinpoint SATA 120GB HDD
• Sony DVD Drive
• Plextor SATA DVD-RW Drive

No additional fans were added to the case, and once built, proper cable management was carried out to not impede airflow.


Getting all the hardware into the system proved to be a doddle, there was plenty of space to work in and the supplied screws were more than sufficient. The only real issue came when we fitted our 220mm long 6600GT, as you can see the clearance between the HDD and the card was very little. If you were to fit a longer card, or perhaps two in SLI, you may find yourself restricted to working around the cards with your HDDs. This could be an issue if you would like to use the intake of air from the turbine on the front of the 0508ULA-5G1.


Unfortunately, here is where design overtook functionality. The unpowered turbine fan actually acts as an obstruction to the 120mm fan, taking the power required to upspin and maintain it from the produced airflow. This severely restricts it and adds a little noise as the air whooshes through. To make things worse between the turbine and the fan, iCute have left a steel grill and protected the turbine from fingers externally with a fine black mesh. Both of these add even further air obstruction.

Having seen it in action, much of the air is simply sucked from the inside of the case through the many gaps surrounding it. As for the turbine itself, the provided sample actually spun offcentre, and anyone with propellor/turbine/fan experience will agree that something that spins unevenly will eventually wear to an abrupt halt. As the final nail in the coffin of this design, there is no easy way to access the fan for cleaning of the dust that will eventually settle on it. The front of the case can be opened, like a door but it only really gives access to the drive bays as the turbine assembly is pretty much sealed.


The mammoth fan is supplied its power by quite a lengthy three way wire, this could well be a problem when fitting the side panel if you are not careful where you route it. I think iCute could have possibly reduced by a third the risk of a fouled wire on fan incident by perhaps braiding the wires together. To avoid the wires going anywhere near the large blades or any internal fans I had to carefully close the side panel, something that may prove to be a chore if you remove and replace your side panel often.

Having only replaced it a couple of times myself I found that the paint finish is very easy to damage. As you can see by the second image, it took little more than me aligning the panel incorrectly to produce those nice deep scratches. This was a combination of thin paintwork and sharp steel edges. Another downside of the finish is that it acts as a dust and fingerprint magnet, so you will probably spend a lot of time keeping it polished.