Danger Den Torture Rack Review

[One4yu2c]

Danger Den is a name both well known and well regarded in the enthusiast community, having built a reputation for churning out high quality, high performance liquid cooling kits. From their custom built kits to their high performance water blocks and pumps, Danger Den has a solution for everyone, whether it be the first time system builder or the experienced enthusiast. But today HaredwareLogic takes a look at one of Danger Den's newer products as they forge into new territory: The Danger Den Torture Rack. As part of Danger Den's new enclosure line, the Torture Rack is aimed at those who switch components frequently, such as benchmarking enthusiasts and hardware testers.
Rich Caporali

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[RAID]

bad ass. i want one

[simple_inhibition]

looks like an awesome test bench! i especially like how the cooling is customizable to fit your needs! this is one definitely to consider! great review rich!

[Dread]

Great review.

A couple things about the system would bug me though.
As you mentioned, the motherboard stand-offs should be
the stub pin type/ or at least include both types for the customer
to choose from.

Same quick-disconnect idea ahould be carried over to the HDD and ODD
installations. Have snap-on rails for both instead of a standard screw mount.
This is a test bench right?

Other than that I think they did an admirable job of designing it.

If it was stated, I missed it. What are the thickness(es) of the panels?

Thanks!

[Capper]

I had to look, but its there in the specs "3/8" acrylic", I probably could have mentioned that in the article

[screwballl]

Originally Posted by Dread

Great review.

A couple things about the system would bug me though.
As you mentioned, the motherboard stand-offs should be
the stub pin type/ or at least include both types for the customer
to choose from.

Same quick-disconnect idea ahould be carried over to the HDD and ODD
installations. Have snap-on rails for both instead of a standard screw mount.
This is a test bench right?

Other than that I think they did an admirable job of designing it.

If it was stated, I missed it. What are the thickness(es) of the panels?

Thanks!

thats pretty much how I see it... make the HD/CD/DVD drive rails temporary snap-in type and they got this down... looks awesome!

[simple_inhibition]

it would have been nice to see some stub type stand offs, however i think if you could find some 1/2" to 1" screws that fit the supplied stand off threads, screwed them in and then cut the top of the screw off with a dremel, you could have a pretty easy way to secure and remove motherboards. if you needed to test different motherboards (IE ATX and then m/ATX) you could just get a pair of needle nose pliers and remove the whole stand off and reconfigure it. personally, thats how i would do it if i needed to save a few minutes

[Capper]

Thats exactly what I did......but we can't review products based on our modifications of them, we have to review them as we get them.

[Dread]

Originally Posted by Capper

I had to look, but its there in the specs "3/8" acrylic", I probably could have mentioned that in the article

I really need to pay more attention to the specifics...thnx :)

Upon further contemplation, the HDD/ODD snap-on rails would have
made a difference in my opinion of the rack, but would have not
been a deal breaker. Usually, when testing components, the HDD/ODD
are left from installation to installation, except of course when you
are testing those specifically. But this should have been one of the first
things the designers considered.

Also would have liked to see tool-less exspansion card retainers
for the backplate.

Really like it, looks better than the HTPC offerings, but they have
room to improve it even more if they wanted too. Specially considering
these smaller items are what we enthusiasts look for in a standard
enclosure these days.

[dedgar]

Has anyone provided feedback to DD on the 'upgrades' they'd like to see?
I.E. the standoffs, drive rails, etc.