Ultra m998 Case Review

[stinger608]

Ultra, in a nod to our military's prowess in producing versatile and tough troop vehicles, has released their newest enclosure, aptly named the m998. The Ultra m998 takes its name from the venerable military transport vehicle, the m998, otherwise known as the Humvee. Well known for its versatility and toughness, Ultra hopes to leverage the success of its newest enclosure by producing a chassis that will make both AM General and computer enthusiasts proud. Will the Ultra m998 prevail, or is the m998 destined to be nothing more but scrap metal? Let's dig under the hood and find out!


Ultra m998 Case Review

[polobunny]

It is said that the M998 can accomodate 5 hard drives cooled by a 120mm fan. However, I only see enough holes to screw the hard drives in their rack for 4 hard drives. Is this an error or I am missing something?

[jonnyGURU]

Hmm... I'm surprised the motherboard tray was such a disappointment. Mine is quite rigid. Certainly more rigid than most aluminum trays I've seen. And once the board and cards are mounted (which they would be 99% of the life of the chassis' life) the tray is more rigid than anything else on the market because aluminum is very soft so even a tray with a couple cards in it for support can still twist. Maybe they went with a thinner gage steel on the newer production units.

A little insider info on the case:

This case is made by YCC. I had a friend that was using a YCC case for themselves introduce me to the case. I liked it so I told Ultra about it. They asked me what I would implement, change, etc. That meant adding the port bracket to the front, having to change the way the PSU mounts so it could accommodate a larger PSU, etc. The Power Bar was not my idea, BTW.

The INTERNAL (yes, just internal) name I gave the case was M998. I called it this because an earlier version of this YCC chassis was release by Akasa as the Mirage-62. In a review done by techPowerUp!, they had called the case the "Hummer of PC cases." I liked that, but didn't want to call it "Hummer" for trademark purposes. When the case went to production, they couldn't think of a better name so they left it as "M998." That was fine by me, but I did not want them to reveal where the name came from. I liked the mystique and I thought it made for a good inside joke.

Low and behold, some marketing yokels at Ultra thought it would actually be a good idea to use the Hummer tie in in the marketing. Now I think the name is dumb. But I still can't think of anything better to call it, so c'est la vie.

[jonnyGURU]

Originally Posted by polobunny

It is said that the M998 can accomodate 5 hard drives cooled by a 120mm fan. However, I only see enough holes to screw the hard drives in their rack for 4 hard drives. Is this an error or I am missing something?

IIRC, there's five at the bottom. I believe the view of the bottom screw slots is obscured by the bottom lip of the chassis body. Remember that the hard drive screw holes are more towards the bottom (PCB side) of the drive, so the holes would be quite low in the rack.

EDIT: BMR's review shows the HDD rack from the other side and now, without the obstruction, you can see the five sets of mounting slots.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/images/r...Drivestack.jpg

[screwballl]

looks good! I wouldn't mind picking one of these up.... if I needed one

[Panda Man]

Stumble it!

Digg it!

[stinger608]

Well it certainly has some awesome features to the case. Its just too bad, that the front plastic bezel is a little plain.
None the less, it would be an awesome case to do a build in
A little expensive for a mid tower. But for all the features, it can be justified.

Great review Dave!!!!!!

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by jonnyGURU

IIRC, there's five at the bottom. I believe the view of the bottom screw slots is obscured by the bottom lip of the chassis body. Remember that the hard drive screw holes are more towards the bottom (PCB side) of the drive, so the holes would be quite low in the rack.

EDIT: BMR's review shows the HDD rack from the other side and now, without the obstruction, you can see the five sets of mounting slots.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/images/r...Drivestack.jpg

Ah there we go. I wasn't sure if it had the clearance for a fifth drive at the bottom since from the angle of the picture it was kinda hard to make out. Thanks. =]

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by stinger608

Well it certainly has some awesome features to the case. Its just too bad, that the front plastic bezel is a little plain.
None the less, it would be an awesome case to do a build in
A little expensive for a mid tower. But for all the features, it can be justified.

Great review Dave!!!!!!

I'm glad you liked the reivew! I have to agree wholeheartedly with you on the front facade of the case; it is very plain and dull. I imagine that if it were made of, say, black brushed aluminum, the wow factor of this case would increase ten-fold.

Originally Posted by jonnyGURU

Hmm... I'm surprised the motherboard tray was such a disappointment. Mine is quite rigid. Certainly more rigid than most aluminum trays I've seen. And once the board and cards are mounted (which they would be 99% of the life of the chassis' life) the tray is more rigid than anything else on the market because aluminum is very soft so even a tray with a couple cards in it for support can still twist. Maybe they went with a thinner gage steel on the newer production units.

I don't think Ultra (or YCC as the case may be) used thinner extruded aluminum on subsequent enclosures after yours. The fact of the matter is that the way the tray is constructed and the rails in which it slides on need to be re-engineered. Three rivets do not grant enough support for a full blown SLI enthusiast system, especially considering that this enclosure is an enthusiast level chassis, which means constant maintenance and internal component upgrades within the enclosure itself. The PCI blackplane, in my opinion, requires additional support, such as the bracket system used on the TJ10 tray seen HERE.

Originally Posted by jonnyGURU

The INTERNAL (yes, just internal) name I gave the case was M998. I called it this because an earlier version of this YCC chassis was release by Akasa as the Mirage-62. In a review done by techPowerUp!, they had called the case the "Hummer of PC cases." I liked that, but didn't want to call it "Hummer" for trademark purposes. When the case went to production, they couldn't think of a better name so they left it as "M998." That was fine by me, but I did not want them to reveal where the name came from. I liked the mystique and I thought it made for a good inside joke.

Whoa, so you're the one responsible for naming this chassis? How cool!

[jonnyGURU]

Originally Posted by garetjax

I don't think Ultra (or YCC as the case may be) used thinner extruded aluminum on subsequent enclosures after yours.

I'm not talking about the gauge of the aluminum. I'm talking about the stainless steel. I have a pair of 7800GTX cards with DangerDen water blocks on them (read: heavy as fsck) and the tray slides in and out like butter. The "golden sample" I left with Ultra actually had a quad father and a pair of 8800 Ultra cards.

I agree that supports like the TJ10's would be superior, but at the time I was working with the case, it simply did not need them.

I saw a number of early samples of this case besides mine. The only tray problems I ran into was the original Power Bar PCB was a tad to long and it would hit the opening in the back when you slid the tray out. They had to shave about 0.5MM off the PCB. By the time that correction was made, I had parted ways with my friends at Ultra.

EDIT: LOVED the review, BTW!