INTRODUCTION

   If you've been around personal computers as long as i have then you should recall that up until 20-25 years ago most systems were housed inside rather small desktop cases and that didn't really change until the very first DVD-ROM drives made their appearance in the late 90's. Because of that I’ve never been able to wrap my head around the fact that even though today the market is overflowing with midi and full towers of all shapes and prices there are nowhere near as many desktop cases available for people to choose from. Some of the leading manufacturers did try to keep such cases available mainly for HTPC systems but most of them gave up soon afterwards. Well thanks to some smaller manufacturers like our friends over at Streacom HTPC and desktop systems will always have a high-quality home like their latest F12C Aluminium PC Case which we have here with us today.

     Streacom was founded in 2010 by a small but experienced team that shared a common vision of producing uniquely designed and engineered computer cases. With our head office in Holland and manufacturing base in China, we entered the market by focusing on SFF and passive cooled products all made from premium grade aluminium. This combination of premium quality and compact design has established Streacom as a global player in the PC component market and earned us a reputation for making stylish well-crafted products. With a truly multinational team, we have the perfect balance of European design, Asian manufacturing and Global sales channels. This mix of influences also give us the ability to think outside of the box, pushing the design envelope, finding new and innovative solutions for our products and manufacturing processes, and importantly, allows us to fully understand and support the needs of our customers. Unlike many brands on the market, Streacom directly designs and manufactures all of its cases. Our production facilities don’t produce cases for anyone else which is one of the reasons Streacom cases are truly unique. From our design, engineering and fabrication process right through to end user support, our years of experience ensure a product and service that is unsurpassed.

   Streacom is one of the very few companies out there that uses pure aluminium for their cases so just like the FC8 EVO which we reviewed a couple of years ago the F12C features the same quality exterior (with 4mmm thick panels it has even higher). Unlike the FC8 EVO however the F12C has room for even regular ATX size mainboards (micro-ATX and mini-ITX are also supported) and virtually any hardware component you may want to fit in it (with 7 full height expansion slots it can be a lot). Unfortunately this time over Streacom skipped on the slim optical drive bay and the passive CPU cooling feature but with the amount of space inside the F12C (which can be used with up to six 120mm fans or three 240mm radiators) that shouldn't be a problem. And if all the above weren't enough Streacom has also made it possible for the end user to install up to 24 2.5" and/or 12 3.5" disk drives inside the F12C (if you decide not to use any fans or radiators) a number which we don't even see with full towers.