INTRODUCTION

   Enthusiasts, hardcore gamers and professionals may prefer to use full tower PC Cases for their systems but there's really no doubt that every hardware component will get smaller as technology progresses (both Intel and AMD are aiming towards that). Of course to date the really power hungry high performance systems belong inside full towers for a variety of reasons but more and more people turn towards smaller mITX cases for their new HTPC systems which can actually be used for gaming as well something which was not really possible a few years ago. Things however don't end there and although in the market there's an abundance of midi and full tower PC Cases the same can't be said about mITX/HTPC ones especially for people who are looking for high quality solutions. Lucky for every consumer out there new manufacturers emerge all the time and although most don't jump in all at once to bring quality products into the market one of the latest players that listens to the name Streacom seems to be doing the exact opposite of that.

   Streacom was founded in 2010 and together with Wesena, form an elite team of experts in design, engineering, manufacturing, and distribution. All of the key individuals within our company have amassed many years of experience within the industry and understand every aspect of the business. With this experience comes the ability to deliver products that are in a class of their own. Our Mission to design, engineer, manufacture and supply a range of computer products and accessories that push the boundaries of form, function, quality and value. 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. Our current range of products include, active and passive cooled chassis, valve amplifiers, embedded home entertainment solutions, and other complimentary computer accessories. All consumer retail products are now sold globally under the Streacom brand, with the Wesena brand being phased out and reserved for b2b applications. We offer a range of OEM/ODM services to system integrators and other businesses, with a complete ‘concept to delivered product’ solution. For all chassis related retail and OEM/ODM inquiries contact Streacom, and for all other types of manufacturing inquiry (non chassis), contact Wesena.

   Although Streacom has been around for slightly over 3 years we first heard of them in the beginning of this year so they are an extremely new manufacturer to us. However that matters little if at all what really matters is the quality of their products and just by looking at the FC8 EVO we feel as if they've been around for decades. You see the FC8 EVO is the only mITX case we've seen to date that is entirely made out of 3.5mm thick aluminum and makes use of that relatively unique feature to also cool the CPU resulting in a completely Fanless system. Certainly we wouldn't recommend using a six or eight core CPU with a passive/Fanless cooling solution nor would we recommend any kind of overclocking but for low/mid-end dual/quad core CPUs this smart innovation should be sufficient. However since that's not the only thing you're getting with the latest FC8 EVO time to leave our introduction page.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The company and model names are placed at the front of the small black box.

Since the FC8 EVO is available in both black and silver the color selection is placed on the right side of the box.

Streacom packs the FC8 EVO between two thick foam spacers and inside a cloth cover.

It took us quite a while to get all of the bundle parts outside of the box so we were quite surprised to see such a rich bundle from a new manufacturer. So aside the FC8 EVO mITX case you will also find 4 copper heatpipes, two small tubes with thermal conductive paste, aluminum CPU block, aluminum backplate, Allen key, users guide and 12 small plastic bags with all the necessary bits and pieces.

THE FC8 EVO EXTERIOR

Thanks to a sleek minimalistic design the FC8 EVO measures just 240mm in length, 250mm in depth and 100mm in height while weighing just 3.2kg.

One of the things that separate the FC8 EVO from most similar cases is the optical drive slot with the long eject button (universal) placed at the front.

The power on/off button is also made out of aluminum while the power LED is placed right above it.

At the front we also see two USB 3.0 ports and a window for the optional IR-Receiver module.

There are 27 thick aluminum fins/pieces placed on the right side which are part of the passive cooling system.

Three ventilation grills are placed at the top of the chassis.

What will certainly surprise at first is the lack of a PSU area at the rear of the chassis while the available low-profile expansion slot is a good addition.

At the base of the chassis we see 4 removable feet along with several exhaust holes.

THE FC8 EVO INTERIOR

To gain access to the interior of the FC8 EVO you just need to remove two screws found at the base of the chassis and two from the aluminum fin area.

Much like most mITX cases we see an aluminum frame above the mainboard area which is used to mount both the optical drive and the HDD/SSDs.

You need to mount a slim optical drive on the aluminum frame.

To install the drives with ease you can remove the frame via 4 screws placed at the front and rear.

Behind the optical drive area Streacom has placed room for a 2.5" HDD/SSD as you can see in the above picture.

At the base of the frame there's room for either a 3.5" or an 2.5" HDD/SSD.

Without the top frame and thanks to the very clean interior it's extremely easy to mount the mainboard.

Perhaps the most impressive feature of the FC8 EVO is its passive CPU cooling which is where these holes on the right side come in.

To make use of this passive system you first need to mount the blocks and the 4 copper heatpipes as seen above (you should also apply thermal conductive material between the copper heatpipes and the chassis/blocks). We need to mention that this procedure should only be done after you have installed the mainboard but since we received a wrong model (mATX instead of mITX) we will not be testing the passive cooling system by Streacom this time.

After that you need to mount the bottom end of the CPU plate (remember to place thermal conductive material between the lower end and the heatpipes).

Last step is to mount the top end of the CPU block with the Allen key and in turn install it onto the mainboard/CPU.

BUILDING THE SYSTEM

    Originally we were hoping to receive one of the latest mITX mainboards in order to test the passive CPU cooling feature of the FC8 EVO but since that didn't happen and we ended up with a brand new mATX mainboard instead we will only be showcasing the interior space of the case. 

To see exactly how much space the FC8 EVO has we used our all-time classic A330ION mainboard by ASRock (we had an aftermarket cooler on the CPU but we had to remove it since was too tall for the FC8 EVO).

You can't really use a normal PSU with the FC8 EVO so we used their latest NANO150 150W PSU.

The NANO150 PSU consists by a tiny PCB sitting on a 24pin power plug, a large external power adapter, AC power cable and one internal power cable (eSATA/4pin).

As you can see the PCB takes almost no space at all since the system actually it gets its power from the outside via the cable attached at the rear.

In a way the FC8 EVO works just like a notebook which is not really bad since not having the PSU inside the chassis automatically means lower overall temperatures.

Here we see just how much space is left once you install the bottom 3.5" and top 2.5" drives on the aluminum frame (in this picture we actually did a small mistake and placed the frame further up on the right that's why  the distance between the 3.5" HDD and the mainboard it's not even).

CONCLUSION

   Although we didn't have the chance to test the passive CPU cooling feature of the FC8 EVO due to lack of compatible hardware the fact that it's a very high quality aluminum chassis which has the ability to be 100% Fanless should be more enough to impress even the most demanding consumers, yes including us. The ability to also add up to two HDD/SSDs and one Optical Drive (2x2.5"/1x3.5"/1x5.25" slim) is also something we don't see with similarly sized mITX cases so that too should go a long way with consumers who could use the extra space. What is equally impressive is the external power supply since not only this allows for a smaller size chassis but also for reduced system temperatures something which naturally also helps the passive CPU cooling feature. Overall the FC8 EVO by Streacom is an excellent mITX chassis and the only thing i can think of that could further improve it would be a front LCD screen but that would probably end up increasing the price considerably so i think most people can live without it.

   High Quality mITX cases cost quite a bit so when we took the FC8 EVO out of its box and saw the level of craftsmanship we knew that it would be priced accordingly and it does since currently it retails for 149.9Euros inside the EU (Caseking.de). Likewise the NANO150 150W PSU carries a retail price tag of 89.9Euros inside the EU (Caseking.de) so it's not really cheap either. Bottom line in order to use the ST-PC8 EVO you need to spend around 230Euros in total and although i do think that it’s a reasonable price after taking into account the features you are getting (especially since you are basically getting a mITX case, 150W PSU and a passive CPU Cooler) it still may look as a bit high for most consumers. Long story short the FC8 EVO is one of the best mITX cases we've ever seen due to its Fanless design, excellent build quality and external PSU and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality (Aluminum)
- Fanless Design
- Passive CPU Cooler
- External PSU (Extra)
- 3 Drive Spots
- Optional IR-Receiver 

CONS

- Price (For Some)