INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   When building a new system it's very important to know exactly what your requirements are, how much you are willing to spend and exactly how the various hardware components compare to each other (mostly in terms of performance) but at the end of the day perhaps the most crucial part is picking up the right house for the components you will choose. Now at first we may seem to exaggerate since picking up a PC Case is not really award winning material but if you do think about it the massive amount of models available in the market with the countless available features, different designs and possible sizes are sure to make things quite hard for you. Unfortunately our workload lately has been so heavy that we haven't had time to also focus on the latest PC Cases to hit the market and that's something we will try and change before the end of this year. Enermax has been manufacturing power supplies for over two decades now but compared to that they've just recently entered the PC Case market and today we will be taking a look at their latest Midi Tower the Fulmo ST.

 

   Enermax Technology Corporation is a world-renowned PC Power Supply Unit manufacturer. Since our establishment in 1990, we provide power supply products and peripherals like chassis, cooler, fan and keyboard with excellent quality and have won recognitions of consumers around the world. ENERMAX products are recommended by worldwide reviewers, and certain were granted by iF, Red Dot, Good Design and Taiwan Excellence Awards. Those are proven evidence of our top-notch quality and design competency recognized by the professionals. To develop an intensive sales network and better service customers around the world, Enermax has set up branch offices in Germany, France, U.S.A., Japan and China. We also have service offices and distributors in countries across Europe, America, Asia and Oceania. Our farsighted R & D capability is our key strength. The elite teams of Enermax always strive to come up with the best and most satisfactory PSU, thermal solution and peripheral products with cutting-edge design that meets the needs of the market and customers. We will stick to our R & D spirits of “Technology Innovation” and “Quality First” to constantly create products which transcend international standard and requirements to keep up on our product and brand value as well as competitive edge.

 

   The Fulmo ST was designed with two things in mind, first to be less spacious than its larger brother the Fulmo GT Full Tower but also to be a cut down version of the more premium and feature-rich Fulmo Midi Tower. However that doesn't mean that the Fulmo ST doesn't hold its own so aside the meshed front bezel that is present on all three models it also features an integrated fan controller with LED on/off button, an extended left side panel allowing for easy cable routing behind the mainboard tray, room for up to 10 fans, top space for use with 280mm/240mm long radiators, an acrylic side panel, tool-less installation of all hardware components, room for up to 8x3.5" drives or 10x2.5" ones and much more. So let's take a closer look to see everything in detail.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We received a medium sized plain cardboard box with a drawing of the product on both the front and the rear.

 

 

The product specifications table is placed on the right side.

 

 

You can see the exact model placed in the box via the selection list placed on left side.

 

 

The Fulmo ST is placed inside a plastic bag and between two foam spacers for maximum protection during shipping.

 

 

Along with the case Enermax also bundles two Molex to 3pin fan adapters, mainboard speaker, 5 cable ties, 2 cable straps, bag of screws and the user's manual.

 

 

THE FULMO ST EXTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the Fulmo ST is not something extraordinary in terms of design largely thanks to the many corners and the meshed bezel that starts at the lower front and expands all the way to the rear top it looks very nice.

 

 

Our version came with a large acrylic panel on the left side.

 

 

Roughly 80% of the front fascia is meshed to make things easier for the two 120mm blue LED fans sitting behind the company logo.

 

 

Typical for midi towers the Fulmo ST has 3 5.25" optical drive bays.

 

 

The top I/O panel includes the on/off and reset buttons, the fan speed controller, fan LED on/off button, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports and the usual 3.5" headphones/microphone ports.

 

 

 

Beneath the meshed area at the top of the case you can install up to two 120/140mm fans or a 280/240mm radiator.

 

 

 

The center section of the right side panel extends outwards thus allowing more space for cable management behind the mainboard tray.

 

 

Moving at the rear we see an 120mm fan area, 3 water cooling grommets, 8 horizontal PCI expansion slots, 1 vertical expansion slot (for use with fan controllers etc.) and the PSU area at the bottom.

 

 

Enermax ships the Fulmo ST with a rear 120mm exhaust fan.

 

 

Both side panels are secured in place with the use of regular rubber coated thumbscrews.

 

 

At the bottom we see two removable fan filters and 4 thumbscrews at the center of one of those (we will see the why later on).

 

 

THE FULMO ST INTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interior is quite spacious and as expected is painted with the same color as the exterior.

 

 

All of the 5.25" optical drive bays feature tool-less locking mechanisms that are quite sturdy.

 

 

Beneath the ODBs we find two drive cages each capable of accommodating up to four 3.5"/2.5" drives.

 

 

If you want to use the longest graphics card possible you can remove the top drive cage as seen above.

 

 

The drive trays are made by thick hard plastic and are quite sturdy.

 

 

Remember the 4 screws we talked about earlier? Well these are used to keep a small drive cage in place at the base of the interior. Here you can mount two 2.5" drives. The downside is that in order to remove the air filter and clean it you will have to remove the screws first (or wipe the filter where it is).

 

 

The mainboard tray has 4 large holes for cable routing and a huge cut-out beneath the CPU area for easier mounting/removal of backplates.

 

 

You have up to 32mm behind the mainboard tray for routing cables.

 

 

4 fixed round rubber feet are placed at the PSU area.

 

 

All of the expansion slots are secured via rubber coated thumbscrews.

 

 

Here we can see the top dual 120mm/140mm fan area which can also be used with an 240/280mm radiator.

 

 

BUILDING THE SYSTEM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again this section is not ment to showcase a fully functional system but just to showcase the amount of interior space you can expect from the PC case at hand.

Plenty of space left on the mainboard tray after installing a typical ATX sized mainboard.

 

 

You can mount the largest CPU cooler around if you decide not to go with liquid cooling.

 

 

Small and medium sized graphics cards fit well but if you wish to install a high end mGPU you will need to remove the top 2.5/3.5" drive cage.

 

 

Unless you remove the bottom 2.5" drive cage you can only install a typical ATX sized PSU.

 

 

NOISE LEVEL TEST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After giving it much thought we decided on performing noise tests with each PC Case we receive by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically ontop of each case to measure the noise levels emanating from the pre-installed fans at both 50% and 100% with the help of a fan controller (if the case doesn't have one we use our own).

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Enermax launched the Fulmo ST as a cheaper alternative to their more feature-rich Fulmo Midi Tower but at the same time they did give it the most important features used by both casual users and gamers alike including a spacious interior capable of holding the largest CPU coolers and graphics cards, 3 pre-installed fans, top section for use with either two 120/140mm fans or an 240/280mm radiator, fan controller with LED on/off button, a completely tool-less design, room for up to eight 3.5" and/or ten 2.5" drives, 9 expansion slots and enough space for easy routing of the cables behind the mainboard tray. Certainly the more expensive Fulmo Midi Tower does offer better airflow levels and has a top 2.5/3.5" docking station but for people who care not about those features the Fulmo ST offers a better bang for the buck. My only slight concern has really nothing to do with the case itself but rather with the packaging since our sample did have a couple of spots where it was bend. Now this could have been something right from the factory but we can't know for certain.

 

   Strangely enough we were unable to track the Fulmo ST Midi Tower (ECA3270) by Enermax inside the USA currently but it is available inside the EU for a price of 63.69Euros (Amazon.de) which is roughly 25% cheaper than the Fulmo Midi Tower. Now although the competition at around the same price point is quite fierce Enermax has introduced a high quality midi tower with plenty of features and a design which although not unique it will certainly blend in with most places a lot easier than most other midi towers in the market. In the end it all comes down to what a person needs, how much he or she is willing to pay for it and of personal taste when it comes to design. Personally although i don't consider the Fulmo ST to be the perfect midi tower still i do think it offers a great price/features ratio and that's why i give it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design (For Some)
- Space For Eight 3.5" And/or Ten 2.5" Drives
- Space For The Longest Graphics Cards (By Removing The Drive Cage)
- Top Space For Two 120/140mm Fans Or An 240/280mm Radiator
- 3 Pre-Installed Fans
- Top Fan Controller With LED On/Off Button
- Bottom/Front/Top Filters
- Cable Management Space
- Tool-Free Design
- 9 Expansion Slots
- Price (For Some) 

 

 

CONS

- Current Availability In The USA