The MetalFish PC chassis and aquarium hybrid has been examined by a Japanese tech website. PC Watch’s Satoshi Hinuma felt an uncomfortable mixture of inside therapeutic and PC part / fish nervousness, from the completed construct. Moreover, the chassis and fish tank hybrid needed to face additional pure challenges in Japan, the place earthquakes and tremors are a considerably widespread incidence.
Again in August, we first reported on the MetalFish Y2 Fish Tank Chassis. In case the title hasn’t already given it away, this was a hybrid Micro-ATX PC chassis and fish tank. Readers had considerations for each the PC elements beneath the fish tank and for the destiny of the fish being warmed up within the aquarium. So, it’s fascinating to contemplate the primary skilled check outcomes from the MetalFish chassis, with the added considerations of unpredictable earthquakes.
Firstly, it is apparent that the PC part of the Y2 Fish Tank Chassis isn’t very massive (about 12 liters), however the PC construct didn’t look overly sophisticated or restricted when utilizing compact and SFF-friendly elements. There may be even a PCIe riser cable included so you may match a modestly sized graphics card beneath your aquarium. When the PC is totally constructed, house owners nonetheless have fairly easy accessibility to the PC elements, as it’s doable to slip out the motherboard and elements tray as soon as a couple of screws are undone.
With the PC construct layer full, the reviewer began on the aquarium part. We’ve summed up the foremost considerations and worrisome observations from this a part of the construct course of, beneath:
- The acrylic prime panel had cracks via the screw holes.
- There’s a selection between fish tank insulation or extra interesting RGB LED views.
- Fish tank prime LED brightness was fairly excessive and never adjustable – it isn’t built-in into the PC’s RGB LED controls.
- Airflow perforations within the PC case intensified the concern of spills and splashes from the aquarium above.
- The glass water tank weighed 12 kg (26.5 lbs), add within the advisable 10-12 liters of water and you’ve got a fragile field weighing in at about 24 kg (53 lbs), making shifting or repositioning the PC very precarious.
- Earthquake area locality amplified water spill worries — even mild tremors may trigger spillage.
Some Tom’s {Hardware} readers have been apprehensive a few PC underneath stress, maybe gaming or processing video for a number of hours, heating up the fish within the tank above. PC Watch checked what may occur with some thermal readings.
MetalFish provides a white warmth insulator sheet to sit down between the acrylic panel topped PC and the aquarium part. Nevertheless, this critically dims the LED lighting ribbons that will in any other case shine upwards via the water. Throughout checks, it was noticed that the higher (aquarium) compartment of the Y2 Fish Tank Chassis rose 1.4 levels Celsius (from 25 to 26.4) after half-hour underneath load, with out the insulation sheet in place. This check seems to have been performed with out water within the tank, however continues to be worrisome in case you are engaged on the PC for hours at a time.
Video closed captions with English translation can be found
In its conclusion, PC Watch doesn’t suggest this hybrid case be used with the aquarium part stuffed with marine life, with the leakage, spills and earthquake considerations excessive on the negatives. As a substitute, it’s urged the highest tank be used for a small backyard / terrarium.
