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We were invited to an exclusive viewing of Streacom’s DA2 chassis at Computex 2018. Taking hints from the SFF world, Streacom has produced a chassis that quite possibly will fill the needs of many, all whilst retaining Streacom’s attention to detail and QC. We previewed this chassis a few weeks back, but we got to check out some of the finer aspects of this product in the metal.
Here goes!
Prototype #1. The first thing to stand out is the aluminium exterior shell, which is held in place by a few screws at the back, and the power button assembly at the front. No screws are visible from the front or sides of the chassis! The ail mounting system for cooling, drives and power supplies are evident, enabling users to place components wherever they desire.
The power button and USB Type-C assembly at the front sandwiches the exterior shell onto these horizontal rails. A slight milled recess in the shell also sits around these rails, ensuring rigidity.
Even the rear of the chassis is an exercise in subtlety.
Unlike contemporary products, the expansion cards are held in with an extruded piece of aluminium, rather than a thin folded bracket. I’d expect the threaded holes in this to be rather more robust because of this. Streacom’s ethos behind the hex head screws – anything that doesn’t need to be taken off in regular building and servicing is a hex head screw, anything else uses a Phillips screw.
The rail mounts use square nuts – meaning that only a screwdriver is needed to assemble the chassis. The square nut is prevented from rotating due to it’s fit within the square channel in the rail!
Brackets, brackets and more brackets. Streacom has driven the design as one of customisation and flexibility.
The design intent with the side panel is to reduce the hard edges apparent. The bent over flange softens the lines.
A dark grey variant is also on offer.
This is the passive cooling version, and a glorious one at that.
Tempered glass, but of course.
Discuss the DA2 in the forum thread!
