i've received a number of complaints about the practice of teasing upcoming
content and frequently resorting to potty humor in the intros of my videos i
wanted to address both of these issues once and for all with an official
statement but instead i opted to remind you guys to make sure you're subscribed
so you don't miss our upcoming tour of the sennheiser factory which is coming very soon and to introduce the topic of
today's video with an analogy open-air
test benches versus traditional cases are kind of like boxers versus briefs
the pros and cons of the look is open for debate but we can't deny that while
boxers provide more air flow and allow
for easier access to key components they just don't wrap
things up in a tight little package the same way briefs do and the same goes for
test benches versus cases thanks guys you've been a terrific audience
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more normally on a case i would look at the
inside and the outside but the demos tech mini v1 and ezv3 are open test
benches so there is no outside really so we're going to do more of like a setup
guide thing today then focusing on the mini v1 start by taking off the aluminum
thumb screws on the sides and sliding out the bottom tray screw the rubber
feet into the bottom with your hands next assemble the vandal switches for
the front by using the included wiring diagram this was a little jankier than
i'd have hoped because the clips aren't really the right size for the nubbins on
the back of the switches but it will work as long as you don't accidentally
pull them off take off the fastening nuts put them through the holes in the
front then tighten the nuts from the back if you want more complete front i o
the mini v1 has one empty spot for a usb 3 port and the ezv3 has room for a more
complete set but neither of them includes this accessory by default the
next step involves one of the coolest pieces of case hardware i've seen in a
while the mini v1 includes these nice tall metal standoffs that lock the board
in place with so much strength that you can actually pick up the entire test
bench by the motherboard if you really wanted to but it still allows it to be
swapped toollessly it should be noted that my
ezv3 came with more traditional screw-mounted standoffs for some reason
though it's gang time again for this next step the instructions simply say
use the special m4 screws in m4 not to
attach the pci support bracket and i was like
okay special whatever that means turns out they meant this one
then i went to install it and while dimas tech could have simply put holes
for this instead they went with slits for some reason you know just in case
your motherboard has its pci slots in an
unusual location or something it's not a huge deal but it meant that i had to
actually put a graphics card onto the bench for a test fit in order to align
it correctly next up is the flex fan and this has to be the most ba snake ARM
thing i've ever seen on a computer component anyway the ARM screws into
either of the two threaded holes that are positioned for easy supplementary
airflow over a multi-way graphics card setup or the CPU area it's strong enough
to hold a single 120 millimeter water cooling radiator and fan which is
fortunate because while the easy v3 features triple 120 or dual 140 radiator
mounts on both sides those are only suitable for a custom loop so that means
that neither of these test benches actually has any other position where a
pre-filled one dual 120 radiator could
be installed back to the way most people will be
using the flex ARM though especially if they're using a CPU heatsink for a fan i
still think the ARM itself is great but the bracket could use a little work as
it is it requires a custom screw and nut when with a wider hole it could have
just used standard fan screws and
i think a larger bracket one with eight screw holes four for one 40 mil and four
for 120 mil wouldn't have cost much more and would have given a lot more
flexibility to how it can be used drive installation is taken care of by
removing the appropriate drive cage so just undo the thumb screws at the front
and slide it forward then by screwing five and a quarter inch devices in
directly and by putting rubber grommets in place for your three and a half inch
devices then screwing them in with the non-special screws for a nice stable
anti-vibrational mount to mount the power supply the manual simply says use
6 32 screws something that won't be challenging for very experienced
builders but may give paws to newcomers to the computer assembly game and then
once those are in you're pretty close to done i initially didn't really like the
power supply mount because it looked like it was just kind of going to end up
hanging there but once you put the bottom tray back in and then screw that
in from the sides it rests on it and
yeah there's there's no flex left in the back of it so no big deal there
the on the fly drive mount position on the left side of the mini v1 is super
handy just put the appropriately threaded thumb screws into a two and a
half inch or three and a half inch drive with a rubber spacer in between stick it
in there and slide it into place i wish there were more cable management options
that didn't involve running across the top or the front of the bench especially since the power and reset buttons are
right there but again not a huge deal given it is an open-air bench which
leads us to the conclusion dmstack actually reached out to us not just to
do a review but to ask if we were interested in switching from the
high-speed pc tech stations that you guys normally see in our videos to
theirs exclusively and while the mini v1
and its bigger brother the ezv3 are solid well-built test benches
that we will use it's not such a slam-dunk victory that i'm ready to
throw my tech stations in the garbage let's start with where the high speed
pcs come away with an advantage number one is sheer speed for a bench where
motherboard swaps are a daily occurrence the nylon posts are faster for two
reasons one they are easier to slide on once the board is in position and two
they are plastic so you can move around faster without worrying about scratching
the underside of a board potentially damaging it
number two is fan mount positioning if you just want a fan the flex fan system
is great for pointing it at wherever your hot spots are but if you want an
all-in-one CPU cooler especially a dual 120 rad one the demus techs fall short
and number three is footprint even the mini takes up more space on a desk than
the excel atx high speed pc tech station
which i guess leads us into the demus tech advantages number one is if you're
using it as an actual case and you're looking to pimp out your bench they've
got a ton of really great accessories xlatx adapters for the mini drive
mounting adapters a better power supply support and even their red x shrouds to
let you tack more radiators onto your system number two is they look a lot
better than the ones we normally use in person and more importantly for us on
camera so if you want your test hardware to look more presentable let's say you
you know want to take photos of it for a forum that you remember or whatever else
the ezv3 and mini v1 come away clear winners here number three is build
quality some of our tech stations feel like they're going to come apart when
you lift them they've been in use for a couple of years not gonna happen ever
with the steel construction of these units and then finally number four is
assembly time it only takes about 15 minutes even struggling with the manual
a little to assemble one of these out of the box for an experienced builder
whereas the high-speed pc ones do take quite a while to put together so in
summary there's room for improvement better documentation in particular would
be great and i'd really like to see a better system than a little screw cap
container for all the mounting hardware maybe something that clips onto the
bench for easy storage but all in all this is a quality product and great as a
presentable looking test bench or open air case for custom water coolers and
air coolers speaking of presentable looking you guys
may have noticed i've been wearing this shirt lately and wondering where you can
get one well for the value price of just 19.95 you can have your very own keep on
digging shirt just like this one here so whether it's our brohams at ubisoft
telling us about the cinematic experience of gaming at 30fps or really
any other company that just seems determined to make everyone hate them
american isps anyone you'll be ready with encouragement and a pixel art
shovel if we all work together maybe we can create a network of tunnels through
the earth's core with high speed heat and pressure resistant trains that run
through them revolutionizing worldwide travel forever
or not also guys so i think that's it like this video if you liked it dislike
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